Chapter 103

Chapter 103
I slept deeply and dreamlessly that night, likely from the evening run the night before, and woke up to the sun peeking in the windows. It was still early, the sun just having poked over the horizon. There was a stillness in the air, a calmness that often comes with the dawn.

Shifting carefully away from Grimm, so as to not wake him, I padded over to the small kitchenette in the other room and started coffee brewing while I went to brush my teeth and wash my face. Once the coffee was ready, I poured myself a cup and slipped out onto the balcony to enjoy my hot coffee as the sounds of the pack waking for their day grew around me.

I left the balcony door open, letting the crisp air filter into the suite, and took a deep breath, my eyes scanning over the land.

It had rained last night, leaving everything with a freshly washed look. I wasn’t too worried about the tables and chairs for the ceremony, since the warm sun of the day would likely dry any remaining rain before the ceremony that evening.

As I looked over to where Amy, her mom, and Seraphina had set up the beautiful decorated pergola and chairs where the ceremony was to be held, I froze. My jaw dropped at the same time the coffee mug dropped from my hand and shattered on the balcony floor, coffee slashing.

“What’s wrong?” I heard a sleepy Grimm call out, as he burst awake and hurried over to me. His eyes scanned my body, looking for injury; his hair bedraggled from sleep.

I couldn’t speak. I pointed to what I was seeing and Grimm followed my direction, swearing under his breath as he blinked in the sight before us.

The beautiful ceremony space our friends had spent hours crafting was completely smashed by a huge tree limb that had fallen from the old ash tree above. The pergola was splintered. The beautiful fabrics and garlands woven around it were cast asunder. Chairs and tables that had been set out were tossed around.

“We must have slept through a storm last night…” Grimm trailed off, rubbing a hand through his already messy hair.

“Is this a sign?” I wondered out loud in a voice barely above a whisper.

“No, Cam! Of course not! It’s weather. It’s nature… Look, we’re not having the ceremony until tonight, which means we have all day to fix this,” he said, taking hold of my shoulders and trying to block my view of the smashed ceremony site with his body. As he did so, I realized he was butt naked.

I gasped, “Grimm! Go put some clothes on before the entire pack sees your naked ass as soon as they wake up.”

Grimm rolled his eyes, pecked me on the cheek and returned inside, hopefully in search of some shorts.

Amy? Amy you need to wake up and look outside. I called through the link. I would usually text if it was early, so as to not wake her up if I didn’t have to, but this was an emergency.

Cam, it’s so early. Why are you up?

Amy. Look out your window. I said, seriously.

I heard a window sliding open from below, where Amy and Ryder’s suite was, then a gasp. I looked down to my right and saw Amy’s head poking out of the window.

“Amy, what are we going to do?” I shouted to her.

“I-I-I don’t… Uhh… No. We can pivot. We can think of something. It will all be okay. Your special day will not be ruined. Not on my watch!” she seemed to be talking more to herself, her voice raising with each statement.

“I’ll call Sera,” I called down, “Meet me at her place in ten.”

An arm snaked around my waist, pulling me back from the railing I had been leaning over to see Amy.

“Can you please stop yelling and trying to wake up the whole pack? You can mind link,” Grimm said into my ear as his body pressed against my back.

“This is an emergency!” I hissed at him, pulling away from his warm body and stomping to the closet. I threw on the quickest and first clean item I could find, a simple maxi dress with thin straps and a built in bra. Then I huffed out of the suite and down to Amy’s while I typed a message to Seraphina on my phone.

“I texted Seraphina,” I said as Amy opened the door.

She nodded and we marched out of the pack house and over to Seraphina’s cottage. As we walked, I tried not to look in the direction of the pergola. I would be able to see just a little of it from the path, but I wasn’t ready to face it up close just yet.

Seraphina’s door flew open as Amy and I approached.

“How bad is it?” she asked, forehead lined with worry.

“It’s…. bad.” I confessed.

The three of us took a collective deep breath to steady ourselves before marching in silence to the site.

“Oh no…” Amy trailed off as the destruction came into view.

Seraphina crossed her arms around herself and bit her lip. I started to cry.

I couldn’t help it. I knew it was stupid to cry over a pergola, but I had been so excited for the luna ceremony and had spent days picturing myself standing under it with Grimm as we planned what the ceremony would look like.

“Well… fuck,” I said as a small sob escaped me.