Desert Heat (Complete)

{Arie’s P.O.V.}

I was in my room playing with Meredith, while Lacie was out with her mom doing last-minute wedding planning. Two more weeks, and we were going to finally be husband and wife. It’s been a long time coming, but it was finally going to happen. I had my tux, the guys had their suits, Yellow Moon was coming, and we even allowed for Bernie to come so he could give Lacie away. It was something that Lacie really wanted, and Dorian is allowing it since we won’t be on pack grounds.

Lacie wanted the wedding to be as human-like as possible, so we rented out a wedding venue at a country club that Allie suggested. It was a little pricey, but I didn’t mind. We were going to have about 200 to 250 guests, and since about half were going to be human from Lacie’s high school days, we decided to cater to both human and werewolf. I invited Sinbad and Persephone, so they were bringing their goon squad along with them. Sinbad was never one to turn down a party.

Of course, as a wedding gift, Dorian and the others all pitched in to help pay for decorations and Cianna was in charge of finding the bakery to make the wedding cake. I think my favorite part of this entire wedding planning experience was the cake tasting. I didn’t think it would be possible for a wolf to get on a sugar high, but I did, and Lacie was loving it too because she was still pregnant with Meredith at the time. We couldn’t decide on one flavor, so we decided to get three. The cake Lacie wanted was ridiculous, but then she reminded me half of our guests were werewolves.

As I was lost in thought, Meredith started to cry,

“Monkey, what’s the matter?” I asked and picked her up. I never knew something so small could make my heart flutter the way it does when I hold her. The day Meredith was born was a day I would never forget. Finding out I was having a girl was the best feeling in the world. After seeing how Dorian, Brandon, and even Deacon acted with their daughters made me jealous, but not anymore because now I have my own little princess to spoil. “Whoo, monkey, what has mommy been feeding you?” I say when I smell she needs a diaper change. “Well, then again, she’s giving you breast milk, so what exactly has mommy been eating? Huh? We should tell mommy to lay off the red meat, shouldn’t we? Yeah, we should,” I said to Meredith while I changed her. When I was all done, I picked her back up and kissed her chubby little cheeks. Meredith was the spitting image of Lacie, but she had my ash blonde hair.

I kissed her cheeks a few times and then my phone rang. I gently placed her on the floor on her play mat for tummy time, and answered my phone,

“Hello?”

“Is this Aries Callaghan?

“It is?”

“Mr. Callaghan, my name is Monica, and I’m the baker in charge of your wedding cake,”

“Hi, what can I do for you?”

“Well, I just wanted to be sure that you were certain about canceling the order,”

“Whoa, what!? I’m not canceling anything, what the hell are you talking about!?”

“Oh, thank goodness I called first. There’s been a mistake with the other baker. Apparently, someone called claiming to be your fiancé and wanted to cancel the cake,”

“No! Good god no! Lacie and I are getting married, and she’s been dreaming of that cake since we ordered it,”

“Okay, whew. I am so glad that I called first,”

“I’m glad you called, too. Listen, if anyone tries to call and cancel anything, you call me or my fiancé first,”

“Yes, of course. I knew something wasn’t right. I tried to call your fiancé, but her phone seems to be off,”

“She’s with her mother finalizing details for the wedding,”

“Oh, okay. I’m so sorry for the confusion Mr. Callaghan. I’m making a note on your order form right now. I was going over the details and then I saw the cancellation notice, and something didn’t seem right,”

“Thank you Monica for double-checking. Lacie would have been devasted,”

“I completely understand. Do not worry, I will make sure this cake is exactly how she wants it,”

“Thank you, have a good day,”

“You too Mr. Callaghan, have a great day and I will see you at the wedding,”

“Yes, you too,” I hung up the phone and sat on the bed sighing in relief. “Crisis adverted, monkey. Mommy would have killed that entire bakery if they didn’t make that cake for the wedding,”

“Bah boo,” Meredith mumbled

“Yeah, you know it, mommy is not one to mess with when it comes to this wedding,” I was playing with Meredith on the floor, and she seemed to be getting sleepy. I went to prepare a bottle for her so she could nap when my phone rang again,

“Hello?”

“Hi, I’m looking for either a Lacie Hamilton or Aries Callaghan?”

“This is Aries, how can I help you?”

“I’m sorry to disturb you sir, but my name is Todd, and I’m one of the owners of the floral shop contracted for your wedding. Someone called the other day canceling your order, but the number that was written down didn’t match the one that we have on record, so I was calling just to confirm,”

“What? Why is everyone calling me to confirm cancellations we didn’t make,”

“I’m sorry?”

“Todd, the bakery in charge of the wedding cake called less than ten minutes ago saying the same thing you are right now,”

“Oh my, that’s so strange. So, you didn’t call to cancel?”

“We most certainly did not,”

“I’m so glad I called. This is one of our biggest orders this year, and my wife is so excited to get this done, I just had to call to double-check,”

“I’m glad you called, too. Look, it looks like someone is either playing a sick joke, or someone is trying to sabotage my wedding. I need to go and call my fiancé,”

“Okay, don’t worry sir, we will get your order ready for the big day,”

“Thank you, goodbye,” I hung up and immediately was going to call Lacie, but before I could even pull her number up, there was screaming and crying coming from downstairs. I picked up Meredith and went to the nursery. “Crissy, will you watch her? She needs a bottle and a nap,”

“Of course,” I handed Meredith to the nanny and ran downstairs. I was shocked to see Lacie crying hysterically, and her mother trying to console her.

“Corinne, what happened?” She just shook her head and didn’t know what to tell me.

“Oh my god, what happened?!” Allie shouted as she came running down the stairs. “Corinne, why is Lacie crying?” Corinne quickly signed something while still holding Lacie against her.

“We were driving around town getting last-minute details together for the wedding, but when we got to the venue, they said that someone had canceled on her behalf, and they lost their spot at the venue,” Allie translated.

“WHAT!?!” Allie and I shouted at the same time.

“s**t!”

“What’s wrong Aries?” Allie asked.

“The baker and the florist called just now asking to confirm the cancellation of the cake and the flowers,”

“WHAT!?” Lacie shouted and looked at me and started to cry again.

“I mean, I obviously told them that it was a mistake, so those are good to go, but the venue never called,”

“Oh my goodness, why is she crying?” Mrs. Johnson asked she came out of the kitchen.

“Mrs. Johnson, someone called the wedding venue pretending to be Lacie and canceled our reservation. The venue never called us to make sure, and now we don’t have a venue,” I replied.

“Oh, my goddess, who would do such a thing!?” Mrs. Johnson exclaimed while trying to help console Lacie.

“SOMEONE IS TRYING TO SABOTAGE MY WEDDING!!!” Lacie whaled and kept crying.

“Precious, it’s okay, come here,” I took her from her mom and Mrs. Johnson and held her.

“What are we going to do!? The wedding is in less than two weeks and we don’t have a venue! All of the invitations went out and everything!” Lacie was hysterical. I had never seen her cry this much, even when we told her Heather almost killed her.

“Hold up, you said that they canceled the venue without double-checking that it was you right?” Allie asked and Lacie just nodded with fat tears streaming down her face. Allie pulled out her phone and walked away.

“Where is she going?” Lacie asked through her tears. I just shrugged my shoulders. Lacie was leaning against my chest trying to calm down. About ten minutes later, Allie came back.

“Alright, I got your reservation back,”

“You did!?” Lacie lit up.

“Yup!”

“How!?” Everyone asked.

“The venue has a business contract with Dorian’s company for private security whenever there is a celebrity in town or there is a massive event where multiple highly influential people are in attendance. I threatened to void the contract if they didn’t get your reservation back. Plus, I told them that whichever employee accepted the cancellation did so without double-checking the phone number on file to verify it was actually the bride or groom,”

“So, we’re good?” Lacie asked cautiously.

“We’re good,”

“ALLIE THANK YOU!!!” Lacie started crying again, only this time it was happy tears, and hugged Allie. I let out a huge sigh of relief and just gave the look. The look that says you just saved everything, and I am more than appreciative.

“Okay, stop crying Lacie,” she said patting her on the back.

“Ugh, who would do such a thing!?” Lacie growled in pure anger now.

“I honestly think I have an idea,” Allie said, and we all looked at her. “Heather,” Lacie and Corinne let out a small gasp. “We don’t know anyone else out there who wants to ruin Lacie’s life more than Heather. Other than Maya, but she’s dead. And unless she can make phone calls from hell, your sister is the only other person that makes sense. She is on the run while Lacie is getting ready to spend the rest of her life with the love of her life, something Heather will never get to have. She may be in hiding, but she is being helped by someone that works with dark magic, and they’re probably keeping an eye on all of us,” after hearing this, I was inclined to agree.

“Allie has a point, Precious. This sounds like something someone jealous would do,” Lacie was huffing and puffing which meant she was more than just upset.

After calming her down, Lacie, Allie, Corinne, and Mrs. Johnson went to call the caterers, the band, and other vendors we had hired for the wedding to let them know not to accept any cancellations unless they’re done in person and explained why. I emailed Sinbad and let him know when he’s at the wedding to keep an eye out for Heather and told him that she was trying to stop the wedding. If she can’t get it to stop, she may show her face instead.

{Heather’s P.O.V.}

After getting the Seer to figure out where and who all of Lacie’s vendors were for her wedding, I got to work canceling everything. Everyone I had called thus far accepted the cancellations with no problem at all, thankfully. Sabotaging her wedding was piece of cake. I had already canceled the bakery, the florist, and most importantly, the venue. Even if everything else fell through, without a venue, there would be no wedding. I decided to call the entertainment company providing the DJ.

“Hello,”

“Hi, my name is Lacie Hamilton, and I want to cancel my reservation for the DJ on Saturday, March 9th,”

“You said you want to cancel?”

“Yes,”

“I’m sorry Ms. Hamilton, but to cancel this reservation, we’re going to need you to come in person and sign for the cancellation,”

“Excuse me?”

“Just like reservations, we don’t do cancellations over the phone. It’s to protect the customers, you understand,”

“Ummm…Yeah sure, okay,” I quickly hung up the phone and decided to forget the DJ. I called the caterers for the food instead.

“All About Catering, how can I help you?”

“Hi, my name is Lacie Hamilton, and I have a large order for Saturday, March 9th,”

“Yes, Ms. Hamilton, what can we do for you?”

“I’m sorry to say this, but I’m not getting married anymore, and I need to cancel my order. I found out my fiancé was cheating on me,”

“My condolences on the sad news. I would happy be to cancel your order; however, we would need you to come to the storefront and do it in person,”

“Why!?”

“Well, unfortunately, the order you made is quite large, and for something of this magnitude, we need you to have to sign for the cancellation,” I didn’t even bother saying anything else. I hung up the phone. I started going down the list of the other vendors, and everyone was asking for me to go down in person. What the hell was going on?

“UGH!!!” I g*****d in frustration and threw my phone at the wall breaking yet another phone. “f**k, Gideon is going to be pissed. That’s the third one this month,” I said out loud. “Whatever, at least the venue is canceled,” I tossed the list of vendors in the trash and went down to the kitchen to get something to eat. As I was walking down the stairs, Gideon came through the front door,

“Heather, where are you going?”

“Kitchen,” I replied. “You’re home early,”

“Slow day at the office,” he said and took off his tie and blazer. “What did you do all day?”

“f****d up my sister’s wedding,” I answered with a smile and skipped to the kitchen. I rummaged through the fridge and found some jello. I normally wasn’t a fan, but lately, I had been craving it.

“Now why are you trying to f**k up your own sister’s wedding?” he asked and grabbed a bottle of water.

“Because she’s a back-stabbing cunt who doesn’t deserve to get married or be happy,” I said swishing the gelatin in my mouth.

“And why is that, my queen?”

“She betrayed me and chose her mate over me, her sister. Plus, I didn’t get to have my mate, so why should she?”

“I thought I was your mate, you marked me did you not?”

“I made you my mate, Gideon. You’re not my destined mate, Deacon was,”

“But you are my destined queen, so it works the same way,”

“No, it doesn’t. Wolves have destined mates, the one person Selene pairs us with to be together forever, someone to love us, but my mate was manipulated by this b***h named Allie and he rejected me,”

“Heather, your mate rejected you because you are impure, why don’t you get that?”

“Impure or not, Deacon would have loved me, but Allie got in the way, so regardless of what I did in my life, it’s still Allie’s fault!” I yelled and threw the empty jello cup into the trash and grabbed another.

“You’ve been eating jello a lot recently Heather, you hate gelatin,”

“I know, but I want it for some stupid reason,” I downed my second cup and grabbed a third cup, and went upstairs to our room. I didn’t want to listen to Gideon b***h about my eating habits. It’s not like I could gain weight. Delilah may have left me, but I’m still a werewolf, and we don’t gain weight.

Gideon came in not long after I did and went straight towards the bathroom stripping his clothes off along the way. It was like watching a snake shed a layer of skin as he did it. For someone who likes to keep the house clean, he sure was messy. I called Aria to come to pick up his clothes and take them to the laundry room.

“My queen,” I heard the Seer before she even appeared.

“What is it?”

“I thought you would like to see this,” she brought up an image and it’s of Lacie crying like a big baby.

“What is this?”

“Lacie is upset because of the wedding venue. It appears that your plan to ruin her wedding is a success,”

“Well, this day just got even better!” I squealed. “Sorry, not sorry, little sister. You don’t get to have your happy ending when I don’t,” I couldn’t help but laugh at Lacie’s sadness. Things were going according to plan. I was going to use the Seer to help me ruin Lacie’s life, and then I was going to use Gideon’s money and his powers to help me get back at Yellow Moon. Revenge was going to be so glorious.