The Alpha’s Only Daughter

Chapter 19

Layla’s POV

Over the next day, Zane trained all of us as best and as quickly as he could in such a short timeframe. When the Beta of the Stone Creek pack and a group of his men showed up to help with patrol during the commitment ceremony the next day, Zane began training them too.

I couldn’t believe that I had let my own personal feelings of inadequacy overcome the need for this training. It had only been one full day and I knew so much more than I had before about defensive and offensive fighting. And more about Lycan fighting than I initially thought.

Zane was crazy strong and had amazing endurance. I had never seen someone able to fight more than three werewolves at a time, but he repeated his stunt from the day before with two extra wolves coming at him—in total, six wolves. He put them all on their backs without hurting them. I couldn’t imagine what he could do if his intentions were bad.

I had almost forgotten about the commitment ceremony tomorrow night, when Zane came up to me and kissed me passionately and whispered in my ear, “I get to mark you as mine tomorrow.”

A blush crept up my neck to my face. I could feel my arousal forming. We hadn’t been able to fulfill our lust since Saturday evening and I was beginning to feel overwhelmed with desire every time he was near.

“Cami ordered you an outfit for tomorrow.”

“That’s nice. Do you have yours?” his eyes never left mine.

“As a matter of fact, I do. It was actually an option originally for the night of the party you busted in on.”

“Oops,” a grin that clearly said he was not sorry spread across his face.

I grinned back at him, “I’m glad you did though.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Most definitely.” I kissed him again and felt some stares, when I opened my eyes, I noticed my pack looking at us. I pushed him away and blushed, “I think our pack is lost without your guidance.”

He laughed, “What very little I have to offer. But I will return to them now. See you later.”

He kissed my cheek before turning to go back, but I remembered and called out to him, “Oh! Zane?” When he looked back, I continued, “I actually probably won’t see you after dinner.”

His brow furrowed and he came back to me, “Should I be concerned?”

I laughed, “No. I am staying with Cami in one of the guest suites tonight. Because it’s unlucky to see the bride before the wedding.”

He looked at me strangely, “But we’re not merely humans and this isn’t really a wedding. Surely we’re exempt?”

I shook my head, “Not according to Cami.”

Understanding where I was coming from suddenly, he nodded his head, “Ah, Cami. You tell her I expect to see her after the ‘wedding’ for training. She’s had a pass to work with your mom on the arrangements, but she needs to learn to fight as well.”

“I’ll be sure to let her know when I see her in a moment.”

“You do that,” he smiled at me and with a kiss he was running back to train our pack.

•••

When I reached the guest suite, I noticed Cami running around like a mad woman. She and my mother were chatting and bickering back and forth like an old married couple. It took a moment to notice my appearance.

Cami stopped and looked up when she finally noticed me, “Layla!! You’re finally here! Come help us decide on something.”

I walked over and noticed there was a bridesmaid dress and a bunch of ties surrounding it.

Cami looked at my expectantly. When I didn’t say anything for a moment, she said, “Well??”

I blinked at her rapidly and then shrugged, “What am I supposed to be deciding?”

She exasperatedly sighed, “Which tie matches the dress best?”

I looked at them and pointed to the lavender tie with a paisley design.

Cami squealed. My mother said, “Great choice.”

I smiled. But she looked uneasy.

“Who is this for?”

“Oh, this is my dress and the new Beta’s tie!” You could almost see the heart-eyes exploding out of her from the mention of her mate’s new pack status.

“Hmmm. What about Zane’s tie?”

“Actually, I purchased Zane a tux, so his tuxedo comes with a white vest and a white bow tie—it’ll look amazing with your flowy, white gown!”

I looked over all of the plans on the bed, suddenly realizing how much work had been put into all of this, “Wow, you guys have been busy.”

“Yes, but for good reason! Our Luna has found her Alpha!” Cami basically screamed.

“Okay, okay,” I said with a laugh, “show me your vision.”

Cami led me through the next day’s events. She showed me her ideas on her phone and on the various pages scattered all over the bed.

“Some of it is supposed to come in tomorrow morning and my nerves are driving me crazy!”

“You can clearly make miracles work if you have this all planned out with most of the materials here already, so I trust you’ll make it work whether or not those items show up.”

Her smile was genuine, but stressed.

I looked at my mom, “How did you like setting up the current arrangements?”

“Oh, well, I primarily took care of the catering and authorizing the payments for all of Cami’s ideas,” she said with a shallow chuckle.

“Well, thank you for that.”

“I must say, she may have to be our new event planner for pack house events.”

Cami’s eyes got so big and wide with excitement that she must have forgotten entirely about the stress of my commitment ceremony the next day, “Elizabeth, you’re not serious?!”

My mom just shrugged and smiled, “We’ll see how tomorrow goes.”

“Speaking of tomorrow, have you tried your entire outfit on yet?”

“No, not yet.”

Cami pulled out the garment bag and another bag, surely full of accessories for the commitment ceremony, “Then now is the time!”

“Oh, Cami—!” I started to object.

“No, Cami is right,” my mother interrupted. “In case something needs to be altered, you should try it on now so the house seamstress has time to do so.”

I rolled my eyes, but smiled. “Okay, help me.”

Once I stripped down to my underwear, Cami and my mother got to work putting the dress on me and pinning it where adjustments needed to be made. They placed my hair as it would be styled the next day and added a beautiful floral hairpins. Cami handed me earrings and my mom clasped a necklace around my neck while I put them on. When I finished, Cami wrapped a bracelet around my wrist to finalize the look.

My mother turned me around and I looked into the full length mirror.

I barely recognized myself. They had made many adjustments to the dress, but it made it all that more beautiful. The floral embroidery and sparkles embedded in the fabric made the dress look fit for a garden fairy. The deep sweetheart neck and off the shoulder sleeves accentuated my décolletage in the most flattering way. The top was tight against my skin thanks to the adjustments, but the bottom flowed just perfectly all the way to the tip of the cathedral train.

Cami covered her mouth in awe, “You look like a princess.”

I smiled, because clearly she didn’t know what was to come.