Chosen by Fate, Rejected by the Alpha

~~

Trinity

~~

The bachelorette party (glorified sleepover) was a lot of fun, but we didn't stay up too late. Nikki yelled at me repeatedly last night to make sure I didn't do anything to the excess. Not because of the baby, but because she was once again doing my makeup and hair and didn't want me to be too tired or not be at my best. So, it was because of this that we went to bed just a little after midnight.

The wedding was taking place here at the estate in the early afternoon. I was awoken by Nikki and Juniper at around nine in the morning. They told me that I needed ample time to get ready for the day, seriously I had almost four hours still. People would probably start arriving at noon, but no one was allowed to see me until I walked down the aisle.

Granted Mom and Dad, still awkward to think but I was loving it, could come to my room when they finally got here, as could Grandfather and Lila. Noah and Carter were staying with Reece, partly to keep him away from me until the wedding. Aside from that select few and those helping me get ready I was not allowed to see anyone else.

From what I had been told, and heard, Reece was throwing a bit of a fit over not being able to see me. He was permitted to talk to me on the phone, but Nikki and Juniper were running interference when he first came down the hall during breakfast. The two of them and Lila managed to send him on his way. I didn't envy them, I knew how upset he was likely to be.

The breakfast we ate was delivered to the room, where I could eat in peace without letting Reece see me. It was delicious as always and I enjoyed it as best as I could, but I was getting an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. I just chalked it up to the morning sickness I had been feeling lately. Still, it left me with a feeling of dread.

After breakfast I showered quickly before wrapping both my hair and my body in towels and going back out to my room. I applied the same unscented body oil that I had used during my mate marking. Juniper helped by getting my back for me.

Once the oil was applied I put on my under garments for the day and pulled on a silk robe. Nikki sat me in a chair facing away from all the mirrors in the room, not letting me see what she was doing to my hair. 

I may not have been able to see what she was doing, but I could still feel it. I felt her pull the top of my hair back and start braiding. She kept pulling the hair loosely into the braid, not pulling it tight at all. She was slowly lengthening the braid until it was nearly to the tips of my long, dark hair. I heard the quick snap of rubber where she tied it off followed by the quick snap of metal.

"This was given to me by my mother." Lila told me as she smiled at me. "It was something that I wore on my own wedding day." I wanted to take a look at whatever it was but I hadn't been allowed to look in the mirror yet and I could once again feel Nikki's hands in my hair. She was now pulling the twists of the braid to loosen it up a little bit more. When I was allowed to turn and look in the mirror I gasped.

My hair looked beautiful, it was an elegant looking braid but still seemed slightly casual. There were loose strands of hair hanging near my face and a couple by my neck, but instead of looking messy they looked planned and added to the elegance of the entire look.

The metal that I had heard click earlier was a metal hair clasp that Lila had attached to the end of my hair where the braid had been tied off. It was clearly old but still shone with beauty. It's silver was polished to perfection. But what was truly special was the shape. The delicate silver hair clasp was shaped like a lotus flower, just like the flower on my engagement ring from Reece.

"Lila, this is so beautiful. Are you sure you want me to have it? I feel like it is too much."

"Of course I want you to have it. Who else besides you?" She leaned over the back of my chair and hugged me lightly. "My son is marrying you today, but you're already the daughter I always wanted. Without you, Trinity, I would never have found my way out of the darkness. I can never thank you enough."

"Lila." I smiled and felt tears stinging in the back of my eyes as I looked at Lila through the mirror.

"No crying." Nikki snapped at me as she put a cool damp washcloth over my eyes. "I will never be able to do my job if your face is all puffed up." She glared at me. "Well, I could, but you wouldn't look right. So don't make things harder on me." She was laughing now, her attack with the cloth had been so sudden and unexpected that I actually jumped and yelped in surprise. Everyone laughed a little, myself included.

Once Nikki took the cloth away, she turned me around again and started on my makeup. She first dried my face gently, doing her best not to make my skin turn red. After that she applied a thin layer of lotion to my face that smelled of apples and vanilla. I glared at her when I smelled it.

"Lila bought the lotion special for today. You can have the rest when I am done. I've been told Reece will love it." I saw Lila nodding her head in agreement behind her. While I glared at them both Nikki and Juniper quickly applied the lotion to my arms.

"Gotta get it on you really good." Juniper joked.

"I'm gonna pay you back for this." I grumbled causing them to laugh again.

Once I had been thoroughly assaulted with the lotion that I knew Reece would notice right away, Nikki brought her massive makeup kit over to begin her work. I just closed my eyes and let her get to work. There wasn't really much that I could do at this point anyway.

I felt all the brushing, rubbing, smearing, all the different movements that Nikki needed to do while making me look like a bride, all the while I was thinking about Reece. My mate, my lover, my protector, everything that he was to me. I didn't know exactly how he saw me, besides as his Little Bunny, but I knew that I wouldn't change him for anything in the world. I love him, and I think I did from that first failed meeting in the forest, I just didn't know what my heart, instincts, and brain were all screaming at me that day. But I know now.

When Nikki was done and I could no longer feel the makeup being applied to my face I finally opened my eyes. I saw everyone in the room looking at me with a bright smile on their faces. I turned to look in the mirror and I saw the transformed me that I had not seen since my marking day.

The coloring was different this time. My pale complexion wasn't lightened or darkened at all, instead it was accentuated to show how truly moon-like my face could be. My eyes looked striking, even to me. Nikki had used a silver eyeshadow that seemed to pop out next to my pale complexion. Also, the silver sparkled with every move I made, the light catching and glittering in the shimmering flecks hidden within the silver.

In contrast to the silver was the dark, jet black mascara that fully displayed how long my eyelashes were. My eyelashes curled perfectly away with just the right amount of curve in them. A light, very light, blush was applied to my cheek bones, just enough to make them pop. My lips this time, instead of the red that they were before, were barely colored. Well, to be honest they were colored, but with a soft nude shade with just a slight rosy, almost peach color. 

There weren't a lot of changes to my face, Nikki remembered well I didn't like a lot of makeup, but the changes I could see made me look like a different person in my eyes.

"It looks wonderful Nikki, thank you." I tried to smile at her but I couldn't.

"What's wrong?" Lila asked me after she saw the expression on my face.

"I just, don't look like me anymore, do I?" I asked them all.

"You look just like you always do, but with a little makeup on." Rawlynne told me, having watched everything silently from the back this whole time, her smile was reassuring.

"Really?"

"Of course." Ella nodded. "Why do you think you look different?"

"I just feel like people won't recognize me with how I look. I don't look this pretty." I grimaced.

"Trinity, sweetheart, you're very beautiful." Lila held onto my left hand as she looked at me.

"I know for a fact that most women in the pack have been jealous of you for a long time, since before you mated with Reece. You may not have met them, but they were jealous of your natural beauty. You need to realize how hard it is for women to achieve what you do so easily." All their words were having a positive effect, I could feel whatever negative emotions had settled in my heart at that time ebbing away and I was finally able to smile happily.

Just as I was getting my dress on, with Ella's help again, there was a knock at the door. I could smell the scents that were waiting outside.

"Trinity, sweetheart." I heard Mom call from the other side. I had just stepped into the dress and was having it pulled up along my body so Lila went toward the door. Just as Ella finished fastening the dress Lila opened the door and let Mom, Dad, and Grandfather into the room.

"Oh my Goddess." Mom cried out happily. She was already wearing her dress for the wedding, the blue went well with her lighter shade of brown hair. Dad was standing there in his tuxedo as was Grandfather. He and Grandfather were told that they didn't need to wear tuxedos but they had said they wanted to be part of everything. I think they just didn't want to be the only ones in the family not wearing something special.

"You look amazing." Grandfather reached out and hugged me gently.

"You're beautiful." Dad hugged me next. Looking at the two of them, a generation apart but so similar in appearance. 

Dad had the dark brown eyes and dark brown hair that was the signature of our family, only one of which I had inherited, Grandfather had the dark eyes, but his hair had long since given way to the gray of age. They both had strong, prominent jaws just like the one Noah and Carter had inherited. They had the same family nose and wrinkling around the eyes. I had often wondered why Grandfather had laugh lines around his eyes, but I now knew that he wasn't as grumpy as I had thought he was. And though Dad was much younger, his laugh lines were just as prominent because he was a naturally jovial person. They looked so much alike that I could clearly see what Dad would look like in another twenty years or so.

"We brought something for you." Mom said as she tried not to cry looking at me.

"Your dress has something blue already, and Lila said she was giving you something old, so we decided to cover the something new and something borrowed." Dad smiled at me. "We will start with your something new." 

Dad handed me a box that was just a little too big to fit in my hands and allow me to open it. I took it from him and set it on the table, it was quite light. When I took the lid off, I saw the most beautiful tiara I had ever seen in my life. It was made of white gold and covered in diamonds. There were curving swirl lines that matched the top of my dress and the three moon symbol in the center on top. The entire tiara was around three inches tall and would rest across the top of my forehead. When I picked it up, I saw that there were diamonds that would dangle just slightly and rest across my forehead just below the base of the tiara. I could tell at a glance that it was expensive as well as beautiful.

"How did you get one that goes so well with my dress? I didn't even know the final design." I asked with awe in my voice.

"I worked with them." Ella said sheepishly.

"We went to see Ella right after we found out the good news and asked her to help us design it. We then put in a rush order to the jewelers." Mom smirked. "They weren't happy about having to rush it, but it was for the Luna after all."

"Thank you guys, I love it."

"I have one more thing for you." Grandfather smiled with a hint of sadness in his eyes. "This belonged to your grandmother, it was supposed to go to your mother and she could have passed it down to you, but that didn't happen."

Grandfather brought out another box, this one a lot smaller and shaped like one you would get from a jewelry store for a necklace. The necklace inside was slightly longer than average and had two large tear shaped diamonds on the end. The entire chain of the necklace was covered in small diamonds. It wasn't a flimsy chain that would get tangled and twisted. No, this was a necklace that would not twist and turn around your neck, yet it was still flexible. The Diamonds on the chain didn't interfere with the flexibility of the links.

"Now, it's just being lent to you, for now." Grandfather smiled.

"What do you mean." I asked him.

"I am lending it to you for the wedding. It will then be gifted to you after the wedding." He crinkled his eyes as he smiled at me. "See, something borrowed."

"Thank you, Grandfather." I laughed as I threw my arms around his neck. "Thank all of you for everything you've done to help me out today."

"I don't think any of us would have missed this for anything." Emmalee told me with a huge smile. "I know that, personally, I am really glad I met you and am part of this wedding. Through you I met the man I am going to marry. And I know that I will be so happy to have my future sister inlaw be part of my wedding."

"You know I will Emmalee, I wouldn't miss it." I hugged her too.

"And, though the circumstances are far from perfect, without you I wouldn't have my mate either." Rawlynne smiled at me. "And I am so glad I met you so I could also meet the man I am going to be spending my life with, even though I was so not ready for this to happen." She laughed at the end.

"And you're already my sister." Nikki hugged me. "So, I already know how amazing you are."

"I don't have a mate, and I don't know you very well, but I know you're an amazing person and an awesome Luna." Ella told me. I hugged her too. Everyone in this room was either family or a friend, both new and old, and I was so glad to be spending this day with all of them.