Wulf von Hannover
Wulf left the bride’s room, found his own dressing room, was directed by his incorrigible younger sister as to which tuxedo to put on and which honors to pin in a small row across his left pectoral in the exact place (as if she hadn’t instructed him in this only that morning and over a video-call at least once a week for months,) and stood near the altar for the processional. Flicka seemed none the worse for her recent kidnapping, just as bustling and efficient as she ever was. Her orders to the make-up artists and dressers seemed particularly crisp, even driven, as she wove everyone into a perfect tapestry.
Minutes later, he stood at the front of the church and nodded to his aunt in the front row, who seemed almost giddy. She did love weddings.
His closest friends—Dieter, Yoshi, and his cousin Wills—stood behind him.
The doors at the back opened, and his sister Flicka walked down the aisle, graceful as ever, bending slightly with the music.
Every now and then, he could see that his much younger sister had grown into a beautiful woman, no longer the wee, traumatized child who had crawled into his dorm room every night until even the starchy headmaster had agreed that something had to be done.
Flicka drifted down the aisle, wearing a white dress, and Wulf breathed because that job, at least, was done. Every night, for years, he had prayed that he would live long enough to see her to adulthood, and here she was, his greatest accomplishment.
Lizzy stepped down the aisle next, his tiny friend from the Southwest, a sprite of a woman. Having her, of all people, at his wedding almost made him laugh, but Lizzy’s fiancé glowering near the back of the church kept him from exhibiting too much mirth. The man fluctuated between protective and obsessive, and he was exactly what Lizzy needed.
And then Rae.
The sunlight outside blazed in her brilliant auburn hair under the white net as she started up the aisle, a swaying hourglass in white that everyone turned to see.
She glided up the aisle at just the right pace, her cousin Craigh escorting her through the standing congregation.
When she reached Wulf, he could see her warm, brown eyes behind the veil, and she smiled at him.
Every time she smiled at him, his heart beat a little stronger, and he felt the life in his body.