As we walked hand in hand, the nerves and butterflies started kicking in. This was really about to happen and I really agreed to this. This was all a surprise to me, because a few months ago I couldn't have dreamt of ever having a completed bond with anyone. It all felt surreal, but I knew that I was making the right decision.
This just showed me that we can't change the predisposed things in our life... we just learn to accept them. No matter how much we fight and refuse, we'll always end up becoming the thing we never wanted to be, but secretly needed to become. Because life gives us unexpected joys and we need to start acknowledging them, not fighting them.
Before, I never saw the beauty in all of this. I never saw the full picture of having and being a mate. Akai opened up my eyes to so many things and he's fought for me since the very first day we saw each other and I'm glad he did. He is my mate, my love, and my everything. Without a second thought, I could say I wanted to be tied to him for the rest of my life and I wasn't scared to say something like that anymore.
"You sure?" Akai asked quietly as we eased closer to the front of the crowd. I nodded my head and Akai quickly placed a kiss to the top of my head.
My nerves quickly moved to the forefront of my mind as we finally walked in the front of the crowd and placed ourselves directly in the center. I could feel Akai's pack eyes all over me, but instead of bringing me discomfort, they brought me warmth and reassurance. For the first time, I felt like I really belonged here and with that thought finally instilled in my mind, the butterflies fluttered away leaving me with only the feeling of happiness and excitement to start my new beginning with Akai.
"You know how this goes, right?" Akai looked down at me with a questioning expression.
I slowly nodded my head, thinking back to the day my parents had their ceremony. Akai connected our hands as his father appeared with a thick book and a huge smile on his face.
He cleared his throat, then he started the ceremony. It started off with an oath to Akai's pack, then it moved on to an oath to each other that was specially made for alpha mates because our connection was stronger, then we moved on to our vows. Normally couples read from the old book filled with generic vows, but in that moment be both knew we wanted our vows to come from the heart.
I could already feel the tears start to spring to my eyes as Akai looked down at me lovingly. I knew I wouldn't be able to get through this part without dropping a tear or two.
"Umm... I don't even know where to start." Akai sheepishly looked out into the crowd like they were going to give him the answers he needed. He let out a long sigh, then he turned his eyes back to me. "I just want to start off with saying that I love you so much. I'm glad you finally went the easy way in letting me love you. You're honestly the greatest girl I could've been paired with and I'm grateful for all the tough experiences we went through because they make me appreciate what we have now even more. And I could say so much more about you and our relationship, but I don't think anybody would want to be sitting out here for 63 hours." We all let out a small giggle as Akai finished his vows. His cheeks unexpectedly heated up as he glanced out into the crowd. I gave him a reassuring smile and squeezed his hands gently.
A single year dropped from my eyes onto my cheek. Akai gently wiped it off, but I knew a million more would start pouring soon.
Then it was my turn. I didn't even have anything to say, because I couldn't find any words that amount to my love and admiration for Akai. He was my everything, my forever, my source of happiness, my chance to start over and be complete again. But I didn't want to open my heart in front of his whole pack, I wasn't comfortable enough with them for that yet.
"These have been a rocky few months. We've come so close to losing each other to my stubbornness and I'm sorry for not facing my fears of opening myself up to you earlier. I still can't believe that we're standing here today; together. I love you with all my heart and soul and I'm happy to be officially starting my life with you." I stood on my tiptoes and placed a small kiss to Akai's lips as the "pinky promise" to my vows.
The crowd erupted into a loud stream of clapping and cheering. Akai's father quieted down the crowd, then he started speaking about the next part of the ceremony, the part that actually made us fully complete.
I barely heard anything he said though. I got sucked into Akai and his hypnotizing eyes. It's like I saw my future, my past, and both our happiness shining through his green irises.
"Are you ready, Orianna?" Akai's soft voice shook me out of my state of shock. I slowly nodded my head. "You need to cut my wrist, then I'm going to do yours." I silently nodded my head again as I looked down at Akai's outstretched arm.
I raised my hand shakily up to Akai's arm. This was the big moment and he even let me go first. That was really important in our culture- normally the man went first because he was the dominant one, but Akai was letting me go first to show his full submission to me and our relationship.
My nail elongated to a sharp point, then I placed it onto Akai's wrist. I moved my gaze from his arm to his eyes. As I pushed down, I looked into his eyes. I expected to see an ounce of regret flood his expression or something bad to happen, but nothing happened. He just smirked down at me and gave me a breathtaking wink.
We both looked down at his wrist as blood slowly started to drip out. I didn't waste anytime in holding my arm up to Akai, so he could repeat the same thing to me. He did it much quicker than me, then his father walked closer to us and grabbed both of our arms.
"And by the moon goddess's grace to bring these two unexpected souls together; I connect these two young pups by blood. The strongest bond to ever be created, shared between my only son and my new daughter. May their love love on!" Then he connected our wrist, so both our bloods would become one with each other. The entire pack stood up as a single drip of of golden blood dropped onto the ground beneath us.
The bond was completed.
Tears fell from my eyes ruthlessly. I felt the power of our love being transferred from my body to Akai's and Akai's love into mine. My heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest from all the built up pressure- it truly showed me how much power love had on everybody. It's like every bad memory faded in that moment and it was only Akai's love to keep me grounded.
Akai's father finally released our connected arms and took a step back to let us have our own moment. I almost fell back from the impact of the transfer, but Akai was quick to grab my waist and pull me fully against his warm body.
I could vaguely hear Akai whispering words into my ear, but I couldn't truly figure out what he was saying. Through the continuous screaming from his pack and the loud drumming and buzzing flowing through my body, nothing could break through to me at that moment. The constant soft strokes of his hand against my back and the small kisses he placed on top of my head was enough to get me to calm down.
"Akai," I looked up at him and he gave me his usual bright and contagious smile. He wiped the remaining tears from my face and mouthed an 'I love you' to me.
"You're stuck with me forever, Lupita." I smiled back at him, then I looked down at my wrist.
"I didn't know this would happen," I examined my wrist as I saw faint lines start to etch itself into my skin. From a far it just looked like swirls, but when I brought my wrist closer to my eyes, I saw that it was an actual design. It was a paw connected with a cloud, but it was very abstract and something that only Akai and I would notice. "It's beautiful. I didn't expect this at all." He placed another light kiss to my forehead.
"And I have a matching one!" Akai held up his wrist for me to see. And there the light marking set, which perfectly matched with mine. "I love you, lupita."
"I love you, too." And we ended everything off with a long and love filled kiss.
The day had been totally unexpected, but I couldn't have asked for a better way to end this day or any day for that matter and especially with Akai. I know we had so much in store for us and I couldn't wait to experience every moment with Akai by my side!
//////////////////////
And we're finished (almost at least). I just have to write the epilogue, then this book is officially completed and more than ready for me to edit. I feel like I'm about to cry... I'll try to save it for the epilogue. We've come so far and I'm so proud of myself for finally finishing this book and I hope you all enjoyed my mediocre story🤗
I know this chapter is kinda bad and the rest of the book for that matter, but my next task is to deeply and intensely fix this book. I still hope you were able to enjoy it😊
So yeah😭😭
Anywho, bye❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️