A human marriage?

Remember to look at his face, remember to make eye contact.

I kept chanting this mantra to myself as I reached the final few steps, after those, it was a short walk until we reach the front gate where the proud Alpha stood waiting. I knew I was surely in his werewolf line of vision when I felt his burning gaze on me.

Knowing too well what was rubbing him the wrong way, I feigned ignorance and kept my eyes straight, focusing on nothing in particular. I did not want to switch to my crimson eyes… It was something that I tried to avoid at all costs.

Crimson eyes were able to zoom in on objects, every one knew that. And right now, the last thing I wanted was for the proud Alpha to think that I was too anxious to see him, enough for my eyes to beat my legs to him.

"Hmph," I scoffed out loud at that thought. The guards that held my hands were trained well enough to hold their bodies still.

When the Alpha finally came into my view behind the widely opened gate, my mantra was long forgotten.

I was having two firsts at the same time.

I had seen two-dimensional photos in magazines or actors on television of course, but this was the first time I was seeing a man in a tuxedo standing live in front of me. It was also the first time I was seeing my once childhood friend in formal attire.

Can a tuxedo and four years change somebody that much?

I already knew exactly how tall he was, but the color black that he never wore before gave him an air of mystery. Connor came across as slender, his broad shoulders gave him this V-shaped type of body that human magazines had a lot to say about. and his face… the face that looked very expressive right now because of the scowl, the visible shaking, and the abnormally red shade… all that was in the forefront.

I finally remembered my mantra about making eye contact. This was a very important part that I shouldn't neglect like this. It was how Alphas decided the other person's level on the dominance scale with one glance only.

I gathered every ounce of confidence I had inside of me and summoned my pureblood's pride in one go. Then I finally looked at his eyes.

His eyes were not on mine. They were staring at my right hand, only to switch to my left, stare some more, and so on.

I couldn't help the small smile on my face. But my passive resistance had finally reached its limit. I would never start a diplomatic crisis because of something that should be so obvious and then end up taking the blame for it.

No. I was not going to hand them rocks on a silver platter for them to throw at me. This was simply what he got for not waiting for me inside of the mansion. I was not going to drag this behavior further. My point was taken anyhow.

I stopped walking and gave him an exaggerated show of slipping my gloved fingers out of the guards' grip. It was not at all an indication of fear because of the hole he was trying to burn through my hands with his eyes. It was — by all means — done by my own choice and my own timing.

"Thank you, gentlemen," I held my head up high and walked when his hard green eyes finally met my gaze, I found myself mirroring his hardness. My mind was preoccupied as it was, for I felt another set of eyes burning a hole in my back now, my body would know whose eyes that gaze belonged to even if I was blindfolded. I did not need to look back.

I did not owe the man that was letting me go a final glance of goodbye.

I was the pureblood queen to be until that one step I took before reaching the gate, and I became the Turner's pack Luna to be with that one step I took after passing by the gate.

But where was Emma? That question loomed over my head like an axe that was barely hanging by an invisible thread there.

I only stopped when there was one step left between the Alpha and me. It was his cue to greet the female that just came all this way to meet him here, regardless of his manners. Or the lack of them.

"Take your gloves off," his rough voice was only matched by his rough words.

I saw this one coming.

"It is not appropriate t-"

"I don't have to put up with this anymore," he cut me off mid-sentence, then closed the distance between us and ungloved both of my hands that I had folded across the front of my dress over the veil. I watched as his hand shook while it clutched both of my poor gloves as if to squeeze the life out of them, his face and his torso shook too.

I wasn't the least bit intimidated.

"Are you done now?" I said in a calm soft voice. Hoping that this was his turn not to drag this incident any further by say… throwing my gloves on the ground dramatically? That would be a terrible turn of events and I wouldn't be able to take it lightly, his overall demeanor certainly indicated that it was heading that way.

I was pleasantly surprised when he took a deep breath, then placed both gloves in the side pockets of his trousers. He extended his hand my way and gave me a look that dared me to defy him.

"Your hand, princess," he said.

I closed my eyes, not wanting to hear that title outside the gates of the mansion anymore. When I opened them, I tried to give him a stoic face.

"Emma," I corrected.

He blinked twice, but that was all the reaction he gave me, "Your hand," he said, leaving the former title out of the request this time.

I placed my bare hand in his, startled by the breath that hissed through his clenched teeth when he inhaled through his mouth. We walked to the very red Jeep that he had parked in front of the mansion, there was someone already seated in the driver's seat. Connor opened the door for me and then helped me get my dress inside, he closed the door.

"Hello," I said, compelled to greet first because I was the one coming inside the car that the werewolf was already in. He just nodded, I saw through the rearview mirror how he kept his eyes straight, not looking at me.

Connor had made it to the other side now, he opened the door and got in then closed it, sitting next to me. The engine came to life immediately, and just like that, we drove away from everything that I ever identified myself by.

I kept my eyes closed for a while under the veil, not daring to open them to the new scenery, anticipating the green forest that will stretch for miles in front and miles behind me. I might have even dozed off for a long time because when I opened my eyes again, something was off.

"You're going the wrong way," I said to the driver.

"No, we're not," Connor said then paused. "…This is the right way to a courthouse,"

"Courthouse?" I asked, looking at him while he continued to stare at the driver's seat as if it was extremely interesting.

"Yes," his voice was soft this time. My eyes glided down over his tuxedo, and from there, I really looked at my wedding dress for the first time.

"Are we having a human wedding?" my tone was just a bit too high.

"We're having a civil ceremony at first, yes,"

I frowned "Why?"

"I will hold a werewolf ceremony for you later..."

This wasn't my question.

"Why would we need to have two ceremonies?"

"…Because I am a lawyer," he said after a moment too long.

Then it all clicked.

"So, you're postponing the werewolf ceremony until your pack members agree to attend when you invite them?" I raised one eyebrow by the end of that question.

He got really angry, really fast.

"Do you doubt my dominance over my pack?" His voice was low and dangerous.

I hated it. He couldn't fire empty threats at me.

"Last time I checked, it was your father's pack," I said as calmly as possible.

He looked like he was about to burst a vein.

"Well Last time I checked, you were someone who minds their manners!"

That was a hit too low. After all the struggle to keep myself composed and dignified throughout all the amount of ridiculousness that took place around me.

"Since we are both checking on things, let us check if marriage truly kills love, as they say, maybe then you would not have to put up with me and my bad manners, Alpha,"

He became so calm all of a sudden.

"You compare my bond… to love?"

Oh, no.

"... Of course not. I wouldn't dare. Something like human love comes with conviction, it is not forced down one's throat like a bond,"

His face brightened up like the sun that peaks from behind the clouds of a rainy day.

When I flinched back. He wiped that expression off his face and the car stopped at the same time.

"Wait here until I make sure that everything is set inside," he ordered.

"I'll come with you," I suggested.

"Wait here, please,"

"Why!" I wanted to go down too.

"BECAUSE…Because you will attract too much attention," he got out and closed the door.

I swallowed down my pain, if he didn't like the way people reacted to my appearance then he really shouldn't have claimed me as his mate. I was never scolded before in my life like this…

"That's a first," I murmured to myself.

"Tell me about it ... I've never heard him say 'please' before in my entire life," the man behind the steering wheel said.

"…I was talking about the rest," I argued.

"Oh... Well... Connor is a bit conflicted; he really likes the Lunas dress on you, but he doesn't want others to look at the same time…"

I glanced down at the dress I was wearing again, seeing it with brand new eyes this time.

"A human marriage..."

The idea was not the worst one in the world.