I also received a wedding invitation from Daryl Harper and Kathy Jo Greene. They were planning a wedding the end of May on Weldon Harper's property. What do you know about that? Maybe I'd be the first vampire ever invited to a werewolf wedding. Winkler and company received invitations, too. They were all planning to attend so it looked like I'd be going.
Whitney came to the beach house primed for shopping before we flew to North Dakota, so Winkler requested that I go with her. I took money with me since I needed something nice to wear and bought three outfits. We were only staying five days but Whitney in her usual manner bought everything she saw that she wanted. I sneaked into a jewelry store while she and Sam were looking at shoes and bought two pairs of earrings for myself. Nothing fancy, just one pair in platinum and one in gold—simple hoops that would go with just about anything.
The plane ride was a bit bumpy over Kansas. There was some weather but we got out of it quickly and landed in Grand Forks close to schedule. It was around two-thirty in the morning and there were two wolves waiting with vans to take all of us to Weldon's place. I was getting to stay inside the house along with Winkler and Whitney, and tents and RVs were set up for the others. I was also surprised to learn that Gavin had a sleeping bag in the corner of my bedroom. I suppose it was to keep the vamp from going on the rampage or something. The most I'd done was twist one of Winkler's chairs into a pretzel. Of course, there was the matter of roughly twenty werewolves that I'd killed, but who was counting? The Grand Master was still alive because of that.
Kathy Jo Greene was positively glowing and I knew, even if nobody else did, that she was pregnant already. Daryl was pretty darned happy, so I guess he knew it too.
Shirley Walker came in since she was Kathy Jo's Packmaster, and the night before the wedding she held a ceremony, turning Kathy Jo over to Daryl's pack. Winkler came up beside me, whispering that it was something they did when a female went to another pack. She received the Packmaster's blessings, as it were. Weldon, as the new official Packmaster so to speak, accepted Kathy Jo and then gave her over to Daryl. It was actually a nice ceremony. I had no idea what vampire protocol was, or if there was anything even close.
When the pre-wedding ceremony was over and everybody was having drinks and snacks, Winkler came to sit beside me. We were in chairs outside and it was cool out but not unbearably so. "Winkler, what happened to all those werewolves that attacked Weldon?" I'd been unconscious afterward with no idea what had happened.
"Buried on-site, usually. If they die in wolf form, they normally don't change back," Winkler said. "Their families are notified that they attempted an unsuccessful challenge."
"Holy cow," I said softly. "Where's your dad?"
"On a ranch in Texas," he said. "Mom's buried next to him. The family that owns the ranch gave permission."
"Werewolves, too?"
"Yeah."
"Winkler, I'm sorry for that part of your life," I said. And I was. That had to suck, big time. "What happens to the widows of the Packmasters that got killed?"
"The new Packmasters have the option of taking them, if they're not married already. Sometimes that works out. Sometimes not."
"Sounds a little brutal to me," I said.
"It's to perpetuate the species. Female werewolves can bear young until they're at least a hundred and fifty. If the mate was human, they're excluded from the Pack. They take whatever they have of value and move away if they're able. Sometimes the Pack puts funds together to accomplish that.
"Why do they do that?" I asked.
"To prevent retaliation. Humans don't see things the same way werewolves do at times. I've heard tales of humans taking a gun to a run area on the full moon and just shooting indiscriminately."
"There certainly are a few differences in the species, aren't there," I said.
"Yeah. Same for the vamps, obviously."
"I'm still waiting for the Vampire Manual to be carried at B&N," I said.
"You'll be waiting for that forever," he informed me dryly. "They guard that information better than Fort Knox. It's all oral tradition, passed on from sire to child."
"You're just a fountain of cheerful information," I retorted.
"Sorry to burst your bubble and all," he said.
"You could have strung it out a little, maybe said there might be a manual, someday, when the unicorns and fairies come out of hiding."
"Don't make fun of Unicorns," Shirley Walker came to sit down nearby.
"Have you seen one?" Winkler was teasing her. Personally, I wouldn't want to tease Shirley. She looked like she could stop a speeding bus with one hand.
"Now, why would I tell you that?" Shirley smiled. "What I will say is that sometimes there really are more things in heaven and earth." She accepted a cup of coffee from someone and sipped it.
"Three months ago, I would have told you that vampires and werewolves didn't exist. That they were a myth," I said. "Funny, isn't it, how your convictions can sometimes bite you in the ass?"
Weldon came over and sat down next. He already had a cup of coffee in his hand. "Little vampire," he said, "I've thought and thought, trying to come up with some way to repay you for what you did for me. I'm not even sure how you did half of it, but that doesn't make me any less grateful. What I have is this." He pulled a slip of paper out of his pocket and handed it to me.
"What's this?" I asked.
"A phone number," he said. "I suggest you memorize it. If there's ever anything the werewolf nation can do for you, call that number. We'll do our best to answer the call for help."
"All right," I said. I looked at the number, hoped it would stick in my mind and then handed the paper back to Weldon. Chances were I'd never need it. I'd either be stuck with Winkler or the Council, Ed or Serge would find me and it wouldn't do me any good at all then. "Thank you," I said to Weldon.
"Well, thank you is inadequate, on my part, anyway. I appreciate what you did. And I will honor you, as long as I live."
"Nobody's ever offered to do that before," I smiled at him.
"And I will tell my grandchild I was rescued from a tree by a cookie baking vampire," he grinned.
"See that you do," I laughed.
Chapter 13
The wedding was held as soon as the sun was down and fireflies winked here and there during the ceremony, lending an ethereal quality to the service. Kathy Jo wore a beautiful, ivory gown and Daryl, dressed handsomely in a tux, was grinning the entire time. Weldon stood up with his son and Martin Walters came in for the wedding with his wife and two children. I got to hold his youngest, Martin Walters, Jr., but they called him Mack. He was dark-haired with black eyes, just like his father. His daughter was at the shy stage, hiding behind her father's legs and refusing to come out.