Filed to story: Fated is Overrated Novel Free by Brenda Minnaard
I thought it sounded drastic at first, but I quickly noticed that it was much needed and that they did the right thing. To my mates great annoyance, and to be fair mine too, we were not allowed to sleep together last night. Traditions suck. So, I awoke in my empty bed. It’s absolutely crazy to say, but I seriously miss them already. It has been 1 day, 1 f*cking day, and I miss them already. This mate bond is something else. ‘You can blame the mate bond all you want, but we both know you just miss our mates as much as we do’ Justice chimes in. ‘It’s the mate bond! And you 2. I used to be very independent, before you 2 came along’. Justice laughs at me, before saying ‘you are still independent. You just loooooooove our mates!’. I grumble and push away the covers. I slept terrible without them, I even woke up early. Me – the bear in winter sleep, woke up early!
There is a knock at my door, and I yell “come in”. Xena pokes her head through the door, before skipping in excitedly, clapping her hands. “Oh dear, I am so happy the day has finally come!!” I chuckle at her enthusiasm, and stand up to give her the hug she is reaching out for. “Thank you, Xena, for always having my back. From the moment I met you, I felt such comforting motherly vibes coming from you. I hadn’t felt that from anyone in a very long time”. Xena pulls away slightly to look into my eyes, her own eyes watering with tears. She cups my cheeks with her hands, while saying “well you know what, dear? I felt some sort of a need to protect you the moment you walked through that door, it’s as if I already knew deep down in my heart that you would become my daughter one day. I knew you were kind and special, I just didn’t realize how special you would be for me yet”. I pull her back into my embrace, and we hug each other in silence for a while. When we break apart, she wipes away the tears on her cheeks quickly, before saying “alright, no time to waste, we need to get going!”. I look at her confused for a bit, before asking “euhm.. Where are we going?”. “To the spa and then the salon, dear! I want you to feel relaxed on your big day, and I want you to look perfect without having to stress about that yourself!”. “Euhm, OK, but they are not going to make me look like a clown!” I exclaim. I know what they do at these salons sometimes, and I refuse to look like a clown or a prostitute on this day. I shiver at the thought.
“Of course not, dear! They will simply do as you instruct them, nothing more, nothing less. Now, let’s get going!”. I dress myself quickly, and race downstairs to meet Xena in the kitchen. I can smell the faint smell of evergreen and cedarwood, and my heartrate picks up automatically, hoping they are near. Xena chuckles upon hearing my heartrate increase, before saying “they aren’t here, dear, I escorted them back to their rooms. The little rascals were waiting, knowing we would pass through the kitchen before leaving”. I pout at the fact that they aren’t here, but my heart flutters knowing they tried to get a glimpse of me. Liberty is wagging her tail in my head and even Justice is… wagging her tail too? Do dragons do that?! ‘No, we don’t. But let’s just say I hang out with Liberty too much’ Justice answers laughingly. I chuckle, these girls will be the death of me one day. Xena looks at me with a raised eyebrow, so I decide to make her laugh too. “It’s nothing. Justice was just wagging her tail at the thought of her mates waiting here for her” I laugh, and Xena bursts out laughing with me. “I didn’t know dragons did that!”. “They don’t” I reply, still laughing and shaking my head. “You 3 are something else. Now come on, let’s go” Xena laughs, while ushering me out the door. Once we are in the car and have passed the gates, she asks me to grab the bag she retrieved from the kitchen. It contains our breakfast, so we could eat on the road and not waste any time apparently. I see a few smaller bags with sandwiches in them, and I open the first one to hand it to Xena.
As soon as the bag opens and I pull out the sandwich, the most vile smell enters my nostrils and I try, and fail, to suppress my gags. Xena pulls over swiftly and I waste no time in tossing the sandwich out as far as I can reach, before stepping out myself and getting some fresh air. “What’s wrong dear?” Xena hurries over to me worriedly. “I’m not sure, but the sandwich really smelled vile” I gag a bit in between. “What did it smell like?”. “I don’t know.. The smell was really deep and profound… It smelled musky and stale, but also vaguely like rotten food, I guess?”. Xena’s face turns pale, and she seems to be deep in thought. “What? What is it?”. “It’s just.. The description you have given sounds a lot like wolfsbane…”. What?! “You mean someone tried to poison us?” I almost shriek. “I’m not sure, dear. Let’s leave the other sandwiches closed so we can send them in for testing”. I nod, as we both return to our seats and resume our journey. Xena clears her throat and says “but, we will not let this ruin your big day! We will just grab breakfast on the road”. I nod at her with a small smile, and we continue the journey in comfortable silence.
The rest of the day goes by in a blur. And I have to say, I do feel relaxed after the spa and salon. And Xena was right – they did exactly what I asked of them, and they didn’t make me look like a clown. I asked them to give me a bit of smokey eyes, cat-eye eyeliner and to lift my eyelashes before applying mascara. And I have to admit, my makeup looks absolutely stunning. My hair is left down in waves, only the sides of my head are braided to make sure my marks are visible. I am back in my room, and it is almost time to get ready for the ceremony. My dad is here to help me with my dress, and to have a much needed father and daughter moment. Normally a girl would do this with her mother, but my dad has to perform both roles. Not that he minds.
I am really anxious to see the dress, as Zeke and Zane had it designed for me, and I haven’t been allowed to see it yet. Luckily for them I am not a particularly fussy woman, and not too concerned with other people’s opinions of me. When I hear my dad gasp upon opening the bag of the dress, my anxiety flares however, I still don’t want to look like a clown. I can’t help but ask nervously “what?! What’s wrong?”. My dad doesn’t reply, and I feel my heartbeat picking up. I race across the room to the walk in closet where my dad is, and what catches my eyes takes my breath away.
Lola POV
Although I am usually not a fan of princess style ballgowns, the dress in front of me is drop dead f*cking gorgeous. It is nothing like any dress I have ever seen, it is out of this world. I feel my eyes tear up at how much thought Zeke and Zane put into this. The dress reflects my personality and preferences to a tee. It’s a ballgown princess style type of dress, with a tight body on top in a slight V neckline, accompanied with puffy shoulder straps. The body is a beautiful shade of yellow, completely covered with gorgeous black lace. As the dress continuous downward, the yellow of the body slowly fans out to the sides, leaving the middle of the bottom increasingly black. “Wow..” I breathe out unconsciously, while running my hands along the dress. I hear my father sniffling, and as I turn to look at him I see him wiping away a few tears from the corner of his eyes. I close the small distance and embrace him in a tight hug. We remain hugging for some time, before we hear a knock at the door. Right after I yell to come in, Xena comes walking through the closet doors. She looks at my dad with a twinkle in her eyes, before asking me “do you like the dress?”. “I LOVE the dress!” I gush. She smiles warmly at me, as does my dad, before she continues “OK, let’s get you ready, dear! It’s almost time”.
Xena, my dad and I get to work, and before I know it the dress is on, and I am stood before the mirror looking at my own reflection. For the first time in my life, I actually think I look beautiful. “I wonder how Zeke and Zane are going to react” I find myself whispering at my own reflection. My dad and Xena chuckle beside me, as Xena responds “I am pretty sure they will be as speechless as we are right now. You look breathtaking, dear”. I smile warmly at her, while grabbing her hand with mine, and using my other hand to grab my dad’s. “Let’s do this!” I exclaim. And with that, we head out the door with Xena up front, and my father beside me with my arm looped through his. “I am so proud of you honey” my father croaks out, and I can hear the emotion in his voice. I almost tear up, but I don’t want to ruin my makeup at the last minute now. “I love you, dad” “I love you too, honey”. As we get closer and closer towards the staircase, I can hear the murmurs of goddess know how many people. My anxiety begins to peek again, I am still not used to having all eyes on me. Especially not with this many people. We reach the top of the staircase and as I glance down, I am almost overwhelmed with the amount of people here. It must be thousands of people.
My breathing hitches, and my dad nudges me softly, while mind linking me ‘everything will be OK honey, I am right here’. His words don’t really ease my anxiety, but bless him for trying anyways. The murmurs die down completely upon seeing us, and I gulp anxiously. Everyone continues to stare at us and you could hear a pin drop right now. My anxiety is through the f*cking roof, my heart feels like it’s about to burst out of my chest, until I hear Zeke and Zane in my head ‘it’s alright baby, just look at us’ ‘filter everyone out, pretend it’s only us and your dad’. I take a deep breath and close my eyes, steadying myself. I feel the love and comfort from my mates through our bond, and it helps to soothe my anxiety thankfully. I open my eyes and focus on my gorgeous mates, who are standing at the far end of the hall in front of the most beautiful décor I have ever seen. There is a big arch full of black and yellow flowers, and I notice the entire hall has been decorated in the same color scheme. I feel my eyes tear up at how much thought they put into it, and how they have decorated everything according to my taste, even though it is a special day for them too. It warms my heart, and I couldn’t be happier about the decision I have made in accepting them as my mates.
My anxiety melts away completely when I take in their drop dead gorgeous appearance. I smile broadly when I see their black suits, accompanied with a yellow tie that matches my dress. All of a sudden I am eager to weave my way through the crowd to get to them, so I pull my dad forward. He looks at me surprised, but I just smile at him in return. I feel genuinely happy right now. As we pass through the crowd I see some familiar faces here and there. I wave at Alpha Culio, who is looking at me with a warm, genuine smile. I see Chris, Nadia, and even Jason. As we reach the end of the long *ss line, I see the royals from the other Kingdoms. The Fae, the witches and warlocks, and even the vampire prince. Well, King actually now. They all smile warmly, except for Felix, who mouths at me ‘not too late yet’, before grinning widely. I shake my head with a small smile. After the royal section comes the family section, and Damon and Xena come in to view. Zion is on the stage with Zeke and Zane, looking very smart in all black attire as well. Zeke and Zane walk up to me and grab one of my hands each, before guiding me onto the stage. As is tradition, the King will perform the ceremony. Zion smiles warmly at me, before addressing the crowd.
“Almost 2,5 years ago, a young woman stumbled upon our lands. When our guards arrived at the scene, this woman was rendering a rogue wolf unconscious, after effectively having incapacitated 4 other rogues single handedly already. All of this was being done, might I add, in her human form” Zion calls out to the crowd, as I see Zeke and Zane looking at me lovingly. I smile at each of them briefly, before turning my attention back to Zion. “My sons were lucky enough to be mated to this brave young woman, and I could not be happier to have her standing in front of me here today”. Zion smiles broadly at me, before continuing. “It is my absolute honor to perform this ceremony today, and officially welcome Lola into our family”. Zion grabs a silver knife, and slices his hand, before slicing my own. We then join hands, and my bond with him, as well as with the entire kingdom, snaps into place. I knew what to expect already, as my mates had explained everything to me beforehand. The process is then repeated with Zeke, Zane and my hand. This is more for show, as we are already bonded, and the ceremony doesn’t really add anything. “The ceremony part is now complete, please give your future Queen the warm welcome she deserves!” Zion booms out, and the crowd erupts in cheers and clapping. Well, most of the crowd that is. Call me paranoid, but even in a loving moment such as this, I am still on the lookout for threats. And I easily pick out those who aren’t clapping, or in general those whose energy feels off.
“Please allow our newly mated trio to acclimatize while you find your seats, before you are all allowed to offer your congratulations”. I am really not looking forward to shaking so many people’s hands and keeping a smile on my face the entire day, but I guess I will have to get used to that from now on. As the dragon Queen and Lycan Queen I am bound to receive some unwanted attention. Zeke and Zane both squeeze my hands gently. As I stare at their beautiful, loving faces, I am reminded that all I need in days like these is them and my family. We walk hand in hand towards our table, where my family and theirs are already seated. And to my pleasant surprise, Nadia is also seated at our table, next to Damon. The mood at the table is informal and relaxed, and of course Damon teases me relentlessly about wearing a princess style ballgown. Me, “the badass dragon Queen that bites”, as he calls it. My stomach grumbles when I see the waiters bringing in plates of food, I was really hungry as I haven’t eaten much today after the sandwich incident. They are serving a delicious looking steak, and I can’t wait to sink my teeth into it. But, as the waiter is setting my plate down in front of me, I smell the same vile odor I smelled this morning, and I instantly feel the need to gag again. Zeke and Zane notice my discomfort, and pull me up to my feet and away from our table graciously. I hear Zane explain to the table “sorry, we want a minute with our mate”. As we round the corner Zeke wraps his arms around my waist, as I breathe in deeply. “What’s wrong baby?” Zeke cups my cheek, while looking at me pleadingly. “I think.. I think someone might be trying to poison me. My food smells really vile, it’s making me want to gag. I had the same thing this morning, when your mom brought a sandwich for breakfast that was prepared by the kitchen staff”.