Under the Same Moon as Mathias| Original

Bonus Chapter

One Year After The Epilogue

My hands shake slightly as Kat nit picks my dress. I stare at my reflection, taking in the simple silk wedding dress with lace sleeves. I bite my lip, wondering if this dress is too simple, too plain. The ivory color contrasts against my copper skin, but I love the way it does. Kat lifts her gaze up to meet mine in the mirror. She smiles, beaming at me with awe and admiration in her eyes.

"I always knew you'd be a beautiful bride." She sighs dreamily. I force a nervous smile back at her as she fixes the whisps of hair falling out of my simple braid. It falls to the bottom of my spine with sapphire jewels fixed into the delicately braided hair.

"I think I'm going to throw up." I whisper, unable to bring my voice up higher than that. I clasp my shaking hands in front of me, in attempt to hide the way they shake.

This only causes my whole body to shake. Kat chuckles, "You'll be fine." She assures me.

Before I can argue and talk myself down from doing this, there's a soft rap on my bedroom door. I inhale sharply, the smell of cotton candy filling my nostrils. Kat frowns, sighing as she smells Mathias as well. She shoos me into the small dressing room she's set up in my enormous closet and promptly shuts the door behind her. Kat is very superstitious about things like the groom not seeing the bride before the wedding.

"Hello, Alpha." She greets.

"Let me see her." He responds.

"No. You know better than-"

"Oh, come on. We're mates, Kat. This isn't the human world where divorce is more common than marriages."

"But-"

"I can assure you the werewolf divorce rate is extremely low." I hear his footsteps approaching the door and manage to grab the handle before he opens the door. He tugs with a sigh.

"Not you too."

"I want it to be a surprise!" I reply, holding the door knob tightly.

I hear my bedroom door shut, leaving Mathias and I in my room alone to duke this out.

"Just let me get a peek." I feel Ryder nosing around, Ashia trying to keep him from getting in my head enough to see. "Oh wow, you really sent Ryder?"

He barks out a laugh as Ashia chases Ryder out of my head. "I guess it didnt work either." I feel him let go of the nod then see from under the door him sit against the door.

He sticks his fingers under the door and I wrap mine around his, clutching his fingers as if they were a life line.

"Are you nervous?"

"No." He responds firmly.

"Why not?"

There's a pause and his grip on my fingers tightens a little bit. "Because I'm marrying the most beautiful woman in my world. Not to mention she's the strongest person I know, and she's got so much drive and motivation that I know she'll be able to do anything she sets her mind to. I'm proud to call her mine, and I'll be even prouder when she sheds her last name and takes mine, the only change I'll ever ask her to make for me."

A tear slides down my cheek as he speaks. I let his voice wash over me and cleanse me of the anxiety I feel over the wedding. It wasn't that I was regretting the wedding or that I had cold feet. This was a huge step not only in my life, but in our relationship. I love Mathias, we've been through a lot and when we decided to get married, I wanted it to be our decision. Not the pressure of the Omegas and other packs.

But we decided it was time we finally tie the knot and settle down into a more stable life. It's been chaotic ever since the meeting with the other packs. Mathias started meeting with several professors and doctors to talk about our connection that he severed. While I worked out making sure that if a girl wanted to drum at the gathering of sixteens, she got to drum. And vise versa. At first the girls were hesitant, but they slowly came around.

We rebuilt the pack house and turned it into the new orphanage. Mathias and I live down in the village, close to my parents and his brothers. Sabrina came home and decided to help out with the children at the orphanage. Everything has finally settled down enough to where we can breathe without having to deal with someone calling our attention away from each other or our tasks.

We still have our moments where Mathias is frozen with memories of that day and Sier's face haunts me. But we continue to make it through day by day.

"Alright, well Sunny is going off in my head so I guess it's time to get this show on the road." Mathias says through the door, gives my hand a reassuring squeeze and then he's gone.

After I hear the room door close, I step out of the closet and straighten my dress. Shortly after I fix my hair and wipe my eyes, Kat appears with my father to tell me it's time. I hook arms with him and let him lead me to the atler.

I used to think I'd walk down the aisle without a father. He was dead a few years ago. It broke my heart and was part of the reason I didn't want to get married, because I wanted him to be there. That's just a tradition I wasn't willing to let go of. I must have gotten lucky that he survived what happened to him and now he's walking me down the aisle, giving me away to the love of my life.

We pause outside the house, at the top of the white carpet covered front steps leading into the giant tent a little bit away from the bottom of the steps. The drummers, begin a deep and soft beat as I start down the steps, clutching onto my father's jacket sleeve like it were the only thing keeping me to earth.

"You've made me proud." He tells me as we come to the bottom of the stairs. I look up to see tears in his eyes. I can imagine what this must mean to him. He must have thought he'd never get a moment like this.

He kisses the top of my head and we take a step forward. I lift my gaze from the pearly white carpet of the aisle to see Mathias on his knees. The soft beat of the drums fades away as I take his state in. His fist is to his mouth as he looks at me as if I were every thing he's ever wanted. Tears flow freely from his eyes as I walk forward.

When I get up there, dad smiles at me one last time and I help Mathias up as he looks at me with watery eyes.

"I've never been so lucky."