It was weird… standing in a small room off the massive receiving hall of St Patrick's Cathedral. Everywhere I looked, it was decorated to the nines with white and silver fabric. The soft pink flowers that accented the purity of the décor weren't what I would have chosen, but it looked nice.
"Are you ready for this?" asked Stephanie as she fluffed out the train of my dress. She was literally standing four feet away from me, and the tips of her heels were buried under my skirt.
Honestly, I was over the top in love with this dress with its embedded diamonds, wide ballgown skirt with a long train, and a bow at my back. It had long, elegant sleeves made of lace and diamonds that went down to my hands and cut in a sweetheart neckline that accented my breasts and made my waist so much smaller than even I thought possible.
I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't fit down the aisle. Even entering through the front doors, I had to squish the fabric down on one side and up on the other to get through. But it was so perfect I couldn't help but cry when I tried it on for the first time.
My white cathedral veil drifted down over my back and past the train of my skirt while a crown of silver and diamonds decorated my head. Even my diamond necklace and earrings were done by Viktor as a wedding present.
He literally outfitted me head to toe in weapons while smiling and commenting about how beautiful I looked in diamonds.
I mean, diamonds were a girl's best friend, but golden shears kept me safe.
"I'm ready," I smiled at her. She was my only bridesmaid, dressed in a light pink dress and carrying a white and pink rose bouquet in her hands. My own bouquet was almost the same, but there were a lot more flowers in mine.
The fact that the handle was also encased in Van Helsing silver didn't escape my notice either.
It was almost cute how much all eight of my mates were trying to keep me safe without actually telling me the reason why they were doing it.
Stephanie's phone beeped as I dropped the front of the sheer veil down over my face. Fixing it so that it was smooth, I looked over at my assistant.
Pulling her phone out from the middle of her bouquet, she shrugged her shoulders at me. "No rest for the wicked," she chuckled, checking her messages. "The angels have breached the outer limits of New York. They haven't set off any of the known alarms, but thanks to the changes you made, we know that they are entering the city ten at a time from at least 70 different access points."
"The wedding is going to be long done before they get their legions out here to kill me," I chuckled. I had all the faith in the world in my men, and I knew that their monsters were riding them hard to make sure that I was safe at all times.
But sometimes, they needed to understand that I could protect myself better than any of them could. Still, it was adorable to watch them speaking in hushed whispers as the bonds between them grew stronger with every minute that they planned behind my back.
Humming, I nodded my head as the priest poked his head into the room without knocking to make sure that I was still there. He seemed to be sweating a bit more than usual, but I was going to assume that that had something to do with the monsters under his bed…
And the angels in his ear.
"Are you ready? Everything is set up," he announced, looking around the room. I had no idea what he was searching for, but after a minute, the tension seemed to have leached out of him.
"This is the first day of the rest of my life," I smiled brightly at him. There was no way he could see the exact expression on my face or even knew who I was besides Nathalia Sokol, an NYPD officer marrying the richest man in the world. Because if he knew…
He would be so much more scared.
Mike pushed in behind the priest, almost knocking him out of the way as he rolled his eyes at him. He looked amazing in his dress uniform, all his medals polished to the point they gleamed under the lights of the church.
"You are stunning," he murmured, wiping a tear from his eye as he looked me up and down. "Now, remember, if he doesn't treat you exactly how you deserve, I will be more than happy to lock him up for the rest of his life."
I chuckled as I held out my hand to my make-shift father and Beta. "Are you finally going to retire?" I asked as he fought his way through my skirts to link his arm with mine. "I could really use you."
"Yeah," he sighed with a nod. "As soon as we deal with this Jack 2.0 case, then I'm done with the NYPD. I'll let someone younger than me take over and deal with all the shit."
Leaning forward, he gave me a gentle kiss on my cheek as Stephanie slipped around my other side and went to the door. Looking down at the priest in his robes, she sniffed. "Well?" she demanded. "What are you waiting for?"
The organ chose that minute to start playing Ave Maria, a haunting melody that I found I actually liked. Mind you, Crazy Train by Ozzy was probably more apropos of what was going to happen next.
The priest scrambled away as Stephanie straightened her back and started walking out of the room and down the long aisle toward the altar.
Little did she and Mike know, but before I took my next step, I wrapped their threads of life in a cocoon of my own thread, making sure that they would be protected from everything in the future.
I had never thought of creating more ribbon girls (or boys), but life had a way of changing my mind. Never again would I let an outside force threaten someone who was mine.
Whatever happened next, my enemies would learn the hard way that I was shucking the trappings of humanity and embracing exactly who I was….
Part angel, part demon, part fate, part monster… and all Natalia Nadezda Sokol Tesalor.