That night Lily went to bed alone. The Soldiers were outside talking to the hounds. A treaty was being drawn up – and it wasn’t a nice one. The vampires were claiming dominance over the hounds for the war and trying to take part of their territory. The hounds however were saying that because the vampires technically provoked them they didn’t deserve it. In the end a compromise had been reached. To punish them for their declaration of war Perttu had taken control of their land but allowed them a secluded spot away from human and vampire territory. It was big enough that they could breed as families do and run as the animal in them needed to but it was far away. There would be no contact between the species. Their broken bones were a reminder of what happened when Perttu was crossed.
The treaty took the rest of the night to draw up and when the sun came up the hounds hobbled away but the soldiers did not come back for the women. The reunion was to take place the following night; it was to be a ritual of sorts. Lily didn’t like waiting but the men felt dirty from their war. Unclean from their killing and their wild, unleashed, forms. To the men they felt contaminated by the act of war, too much so to be around their beautiful women. The day was spent in cleansing.
They bathed in the dawn hours and slept in the high mid day sun. Lily knew all this from the women, some had seen many battles and the same process was always repeated. They were healing as they slept but the wounds would still be there by night time. Then the women would take their men and tend to them with the gentleness of their gender. Lily didn’t sleep either. She wanted to be ready to see him, she wanted to be seen as beautiful in this form as she had been in the moon’s magical form.
She worried about his health. The safe chambers still held the women, they weren’t locked in but it was just easier that way; it kept male and female separate without the need to go to any great lengths. So Lily found herself in a bath of warm water scrubbing at her skin as she awaited the night. She got out and dried her hair, curling it as best she could and letting Berneice help her into corset and dress. The war had taken its toil on her, she felt as if she had been thrust into a world that was even darken than she imagined and she wasn’t pleased she had flaunted her body for men other than her mate. She faffed with her dress fastenings and re did her hair twice while getting nervous to see Perttu again. She vowed to help clean up the garden as well. It was a project she started to look forward to. Once the bodies were removed then she would be able to dig for better soil and plant flowers. She wanted to plant trees as well. She wanted the beauty back so her life started to look pleasant again.
Eventually the sun went down and a hush came over everyone. In a line Lily followed Berneice up the stairs to the entrance hall were, stood in a long line, were their mates. Every one of them stood to attention, their feet together and their arms by their sides in fists. She looked at Berneice.
“They stand on ceremony for us - they won’t move until we tell them to. It’s our way of accepting them back into our lives willingly after their acts of violence.” Berneice explained.
The seriousness of the situation dawned on Lily, “A mate can refuse to let them stand at ease?”
“Yes. If a mate feels he has acted in a way he shouldn’t have then he can stand, as we say, ‘on ceremony - he is asking his mate to accept him, to forgive him if he has done wrong. If a mate refuses she simply walks away and the mate will stand like that throughout the night and the biggest torture is through the day as well. He stands like that until the following night where his mate will come back to him. She can either accept him then or walk away and that signals that they were to go about their lives separately. It very rare not to be accepted back in though.”
Looking over to Perttu Lily saw that he looked pale. He looked half afraid as he watched the women approaching in their own vertical line, opposed to their horizontal one, dressed in their finest clothes.
“Why does Perttu look so pale?” Lily whispered to Berneice.
“He thinks you will not take him back. Last night was the first night you saw him in his true form and to top it all off he feels like he disgraced you because you stopped his actions and walked away from him.”
“He stopped and I understood why he did it in the first place.”
“Well we women know that, Perttu doesn’t. This is your chance to tell him.” Berneice gave her a motherly smile and a little wink. Their whispering had to stop as they came too close and she didn’t want Perttu to hear her. She felt butterflies in her stomach as she approached him. To think he thought she would leave him standing there for a full twentyfour hours or even let their lives be separate. She would never do that. She had taken the time to fall in love and if they had problems she trusted that they would sort it out themselves. Besides, she had no qualms over what had happened. She couldn’t help feeling a little smug with the power she held over him. Her opinion of him mattered quite a lot it seemed.
She changed then from a simple walk following her new mother to a saunter. She sashayed her hips and caught his attention subtlety. She saw him stiffen that bit more as he wasn’t supposed to be seen reacting until she told him to. She raised an eyebrow and smile tauntingly at him. He almost smiled back. She found his control adorable as it wavered.
Her joking aside she knew he would now want a straight forward answer from her so he knew whether his relief was acceptable or whether he needed to go back to stoic repentance. One by one the women veered off from the straight line to walk over to their mates and stand in front of them. Lily had no idea what to really do, this wasn’t instinct this was ritual and custom, something she wasn’t used to.
The women all did it differently. Some whispered in their mates ears, some kissed them. Others stood there and said a word and let their mates reach over and hug them. Lily wanted something more special than mere words.
Taking from her hair a clip with the bud of a flower on it she looked once at his eyes and then his shirt. He looked pained. Sad. He was intent in watching her every move and she knew he really truly thought she was going to leave him. Taking hold of the breast pocket of his pin striped black shirt she placed her hair clip over the material, sliding it down and fixing it to the material so that the flower seemed to peep from the top of his pocket.
“Don’t go thinking you can leave me. We had an agreement in that war and I need help replanting the garden.”
She reached down to his fisted hand and slowly touched his left one where she lifted it and started to uncurl the fingers there. She tapped at his fourth finger and looked up at him, “I think it’s missing a ring.” She said before winding that very same arm around her waist and slid her own hand up his chest and around his neck. He was stiff for a good minute.
“A ring. You’re serious?” He asked. He sounded breathless.
“Unless you don’t want one.”
“No I do!” He hurried to say.
“Good, I want as well.”
…..
“Niklas!” She yelled shaking her head and laughing at him as he ran after a little brown hair toddler.
“Little rascal won’t listen to what I say!”
“Push over that’s what you are.” She called back to him laughing her head off as the three year old was running in circles eluding the outstretched hands of Niklas. She had flowers in her hand, pretty red and purple ones as the moon was looking down on her. Her fingers were curled around a little hand held tool in her hand as she stood by the border of her garden. She was planting even more flowers as it was getting to summer and they looked pretty in the light of dusk.
Joseph was dressed head to foot in black yet not sweating in the spring heat as he was laying a brick wall on one side of the garden.
“Use your magic.” Joseph grunted at Niklas.
“Anyone using magic on my child will be in trouble!”
Lily burst out laughing even more as Perttu came striding out of the house carrying a wriggling white thing in his hands.
“I’m not!” Niklas yelled back, “Thomas! Get back here!” He called to the giggling boy who ran over to Lily and threw his arms around her legs and hiding behind her.
“Mummy, mummy, Uncle Nik is chasing me!”
Her laughing sounded so free and casual as she put down her flowers and tool and took hold of the little boy’s hand jogging a little with him to get further away from Niklas.
“No fair!” Niklas shouted, shaking his head as Joseph smirked and lay another brick down.
“Pregnant women shouldn’t be running.” Perttu grumbled going over to Lily and placing in her arms a blonde haired baby girl and planting a quick kiss on her swollen belly before scooping his eldest son up from the ground and with his long legs running further away from Niklas who was grumbling and running faster to keep up.
“Sometimes I wonder Perttu, did you and Joseph give me back the use of my legs only to torment me!”
“Of course old friend. All the other sorcerers are living with the hounds; you’re the only one left. We have to get our entertainment from somewhere!”
“Just remember who saved you first!”
From her seat by the border again Lily chuckled away as her family laughed and joked around. Her little girl was restless in her arms, “You’ll be able to join in someday.” She whispered at the six month old. A little kick from inside her tummy reminded her that another addition to the family would occur later that year and this was the family she never thought she would have. All those years back when they dragged her from her family and chained her to be killed had turned out to be the best thing she could ever have hoped for. This level of happiness she was at, at that moment, was beyond anything she could ever have hoped for. It was in a state of bliss that she felt another kick and watched as her mate looked up from his little game and gave to her one of the best things in the world. A carefree smile that lit up his eyes. Being a vampire’s bride was definitely not too bad.