GODS AND MONSTERS ↝ P. LAHOTE

[33]

"Well, by the power vested in me by the state of Washington, I now pronounce you husband and wife." Billy said proudly to Sam and Emily, who stood in front of the council elder, holding hands and beaming at one another. "Sam, you may kiss the bride."

"Gladly," Sam said, pulling Emily into his arms and kissing her, and the crowd burst into cheers and hoots as the wedding guests applauded the newly married couple. 

Behind Sam stood each of his brothers, leading the loudest of the cheers, especially from Paul, Jared, and Embry. Behind Emily stood her cousins, Leonora and Leah included, and in the front row, Lark sat next to Alicia, cheering on their friends. To Lark's surprise, Leah seemed happy for the new couple, though she could hardly imagine what she must be feeling on the inside as she watched Sam and Emily walk back together down the aisle. But she'd finally been able to accept that they were happy together, and was beginning her journey of moving on, and Lark couldn't have been happier for her.

Despite the groom and half of the bridal party being able to withstand the dropping temperatures as winter began to settle over the state of Washington, the reception had been set inside for all of their non-supernatural guests, and the Pack, along with Sue, had spent the past weeks cleaning out Jacob and Billy's garage, decorating it to be a perfect venue for that night's event, as Lark noticed when she stepped inside that evening. Candles were placed at each table, along with the pressed floral centerpieces Lark, Alicia, Leonora, Sue, and Emily had spent the weekend making the month before, and purple streamers hung from the rafters.

"Alright, alright," a voice boomed from the speakers as the reception dinner had gone underway, and Lark looked up at the head table to see Jared brandishing a microphone, a goofy grin on his face. "For those of you who don't know me, I'm Jared Cameron, and I have the honor of being your best man for the evening."

"Here we go," Lark muttered to Alicia, chuckling softly as Jared launched into his speech.

"Sometimes you meet a couple, and something in you just knows that these two are right for each other. That was Sam and Emily. From the moment he first laid eyes on her, he knew that he'd never look away, and he made sure we all knew it, too. Sure, things weren't always easy for them, but they had one thing along the way: each other."

"Aww," Alicia cooed as the girls listened to him speak. "That was actually really sweet."

"And now, if you'll join me in raising your glasses." Jared said, raising his glass of sparkling grape juice, which had been placed at each of the underaged guests' tables, and Lark and Alicia followed suit, along with the rest of the guests. "Here's to my brother, my best friend, and the love of his life. May we all be so lucky to find someone like them someday. To Sam and Emily."

"To Sam and Emily!" Lark and Alicia cheered as the rest of the guests chorused, raising the champagne flutes to their lips and taking a sip of grape juice, allowing the fizziness to tickle Lark's nose.

"Alright, now uh..." Jared trailed off, looking around the room before his eyes landed on a classmate of theirs at the reservation's high school, signaling to the boy with a nod to start the music. "Who's ready to dance?"

As he handed the microphone back to the DJ, Leonora leapt down from the head table, rushing over to join her friends as she grabbed their hands in each of hers, dragging them with her onto the dance floor. Lark's smile grew as she began to dance with Leo and Alicia, Temperature by Sean Paul beginning to blast through the speakers.

It wasn't long before Lark felt a hand on the small of her back, and she turned to see Paul, who grabbed her hand and twirled her around with a smile. Already his suit jacket was long discarded, left at his chair at the head table, and his purple bowtie was crooked, but he couldn't seem to care less. Embry and Jared had also joined the girls, along with Seth and Quil. 

As each song passed, Lark's feet began to grow sore from dancing, but she didn't care. After all the stress she'd been through in the past months, researching legend after legend with seemingly no end or successful result to their search in sight, she finally had a night to simply let loose and have fun with her best friends, and she didn't want to waste a single moment.

"Alright, and here's a slow one for the newlyweds and all you couples out there." the DJ said into the microphone as the tempo dropped with the next song, the dancing groups beginning to break off as each guest found a partner.

Instantly, Embry pulled Alicia off to the side and, much to Jared's surprise, Leonora took his hand in hers, leading him away from their group before she wrapped her arms around his neck. Although she'd come to the conclusion the other day at Emily's house that she wanted to finally attempt being more than friends with Jared, she still had yet to make her move, though Lark assumed that she had deemed that evening to be the perfect moment. Lark looked back over at Paul, who watched her with a grin as he took her hand in his.

"Well, since I messed up my chance at the last wedding we were at," Paul began, "may I finally have this dance?"

"You may," Lark said, standing on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek as she wrapped her arms around his neck, the two of them beginning to sway slowly to You're Beautiful by James Blunt. "This was nice," Lark said, jerking her head softly in the direction of the rest of the crowd. "Ceremony went beautifully, and was just a nice getaway from everything, at least for a little while."

"I know what you mean." Paul agreed. "What do you think comes next?"

"I go back to researching with Carlisle." Lark said. "Try to see if there's a source we haven't yet exhausted with our extensive searching methods, but so far, we haven't had much luck with finding concrete proof. We wait for the snow to stick, and find out if the Volturi want to let the Cullens live."

Both of them turned to look at the open garage door, peering outside to where snow fell to the grassy earth in tiny flakes, though to Lark and Paul's relief, they melted the second they hit the ground, rather than sticking, as Alice's note warned. She turned to look back at him, noticing the way he attempted to hide the scared expression she knew was threatening to break out on his face.

"What happens?" Lark asked. "If the Volturi decide to fight, I mean."

"That'll depend on which of the Cullens' friends truly believe they're fighting for a worthy cause, and choose to stay." Paul said grimly. "If enough of them choose to stay, maybe the Volturi will listen, and it won't come to that. Although, with what I've heard about them, we might not be able to count on that, and that's why we've been training to try to hold our own against them." he sighed. "But no matter what happens, I'm going to try my damnedest to make it back home to you when it's all over."

Paul leaned down, his forehead resting against hers as they continued to dance. Around them, other couples continued to sway, completely oblivious to the turmoil Paul and Lark were facing at the prospect of the grim fate any of them could be meeting in the coming weeks.

"Come on," Paul said as the song ended, a quicker tempo beginning to take its place. "I see this dance floor, some music, and the most beautiful girl I've ever laid eyes on. We're taking the night off and making the most of it. Deal?"

Lark nodded after a moment, the smile finally returning to her face. "Deal."