Chapter 184
Ellie POV
My mother rushed past me like I wasn’t even there.
For a moment, I just stood frozen, watching the hem of her deep purple gown sweep across the floor as she dropped to her knees beside Vivian, her white-gloved hands hovering helplessly over Vivian’s cheek, which was already swelling an ugly, angry red beneath the smear of blood.
“Vivian,” she breathed, helping Vivian to her feet. “Oh, gods, sweetheart… what happened to you?” Vivian sniffled, giving me a dirty look, but said nothing. My mother stared at me in shock, then looked down, and gasped.
I dropped my gaze without meaning to, and that was when I saw it.
Blood.
It spread across the pale fabric on me in slow, uneven blooms, soaking into the delicate stitching Mom had spent weeks stitching as a young wolf.
My fingers lifted, trembling slightly as I touched the edge of the stain, as if I could undo it by being gentle enough.
My mother’s dress… ruined.
I regretted that more than anything else. But my mother made no move toward me. She just stood there, holding Vivian like she was the most precious thing in the world.
The music grew louder, waiting for me.
My mother was still staring, Vivian still leaning heavily on her.
Without a word, I turned and walked toward the chapel.
“Wait-Ellie!” my mom called out, but I didn’t look back.
I had a wedding to get to, and I was going to find no sympathy here.
Dominic’s POV
The music had been playing for a bit before the doors open.
Everyone was getting antsy.
Including myself.
The sound settled into my bones, into the hollow space behind my ribs that hadn’t felt steady since that morning, since last night, or since leaving her side.
I stood at the front of the aisle, shoulders squared, hands clasped behind my back so no one saw the restless flex of my fingers.
If only I didn’t feel like a man waiting for a verdict.
The guests shifted in their seats behind me, silk whispering against silk, jewelry clinking softly as heads turned toward the doors in anticipation.
She’ll come.
She will.
It’s fine.
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Still, my pulse betrayed me, ticking faster, harder, every beat echoing in the quiet space beneath the music.
When the the doors finally began to open, I almost felt a flash of relief shower me.
The light spilled through first.
The breath left my lungs so abruptly it almost hurt. Ellie entered the room and stood there for a moment. A gasp rippled across the crowd as the light caught the red stain on her dress. But she didn’t stand there for long. She lifted her chin, eyes glinting, and walked up the aisle.
She never stopped looking at me the whole time.
Her opal eyes caught the sunlight pouring down from the ceiling, and for a second it felt like the entire room disappeared, like the sound, the people, the ceremony, all of it fell away until there was nothing left but that look.
Something inside my chest loosened.
All the anger I carried. All the frustration. All the helpless, useless rage that had nowhere to go but inward.
Gone.
Stripped clean in an instant I hadn’t prepared for.
She looked like home, even with a crimson stain on her wedding gown.
Ellie hesitated only briefly before placing her hand in my waiting one.
Her fingers were warm.
Softer than I remember.
I closed my hand around hers automatically, steadying her as she stepped up beside me, aware of how easily I could pull her closer if I let myself.
“Your dress,” I murmured quietly to her ear, keeping my voice low enough that only she can hear.
She didn’t respond. Just turned toward the elder and waited. My chest cracked.
Ellie’s POV
The world narrowed to the space between us.
Not the crowd. Not the glass ceiling arching overhead like the inside of a sunlit cathedral. Not the hundreds of eyes watching, waiting, measuring. Just him.
And his hand in mine.
Elder Kinder stood before us, his silver hair pulled back at the nape of his neck, robes heavy with embroidered moons that catch the light each time he moves. He smelled faintly of sage and smoke, like every ceremony I have ever attended.
I could feel it. My hands were sweaty. I tried not to glance down at the stain on my dress, which was rapidly darkening with oxidation. It was almost ironic, how fitting the stain was for such a day.
“Today,” The Elder began, his voice carrying effortlessly across the chamber, old and steady, “we stand before the Moon Goddess and witness not the joining of two strangers, but the recognition of two souls who have found each other again.”
Again.
My brow furrowed, glancing at the old man.
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He winked.
What the-?
“Alpha Dominic.” He turned. “Do you take Ellie to be your lawfully wedded wife? To hold forever, like the night sky holds the moon in its palm, and tie your souls with a thread of fate?”
“I do.” Dominic looked at me. Something in his gaze flickered. “I vow that my presence will always heal you, so long as we are together.” His voice was calm and even. Certain.
My heart fluttered traitorously.
“Miss Ellie.” The elder turned to me then. “Do you take Alpha Dominic to be your lawfully wedded husband? To have forever, beneath the Moon Goddess’s embrace, until the threads of fate rejoin her in her eternal kingdom?”
My throat tightened.
I’d done this before. My last vows to Dominic, I was a blubbering mess. Tears everywhere, I could hardly get through them.
I wanted nothing more back then to be his. Thanking him, the gods, everyone for the chance.
I lifted my chin, forcing myself to meet Dominic’s eyes.
“I…” My voice faltered.
The crowd rippled a bit and it felt like too much pressure all at once.
I swallowed and tried again.
“I do.”
The words came out in a single breath. And before I could think straight, before I could process what I’d just done, the crowd erupted around us, cheers and applause crashing like waves against the stone walls as flowers began to fall from the ceiling above, drifting down in pale petals that catch in my hair, on my shoulders, at our feet.
“All hail,” Elder Kinder called, his voice rising above the celebration, “Alpha Dominic and Luna Ellie of the Iverlons Clan.”
Dominic didn’t pull away immediately.
Neither did I.
Because for a moment, I let myself pretend this was my first. That there wasn’t blood on my dress and everything else didn’t happen and we were just… in love.
But I didn’t cry. I refused.
My arms wrapped around him as he lifted me into a princess hold, kissing me deeper as the cheers roared.
Gods, I wished this was the first.
Dominic set me down gently, and before I could react, leaned down close to my ear.
“You wanna tell me why you have a dagger strapped to your thigh?” he whispered.
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