Welcome back to Tuesday Tales!  This weeks prompt is Spider. 

I’m right about knee deep in the fourth book in The Tribe series, The Child, I’m doing this next scene from it as well.

Velli is all dressed up with somewhere to go…her own wedding. A past of crap happening at every turn has her nervous…but she’s ready, willing, and oh-so-able to finally wed her mate, Kane.

Her good friend Noelle pops into the room to check on her…and here we go:

A soft knock pulled her from her musings. Noelle poked her head around the door. Her bright smile lifted Velli’s spirits quicker than her voice. “I figured you’d wait to get dressed. You look beautiful. What’s wrong?”

“Damn perceptive Fae.” Velli hugged her friend gently. “I’m fine. Just anxious for the wedding to start.”

“No cold feet?”

“Not even a toe. For either of us.”

“Oh, I have no doubt that Wolf is ready, willing, and able, to drag you down that aisle if even a toe gets cold.” Noelle laughed. She touched Velli’s forehead. “So why so dark and stormy. You’re going to give yourself wrinkles.”

“Age old habit of going over the worst case scenario in everything.” Velli sighed. “It’ll pass soon as I’m down there and walking.”

“I suppose that’s more than fair if we take into account your long and horror-storied history.” Noelle took Velli’s hands in hers. “So let’s distract at least for a few minutes. Where are Johnny and Kai? I thought they’d come.”

“They were going to, but then thought better of it. Kai is still mad at me, for one thing.” Velli didn’t care if Kai was mad she’d created a clone for the Raven who was now her son Tam—only to immediately destroy all information and tools used to create him. The circumstances called for it. “Plus, John wanted to be respectful of Derek’s need for some space.”

“John is a good man. Kai is a good person in there. She’ll get over what happened. New mates should be happier, I know from experience.” Noelle chuckled.

“Well to be fair, I wasn’t exactly flowers and sunshine in my new-mate status so I suppose I can’t fault her for having issues—her own guilt being one of them. However,” Velli paused mid-sentence as a spider dropped right between them to hover.

An old superstition reared its head at the sight of the creature. There were a few bad luck omens for wedding days, a black spider being one of them.

Velli held out her hand, but wrapped it in a protective layer of water before she allowed the black widow to touch her hand. “Well, look what we have here.”

“Don’t freak out, please.”

The spider crawled along Velli’s protected hand. “Why would I?”

“It’s a bad omen, isn’t it? You’re already nervous, I don’t want you to freak out.”

“You’d think I would, wouldn’t you? However…” Velli carried the creature to the window. As it crawled onto the siding, she smiled. “We need to put this supposed omen into perspective.”

“Meaning?”

“There are a couple other bad omens for weddings. A black dog and a crow. Considering my mate is one massive black dog, and my newest child is the reincarnation of a big-ass Raven…I think omens are overrated in my case.”

Noelle laughed right along with her. “I guess when you put it that way, you have a point.”

“When there are so many other things to worry about, omens seem like the least of my problems. I’ve sent her on her way, and I’m all right.” Velli turned to her friend. “Not more or less nervous than before.”

“Are you sure?” Noelle drew close again. “I can soothe the savage beast if you want. I have a good repertoire of songs.”

Velli smiled at the offer. Her friend being a Siren did have its advantages. She could literally sing a person to sleep, to laugh, to be silent, whatever the situation called for. “I appreciate it, but you’ll never entirely soothe the beast of my past. I’ll be fine. Kane is my mate already, this is just formality. My nerves are little more than—well, nerves.”

Noelle kissed her cheek. “Good. Do you want me to stay? You still have twenty minutes before your mother comes to fuss a final time, along with your father to lead you to the ceremony. I can stay.”

“No, you need to go with your mate. I’ll be fine. Between the silence and the fussing, I honestly don’t know which is worse.” Velli winked. “I’ll take silence for now.”

“All right. I’ll see you at the circle.”

“You bet your ass you will.”

*~*

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