Even now, after I’d just told him I didn’t need his permission to go off into the woods for an undetermined amount of time and we’d argued, he still looked at me like I was the love of his life. I wished I had my camera to capture all of Sawyer’s looks, because this one, it was so tender, so endearing, I wanted to memorize it forever. I brushed my finger over his knuckles and he grinned.
Astra took our clasped hands in hers and then bowed her head. “Dear Father, thank you for bringing these two souls together in the name of true love. May they be blessed in all that they do together. May they be quick to love and slow to anger. May their children be healthy and carefree and may their love only deepen over time.”
She looked up from her prayer at me and I had to blink back tears. Sawyer looked misty-eyed as well. It was perfect. The perfect thing to say.
“Is there anything you would like to say before I read the curse testing spell?” Astra asked us.
I nodded, turning to Sawyer. “Sawyer, I think the thing I love most about you is how you love me.” He grinned and I went on. “You support everything I want to do, even if it drives you crazy, and that speaks volumes about your character and the kind of man and leader you are. And you’re not awful to look at either.”
His grin grew wider as Sage, Walsh, and those listening chuckled.
“I just hope that I can be worthy of that kind of pure love. My wish is to be your equal and continue to push our love to the edges of the universe over the years as we grow old together.”
I looked at Astra to indicate that I was done.
Astra smiled. “Sawyer?”
Sawyer nodded, his dark locks falling into his eyes as he did. “Demi, I am helpless to do anything but support you even when your ideas are crazy.” Everyone chuckled. “There is no world where I would deny you anything, even my own beating heart. You fulfil this need in me that I didn’t even know I had. You were the glue that mended a tear that I wasn’t aware was there until the moment I laid eyes on you.”
Tears softly rolled down my cheeks as he let my hands go and cupped my chin, his gaze burning into the very depths of my soul.
“I promise to continue to love you with an intensity that matches this fierce protectiveness I feel over you. I will protect you, your dreams, and our future family with every fiber of my being, both as man and wolf.” His eyes flashed yellow at that, and I leaned my forehead against his, letting the tears fall down my face.
Astra cleared her throat. “Demi Calloway and Sawyer Hudson, do you both wish to take the other as your lawful spouse and true mate?” Her voice was thick with emotion.
“I do,” Sawyer and I said in unison.
Astra nodded, pulling a folded piece of parchment from the top of her book. I had seen Sawyer handing it to her earlier and knew the curse was about to be tested.
Bring it on.
“Then I test this curse on the Hudson family,” Astra said loudly for all surrounding us to hear, “and declare you both as man and wife. Sawyer, you may kiss your bride.” Astra folded the paper and looked at us expectantly.
My heart hammered in my ears as the smell of hot wires filtered through the air.
Magic.
Sawyer’s face lit up with an orangish glow as his skin seemed to radiate like the sun. I could feel the heat from here as he leaned into me. Did he fear kissing me? Testing this curse? Or did he know as assuredly that I did that my love for him was true?
As if in answer to my internal question, he reached up with confidence and grasped the sides of my face, pulling my mouth to meet his. Our lips touched and the searing heat of Sawyer’s skin pierced right through me, sending an electric jolt down my spine and into my toes. There was a popping noise, and then everything went black.
“Demi!” Sawyer shook me as I peered up at him from the ground. A high-pitched whine rang in my ears as I shook my head. Sawyer’s skin was covered in black soot like he’d been burned.
“Were we bombed?” I looked around, but everyone else seemed fine. In fact, they were all staring at us with furrowed brows.
Oh God. The curse.
“Are you dead?” I queried. Had I somehow killed us both?
Sawyer hauled me up to a standing position and glared at one of the defector witches, who had stepped over to help us.
“What happened?” he growled. “She loves me. I know it. Our love is true.”
The witch sniffed the air and at the same time I smelled it too. Sulphur and … something sour like curdled milk.
“Broken curse…” the witch mumbled.
“What?” Sawyer pressed her.
She shook her head. “I know that smell. It’s the smell of a broken curse.”
Sawyer and I looked at each other, dumbfounded. Was breaking the curse even an option?
He must have clued Sage in, because she didn’t look confused about why we were talking about curses.
“Of course!” Sage snapped her fingers. “A city wolf Alpha just married a half Paladin. Surely that would break a curse meant to tear apart our two packs?”
Astra threw her arms up to the sky. “Praise the Father!” she yelled, and in that moment a tiny sprinkle of rain fell from the sky. At first I thought she’d spit on me with her yelling, but slowly, a misty rain started to fall over us.
Sawyer grinned and then laughed. “It’s broken? Our children won’t have to worry?” His arms came around me and then I was hauled into the air as he spun me in a circle. Who knew that our love would be strong enough to break a centuries-old curse?
The warriors erupted into quiet cheers, and for a second I forgot about the war, about the fact that in a little while I needed to go away and leave Sawyer. Instead, I just let this be my wedding day and I reveled in the happiness of this moment.
Then a bomb went off. Literally. The air cracked with a loud boom as the ground shook, and Sawyer tucked me into him, throwing his body over mine protectively. A nearby tree ripped from the ground just outside the fence as light flared in the small space and clods of dirt were thrown into our group.
They missed hitting us. The witches’ fence seemed to have held, but I wasn’t going to bank on it a second time.
“We need to move!” Dreadlocks screamed, and everyone scrambled, running into the building and coming out with duffle bags and equipment.
Sage tossed her bouquet on the ground and picked up a gun as the captain stepped over to Sawyer’s side. Rab and Astra and the men I had brought fanned out behind me, waiting for my direction.
“Sir,” the captain said, “I think it’s time to initiate plan B. They are on us and we’ve lost too many men.”
Sawyer frowned. “I’m not ready to give up, hand them our territory, our homes, our farms on a silver platter.”
The captain looked at me. “Maybe if she were to give herself up, we could—”
“Shut up!” Sawyer launched forward and clasped his hand around the dude’s mouth.
I frowned. What the hell was he doing, and what did the guy mean give myself up? Sawyer was the one wanted for murder. Sawyer was the one who started this whole war.
The soldiers nearest them stepped in to break them apart, prying Sawyer off of the captain. “At least tell her!” the captain yelled. “Tell her this is all because of her. That she could stop it.”