When we were done, she had to sit on it one last time. As she sat on the seat, her face plastered in a smile, I gathered my courage and pulled the box out of my jacket. Opening it up, I knelt down by her knee until she looked down.
Her face turned to shock when she saw the ring. “Vivian, you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I love you, and I want to be your Old Man. Will you marry me?”
She stared at me, I could see the emotions going through her as she looked between me and the ring. Tears started coming down her eyes, I thought they were happy tears, but then she jumped off the other side of the bike and ran to the ladies’ room. I couldn’t believe it. I closed the case, putting it back in my pocked, and walked to the door.
I knocked softly. “Vivian?” I could hear her crying. “It’s all right, it’s my fault. I asked before you were ready.” She didn’t say anything. “I’ll be in the truck,” I said. “You just take your time.”
I walked out, feeling crushed. I couldn’t believe she didn’t say yes. I consoled myself by saying she didn’t say no, either.
Vivian’s POV
I hated myself as I sat in the bathroom, crying my eyes out. Snake was a good man, I think I loved him, and I knew he loved me. I was just broken. I couldn’t do this right now.
I looked at myself in the mirror after cleaning my face of the tear tracks. It had been a great day, right until I panicked. I still couldn’t believe that he had cared enough to give me a way to say goodbye like that, then the afternoon. I walked out, making my way to the lot where he was sitting in the truck, his eyes closed. I got in, and he still looked at me like I hung the moon. “Are you all right,” he asked.
“I’m a mess,” I said. We sat there for an hour as I told him about the fight I was having with my wolf, about how the forced mating had screwed with my wolf and my emotions. “I don’t want another man, I want you, I want to keep what we have if I haven’t blown it already.”
He pulled me across into his lap. “If I wait forever for you to be my wife, it will still be worth it,” he said. “So, since we aren’t engaged yet, can I get you to help me cook dinner for everyone tonight?”
“Sure,” I said as I laughed.
“Put in a good word with Teri for me, she threatened physical harm if I screwed this up.”
I giggled. “She’s pulling for us. It’s my fault, Snake. When I’m ready, there’s no one else I’d rather marry than you.”
I did a lot of talking over the next few weeks, both with Teri and with Snake. Somehow, he got the idea that what I really needed was permanence, something the mating bond had but marriage wouldn’t. I could tell it grated at him that he couldn’t give me what my soul craved.
It was the weekend before Easter, and the kids were off school for Spring Break. I was reading some medical journals in bed when Snake came in. He kissed me, told me he had missed me all day, then went into the shower.
I was tired after a long day in the books and frustrated because I still had no idea what was causing the female werewolves to bleed out. I called it a night, deciding to pull my clothes off and join him instead. His back was towards me, and I moved my hands around his waist as I came in. “Hello, beautiful,” he said.
“How was your day?”
“It was good.” He froze, not looking at me. “I did something. Something that can never be changed, ever, no matter what you say next.” My stomach sank, fearing the worst. He turned around, and my eyes were immediately drawn to his right shoulder. A huge new tattoo went up his chest. It was a grey wolf that looked exactly like mine, with a snake curling up her front leg and circling her neck. Under the wolf, in flowing script it said, “Will you Marry Me, Vivian?”
He dropped to his knees, removing the same ring from his finger I had rejected earlier. “Vivian, will you be my wife and mate?”
I pointed at the writing. “That’s permanent?”
“Your name is, the proposal is temporary,” he said. “When you say yes, I’ll get my name and our anniversary date put there with it.”
I threw myself into his arms, kissing him deeply. I couldn’t say yes fast enough.
Easter Weekend
I pulled at the waist of the dress, nervously trying to smooth everything down. “Don’t worry, you look great,” Kelly said to me as she pulled my hand away. “He’s not going to be able to move when he sees you. Don’t be so nervous.”
“Easy for you to say, no one will be staring at you,” I said back. She and Teri were dressed the same: tight black jeans, motorcycle boots, long sleeve black T-shirts and their cuts. She continued to plait my long black hair, braiding my bangs into bands that wrapped around to the back of my head. The hair fell to the middle of my back, over the back of my own cut. The lace material hinted at the skin below, and my cleavage was on display with the deep V-cut in the front. I wasn’t wearing a bra since the dress wouldn’t allow it; only some tape kept the girls from popping free accidentally. The dress flared out over my hips, ending just low enough to cover the tops of the white thigh-high stockings I was wearing. Stiletto boots, white with silver accents, finished out the outfit. Finally, Kelly sat back, declaring me to be “absolutely perfect.”
There was a knock on the door. “It’s time to go,” Viper said. The girls gave me a hug and left the room; I could hear the music outside as they left. Viper just held my hands, helping me calm myself until his cue. “I’m glad I took a piss before I came in here,” he said.
“Well, your prostate is the size of a golf ball, it’s no wonder you’re having trouble.” Having a Doctor in the club had been a change for them, most didn’t see one unless they were bleeding or broken. I had converted one of the empty storerooms upstairs into a little clinic, stocking it with equipment I bought on eBay. It was a way to give back to the club and keep my medical practice active. I basically turned it into a private practice; we created a company, ordered the stuff and I even rented the space to make it all official. Prostate checks didn’t get any more fun when the patient thought of you as the daughter he never had, though.
“It’s not funny.”
He was more nervous than me, practically shaking as I held his hand. “OK, I’ve got a joke for you. Neil, Bob and Dick are sitting on a bench outside the old folk’s home. Neil looks at the others and says, ‘You know what I have about getting older? Not being able to take a piss. I get up four times a night, it’s like peeing through a cocktail straw. I’d give anything to take a good long piss again.’ Bob says, ‘Yeah, I know what you mean.’ Dick says, ‘I have a good long piss, every morning at six o’clock.'”
“You did those names on purpose!” He laughed a little.
“So Bob says, ‘Well, I’d love to be able to take a good dump. I’m so constipated, I sit in there for hours sometimes. I’d give anything to have a good dump.’ Neil agrees with him, and Dick says, ‘Well, I have a good dump, every morning at six thirty.’ The other guys look at him, all mad, and Neil says, ‘Well, aren’t you just the perfect one.’ Dick shakes his head and says, ‘Not really, I don’t wake up until seven.'” Viper started laughing hard, and I had to join him. Before we knew it, the music outside stopped.
Viper offered his arm. He was dressed like the girls- black jeans and shirt, belt with a silver Harley buckle, his cut, and black motorcycle boots. He kissed my hand before placing it in his arm. “Let’s do this.”
“No crying, Viper. Tough guys don’t cry.”
“Don’t pressure me, I thought I’d lost the chance to ever do this.” We walked out the door and turned past the bar, heading outside through the main doors into the lot. We got lucky with the weather, it was near fifty with a lot of sun and light winds. The white carpet ended ahead of us in the center of the lot, running off to the left.
The aisle was lined with motorcycles, all facing the each other. At the front, a bunch of folding chairs were filled with my friends and family. The music changed when we arrived at the turn. We couldn’t do much normal in this club; instead of Pachelbel’s Canon in D, they were playing “Another One Bites the Dust.” The girls were crying, Viper was barely holding on. I started crying myself, glad the girls had used waterproof makeup.
As we started forward down the aisle, each pair of bikes we passed was started up and revved a few times. We moved slowly, drawing out the moment. I kept my eyes on my Snake as he stood tall, next to Doc and Hammer. On the other side of the aisle, Kelly and Teri stood, bouquets of white roses in their hands. I looked down at the bouquet I was carrying, all white roses and lace, stuck in a Budweiser bottle.
The noise built as we got towards the front, where the last pair of motorcycles was revved up. We stopped just short of a small platform, in front of a sharp-looking Crash. He’d become an ordained minister the last summer, at least that’s what his certificate said, and this was his first wedding to officiate. He was wearing a bowtie, no shirt, his cut and his best jeans. This ceremony was put together quickly; when my heat started coming earlier than I thought, we had to move it up. We’d only been engaged for a week.