Leader of the Pack (61 page)

“I just have one thing to get,” Cullen said and walked over to the bag of clothing he’d brought in from the car.

As if on cue, there was a knock on the door, it opened, and Sarah and Drake walked in. Drake was dressed exactly like Cullen and Cadifor. Sarah wore a black silky black dress which clung perfectly to her curves. A small clip held her hair up and a few loose curls hung around her face. She carried a duffle bag over one shoulder, and she walked into the room with a serious determined look on her face. Sarah always seemed to be on a mission. Drake stood, watching her with adoration in his eyes and his hands in his pockets as she began to pull things out of the bag. Cullen walked over to Sarah and left a small black box with her. Then he looked up and smiled at Aislinn.

Makeda shooed the men out the door impatiently, before joining Sarah in looking over the things in the bag. Curiosity pulled Aislinn up behind them, and she tried to peek around them. “What are the two of you up to?”

“We’re getting you ready for the ceremony,” Sarah said, smiling over her shoulder at Aislinn.

“I thought I was supposed to be naked and on display,” Aislinn said wryly. What she’d seen of Jenna’s mating involved nearly everyone being naked. She scowled as she remembered watching Cullen get a blow job from Jenna.

Sarah turned around, raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms. “That’s fine too. If you just want to get undressed now and walk around like that all night I won’t stop you. No one around here will think anything of it. You’re the one I thought was modest.”

Makeda chuckled at that and gave Aislinn a knowing look. “She’s not so modest when given the correct motivation,” Makeda said, and stroked Aislinn’s arm as she went over to her own bag to pull out a beautiful black lace dress covered in delicate flowers woven on with golden threads. It was nearly see through. Upon a short inspection of the beautiful garment Makeda began shedding clothes.

Aislinn looked at Sarah with embarrassment, and Sarah laughed. “Why wasn’t I invited?”

Makeda smiled over her shoulder at Sarah. “We’ve time now,” she suggested in a teasing tone. “Especially if Aislinn doesn’t want to dress for the evening. I tell you what,” her eyes brightened and a golden swirl showed in their depths, “I’ll not-dress with you.” She tossed the dress on the bed as if it were a rag and stood there proudly naked in front of the other two women.

Aislinn’s face fell instantly. “Alright I’ll be cooperative,” she pouted and began examining the things Sarah unloaded from the bag. “You didn’t tell me about this.”

Sarah started to grumble. “You spend too much time worrying about the small details. You can’t expect me to be able to educate you on all the things that people start learning as children. I’m not that good. I never remember everything that we do different from humans. Besides. This is relatively similar to a normal wedding. You, the bride or whatever, has to dress for the party. I told you about the parts that I thought you were concerned with.”

“Sorry,” Aislinn said. “I don’t mean to be a pain. I’m just nervous.”

Scowling at Sarah, Makeda came up behind Aislinn, setting a hand on Aislinn’s shoulder reassuringly. “It’s your mating ceremony. It’s your prerogative to be a pain.”

Sarah smiled again. “Come on. It won’t be as bad as you think. I have to admit; when Cullen first started things with you I truly didn’t think it was a good idea. There you were, this headstrong non-lycan with weird connections to problems. But, you are a good match for him. It’s obvious when anyone looks at you. Just think about him and don’t worry about who’s watching. You’ll be fine.”

Aislinn took a deep breath. “Alright. What do you need me to wear?”

Sarah went back to pulling things out of the bag, and Makeda went over to the bed to retrieve her own dress. Sarah produced a long black silk dress. It was incredibly simple. The front was a halter that would leave Aislinn’s back completely bare. It dipped low enough in the back that Aislinn was afraid it might not manage to cover her butt completely. The dress would fall all the way to the floor and pool just a bit at Aislinn’s feet. She began to undress so that she could pull the dress on.

“Don’t go so fast. First your hair and make-up,” Sarah said and ushered her over to the edge of the bed. Sarah and Makeda each grabbed makeup and hairbrush respectively, causing Aislinn to grumble a bit more as the women proceeded to fuss over her.

“This is ridiculous. I don’t wear makeup like this,” she groused. “He’s just going to mess it up anyway.”

“You said you were going to cooperate,” Sarah warned.

Aislinn growled in response, and the other two women laughed. After some time, they were satisfied with her face and her hair. Aislinn managed to convince them to leave it down. “It’s either a pony tail or long. My hair won’t stay up in twists or whatever else you want to do to it.”

They let her win that one. Aislinn allowed a curling iron, but ultimately her hair lay in long brown waves down her back. When they stepped back and gave her a satisfied look, Aislinn got up and went after the dress again.

“Don’t put it on yet.” Sarah held up the box that Cullen gave her before he had left. “Cullen picked these out for you,” she smiled. “Let’s see if he has any taste,” she added as she held out the black velvet box.

Aislinn’s stomach fluttered a bit. He’d never given her a present before. She wished he had given it to her himself instead of leaving it with Sarah. She opened the lid on the black box to see a great deal of white gold and diamonds.

“They’re beautiful,” Aislinn said in awe, breathing again.

Sarah made Aislinn put the box down so that she could help her put the jewelry on. There were quite a few pieces. They were all made of heavy, loose fitting, white gold rope chains that had diamonds dangling from different lengths of smaller delicate chains. It looked almost as if it was raining diamonds from the heavy chain. There was one for her ankle, one to wear around her waist, and one for around her neck. There were barrettes for her hair as well. That resulted in a great deal more fussing. They were all fitted loosely enough that they wouldn’t be broken when Aislinn shifted into her hybrid form.

“It’s considered bad luck,” Sarah explained. “Not to mention it would really suck to mess this set up.” She held up her skirt so that Aislinn could see the golden chain around her ankle. It was simple and very pretty. “Drake bought this one for me when we were mated. He didn’t quite have the resources that Cullen does though.”

Aislinn looked at herself in the mirror. The effect was stunning. Light danced off the diamonds, sending white dots of refracted light around the room. Her heart was beating a mile a minute. Both Sarah and Makeda could see her nerves failing her again. The jewelry scared her.
I’m not really in his league,
she thought.
I can be dressed up. But this isn’t me.
Aislinn felt a strange calm from the back of her mind reassuring her.

Cullen,
she asked him.
Are you sure you want me? I mean. This is so much.

Cullen was talking to a small group of men he had just been introduced to. Taking a sip from his drink, he tried to send Aislinn as much reassurance as he could.
Calm down. It’s a little late for you to change your mind. That conversation should have taken place before the last time we were here.

Aislinn could feel how amused he was that she was this nervous.
Cullen,
she started, but didn’t even know what she was thinking.

He answered something that someone asked him, but it wasn’t quite the right answer. He cleared his throat and took another drink out of his cup, looking around the room so he wouldn’t have to participate in the conversation he should be having.
My love, I want you more than I could ever say in words. And I hope you want me. You don’t have to come down here. I know I’m asking a lot of you in this and I didn’t even really discuss the situation with you. It’s up to you.
Cullen’s worry shifted at that point from the possibility of Jenna’s attack to the reality that Aislinn was just nervous enough to bolt.

Aislinn could feel his entire train of thought shift from Jenna and how the woman dominated his mind for days now to being scared to death that she was going to leave him, that he pushed too much on her in too little time, and that she didn’t want him enough to be capable of putting up with his life.
I’m not going anywhere. I love you too much for that
, she told him. Still she could tell that her reassurance didn’t help his new upset. He wasn’t sure he believed her. Aislinn decided that she needed to hurry.

Makeda and Sarah could see the vague distance in her eyes and knew she was having a private conversation. From the look on her face, it was serious enough to leave her be until it was over.

Suddenly Aislinn’s vision seemed to clear, and a new resolve over-took her features. “Are we almost done?”

“Yeah,” Sarah said. “Are you okay?”

Aislinn took a deep breath. “No. But I will be. I want to go down and see Cullen. You guys don’t do that bride before the wedding bullshit do you?”

“No,” Sarah said, concern by the new tone in Aislinn’s.

“So then I can put the dress on now?”

“Yeah.”

Sarah and Makeda exchanged concerned glances, but helped her put the dress on over her hair and jewelry so that it wouldn’t be caught. The black silk clung to her hips and breasts and any other body part that curved. Aislinn looked herself over in the mirror. The halter dipped low between her breasts in front and just grazed the sides. The skirt clung to her hips and legs and flared past her knees to pool on the floor about her feet. She walked away from the mirror a bit, and then turned to look at her back in the mirror. There were a few folds of the dress that sat just above her butt and left her entire back and lower back bare, except for the white gold and diamonds. She had to admit it was impressive.

“It’s too bad I’m not better at controlling my shifting,” she said softly.

Makeda was confused by that. “What?”

“I’ve only been able to do it a short time. I’m not very good at it. Cullen likes the stripes and spots. I’ve seen him just change parts. So I guess I was thinking it’s a shame that I couldn’t just have the markings, bare back and all. Thing is, I don’t really want to do the cat thing yet and it’s pretty much an all or nothing process with me.”

Makeda grinned. “I didn’t know you had stripes. I’ve only seen parts of you in lighted rooms,” she chuckled.

Aislinn couldn’t help but smile at that. And the women got another amused look from Sarah.

“I agree. That would definitely add to the affect,” Sarah said. “But unfortunately it really is a learning process. I don’t think I’m able to just tell you how.” She held out one hand and shifted it to a clawed paw then back again. “It’s not easy to describe,” she said contemplatively.

Aislinn walked over to Sarah and hugged her. Sarah didn’t know exactly how to react. When Aislinn let her go she looked at the surprised woman. “I just wanted to say thanks.”

Sarah smiled back. “Well, I think we’re ready then. Would you like to make an entrance or just appear in the crowd?”

“I’m not the entrance making type.”

Makeda shook her head. “Oh but you could be.” Makeda was eying Aislinn wantonly. “Too bad,” she sighed, “you’re not for me tonight.” Grinned wickedly, she walked to the door. “We’ll go with you. Are you ready?”

Aislinn nodded and reached down to pick up the front of her skirt. The three women walked across the balcony and down the large staircase that descended to the main room. Sarah and Makeda walked just behind and beside Aislinn. There were enough people coming and going on the staircase at that moment that no one in the main room noticed the group as being any different from the rest of the crowd. There were quite a few beautiful women in the cabin that night.

Aislinn looked over the gathered people in the room below them. There were very few people who weren’t dressed in black. Even the druids were in suits or gowns. The women who weren’t in black were obviously trying to draw attention. There was a red-head in a fire red dress, surrounded by numerous men.

Makeda laughed and pointed to the woman over the rail of the staircase. “I’ll not tell you her name, so that when you do meet her you’ll be able to say honestly you’ve not heard of her. That will drive her crazy. Be sure to mention knowing me during the conversation.” Makeda’s eyes sparkled mischievously. It was strange, but that little joke was enough to make Aislinn feel much better. Perhaps it wasn’t as scary out here as she thought it would be.

Cullen and Cadifor were talking with a small group of alphas from outside of Cadifor’s territory. Cullen was doing his best to look like he was enjoying himself. The last twenty minutes had been pure misery. He wasn’t sure if Aislinn would be joining them or not.

Makeda and Sarah were pleased and impressed to see that even if Aislinn was upset she was managing to look every bit the part of alpha mate. It was an important skill that not everyone could manage, bottling feelings when appropriate for appearances.

Aislinn felt guilty for having upset him so badly. She led the way through the people in the main room. Heads turned as members of the pack recognized them and pointed them out to others who didn’t know Aislinn.

Cadifor saw them before Cullen did. When Aislinn’s eyes met Cadifor’s he bowed his head to her slowly, as if he was mesmerized. Cullen and every other alpha in the group turned to see what or who had earned that great of a compliment from Cadifor.