The moon descended in its glorious form, and all other sky objects were beclouded. The jungle roared only with the melodious beats that followed the rhythm of Lyne's heart as she stared at herself in the mirror in the room where she sat to dress up.
Outside on the lawn, the wedding ceremony was going on. By the right-hand side close to the palace, the royal siblings all sat in their beautiful clothing while their father sat on the throne, his face held a sly smile like a fox that had just caught its prey.
On the other side, some guards stood, watching the whole activity. Beside them, the drummers sat. In front of the palace itself, there was an entrance temporarily made, covered with a thick golden curtain that indicated where the bride would come in. While a red carpet of six feet in length was spread in front of the entrance, Zeidan stood at the other end, expecting his bride. Beside him Akeila stood, holding a scroll in her hand.
"We welcome you all to this glorious..." Akeila stopped, looking around. She muttered under her breath. "Looks more like a funeral to me than a wedding ceremony."
"I can hear that." Zeidan leaned to her side and whispered which caused the old woman to gasp and continue.
"Of course, we welcome you all to this glorious wedding. As soon as the drum rolls, we shall call on our bride. But first, we want to let you all know that getting married has been in existence since our fathers..."
Akeila kept preaching and Zeidan was getting bored, so he decided to play a little by getting into the old woman's head again.
While she was talking, he leaned in again. "You can speed up this moment since you're getting bored of reading the same old thing over and over at every wedding so, you can go and play with your grandchildren."
"Holy shit! Where are you from?" Akeila yelled at him, causing everyone to frown.
"What's going on?" Styx asked.
"Nothing!" Akeila and Zeidan chorused.
"Very well then, let's invite the bride." Korba chipped in.
"Our amiable future Queen of...of uh..." The drums kept rolling, everyone expecting her to complete her call so Lyne could enter but the next words seemed to disgust her.
"The Queen of Vampire City?"
She looked at the man beside her from the corner of her eyes but he didn't seem to worry about her. He was waiting eagerly for his bride to come out.
The drums kept rolling and two guards on each side of the curtain parted the fabric and Lyne stepped outside.
Zeidan stopped breathing for a few seconds, looking at her from head to toe. Her golden hair now curled was designed with pearls and silver jewelry to symbolize her royalty. She wore a thick silk scarf around her breast, leaving her stomach and shoulders bare, and he could see her soft neck from afar. Her lips were painted red with her long skirt slit by the side long enough to reveal beautiful legs.
Walking up to his side, he couldn't help but smile at his perfect bride. If only she could see it. The drums stopped and the wind was picking up already. Lyne looked worried as she kept looking at the ground, visibly shivering. Zeidan couldn't tell whether it was because of the cold or her nervousness. He respected her and made no attempt to read her thoughts.
"It's time to change."
Lyne's heart did a triple somersault. This was the part she wished they would skip. She raised her face to look at her siblings as they all stood up, their faces holding mockery.
"It's ok," she heard Zeidan whisper as he squeezed her hand slightly and assuringly.
"I'm not a wolf either. We're the only freaks here."
Lyne chuckled, now relieved as they all started shifting into big animals and were howling, their noses raised to the sky.
Hands locked together, Zeidan and Lyne watched them all move about chanting and walking around them. Some of the wolves gritted and flashed their fangs at Zeidan as if trying to scare him. He looked at Reb who tried to do the same thing, but things turned out different when Zeidan slightly changed his eyes to black, causing the little kid to flinch.
The rain had started to drizzle, but their hands were still locked together. As they kept walking around, making threatening noises and their grunts mocking Lyne, her lips began to tremble. She couldn't take it anymore. Watching her siblings flaunt their powers to her face. Her eyes had turned red and she almost cried but something she never would have expected happened.
Zeidan pulled her arms so she could face him and grabbed her face so he could kiss her. Their lips crushed as the rain fell on them, trouble walking around them, and leaving all the insanity behind. Maybe, just maybe, this was what living with this man would look like.
She placed her hand on his chest and gave in to his kiss. She knew now that his lips were irresistible, no matter how hard she tried to fight it. His hand slid up to her bare waist and she shivered at his warm and gentle touch.
Just while they were deep in their blissful moment, a knife swooshed at them.