The Flash Marriage

The hallway outside Carter Legal was empty, but it didn't feel empty.

Luna Skye Ashford was standing three feet away and the air around him was cold. Not cold like AC. Cold like moonlight on snow. His silver hair went all the way to his waist, straight, shining under the fluorescent lights. He was wearing white - white shirt, white pants - and the crescent moon tattoo on his forehead glowed faint blue. His eyes were blue ice. He was not smiling.

He looked at me in Kael's Tom Ford jacket that was too big for me, and his blue ice eyes softened.

"Ghost," he whispered. "You finally came."

Kade Fang was next to him. He was not human. He was seven feet tall even kneeling. Half man, half wolf, covered in thick gray-brown fur, wearing black leather and steel armor over his chest, claws clicking on the marble floor. His face was wolf - long snout, yellow fangs out, ears up - but his eyes were human brown, loyal. He had a huge fist over his heart and he was kneeling to ME. Jace Cole in a cheap J.Crew shirt.

"My Luna," he growled. His voice was like rocks grinding. "My life for yours. My pack for yours."

My knees gave out.

Kael caught me before I hit the floor. One arm around my waist, burning hot even through the jacket. His amber eyes were gold now. Possessive gold.

"Easy, Ghost. Breathe," he murmured against my temple, his lips brushing my skin. Not a kiss. A scenting. He was scenting me, right there in the hallway of a law firm on 5th Avenue.

Luna stepped closer. He smelled like snow and jasmine.

"Kael told me you are human," Luna said, his voice soft, musical. "But you are not. You are sleeping. I can hear him. Your wolf. He has been sleeping for twenty-eight years because no Alpha ever called him. Kael called him today."

"I don't... I don't have a wolf," I whispered. My chest was pounding so hard I thought it would come out. "I'm from Ohio. My dad is an accountant."

"You are a Ghost Wolf," Luna said. "The rarest. Gray fur, golden eyes. The last one died a hundred years ago. The Moon chose you. That is why Kael smelled you two years ago at Sarah's engagement party and never forgot."

I looked at Kael. "Two years? You knew me two years ago?"

Kael's jaw tightened. His gold eyes didn't leave mine.

"You wore a blue suit. Too big. You kept fixing Sarah's dress when it slipped. You paid the waiter for her champagne because her card declined. You didn't look at any other woman. I stood in the corner and watched you be loyal to a woman who didn't deserve it. I told Luna that night - that human is mine."

My face went hot. That engagement party, Sarah had been drunk, her dress slipping, I had been embarrassed fixing it. I didn't know anyone saw.

Luna smiled for the first time. It was beautiful and terrifying.

"Come. We marry you now before Malrik Dread sends his Beasts. Kade?"

Kade Fang stood. He was even taller standing. The top of his head almost hit the ceiling light. He moved behind me, not touching me, but I felt his huge presence like a wall. Guarding.

Kael didn't let go of my waist. He walked me to the elevator, his hand burning hot through the jacket. His Tom Ford suit jacket smelled like cedar and rain and Alpha and it was around my shoulders like a claim flag.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"City Hall. Downtown. I have a judge waiting," Kael said. "Then Blackwood Tower. Penthouse. My pack. Your pack now."

"Flash marriage? Now? Like right now?"

"I told you," he said, pressing the elevator button, his gold eyes on my mouth, then my neck. "I don't do contracts. I do forever. If we wait, Malrik will take you. If we marry now, you are Blackwood. Under Luna's law, no Beast can touch a Blackwood Luna without starting a pack war. Even Malrik is not that stupid."

The elevator opened. Luna entered first, silver hair floating. Kade had to duck to get in. I was in the middle, Kael's arm still around me, his jacket still around me, his heat everywhere.

In the elevator mirror I saw us. Kael Wolfe Blackwood, 6'3 billionaire Alpha in black shirt and silver chain, gold eyes, black hair, looking like a god. And me, Jace Cole, 5'10, brown hair messy, J.Crew shirt wrinkled, wearing his jacket too big, eyes red from not sleeping, human... but my eyes... my eyes were flashing gray-gold for a second.

Luna saw it in the mirror and his blue ice eyes widened.

"There," he whispered. "Ghost."

The City Hall clerk was a tired woman named Mrs. Chen. She had seen everything in New York. But she had never seen Kael Wolfe Blackwood walk in with a silver-haired man with a moon tattoo and a seven-foot werewolf in armor and a shaking human in a Tom Ford jacket.

"Marriage license?" she asked.

Kael put a black Amex down. "Expedited. Now."

Fifteen minutes later, we were in front of Judge Alvarez, a small courtroom with American flags. Sarah and her mother were not there. Only us. Luna standing as witness, Kade at the door growling at anyone who came close.

Judge Alvarez looked at me, then at Kael.

"Do you, Kael Wolfe Blackwood, take Jace Cole to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

Kael didn't look at the judge. He looked at me. His amber eyes were pure gold now, burning. He took both my hands. His hands were burning hot, calloused from fighting, from leading a pack.

"Jace Cole," he said, voice low, possessive, so the judge and Luna and Kade heard. "I have wanted you since you fixed her dress two years ago. I have watched you be loyal while the world was disloyal to you. I take you not as contract. Not as revenge. I take you as mine. My husband. My Luna. My Ghost. I will mark you, keep you, protect you, and I will never let you go. Forever. Do you understand?"

I couldn't breathe. No one had ever spoken to me like that. Like I was precious. Like I was wanted.

"Yes," I whispered.

"Do you, Jace Cole, take Kael Wolfe Blackwood to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

I looked at his gold eyes, his black hair, his silver chain, his Tom Ford suit, his burning hands.

"Yes. Forever."

Luna stepped forward. He held a silver circlet, thin, with a small moonstone in the middle.

"By the law of the Moon and the law of New York State," Luna said, his voice suddenly powerful, echoing, Alpha power filling the small room, "I, Luna Skye Ashford, Luna of the Blackwood Pack, crown you Jace Cole Blackwood, Luna of Luna's Pack, Ghost Wolf, Mate of Alpha Kael Wolfe Blackwood. Let any Beast who touches you be cursed."

He placed the circlet on my head. It was cold, then hot, then it melted into my skin like light. I gasped. For a second, my vision went white and I saw a huge gray wolf with golden eyes standing behind me in the mirror.

Kade Fang howled. It was not human. It was wolf howl, loud, shaking the flags.

Judge Alvarez jumped. "I... I now pronounce you husband and husband. You may... you may kiss?"

Kael didn't kiss my mouth. He pulled me against his chest, one hand in my brown hair, and kissed my forehead. Hard. Possessive. Marking. His lips burned. I felt his teeth graze my skin, not breaking, just promising.

"Mine," he growled against my forehead, so only I heard. "My Ghost. My Luna. Mine."

He slipped a ring onto my finger. Black titanium, with a small moonstone. It fit perfectly. He had my size. For two years?

I slipped a matching one onto his. My hands were shaking so bad Kade had to steady my wrist with one huge claw, gentle.

We walked out married.

Blackwood Tower was on Park Avenue, sixty floors of glass. The penthouse took the whole top floor. The elevator opened directly into it.

It was not a house. It was a pack den made to look like a billionaire's loft. Fur rugs, fireplace, huge windows overlooking Manhattan, but also claw marks on the steel beams, a giant wolf bed in the corner, weapons on the wall.

Luna disappeared into a room, silver hair trailing. Kade stood at the elevator, arms crossed, seven feet of armor and fur, guarding.

Kael took off his jacket from my shoulders - I missed the heat instantly - and hung it up. He was in just his black shirt open at the throat, silver chain glinting, tattoos peeking out - a wolf's head on his collarbone.

"Shower," he ordered softly. "You smell like mediation and Malrik's Beast stink. I want it off you."

I went to the huge bathroom. Glass shower, black marble. I took off my wrinkled J.Crew shirt and looked in the mirror.

My neck had a faint red mark where Kael's lips had been. Not a hickey. A glow. And my eyes... my eyes flashed gray-gold again. And behind me, in the mirror, for a split second, a huge gray wolf with golden eyes stood, overlapping my body.

I gasped and spun. Nothing there. Just steam.

When I came out in a white towel, Kael was waiting in the bedroom. He had changed into black sweatpants, no shirt. His body was... God. Abs, broad chest, black wolf tattoo across his back, silver chain. He was 6'3 of pure Alpha muscle and he was looking at me in a towel like I was food.

He stood and came to me. He didn't touch the towel. He touched my damp brown hair, my cheek, my neck where his mark glowed.

"Kade will guard the door tonight," he whispered, his amber eyes gold, his voice rough. "Luna will sleep next door. No one touches you. But you are mine now, Jace. In this tower, in this pack, in this city. Do you feel him? Your wolf? He is awake because I called him. Because you are safe now."

Inside my chest, the gray wolf with golden eyes howled. Not scared. Happy. Home.

Downstairs, sixty floors below, on Park Avenue, a black SUV with no plates was parked. Malrik Dread stepped out, looked up at the tower, smiled with too sharp canines, and made a phone call.

"They married," he said. "The human married the Alpha."

And in the penthouse, my new husband's phone buzzed with a text from Luna: BEASTS AT THE BORDER. MALRIK IS HERE.

Kael's gold eyes snapped to the window. He pulled me behind him, one burning hot arm around me.

And Kade Fang downstairs roared.