I'd known for a long time the basic truth that life was constantly changing.

It changed the day my parents were killed in the Aibek-Lunaire pack war, and I became an orphan along with many other wolves.

It changed the day I woke up and discovered I was the Alpha's Howl, and my excitement was off the charts with the thought of belonging to someone again, and not just the pack as a whole.

It changed again when Night rejected me, and I suffered the pain of being cast aside by my Destined One.

It changed again after he Took my Blood, and I hated him for biting me without my consent.

It changed yet again after I bit him, and we bonded, connected, and in doing so, helped save the pack from two evil magicks.

And it changed last night, when Night finally tackled me to the floor and fucked me for hours.

The last time, we'd finally made it to my bed, and when we'd both come so hard we could barely do more than breathe, Night eventually summoned the energy to roll to his back, with me on top, his cock connecting us. Alphas, I'd discovered, could stay hard for hours, ever after they'd come.

"Go to sleep, little Howl," he ordered me gruffly. As directed, I settled more comfortably on top of him, taking his hard cock even deeper inside of me, and laid my head on his chest. His arms went around me, pressing me closer to his heart.

My last thought before I fell asleep was that I loved being connected to this man both physically and emotionally. The feeling of being so intimately joined with him was reassuring, both to me and my wolf. For the first time in years, we had a family again; we were no longer alone in the pack.

When I woke up, his arms were still around me, and never in my life had I felt safer or so well loved. That Night loved me I had no doubt; I'd searched our bond at one point, while I was on my back, and Night was thrusting slowly, deliciously into me, looking down to see where we were joined, when his head suddenly came up and he looked into my eyes.

"More than anything," he'd said simply in response to my unvoiced question. "You don't even have to search our bond. If you ever wonder, just look in my eyes. They hold everything I feel for you in them and they always will."

This morning, he came alert the moment I moved and smiled lazily at me.

"Good morning, little Howl." He popped a kiss on the tip of my nose. "I liked you falling asleep with my cock in you. I'm looking forward to that every night after I fill you with my seed."

I smiled at him. "You're going to fill me just at night?"

His smile became an arrogant grin. "I'll fill you with my seed whenever I want, Neera. As an Alpha, I'm very single minded in my dedication and determination to fill my Howl with my pups."

"Well, at the rate you're going, it won't take long." And I couldn't wait. If Night was driven to breed me, I was just as instinctually driven to be bred, to grow ripe with my Alpha's child.

He smiled at that and rolled me to my back, his ginormous hand splayed over my belly.

"Someday soon, I'm going to feel the future Aibek Alpha moving around in you. Then his brothers and sisters will follow until we have so many you're going to threaten to cut off my balls," he teased me.

"As long as you keep adding on to the house, I don't care how many we have."

That made Night smile huge, and he hugged me to him. "We'll see who cries uncle first, little Howl."

When we were getting ready to head to the Den for breakfast, Night turned to me. "If I let you go find a wedding dress today, do you promise it won't take you three weeks to find it?" Hmmm, apparently someone was still a bit salty that I'd run away from him for three weeks.

"Oh, are we getting married?" I asked him archly. "I wasn't aware I'd been asked."

Night grunted. "And you won't be. You're mine, little Howl. We're getting married tonight, so go out with your girls and get a dress today." He paused a minute and looked me up and down. "Or wear what you have on now."

For the record, I was naked.

"Tonight?!" I screeched. "I can't find a dress that fast --"

"Makes no difference to me. Dress or not, we're getting married tonight, when the moon rises. Now, do what I say and I'll reward my good girl later." Then, with one hand grabbing my hair, he pressed a hard kiss to my lips and walked out the door, leaving his Howl spluttering behind him.

And, not going to lie, kind of looking forward to later.

Welp, no breakfast at the Den for me. Or for Owena and Echo. I sent them an text and within fifteen minutes, we were on our way. Of course, my trusty guard drove us in the huge SUV Night insisted I take if I went anywhere, and two hours into our excursion, I could practically hear him grinding his molars as we rushed from store to store.

Echo found her dress first, a light baby blue color that worked well with her blonde hair. Then I found a simple but elegant cream-colored dress that had a tightly fitted bodice and flared out into a fluffy skirt. Owena finally found hers in the last store we went to, and the dark pink sheath set off her figure beautifully.

On the way back, Echo was furiously texting on her phone. "What's going on?" I asked her.

"Listen, just because Alpha said you're getting married tonight with no notice doesn't mean we can't have a beautiful wedding for you. So I told Aymeric to rally every single member of the pack or I'd kick his ass by using a lot of multi-syllable words. I was just checking in to get an update on the to-do list I sent him-- I wasn't even sure if he even knew how to read -- and there's currently a huge cake being decorated, tons and tons of food being made, decorations being put up, twinkle lights being hung, a little arch for you and Night to stand under being built and decorated, chairs being put out for the pack and flowers being arranged. When we get back, hair and makeup are waiting for you. The end."

Owena and I just stared at her. She stared back. "What? You think I would stand for some lame-ass wedding for one of my besties? Fuck that noise. Besides, it's fun making Aymeric run around like my little bitch."

"Well, she has a point," Owena said, looking from Echo to me. Then her eyes brightened. "Oh, oh, oh! Tell him that Neera has her heart set on Night's two best men also holding bouquets of flowers to match ours. And remind him that a request from the Howl is just as compelling as a request from Alpha."

Echo's eyes gleamed evilly and she shot off a text to the big bad Alpha's Teeth. She nibbled on her lower lip as she waited for his reply and suddenly looked up at us with triumph.

"He said OK, which means he will honor the Howl's wishes. Yes!" Fist pumps and high fives all around.

"Do you think we could get away with saying that Neera wants Aymeric and Néron in tutus and tiaras?" Owena always did like to push the boundaries.

"No!" I protested, laughing. "Having them holding flowers is bad enough."

"Yeah, we want to keep this wedding classy as fuck," Echo said, seriously, then wondered why Owena and I started laughing at her.

Two seconds after we cleared the gate allowing us back onto pack lands, Night texted me.

The man thought he was hilarious. Before I could snark back, he sent another text.

That made me laugh.

Then came the best text of all.

I let the girls see that text, which set us all off, so much so that it was hard for me to type out an answer.

Let's see what he did with that.

"That has unlimited possibilities," Owena mused thoughtfully.

That text I didn't share with my friends. But my wolf and I both couldn't wait for tonight.

While my hair was being whipped into shape and my makeup was being expertly applied so I didn't look like a clown, Echo and Owena were running around to make sure everything was on schedule and looking perfect. The funny thing to me was that they were more into the details of the wedding than I was. I would have been happy if Night and I had recited our vows to each by ourselves, under the moon.

Hours later, the three of us were dressed and ready to go, and the girls handed me the traditional blood-red rose bouquet that wolf brides traditionally carried.

Echo and Owena had pretty large bouquets with trailing ribbons.

"Bigger and fussier than I'd normally have chosen," Echo said indicating her flowers, "but the guys are carrying the same exact ones, so...they can't be missed."

A knock on the door from the guard told us it was time.

"OK, we got this," Owena said, softly.

It was our traditional battle cry, so to speak, when we were embarking on something new. We'd said it when we started high school. We'd said it when we graduated. We'd said it when we'd begun our jobs. We'd said it when we parted ways the night before my twenty-first birthday.

And now, I was the first one to be marrying my Destined One. Echo would be next, her birthday being just a week away. Provided her Destined One was in the pack, we could be right back here in no time.

"We got this," Echo agreed. They both looked at me.

"We got this," I said, and my eyes started filling with tears.

"Don't you dare cry," Owena threatened me with a finger pointed at my nose. "I'll fuck you up if you ruin all that hard work that was done on your face."

So it was that I walked down the aisle, laughing. Admittedly, seeing Néron and Aymeric standing proud and tall beside Night, holding their pretty pink and white bouquets, might also have added to that.

The actual wedding ceremony didn't take long. Night, who, as Alpha, always married couples, now found himself in the position of marrying us, and we said the age old words that had joined two Destined Ones forever. But at the end, he added something new, as he addressed our pack.

"The Forces, in their wisdom, send each of us the perfect partner. I have never disagreed with their pairings, but I have to say, in giving me Neera Karis, they have outdone themselves. My Howl is brave and kind and strong, and she complements me in every way. It will be my honor to love her for the rest of my days."

He kissed my hand, tipped back his head and howled his appreciation to the Forces. Every member of the pack joined in the howl, lifting their faces to the moon, letting our wolves share in the celebration in this small but important way.

Later that evening, when Night and I were sharing our first dance, I looked around at the eyes of our pack members watching us intently, knowing they were soothed by this, knowing this image would replace the memory of their Alpha's rejection of me.

"The memory will fade, with time," Night said, low in my ear. "I only hope you can someday forget."

"I will because I know it wasn't really you," I said.

"And maybe because you will be too busy with our son in nine months," he said. "Our pup is already growing in you, Neera."

I smiled at him, feeling my happiness about to bubble over at the thought. "And how do you know this so fast?"

"I know because the Forces sent me an Alpha Dream last night. They do that to give me the name of the next Alpha."

"And what is his name?"

Night smiled at me. "He will be called Darius, and he will be the first of many, little Howl."

Yep, life would continue to change, and that sounded pretty perfect to me.