Desert Heat (Complete)

{Lacie’s P.O.V.}

It’s here, the day is finally here. My wedding day. A day I thought would never come with all the bullshit that happened two weeks ago. Thank the goddess for Allie and her smooth-talking ways, and by smooth-talking, I mean her threatening the venue with a lawsuit and bailing on their business contract with Dorian’s company.

“Girl, will you stop fidgeting!” Cianna shouted at me while she was doing my makeup.

“I can’t, I have wedding day jitters,” I reply and keep shaking my leg. “Cianna, I’m getting married, I’m finally getting married,”

“I know, that’s why my a*s is currently in your bridal suite trying to get your damn makeup done,” she answered.

“Be nice Cianna,” Allie said coming into the suite in her bridesmaid’s dress.

“SERIOUSLY!?” I shout at her.

“What?”

“Why do you look prettier than I do! I’m the bride!”

“Oh my god, shut up Lacie, you look absolutely radiant,”

“Who did your makeup?”

“What makeup? Lacie, I’m wearing CC cream, some blush, eyeliner, and natural lashes with some gloss,”

“Are you saying you’re practically barefaced?!” Cianna asked stopping what she was doing.

“Yeah, I figured you wouldn’t want me or the others wearing a full face of makeup,” I just sulked. Why did Allie have to be a natural beauty? “Lacie, stop sulking. You look better than all of us. And our bridesmaid’s dresses are plain and simple so you can stand out in your stunning wedding dress, which I honestly have to say, looks better than the one I bought for my wedding,”

“Whatever,” I dismissed her. “Cianna, make me more beautiful than ever,”

“That’s what I’m trying to do, but you keep moving,” Cianna said smacking my bare thigh.

“Are you going to calm down so Paula can do your hair?” Allie asked. I nodded my head and Allie let Paula in. She took one look at my dress and got to work. Two hours later, my makeup and my hair were finally done, and when I saw the final product, I sighed in relief.

“Okay, I feel better,” I said looking in the mirror.

“See, you look better than anyone here,” Allie said while looking at me in the mirror as well. “Now, let’s get you in your dress so we can take your bridal party photos while Aries is still in hiding,” I nodded my head, and Allie and Cianna helped me get into my wedding dress. My mom would be in here, but she’s busy taking care of Meredith with the other grandparents and their grandpups.

“Damn, who is the designer of this dress?” Cianna asked. This is the first time she’s seen me in it after all of the alterations.

“It’s by Morilee,” I answer while Allie is zipping it up as I hold my boobs in place.

“Alright, let’s get the veil on,” Paula said. I sit back down in the chair and she gently places the veil into my updo followed by the hairpiece that I’m borrowing from Allie.

“Damn, my hairpiece looks better in your hair,” she said while looking at the back of my head. “It definitely looks better with a veil,”

“You didn’t have a veil?” I ask her trying not to move while Paula pins everything in place.

“Nah, my dress was jersey and crepe and was super plain. Adding a lacey veil would have taken away from the dress and clashed with the fabric. Didn’t I show you my wedding album?”

“You did, but I didn’t realize you didn’t have a veil at all, I thought you took it off or something,”

“There, all done,” Paula said. I stood up and looked into the body mirror in my bridal suite, and just smiled. I wanted to twirl in my dress like a child.

“Knock knock,” I see Dorian peek his head in the door. “Damn!” he says when he catches my eye.

“Is that a good damn, or a bad damn?” I ask him.

“Good, very, very good,” he replies while smiling and nodding his head at me.

“What’s up, babe?” Allie asks.

“Oh, the photographer wants to get the bridal party photos before the ceremony starts,”

“We’ll be right out,” she tells him. I watch as they have a lingering k**s before he leaves. I can’t help but smile knowing that in a few hours, the officiant will announce Aries and me as husband and wife.

Cianna and Allie help me with my dress, and we head out towards the back of the venue where we’re going to take all of the bridal party photos. All of the guys are currently in the groom’s suite keeping Aries busy to keep him from coming out and seeing me. Aries is anything but traditional and has been dying to see my dress, but I told him that I’d kick him out of our room if he even tried to sneak a peek at me wearing it before the actual ceremony.

I didn’t think I would end up with such a large bridal party, and honestly, my sister was always supposed to be my maid of honor, so seeing my bridal party of eight without my sister hurts a little, but I always remind myself she tried to kill me, so that hurt goes away pretty quickly. The photographer took your traditional bridal party photos, some of us just smiling, walking together and smiling, huddled together and laughing, and we even did one where I’m the center of attention and they’re blurred out in the background giving me dirty looks. That one was actually Cianna’s idea, and we were all for it.

After the photos of the bridal party were all done, the guys, minus Aries came out and we did the standard holding the bride photo and one where they were throwing me in the air. Since the guys are so burly and large, they threw me pretty high up, and thankfully caught me. This particular shot has turned into a tradition now. The guys did it for Allie’s wedding, Leah’s wedding, and now mine. They actually did it for Sin and Mikey’s wedding anniversary, so she got to have one for her collection too. Sam didn’t want to do it, but they did it anyway, but instead of catching her, they threw her into the pool. Let’s just say she was not happy about that. Lucas ended up in the dog house for a week, and the guys, including Dorian, had to run an additional ten miles for a week, in human form. They didn’t complain though, they said the punishment was worth getting to throw Sam in the pool.

Once all of the photos were done, Allie ushered me back into the bridal suite because the ceremony was about to start. My dad was already waiting,

“Oh, Lacie, my little girl, you look absolutely perfect,” he said kissing me on the cheek and hugging me. “Aries is one lucky man,”

“Thank you, daddy,” Even though my dad said some pretty harmful things to me before he lost his Alpha title and was banished, we were able to mend our relationship. Although Dorian and Allie still are not his biggest fans, and still won’t allow him into the territory, they’re being cordial at the very least. My dad has finally come to terms with the fact that he raised my sister wrong, and that he did me wrong by helping her. My dad is fully on my side now, and he vows to spend the rest of his life making it up to me, and I believe him.

“Are you ready sweet girl, it’s time,” he says, and I nod my head. I lock my arm with him, and he leads me to the opening where I’m going to enter. All of the girls and their men are ready to go. The music starts and Cianna and Lucian lead the way followed by Allie, Leah, Sin, Dani, Sam, Evelyn, and Eileen. Slowly but surely, it’s almost my time, and I can’t wait to walk down that aisle into the arms of my future husband.

{Arie’s P.O.V.}

I’m standing at the doorway getting ready to walk down the aisle first. I wish my mom could be here to see this. I was born a rogue, and it’s not any fault of my mom in any way. My mom was a strong-willed woman, and she didn’t take s**t from anyone, even my father who was the sole reason she ended up a rogue in the first place. She held the biggest grudge against him, and when she told me why, I didn’t blame her. My mom is someone you would call a scorned vixen. My dad was her mate, and he got her pregnant the night they met, but he was apparently engaged to his Alpha’s daughter. Instead of breaking off that engagement, he played my mom.

Instead of actually coming clean to his Alpha that he had found his mate, who was my mother, he rejected my mom after having mated with her, not knowing that their one time together created me. He lied to his Alpha and said that mom was trying to sabotage my dad’s engagement by fabricating lies about being his mate and got her banished. My mom raised me on her own as a rogue and worked a nine to five job in the human world. She made ends meet okay working her way up as a bank teller, and eventually to a bank manager. Unfortunately, the week before my eighteenth birthday, the branch my mother worked at was robbed at gunpoint, and my mom was killed along with a few other hostages. Even though my mom was a werewolf, being shot in the head will kill anyone. Even the supernatural. The crew that killed her and the other hostages were never caught.

After being notified by the police, I had to go identify my mother’s body since I was her only next of kin. I spent the next year tracking down those robbers, and eventually killed them off one by one to avenge my mom. I wasn’t aware that a rival gang was also looking for them, and when they found out I had killed them, they paid me a huge sum of money for it. That’s how I got into the bounty hunter and hitter business. That business eventually led me to my precious Lacie. I don’t regret a single day of my life because it all brought me here, to this moment.

The Master of Ceremonies called my name, and I finally made my way down the aisle with the biggest smile plastered on my face. When I made it to the altar, I shook hands with the officiant that was provided by the venue, and I turned around and waited. Eventually, the music started, and Cianna and Lucian came out first, followed by Allie and Dorian, Leah and Brandon, Sin and Mikey, Dani and Andre, Sam and Lucas, Evelyn and Deacon, and Eileen and Apollo. The look on all of our guests’ faces seeing such a large wedding party was priceless.

Lacie also had a lot of human friends that came to the wedding, after asking a million questions about Lacie’s fake death last year. They were all ogling the guys, and of course, the girls noticed and couldn’t help but give evil glares. I smiled and shook my head. After the wedding party was in place, I could feel my heart starting to race in my chest. The pianist started the wedding march, and the door opened revealing Lacie. I swear to the moon goddess and all the other higher powers there is, my heart stopped when we locked eyes.

I felt lost in a dream, and I never wanted to wake up. Lacie looked so beautiful in her dress. I never thought Lacie could ever look more perfect, but I stood corrected. Time felt like it had just frozen, and it was only me and her in the venue. I couldn’t see the fact that Bernie was walking her down the aisle to me. We never took our eyes off of each other, and I felt sudden wetness on my cheek. I realized that I was crying. Seeing Lacie come down the aisle was making me cry. I knew for a fact that none of the guys were going to let me live this down, especially since I made fun of Brandon for crying at his wedding.

Before I knew it, Lacie was standing in front of me, and Bernie was giving me her hand. He kissed her cheek, tapped my shoulder, and went to go sit with Corinne who was holding Meredith. Lacie and I walked up to the officiant and the ceremony got underway. I wasn’t even paying attention to anything this man was saying because I was too busy just staring at how perfect Lacie looked. Part of me wanted her to stay in the dress until the end of time because she looked so beautiful in it, and the other part of me wanted to rip it off and f**k her senseless.

“Aries?…Aries?” I was shaken from my thoughts.

“Hm!? What?!” I looked back at the officiant who was just smiling and shaking his head and the guests were laughing.

“Aries, your vows please,” I cleared my throat, and Lacie handed her bouquet to Cianna and we held each other’s hands.

“Lacie, my precious Lacie, where do I even begin? For many years, I never thought I would be lucky enough to find my soul mate. I spent my entire adult life alone and on the move. The only thing I knew was work, and never once considered myself someone worthy enough of a woman’s love. But then, as luck would have it, I met you. The moment I laid my eyes on you, I knew, I just knew I was going to make you my wife, and the mother to my children. Well, I obviously did it in reverse,” I jokingly said, and we both look at Meredith, making everyone laugh. “You don’t know how happy you make me, and you’re only adding to that happiness by standing in front of me here today. You make my heart beat so fast it feels as if it’s not beating at all. I don’t know what I did in life to deserve a woman as beautiful, kind, caring, loving, pure, and as sexy as you,” everyone started to laugh again while Lacie just blushed. “But I know that I’m going to spend the rest of my life making sure that you and our family are filled with so much happiness, love, and joy. I love you Lacie Amanda Hamilton, more than words will ever be able to express,”

“Lacie, your vows please,”

“Wow, what a way to put me on the spot after that,” she replied making people laugh yet again. “Aries, oh god, this is harder than I thought. Looking at you is making my mind go blank, but it’s because the only thing that fills my mind every day is your handsome face. When I met you, I was having a pretty crappy day and thought my Thanksgiving weekend was ruined, but as luck would have it, a mutual friend of ours let me stay at their house, which is where I met you. And oh god, were you the most handsome man I had ever seen. I thought, this can’t be, is this love at first sight, and by golly it was. I knew right then and there I wanted to give you my everything. My heart, my mind, my body, and my soul. I wanted to give it all to you and I am so happy that I did. You have given me so much in such a short period amount of time, that I feel like my heart is going to burst with the amount of love you’ve shown me. You gave me a beautiful baby girl that gives me another reason to live in this world. Aries, you have shown me the true meaning of what it’s like to be in love. I don’t think that there is enough time in a lifetime to spend with you, but let’s start with forever,” I wiped away the stray tears streaming down her face.

“The rings please?” the officiant asked. I turned and got the ring from Lucian, while Lacie got it from Cianna. I placed Lacie’s ring on her finger first, “Do you, Aries, take Lacie, to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

“I do,”

“And do you, Lacie, take Aries to be your lawfully wedded husband?” he asked as she put my ring on my finger.

“I do,”

“By the power vested in me by the state of Nevada, I now pronounce you man and wife! Aries, you may k**s your bride!” I grabbed Lacie’s face and kissed her so deep and so passionately, my d**k was starting to harden in my slacks. I reluctantly pulled away and stared into the eyes of my wife. After a minute of just staring into each other’s eyes, Lacie got her bouquet back from Cianna, and we walked back down the aisle where everyone was throwing streamers, ribbon, and flower petals. Nothing could ruin this day.

{Allie’s P.O.V.}

After the ceremony ended, the Master of Ceremonies ushered everyone into the reception hall where all of the food was set up and the wedding cake was on display. When I saw the cake, my mouth dropped to the floor. I counted the tiers and scoffed at how overboard Lacie went with the cake. No wonder the baker needed a few of the guys to help her get it set up. This damn thing was thirteen tiers high and looked like it could feed a party of a thousand people. But then I remember that more than half of the guests for this wedding were of the supernatural variety with insatiable appetites.

Everyone was being served by the servers that we had hired, and we made sure to order a lot of food since most of the guests were werewolves. Our parents were taking care of our pups and offered to babysit for the rest of the night. Meredith was actually going to leave with Corinne and Bernie back to Florida while Lacie and Aries went on their honeymoon to Australia.

While we were all eating, Lucian and Mikey made their best man and best friend speeches, and of course, both had to make fun of Aries for crying when Lacie came down the aisle. Lucian joked with Aries that he has the getaway car out back just in case he changed his mind, which earned him punch from Lacie and Cianna when he was done. Mikey on the other hand said that he’s willing to give Lacie a new identity to run away with Meredith when she was ready to call it quits. Of course, Aries did not like that at all and they ended up in a small tussle which Dorian had to break up. It did earn a big laugh from everyone else.

Cianna said her maid of honor speech and decided to go all out with embarrassing stories about Lacie which had all of us crying from laughter. Lacie was so embarrassed, but she seemed happy at the same time. After all of the speeches were done and we all toasted to Lacie and Aries, the music got underway and the dance floor filled with humans and werewolves alike. I went around to the tables making sure everyone had enough to eat and enough refreshments.

I came to a table where a single couple was sitting by themselves, which was strange because they didn’t mingle with anyone at all.

“Hi, are you two doing alright? Did you have plenty to eat?”

“We’re fine thank you,” the man said with a pleasant smile, but the girl gave me the dirtiest look.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t recognize either one of you, are you friends with the bride or the groom?” I asked nicely. Something about these two was off. The man gave me the heebies jeebies, and the girl, even though I didn’t know who she was, seemed awfully familiar, and in a bad way.

“The bride,” the girl responded with an ice-cold tone. “Childhood friend,”

“I see, well, I hope you two are enjoying yourselves. Please help yourself to more refreshments, and be sure to stick around for the friends and family photo,”

“Thank you, but I think we should be going now,” the man said. “I have a business to run, and we came from out of town,”

“Oh well, I’m sorry to hear that. Would you at least like to say goodbye to Lacie first?” I asked the girl. “I’m sure she’d be happy to see her childhood friend,”

“Thanks, but no thanks,” she said aggressively.

“Please excuse my girlfriend, she had a surgical procedure done recently, so she’s not feeling too well,” I just smiled and nodded. They both got up to leave, and I quickly mind linked Lacie,

Lacie, do you know this girl I’m talking to right now? I saw Lacie turn in my direction.

No, who is that?

She said that she’s your childhood friend.

I’ve never seen her before, Allie. I don’t know who that is.

What about the man?

No.

I looked back at the couple leaving and decided to quickly follow them. They went out of the front door hand in hand, but I could tell they weren’t happy with each other. Something about the girl was so familiar, her essence was one that I’ve sensed before, but I couldn’t put my finger on it,

Mercury, do you feel that?

I do, it’s familiar, but it’s off as well.

I don’t remember meeting any humans with this essence

Allie, I don’t think the girl was always human. I don’t know if you saw it or not, but the man has a mark made by a wolf.

I carefully followed them and watched as they turned the corner towards the parking lot. I turned the corner myself a few seconds later, but they were gone. They completely vanished and not a single car left the parking lot.

“What?” I speed walked to the parking lot, but their essences were gone. I looked around but there was nothing. They simply just disappeared.

Mercury, I have a bad feeling about that couple.

You and me both, Allie. You and me both.

“Hey! There you are!” I turned around and saw Maxine. “Come on, they’re about to do the garter belt and the…” Maxine paused when came next to me.

“Max, what’s wrong?”

“Allie was there someone here a minute ago?” she asked me out of the blue.

“Why? Do you feel something?”

“Yeah, and it’s not good,”

“Max, what is it?”

“Allie, I’m sensing powerful dark magic,” I just furrowed my brows at her. “Allie, it’s the same dark magic that was in the cellar when…”

“Oh god,” I turned around to look at the parking lot again. The woman was Heather, and the man she was with was the one who helped her escape.

“Allie, what the hell is going on?”

“Maxine, do not tell anyone about this, and make sure Sin doesn’t read your thoughts,” she nodded, and we headed back inside. I would tell everyone what Maxine and I just realized tomorrow. I didn’t want to ruin the happy night everyone was having.