Inside Out [BoyxBoy]

Epilogue

"Okay . . ." Tim muttered, "one more shot . . .  one . . .  two—"

A weird kind of shiver went down my backbone and I felt everyone around me tensed up. I turned to look at the doorway and noticed as Parker Sebastian walked in, brandished handsomely in his formal attire. His odd beauty once again stunned me. Shortly, I realized I wasn't alone—everyone was looking at the sight of the half-wizard half-vampire that caused chaos a few weeks ago.

"Hey, why's everyone looking away?" Tim groaned.

"What are you doing here?" I heard Callan said as he walked out of the crowd and advanced toward the vampire. "Who invited you? I don't think I did."

I'd almost forgotten the highs and lows of Callan's emotions since he met Parker. Callan had told me he'd been seeing visions of Parker too; he'd mentioned how tired he was to face with Parker's stubbornness on refusing to understand mate bonds. The day when Jace and I visited Parker's hidden settlement in Rock Creek, Callan's first kiss with his true mate didn't really lead to a happy outcome. He'd run home crying, calling me to just say how Parker couldn't love him. The best advice I could give Callan was that discovering mates would never be simple or easy, because it wasn't for me.

The crowd broke apart. As Jace went to see the snapshots with Tim, I could only stand there and watched as Dan approached his son and his son's mate.

"I did, Cal," Dan said.

"Why would you contact this jerk, Dad?" Callan shot at his father. "When did you—"

"We met in person, Callan," Dan responded. "He apologized to me about what happened a few weeks ago."

"And why would you come? I thought you said you weren't a queer."

"Callan," Parker said uncomfortably, "I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry."

Then they continued arguing. I followed Dan as he started to leave his son, and hoped for the best between my good friend and his mate.

 *  *  *  *

The last time I'd been to a big werewolf wedding was during the time when I was four years old. I was so excited and confused as my mom explained to me that immortals' weddings were an important ceremony that united mates together for the rest of their life. Now I was pretty sure Mom was just bullshitting me because she was just too busy to answer me as she cried with the rest of the women. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean it in a bad way, but a pair of mates was already united the moment they accepted each other, married or not. Spouses are given the option to divorce, but not mates.

But hell, I couldn't lie; I was so deeply moved that my eyes were teary when Claire walked down the aisle. When she stared into her mate's eyes, she was a young woman all over again. It was the same look that Mom had whenever she was with Dad.

I guess I was grateful to have parents who were real mates, unlike Nathan. Weddings between true mates were definitely uncomfortable for the spouses in the pack who weren't actually mates—most of them tried to act like this whole mate theory was just some sort of a myth. But I'd just found out that their game of playing pretend was interrupted since the day they witnessed Jace's outbreak when he couldn't sense me a few months ago. The news of Parker's terrifying invasion to the pack by cooperating with Theo spread wildly throughout the whole pack, and it happened because of mate bond. With these things happened, their disbelief towards mates' existence shook.

But at the same time, I understood their perspective: it wasn't easy to believe that we didn't really get to choose who we would be with for eternity until they experience it themselves.

The hall chosen for the wedding was perfect—crystal chandeliers furnished the humongous room, the air smelled fruity and flowery. The world around me was occupied with people in beautiful suits and dresses, dancing happily to love songs.