Yours By Choice - Enemies to Lovers Werewolf Romance

Christopher Pierce My brother tied the knot. Took a wife. Got hitched, spliced. Pledged his troth. Got balled and chained. OK, that may be taking it a step too far. Regardless, that was the reality of the day and the happiness, the unfiltered, giddy bliss oozing out of everyone’s pores — cringy though it may be — was absolutely warranted. Tom and Mittens deserved all the cringy, over-the-top joy the world had to offer. It had only been two weeks since the whole f*****g ‘cave ordeal’. After getting through that, no celebration was big enough. Adalia had to lock me up in our room back home in New Mexico the whole time Tom was in there fighting for his life. I was losing my mind. Ajax being my wolf meant I found out in advance what my brother would have to do. Yippie. The sneaky sigma fucker had apparently messed with Leo’s binding, went and turned it into a full-blown f*****g soul-ectomy. Good ol’ Ajax split Tom’s soul from Leo’s — as one does — and told goddamn no one. I only found out after Tom and Mittens left for Spain. Thank f**k. I wouldn’t have been able to keep it a secret from them. I only knew what Ajax had reluctantly told me: it was safer for Leo that way. His soul wouldn’t be bound to Tom’s body should something happen to him. Actually, scratch that, I didn’t let Ajax finish explaining that. Just the thought of my brother not coming back was more than I could handle. I knew through reading Tommy’s thoughts how much pain he’d been in when those f*****g wolves nearly killed me. But feeling it directly, the pain of my only brother dying… If Adalia hadn’t been with me, I don’t know what I would’ve done. Another ‘casual’ nugget of information I had no business knowing before either Tom or Mittens? I was going to be an uncle. That was the f*****g straw that broke my dwindling sanity’s back. My angel lay with me on the floor while I sobbed — like a damn baby, no shame — big-spooning me while Ajax linked us the play-by-play. At some point though, his commentating stopped, and we knew, we just f*****g knew. ‘The Alpha wolf has gone through with his end of the bargain,’ Ajax told us, before sticky, grimy silence covered us like slow-creeping fog. I knew better than anyone what becoming a father would mean to Tom. Knowing the sacrifice his biological parents made to save him, I knew my brother would do anything to keep his own child from harm. Anything. Including putting himself on the line. And as it turns out, the same damn thing could be said of Leo. Asshole embraced his do-gooder personality transplant, went all Mother Theresa and lay himself on the chopping board. Literally. To break the Infinity Curse — f*****g hate even thinking about the damn thing — not only would Leo have to sacrifice himself, my brother would have to be the one to ’sacrifice’ him. It was like a big f*****g joke, with no punch line in sight. Definitely no laughter. Tom killing any animal was a stretch, but his own wolf? That was asking more of him than was fair. More than I thought he could give. Thomas f*****g Pierce, though? He knocked it out of the goddamn park, well, cave. He stepped up and owned that s**t like he had been werewolfing his whole life, not just a few months. He chose for it. He chose for his life, he chose to own who he was, and that’s what got us all off the hook. I no longer had to fear facing a life without my mate, and I only had my brother to thank for that. The second we knew they were safe, that the Infinity Pack was finally curse-free after 500 and however f*****g many years, we got on a plane to Spain. Yes, I am a poet. I do know it. Moving along. We who? My angel and me, of course, Mittens’ parents, and all four of Tom’s parents — one set of which we share. The was no awkwardness on the plane we chartered either. All parents, werewolf and human alike, were low-key infatuated with each other. It was non-stop gushing of gratitude and admiration from take-off to landing. Mildly cute. I’ll admit. When we got to the Alliance Pack, in the outskirts of Granada, Tom’s grandparents were downright blubbering wolfy messes. Who could blame them? Not me. They hadn’t even known if their daughter was alive for nearly thirty years. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house when Alpha Nasr and Luna Salma reunited with Tom’s bio-mom. A thing of f*****g beauty it was to witness. Alpha Francisco got down on his knees and apologized to his in-laws for the pain he had caused them. That lasted all of half a second before Alpha Nasr got him off the floor and into a fatherly embrace. My mom couldn’t stop hiccoughing out sobs all damn day after that display. Maggie Pierce loves love. Ironically, we didn’t see Tom and Mittens for two days after we arrived. The mates had some intimate celebrating to do on their own first. Never been prouder of my big brother. The human parents blushed a bit at the implication, the werewolves didn’t bat an eye. Werewolf flesh might be stronger on the whole, but boy is it ever weaker when it comes to mates. What happened in those two days? Oh, nothing much, the mothers — how we began calling the eclectic grouping of mother figures: my mom, Tom’s biological mom, Mitena’s mom, Mrs. Reyes and Tom’s biological grandmother — planned a wedding. I’m not exactly clear on how they decided that the best engagement gift for my brother and his mate was the wedding itself. All I know is they got together one night with a bottle or five of wine, and the next morning at breakfast they announced the wedding would be in less than two weeks. The mates and husbands were offered no option but to go along. Were Tom and Mittens shocked when they came up for air that their wedding had been planned without them? A bit. Mostly, though, they couldn’t wait to tie themselves to each other in any way possible, so they went along with it. Which brings us to today: Tom and Mitena’s wedding day. The ceremony was epic. Tom’s bio-dad officiated. He was a one-man lighthouse he was beaming so brightly. There were four separate sets of vows exchanged. Tom and Mittens went first, then Leo pushed forward and made his vows to his human mate. Then Reika took over and the wolves made their promises to each other amidst whispers from the attendees at how unusual that was. Finally, Tom took over his body again and pledged his love to his wolf mate. As far as I could gather with some strategic eavesdropping, and what Adalia told me, it was likely the first time all four mates married each other. It wasn’t surprising to any of us who knew them. The four of them chose for each other each step of the way. They have separate bonds. It was the only thing that fit their foursome and their unique union. The party was well underway. I had finished my first set entertaining the guests with my exceptional musical skills, and during my break I came to check on my ‘accompaniment’ for the next song. Now, I should be used to the whole ‘surrounded by women from dusk till dawn’ thing, lord knows I’d done the damn life’s work with three older sisters. ‘Should’ being the operative word. What I was usually very used to doing was tuning them the f**k out, but either I was ridiculously out of practice or the women in question were being extra annoying. All three of my sisters — Madison, Lauren, and Samantha — were leaning over an old AF dresser in my room at the Alliance Pack, vying for the best spot in front of the hung mirror to, and I quote, ‘get stage ready’. Cue the eye roll. “It’s gorgeous here, but would it kill them to install a couple AC units? My face is literally melting.” Lauren, my second-oldest sister, had a tendency to overdramatize, well, literally everything. “I’m sure there is a suggestion box somewhere. Or better yet, Ren, go up to Tommy’s grandparents and tell them how their bazillion years old fairy tale palace, where we are staying in for free, should be modernized to fit American standar—” My youngest sister, Sammi, didn’t get to finish her snippy comeback. Lauren hip-checked her so hard she tripped sideways on her long bridesmaid’s dress, and crashed into my oldest sister Madison, who very unfortunately, was poking her eye with, I’m going to say, some sort of eye coloring pencil? Lauren and Sammi straightened up automatically when they saw Madison with a black line down her freckly cheek. Maddie was every bit the eldest, and we all knew better than to mess with her. “Would. You. Two. Cut. It. The. Ef. Out!” “It really loses something when you cut out the cussing, Mad. But bravo on the ‘mom tone.’ Nailed it.” I had always been a very encouraging baby brother. “Oh, in that case. Shut. The. f**k. Up, Christopher. Better?” Madison’s green eyes met mine in the mirror in clear warning. “Much.” I winked at her. Now that Maddie was a mom to my adorable niece, Sage, she was on all our cases to clean up our language. f**k that. “Ready when you are, Christopher.” Mitena’s eager voice suddenly filled my head. “I will never get used to your eyes doing that going blank thing,” Maddie, who was still looking at me in the mirror, complained. I had to chuckle. “So, Tommy and I sprouting fur and turning into big ass wolves with fangs doesn’t bother you anymore, sis?” “I still have no proof that this is true,” Lauren interjected. “What more proof do you need? Viejita showed us!” Sammie had needed no more proof than Mrs. Reyes mental picture reel. She had always been the more ‘alternative’ of the bunch. Always believed there had to be more to the world than what we could see. “I’m with Lauren on this one, Sam. I want to see the boys— Is it shift?” Maddie checked while getting rid of the last bit of the pencil smudge on her face. “Yes, it’s shift,” I confirmed standing up from the bench where I’d been waiting, checking my own dashing reflection, adjusting my tie and sunglasses. “You realize it will involve seeing Tom and me naked first, right?” All three of my sisters flinched in horror at that. “Right now, though, you need to get your Pierce asses moving. The bride is ready and waiting for us. No, not us. You! I was born ready.” Three identical scowls reflected back to me on the mirror. Mitena called me to her room a couple of days ago and told me she was going to sing a song as a surprise for Tom at the reception and asked me to help her with the music. In a misguided attempt at gaining their sisterly affection, Mitena made a capital mistake: she went and let my sisters in on the secret. Maybe it was that she had only just met them that day and thought having them in on it would help them bond? f**k if I know, long story short, my sisters were going to do backing vocals. Madison, Lauren, and Samantha Pierce — tragically known in our home as ‘The Blended Sisters’ — had been putting on singing shows for as long as I could remember. They were not awful, but being on stage with them always was. Nothing gosh darn neater for a teenage boy than to be the f*****g ‘band’ for his three older sisters. Traumas were born. Coolness was lost. Ears were tortured. Mercifully, Mitena’s voice was nothing short of enchanting, she would carry the whole thing sisters or no sisters. Not to mention, I had regained all of my lost coolness and then some. We’d be just fine. I led the ladies through the maze of corridors back to the reception. The ancient symbols carved in the white stone walls flanking us danced between shadows with the help of the light cascading from the ancient looking lanterns. Thanks to my sisters’ speed, it took us over five minutes to get back to the stage at the edge of the dance floor. “Why must you all insist in wearing shoes you can’t walk in, in dresses that are too long to wear without them?” I accused. “Oh, sweet, sweet, baby brother. You know perfectly well why,” Lauren answered my rhetorical question in her signature sardonic tone. “A woman’s legs look better up in the air with heels on.” Out of all my siblings, she was the only one who fought neck and neck with me for the title of ‘bluntest Pierce’. “God, I’ve missed you, sis!” She gave me a proud cheeky grin, without missing a beat, as we reached the courtyard. Fuck. The mothers had really gone apeshit with the fairy lights. In the last twenty minutes the sun had set, and the mood lighting had gone on. The mood was f*****g bright alright. “Do you have another pair of sunglasses by any chance, Chris?” Sammie was doing this weird blinking, feigning blindness. “No s**t. I’m pretty sure they can see us from space.” Lauren’s sass didn’t take long to follow. “I think it’s absolutely magical. They deserve to celebrate after everything they’ve been through,” Mad, our in-house hopeless romantic, was quick to scold. From the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of Tom as he walked through the tables, politely fielding congratulations left and right. His eyes were frantically scanning the crowd. “Ladies, wait here. Tommy is one minute away from calling a search party for his missing bride. If you’ll excuse me.” I passed my sisters and jumped the four steps to the stage at once. I signaled the DJ to fade out the music and walked up to my mic. Most of the guests set their eyes on me. “Ladies and gentlemen, furry and less-furry alike, as fun as recorded music is, you’ll agree with me that nothing can quite beat a live performance.” The guests lowly chuckled in agreement. “The next act will, I’m afraid, require you to return to your seats.” The people on the dance floor looked confused, but moved back to their respective tables. “There you go, thank you. You won't regret it. Wolf’s honor. Now, if the groom could take a seat right here,” I said as a server set a chair smack dab in the middle of the dance floor facing me. Tom, who was still scanning the reception, whipped his pretty little Alpha head in my direction. “Chris, you promised! No wedding garter s**t!” Tom’s voice boomed in my head. I ignored him with a blatant smirk. “Aww, he’s shy. Let’s give him a bit of encouragement.” I started ostentatiously clapping and the crowd dutifully followed. “I’m gonna let Leo kill you,” Tom threatened, but started walking towards the stage nonetheless. “Leo loves me now, bro.” “He will have no qualms if you instigate other men sliding their paws up our mate’s thigh!” I had to clear my throat not to laugh at that. Tom took the final steps with a deathly scowl on his face. “There he is! The groom, ladies and gentlemen!” I egged the crowd on. “Take a seat, Doctor Pierce.” Tom mouthed ‘you’re dead meat’ but obediently sat. I mouthed ‘you’re welcome, asshole’ back and lifted my left hand in the air, giving the agreed signal. In the next second, the reception was shrouded in darkness as every last fairy light went out. Quiet shuffling behind me let me know my sisters had taken their places. I was relieved their human eyes got them to their spots safely. I took several steps back, grabbed my guitar and started plucking the first chords to ‘Somebody Loved’ by Kina Grannis, Mitena’s chosen song. It was perfect for them. A song about the inevitability and depth of a love so all-encompassing it changes you forever. Mitena came out of her hiding spot and reached the mic in seconds. She wasted no time and began singing. The guests, who had been whisper-shouting their shock at the lights going out, went quiet immediately. Her voice had the ability to transport you to a warm summer day, to calm you, comfort you. After the first line, a soft pink spotlight washed over her, gaining her oh’s and ah’s from the crowd. I ventured a look at my brother. As expected, he was entranced, tears escaping the corners of his eyes as he stared at his wife. She stared back at him with equal amounts of adoration. They forgot any of us were there. They only had eyes for each other. Fuck, it was beautiful. The song was over a few short minutes later to the roaring applause of everyone present. Mitena didn’t even look, she jumped off the stage into the arms she knew were waiting for her. Tom and Mitt were wholly engrossed in each other in a mess of lips, tongues, and hands. One of my sisters — I’m guessing Mad — cleared her throat into her mic to bring them back to the present. They disentangled themselves to wolf whistling, hooting, hollering and clapping. I was one of the loudest hollerers in the bunch until a screaming thought penetrated the ‘privacy barrier’ I had put up to keep myself from reading Tom’s and Tristan’s thoughts. Mind-reading was an unexpected perk I got the day I died and then joined the merry werefolk. If you bit me to turn me, I get to hear what you think. I low-key loved it, but I had promised to be respectful and s**t. Me and my ethics. It was a single word, a short one at that. Only four letters long, and yet, it had the power to upend lives in a second. 'Mine.’ Fuck. I dropped the barrier and listened in with all my might to whatever Tristan was thinking. 'We have to reject her!’ Double f**k. “Yo, bro.” Tom and Mittens looked up at me. “You’ll have to resume your tonsil hockey match later. T-man is about to f**k up his life in a hurry. He’s about to reject his mate.” “He’s what?” Mittens green eyes were wide. “Yup, you coming? He’s in grandpa Nasr’s office.” Tom, Mittens, and I discretely moved to the side and started speed walking in the direction of the Alpha quarters. “Is his mate one of the guests?” Tom grabbed Mitena’s hand as we started flat out running. “Oh, you are going to love this, bro. T-man’s mate is your aunt!” -- Hello Lovelies, I would love for you to follow the second book of The Choice Series, YOURS BY CHOICE. Only the first three chapters will be on here. Grateful as I am to all the readers on this platform, ethical differences with the platform itself keep me from publishing my work here. But I owe it to you not to disappear. The entirety of the book will be published on In.kitt. Feel free to join our F B group "The Choice Series" so you can follow along and not miss any updates. Thank you for your understanding.