Leslie beamed down at him. “Yes! Of course, I will!” she said.
He slipped the ring on her finger. It was not an engagement ring, as she already had the one he had asked her to wear for appearances. Instead, this one was a band, an eternity ring that he slipped on her opposite hand.
“I want to do this before the babies are born. I want this to be completely legal, so there is never a question of illegitimacy,” he said.
“Well, we better do it quick then,” she said.
As if right on cue, the front door opened, and a man entered. He introduced himself and Leslie looked at him with some faint recognition.
“He’s the minister listed on our marriage license, so we’ll just be confirming what is already on the record. Aunt Meredith will be our witness,” he said.
Leslie laughed and took his hand as the minister positioned himself in front of them, marrying them in a no-frills ceremony. It was hardly a dream wedding, but she supposed it was functional, not fanciful. When they were done, the minister pronounced them man and wife.
“You may kiss the bride.”
Tucker kissed her; his mouth full of the love they shared. Aunt Meredith applauded them and they sat down with her and the minister. The restaurant staff, who had remained out of sight, came forth with congratulations and to take their orders for lunch.
“I don’t understand about your name on our license. How does that work? I mean, I just assumed it was a fake name being used and they had someone in the area that was going to pretend to be that person,” Leslie said quietly as they sat waiting on their food.
“There are many like me, in different areas of the country. We are more than happy to provide our name and signature on certain documents that allow women in difficult situations to escape from their situation. It might not seem like something we should be doing in the eyes of those who are most pious, but we view it as God’s work, if not strictly abiding by his word.”
“I think that is very wonderful of you,” Aunt Meredith replied.
“I do too,” Leslie told him. “Thank you.”
They enjoyed their post nuptial lunch celebration and parted ways, Tucker’s cell phone ringing just as he finished helping Aunt Meredith into the car of a friend who had arrived to take her shopping. He paused to answer it while holding the door open for Leslie to get into the front seat. She could see his eyebrows knotted together as he listened to someone on the other end and then told them he was on his way.
“Looks like we have an answer from the council,” he said as he jumped behind the wheel.
“What did they say?”
“Nothing, really. Only for me to come in to sit down with them.”
“When?”
“Now.”
Leslie sighed loudly and nodded. “I guess we better go get this done then, huh?”
“Yep.”
The two of them drove to the clubhouse and parked outside, walking in hand in hand and heading straight into his office and on through to the council room. Rather than taking a seat at the head of the table, Tucker sat against the wall beside Leslie to wait as the rest of the council began to file in.
“Tucker, we’re ready. If you would, take your seat at the head of the table.”
“That’s okay. I’ll sit back here with my wife,” he replied.
“Suit yourself,” Gus replied, non-plussed by it, or so it seemed.
“Tucker, we’ve discussed this back and forth quite a bit and we’ve decided that there was no way you could have known what would happen with the attack on the club... on our pack. We can hardly hold you accountable for something that none of us could have prevented, something that could have happened to any of us who have married women with violent ex-partners,” Gus began, referring to notes on a piece of paper in front of him.
Tucker merely nodded and said nothing. Leslie said nothing.
“The bigger problem, for us, is that you set out to deceive this council, to deceive our entire pack. We understand that there were underlying circumstances, but we wish you had just come to us and discussed it, but we now understand why you didn’t as we only last night realized that a member of our own council was involved in the activities with your brother.”
It was only then that Leslie realized there was a member missing from the other end of the table, a young man named Thomas. Tucker’s eyes narrowed, as he realized the same thing. She knew him well enough to know he was trying to figure out how the young man had escaped his notice.
“Finally, there is the matter of your right to the Alpha position. The fact that your father’s position was illegitimate could be viewed as making yours illegitimate as well. However, we have not made that public knowledge outside this council and it is our opinion that we should not. We felt it would only add to the chaos of what has happened recently.”