I coughed, hiding my sniffle, which I had to do or risk having snot running down my face, and peered into the package past the tears in my eyes. I blinked blurrily and pulled out a VHS tape. There was nothing else inside, the label on the tape reading: Lil’s King Hall Graduation. I peered at Antonio because it was his handwriting.
“You taped my graduation?” Hell, I couldn’t remember large chunks of it.
“Yes.” A short answer.
My lips thinned, and I quickly wiped away an errant tear that verged on falling, and grabbed the next package. And opened it a bit easier. It was another VHS tape. Nothing else, except for the label that stated: Lil’s first Awakening with Pearl, Jack, and Ezra.
I stilled, staring at the names, and flipped the wording toward King Zeller so he could read it, even as I turned my attention back to Antonio since again the handwriting was his. I gauged him, blinking away the tears that didn’t seem to want to stop stinging my eyes. “You knew.” My hand trembled as I set the tape down, hearing King Zeller grunt after reading it. “You knew in advance this was going to happen. Knew you wouldn’t be able to speak.” I cleared my throat hard when he still didn’t express anything, my voice gruff and full of emotion. “You’re not such a bastard.”
After a silent moment, King Zeller stated briskly, “There’s still one package left.”
“Right,” I murmured, turning my attention to the thinnest package of all three. Lifting it slowly, I carefully pulled the tab off and peered inside. There was more here, even if the package was smaller. I pulled out the piece of paper first and placed it on the table. And damn if everyone in the room didn’t hover to read what it said. Breath escaped me as I scanned its contents, choking, “Jesus Christ, we actually got married.”
King Zeller just stared, jaw clenched tight, eyes flittering over our marriage certificate.
Elder Merrick pointed at the paper. “Queen Ruckler…what does it say your middle name—”
I snapped the paper over. “My middle name is not up for discussion.”
Elder Merrick started snorting, sounding like he was trying not to laugh.
My gaze darted to where he was hovering. “Seriously, not the time.”
He lifted his hands, backing away a few steps at my expression. “Okay.” He tilted his chin. “But someday I’m going to give you Shitz for it.”
My wolf growled at him, but King Zeller tapped the package still in my hand. “Is that it?”
“No.” I pulled out one of the photos inside next, studying it, evaluating every aspect of the picture, and a breathless exclamation escaped me. “Christ…” There were no other words. It was a close-up of our faces. We were both disguised with brown hair and glasses, and King Zeller had a short, trendy beard, but it was us, our cheeks pressed together, grinning like mad for the camera, with huge, cheesy, happy expressions on our faces.
“What is it?” King Zeller asked quickly, darting to the side, trying to see the photo, but he couldn’t move far enough because of Isa. “The back has something written on it, too, but your hands are in the way so I can’t read it.”
I quickly flipped the photo and shook my head, reading aloud, “Baby and Sweetheart. Just Married.” I shook my head, a bit wigged out. “It’s my handwriting.” I flipped the photo back over, but King Zeller snatched it out of my hands.
He froze, staring at it, evaluating it as I had while the four Elders peered over his shoulder, also staring at the picture, their expressions blatantly telling me they hadn’t seen it before. I watched King Zeller, his expression utterly blank, like the Elders’ expressions had been all night, as he stared silently at the photo. After a minute of evaluation, he flipped it, reading the back even though I already had. Slowly, his eyes lifted to the package, and he tilted his head toward it. “What else is there?”
I slipped my hand inside and pulled out the other photo. And choked, my cheeks instantly flushing. I was staring wide-eyed at a photo that was full-length of King Zeller and me, still in our disguises, but…King Zeller’s back was to the camera, his head tilted down, mouth at my neck, clearly biting me as one hand gripped my hair, the other unseen behind me, while I tilted my neck blatantly for him, a huge, shit-eating grin on my face for the camera…while I grabbed one of his ass cheeks with one of my hands and pointed with the other to his other ass cheek. I fumbled, turning the picture around and clearing my throat hard, and glanced up at King Zeller and the Elders waiting to see what I held. I knew my expression had all types of guilt written there. I read the writing — my handwriting — silently this time: God’s finest work, my baby’s ass in leather.
Eyes huge, choking on air, I fumbled to put the photo back inside the package, muttering, “You can look at this later—”
I made a noise of protest as King Zeller’s hand blurred and snatched the photo from my hand, stopping me. He blinked at the photo, peering down at it with that same blank expression, handling the situation much better than I was doing. My cheeks were fiery by now, tears long gone as embarrassment flooded me while watching the Elders peer down at the picture, their expressions not as blank as King Zeller’s. Elder Jacobs rolled his eyes and shook his head, glancing up at me.
My mouth flapped a few times, then I just let my head drop to stare at my lap when King Zeller flipped the photo to read the back. I was utterly defeated.
Quietly, he chuckled after reading the comment, the sound still raspy from disuse, but he didn’t comment when handing the photo back to me except to say, “Well, I guess we know which one of us was baby and which one of us was sweetheart.”
I grumbled something unintelligible as I stuffed the photo into the envelope, then I pulled out the last of the contents: a DVD with the label King Zeller and Queen Ruckler Wedding written on top. I placed it on the table and stared at it, knowing my cheeks were still flaming. Clearing my throat, I pointed at all of the videos. “Which one do we watch first?”
King Zeller pointed to one. “The Awakening. Traditionally the first Awakening should have happened before graduation.”
I peered at him, making myself meet his gaze. “You went to King Hall?”
He nodded once, settling further onto the burgundy chair and resituating Isa so she lay on his chest, the white silk of his shirt stretching across his muscled chest. “Yes. I also graduated from there.”
My lips pinched, but I nodded, turning to Antonio. “Can you wrangle up a TV, VHS player, and DVD player for us?” He smirked and flicked his wrist. And suddenly, we had all I had asked for directly across from us. I stood, lifting the first tape from the table. “Thank you.”