Unstable by Lacey Carter Andersen
17
Kiera
The chapel is strange.A roadside place that seems a little sketchy, but they promise a quick ceremony, that’s one hundred percent legal, and even offer to stream the whole thing. There are ten different, awful, wedding dresses in my room. I choose one that’s the only decent one among them. It’s white and simple. It says ‘wedding dress,’ which is what we need, without being over the top.
I exit the room, and an older woman grins and hands me a bouquet of plastic, white roses.
The familiar wedding march begins, and I take a deep breath.
“You look beautiful,” she says, sweetly. “And your groom is easily the most handsome man I’ve ever seen. A nervous thing. But handsome.”
“Thanks,” I tell her, but I feel a little like I’m going to throw up.
She opens the door, and I’m staring down a short aisle, with wooden benches on both sides. Emory is in a tux, with Adam and Drake dressed in matching tuxes at least a size too small, next to the old woman’s wife. The pastor is wearing an white robe and holds a book in her hand.
I take a deep breath and start down the aisle, knees shaking. But then my gaze meets Emory’s and I can see it. He’s terrified. I can sense every doubt singing through his mind. That he’s not good enough. That he doesn’t deserve this. And for some reason, my fears fade away.
He deserves this. I deserve this.
I look at Drake. His gaze worships me. Not like I’m some great prize, but like I’m the sun and moon. Like his world doesn’t exist without me, and it’s weird to know exactly how he feels.
My gaze slides to Adam, and he beams at me, looking so damned proud in his suit. He’d told me that me walking toward them all like this felt like we were all getting married. When we’d bought the cheap gold bands that the older women had been selling, we’d bought one for all of us.
Adam had even gotten one for Cole, which had made us all roll our eyes, but we let it go. Because he was happy.
But now, in this moment, it felt like I was doing the right thing. Like this was what was always meant to happen. The papers might say that Emory and I were married. But after this, we were all linked together in a new way, a way I would cherish forever.
I reach Emory, and he takes my hand.
The woman’s husky voice rolls through me as she talks about promises, the future, and love. I know she’s thinking of her wife as she speaks, but my focus is on Emory, Drake, and Adam. They are my future. They are my loves. And this is a promise I intend to keep.
Emory’s gaze slides to something, and I glance to see the laptop facing us. The bright red light on. A link to this live ceremony had been sent out to everyone in my contact list. My father would watching it. My brothers. My mother. Hell, all my people.
But not just them. Every berserker house.
And fucking Maxen.
I hadn’t thought I could enjoy this moment more, but I do. And then we slide our rings on. Emory puts on mine. I put on his. And Drake makes me smile when he and Adam puts rings on each other. Then, I kiss Emory, and the world fades away.
It seems we kiss forever when he draws back and trails his lips over my throat.
I whisper. “This is forever. You, me, and them.”
“Promise?” he whispers back.
I smile. “I just did.”
As we turn around and face the laptop camera, everyone cheers and claps in the room. We walk away, and the pastor follows us out the door, then turns the laptop off.
It was done. There was no going back now.
As we exit back out to the main room, the phone starts ringing. The pastor’s wife answers, and her smile fades. She moves the phone from her ear and says, “it’s for you, Kiera.”
My heart races as I take it, fully expecting to hear Maxen’s voice on the other end. To my shock, it’s my oldest brother, Christian. “Kiera?”
“It’s me,” I say.
“That was the bravest, stupidest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Uh, thanks.”
“Listen, you have to get out of there. Everyone knows what chapel it is, and he can’t be allowed to reach you. Do you understand me?”
“What? How do you--?”
I hear a scream in the background, and his words rush out. “Maxen and his men are here. But don’t worry about us. We have a plan. They’ve been hurting dad. Breaking his fingers to get him to call and beg you to come home. But he’s tougher than that. I snuck away to warn you. To tell you that they’ll hurt us no matter what, so you have to keep going. You have to get safe. Your marriage is spreading through all the houses, and they’ll come to save us now that they think you’ve married the true king. They’ll stand up against Maxen, finally.”
Brushing away tears, I try to keep my voice steady. “Keep everyone alive.”
“We’re berserkers. It’d take a lot more to kill us. Now, run, Kiera. Run!”
I hear shouts, closer this time, and then the line goes dead.
“Change and run!” I tell the others.
And we do. Within minutes we’re back in the car. An hour away from the relic.
And our future. Whatever it might be.
“The mark is down my chest and legs,” Adam says.
Mine is almost to my throat. “Then we better hurry.”
