Worlds Collide: Chapter 38

We have a small tent set up on cathedral cove beach in New Zealand for the service to take place. There are only a handful of guests seated, made up of my closest friends, well they are more like family. Sky stands at the end of the alter, acting as Juan's best man and fiddling with Juan’s bow tie for him. As the music starts, everyone turns to look down the aisle and I get a good look at Juan in his suit and suddenly I wish I was walking down first to be closer to him.
Lily and Rai start their slow walk up, Lily pushing Rai in a pram shaped like a carriage which is rigged up to shoot out flowers like party poppers as they walk. Little Rai grasps at the air excitedly trying to grab them as the flutter around her. When they reach the front, they take their positions at the side and wait for me.
I walk under the iconic arch and start up the aisle, walking quicker than you are supposed to, but still stopping to twirl and show off my dress before taking Juan’s hands. Lily’s mum performs the ceremony for us, a short and sweet round of I dos before I get the steamy kiss I was waiting for, being swept up into Juan’s arms as he carries me back down the aisle to the sound of my friends wolf whistles.
Juan carries me to the small tent that was set up for my costume change and pushes me up against the tent pole.
“There is no way I’m going back to that party now, this is all the fun I want right here. I would like to take you as my wife.” He says in a husky voice, tearing at the buttons to undo my dress.
“Oh no, step away from the bride Mister!” Lily chastises and inserts herself between us. “I only get her for an hour and I will have the full hour! Don’t you dare ruin her make up for later either, you have a long day ahead of you and she has to look perfect until the end.”
“She always looks perfect” Juan says, trying to sneak around Lily.
“Aw so sweet, now out!” She tries to shoo him away, but fails to make the wall of muscle that is my man move. She rolls her eyes and uses the roots of a nearby tree to forcefully pull him out of the tent.
She helps me into my second dress, a long boho style peach dress made of cotton crochet lace, with more holes in it than it has fabric, meaning that I’m covered in boob tape and thin skin coloured thong to retain a modicum of modesty.
“We really should have made this the last costume change, there is no way Juan will be able to resist you in that.” Lily says with a sigh of defeat.
“Well I do enjoy teasing him and besides this is perfect for the beach.” I defend.
“Come on then, let’s go test his self control.” Lily giggles, releasing me from the tent and Juan from her restraints.
He is by my side in a flash, I use the momentary distraction as he takes in my new look to run off with Lily to the dance floor. He chases after us, but Sky intercedes him like a pro, handing him baby Rai, effectively pinning him down so that he begrudgingly sits and rocks her gently. His eyes never leave me though as I jump up and down with Lily and Ember and all the guests, even Mr Elm gets up for the odd song. The music turns to a sexy slow song and I grind against Lily as I slowly drop down to the floor and back up. Juan clearly reaches his limit, standing between us and handing Rai insistently to Lily. Lily gives in and takes her baby, freeing Juan to dance with me. The man has some serious moves, using his hands and hips to guide my body in sync with his own as we flow together with the music. This is the closest he can get to fucking me without actually penetrating me as I feel his bulge straining through his trousers against the thin layer of fabric covering me and I worry a little that people are doing to start to be able to see my arousal through this dress. He spins us off the dance floor and pulls me away, heading towards the forest trail where there is more privacy.
Before we are fully hidden, Juan poofs and I realise that his time must be up. I check over my shoulder, but no one seems to have noticed, they are all still dancing happily. Well, except for Lily who sneaks away to say goodbye to me.
“You look beautiful, not go rock the rest of the dresses and remember I want pictures of everything, preferably a full filmed version, this is the real reason we have helped them to update their technology.” She says kissing my cheek, before we proclaim our love to each other and I have to fly to the nearest gateway.
…
I fly through the cave in cairns and I come out right beside my grandparents cottage. I go there to get ready for the tying ceremony while I wait for the high priestess to retrieve Juan. Since Zia banished him, she is the only one able to bring him through the portal into Malifa.
As custom dictates, I wear a black dress to the ceremony, I updated the one I made here that looked like the night sky, adding a trim of black opals. Thankfully this part we get to do in private, it will confirm whether Juan and I are fated mates or not and I’m not sure I want an audience to see our reactions either way.
It is only my grandparents that are present, while Zia has apologised, she is still not my favourite person, so I didn’t invite her. I manage to change and touch up my make up before they return, so Grandad feeds me some cakes while we wait for them to arrive.
Juan does not look thrilled to have spend so long with my grandmother and I can only imagine the threats she has fired at him on their journey, he looks relieved to see me as they approach us. I’m sitting on the bench with grandad in the garden, I rise to meet him and we take our place under the arch with sweet-peas climbing up it.
My grandparents begin reciting the spell together as I smile at Juan excitedly. As they chant, we tie the red silk ribbon around our joined hands. As we knot the bow, the spell ends and I turn to my smiling grandparents.
“Did it work?” I ask, not feeling any different.
“Well since neither of you are crying out from the crippling pain, I’d say yes” Esme says.
“Crippling pain?” Juan asks.
“When two who are not fated to be together attempt the ceremony, Hecate punishes them for meddling with destiny, the effects vary, in worst cases some are left paralysed.” She says bluntly.
“You might have mentioned that before we agreed to this!” I exclaim, shocked at the risk we just took.
“Don’t worry dear, I had several cures prepared for you in the event that it occurred, but Lawrence had faith in the two of you.” She explains.
I feel a wave of anger pass through me that is not my own and I look at Juan and giggle. He looks at me confused and the anger subsides, replaced with feelings of love.
“I can feel your feelings” I explain.
“You will learn to control the link so that you only share what you would like to share, but initially it can be a bit overwhelming and tricky to filter through.” Grandad says.
I push my feeling of love and happiness back at Juan and watch him look at me in awe and smile. The more he looks at me the more I feel his lust growing and I push my luck by pushing my own lust back at him.
“Perhaps we should give them some time alone Esme” Grandad whispers.
“Nonsense, we have the official ceremony to attend and their presentation to the kingdom can not wait.” She says clapping her hands and pulling me away, back towards the palace.
I am changed into a dark emerald green velvet dress with a high neck which hugs my body tightly, but covers up more than I would normally. Juan and I are officially united as mates in front of the higher ranking officials of Malifa and Zia’s family. A step that feels more like a formality than a celebration our love.
Afterwards, I change into my purple dress to present us to the kingdom, or at least those who wanted to come out to witness the event who gathered in front of the palace. My tight dark purple, almost black dress is made of a leathery material and done in the style of Morticia Adams with a plunging neck line and mermaid skirt. There were more people than I expected gathered. I was supposed to stand on the balcony and wave, then present Juan and join our hands. However, when I pulled Juan’s hand in mine, he twirled me into him and dipped me down for a kiss, earning an “aw” from our audience. It took Zia loudly clearing her throat and then threatening to put Juan to sleep before he finally released me.
I get to enjoy some of the beautiful wedding cake that grandad made before we have to leave, its a red velvet master piece, decorated beautifully with icing roses. Really that was the best part of the Malifa ceremonies, grandad generally is the best thing about Malifa. The rest felt too rigid and formal for my liking, but I should have expected that from my grandmother.
I have to leave Juan to be returned by my grandmother and I teleport to our final destination for the day, King Ash’s castle.