The Red Wing Mansion

Chapter Eighteen

The wedding.

The surprise?

It was calm.

I expected a frantic rush and a horrible experience getting ready for a wedding I hadn't even rehearsed for. But a dress was found, donated by one of the friends who was similar in size to me, her name was Tiffany and she was also at the BDSM club last night, but today she is a lady and none the less, with long curling blonde hair and blue lace gloves, matching her baby blue dress. We barely spoke, other than her dropping the dress off and promising to speak later.

Isela and Pearly are the flower girls who I keep close too. They were so excited I was marrying their big brother, and Walker and Gregory were standing by Claudius' side, along with his best man Rudolph who was married to Tiffany. I didn't know who he was last night, covered behind a mask in that gathering... however, my oh my is he not what I expected.

I expected, with a name like Rudolph, for him to be a little older and more grey. But no, he's certainly younger than Claudius, maybe more my age, and matched in lush black hair and grey eyes. He wore gloves like Claudius, and they both had owls on their wrists. A strange sight but apparently their hunting birds wanted to witness the wedding also.

The most intimidating thing was walking down between all those faces I did not recognise and was barely introduced to. Claudius' closest friends were all in the front rows, the rows further back were older family or guests from far away.

Almost everything the priest says is jargon and white-noise to my tuned out ears, because after getting into the rotunda to stand with Claudius in his perfectly balanced black and grey suit, I am unable to look out of his handsome blue eyes... after he'd been inside me all night... it's all I could think about, he never stopped fucking. Bloody demon. Mine.

He was the reason I was sure I had sunken tired eyes today, but Stella filled me up with coffee, and that certainly helped wake me.

The ring Claudius puts on my finger is a simple gold band.

The kiss we share is a little awkward. Claudius pretends he doesn't want to initiate the kiss with me, so I reach up myself on my tippy toes and peck him on the lips extremely fast before I look down shyly.

That caused a round of cute applause from the crowd, and then of course Claudius had to kiss me full on the mouth afterward, while I was beet red and feeling completely overwhelmed.

It was soo overwhelming I felt like I was experiencing all of this looking in at it. Part of me really was. A ghost of me, from the future, felt separated from the girl kissing her newly wedded husband.

All this led to my grounding, which involved lots of wine, and being firmly escorted to a table of Claudius' friends.

I had barely seen him all day and all night, except for briefly seconds ago, when we both farewelled Isela and Pearly as the sun went down, as they were taken in a carriage away for boarding school, along with Walker and Gregory a few minutes before them. All I can feel is the girls crying because they missed us already, but it would be 6 months before we saw them all again. I missed them too and my heart ached.

Claudius and I returned to the others without a word, I couldn't even look him in the eye.

He had gone from haunting sexy apparition in the twenty first century, to a master of a household, telling me my duties, and now he was my lawfully wedded husband. I was happy, so was he, but I was far more interested in consolidating with him after the celebrations were over, and they really felt like they were never ending.

There was a band playing for the night, taking over from a pianist who was playing throughout most of the day. Instead of the ballroom inside, we are all seated outside under decorations and around a wooden table under a tree, a bit further out from the mansion itself, further into the garden.