Page 35 of Jared

“For our honeymoon?”

“Yeah. Or is that stupid?”

“Not at all. I think that sounds fun. There's bound to be lots of kids about though. You sure you want kids everywhere during our honeymoon?”

“Oh. Didn't think of that. How about Hawaii? We can do Disney later, right?”

“Hawaii, huh? Relaxing on beaches. Sounds great.”

Jared smiled happily. “Hawaii! Yay!”

Steve made a mental note to discover if anyone pack related worked as a travel agent.

“Hey,” Jared said. “Do we have a wedding as well or anything? I mean, mating is like marriage, right?”

“We can get legally married as well, yes.”

“Do you want to?”

Steve pressed a gentle kiss to Jared's temple. “I want to let the whole world know you're mine,” he said. “How about we combine the Alpha ceremony with our wedding? We can get married, do the succession and retirement thing, and celebrate everything after.”

“So, to be clear, you are officially proposing actual marriage.”

Steve reddened. “I could have done this in a more romantic fashion, huh? Like during a dinner date.”

“I'm just teasing. But I do want to get married in the human way too. Combining things seems logical. The Alpha succession ceremony is really a big speech and dinner thing, right? I think I read that.”

“Yes, usually.”

“Do you think we could get A Bite of Heaven to do our cake? Or do they just do pastries?”

“We can always ask. An Alpha wedding and succession is going to be a big event, so Laurie should be invited anyway.”

“Right. I hadn't thought of that. Being a big event I meant. How the hell is that going to get pulled off in a month?”

Steve grinned. “Just leave it to the pack. Besides, ever since I found you, tentative plans for celebrating our mating and the succession were made and put on hold. If we do it on pack property, using pack related businesses, and keep it relatively simple, I'm sure it'll be no problem.”

Jared looked at him dubiously. “If you say so. Umm, don't packs do a run after these sort of things?”

“Yes, usually before the party because between the shifting and the exercise, we end up very hungry.”

“Where does the pack run? Is there a property out of the city? I've been wondering about that. I kinda doubted you guys'd be running in central park. It'd be all over the news, right? 'Call of the Wild in Central Park' , story at ten. That sort of thing.”

Steve laughed. “Yeah, no Central Park unless we are in people form. To answer your question, on the fifth floor we have an indoor garden that takes up the whole floor. Grass, trees, etc. We can wolf out and enjoy a bit of respite. Also a safe place for the cubs to go play tag while practicing their shifts. Pack runs though, those we go across the Veil for. The Fae maintain a portal, a fairy ring if you will, that they can use to open a way for several of us to cross. Sort of like opening a door.”

“So, it takes you to the packlands there and not to fairyland or whatever.”

“No, it doesn't take us Underhill. The Fae can go Underhill without one and even take one or two people with them. They do have portals that go to Underhill, to the Sidhe and the Unsidhe Courts, but those are natural. The places where the Veil is thin. The portal here is a made one, created by mages of the Courts. Laurie's coven also use it to go back home from time to time.”

Jared looked stunned. “So, fairy wizards made a magic portal inside the building, which is on the fifth floor of this building, which houses an actual indoor garden with grass and trees and all that.”

“Yes.”

“That's some magic.”

“Yes. Their mages are very skilled. In exchange, we provide employment for several Fae and they get to live there on the fifth floor.”

“I thought the whole floor is a garden.”