PREVIOUSLY-

"Gods I love you, babe." I told her, rolling over to kiss her again. She stood up and walked over to my closet, grabbing a pair of sweats and throwing them to me to wear for the afternoon.


A few hours later, Bella insisted that we get dressed in nice clothing and she was even wearing a dress, which I knew she wasn't very fond of, making me extremely curious as to what she had planned.

At sunset, Bella pulled me out of the house saying that we needed to go somewhere before we had to meet the Cullens at midnight. I had absolutely no clue where she was taking me, only that she'd been texting Quil at some point during the day.

"Where are you taking me, babe?" I asked Bella as she pulled me by my hand down the path towards the beach. The sky was beautiful with purples and reds, but it would be completely dark soon enough.

"You'll see when we get there." She told me with a giggle as she nearly tripped over a tree root. I caught her mid-fall.

"How do you even walk from class to class without me there with you, princess?" I laughed, setting her back up right.

"I'm usually paying attention when I don't have my super-hot wolfy fiancé distracting me." She told me, pulling me in toward her to kiss me.

"Hmm so your clumsiness is all my fault?" I asked against her lips.

"Only most of it." She winked at me, pulling me to continue on.

We finally made it to the beach and I saw a small fire going with a man I knew well sitting next to it with his eyes closed.

"Old Quil?" I asked Bella curiously, wondering where all of this was going.

"You'll see why in a minute." She whispered to me as we approached.

I noticed that Old Quil was wearing his official tribal shaman clothing and his face was painted as well. He had three bowls sitting in front of him on the sand as well as a teapot and one cup, and he motioned for the two of us to come sit on either side of the bowls between him and the fire.

I looked at Bella, completely shocked by what she'd been planning.

I sat down on one side of bowls while she sat on the other.

"Do you both come to me tonight of your own free?" Old Quil asked us.

I knew exactly what was happening and I couldn't begin to explain how much it meant to me that my imprint set this up to surprise me.

"Yes." We both answered at the same time.

"Brother Lahote, you will now mark your imprint with the color white first, symbolizing the peace and happiness of your bond." Old Quil said to me.

I dipped my fingers into the white paint and reached over to Bella's face, painting two lines down across her forehead.

"Sister Swan, you will now mark your imprint with the color white first, symbolizing the peace and happiness of your bond." He told Bella.

Bella did the exact same for me, painting two lines across my forehead.

"Brother Lahote, you will now mark your imprint with the color blue, symbolizing the confidence and commitment you have to your imprint." Old Quil said to me, motioning to the bowl of blue paint.

I dipped my fingers into the blue and reached across, painting one line down her nose and one on each side of her jaw line.

"Sister Swan, you will now mark your imprint with the color blue, symbolizing the confidence and commitment you have to your imprint." He repeated to Bella.

She repeated my actions and painted the same lines on me with the blue paint.

"Brother Lahote, you will now mark your imprint with the color red, symbolizing the strength of your love for her." Old Quil instructed me.

I dipped my fingers into the red paint and carefully painted two red lines running down her cheekbones on either side of her face.

"Sister Swan, you will now mark your imprint with the color red, symbolizing the strength of your love for him." He instructed her as well.

Bella dipped her fingers into the red paint and drew the same lines on either side of my face.

I could feel the overwhelming surge of emotion inside of me at what all of this meant and the fact that she had chosen to do this for me.

"Join your hands." We did as he said. "Now may the spirits of our ancestors bless this union of your two souls as they come to form one from now until the end of time, in life and death." Old Quil began chanting and the fire grew in height before returning to its normal state. "Together you will now walk into the water and kneel in the shallow waves, washing one another's face free of the colors that are now embedded within your spirits forever. Then with a kiss you shall be one as man and wife to this tribe and the great spirits of our ancestors."

Bella and I stood together and held hands as we walked over to the ocean, kneeling in the cold shallow waves.

I took the cold water and carefully washed the paint off her face before she did the very same to me.

Holding both of her hands, we both leaned forward and kissed, then rested our foreheads against one another as I felt the tears running down from my eyes.

We stood and walked back to Old Quil who was now standing in front of the fire.

"The spirits have given their blessing. Your union is now complete. You shall now be recognized as man and wife to this tribe and to each other as your souls are now tied together for eternity."

Old Quil then walked back toward the path and I fell to my knees in front of my imprint and now wife, completely speechless as tears stained my cheeks.

She kneeled in front of me with tears in her eyes as well, pressing her hand to my cheek.

I could feel it. Every bit of it. Our souls had been intertwined before, but now they were no longer only intertwined, they were completely merged into one.

"You have no idea what that meant to me, Bella." I whispered to her.

"I knew that it would, which is why I wanted it. Not just for you, but for the both of us." She whispered back to me.

"I love you." I said to her, never in my life meaning it more.

"I love you, too. Now we're married." She told me with a smile as I bit down on my lip.

"Yeah, Bella, we are." I told her, leaning forward to kiss her with everything I had in me.

She eventually pulled away from me and rested her forehead against mine.

"We do still have to do the other ceremony, at least for my dad's sake." She finally said with a small laugh.

"I'll do anything for you. Anything. I'd marry you again every day for the rest of my life if you wanted." I told her with complete honesty.

"That may be a bit overkill, so I'll just settle for once more." She laughed. "We're married and my dad doesn't even know we're engaged yet."

"We'll tell him." I promised. "How did you know about the tribal ceremony?"

"I asked Quil. He told me that his grandfather could perform it for us, so I asked him if he could set it up for us tonight." She told me, pulling me to my feet again.

"You're my wife now." I told her, still not believing it.

"And you're my husband." She responded back in kind and I smiled the widest I ever had.

I noticed Bella start shivering from the cold, considering we were both wearing soaking wet clothing and I picked her up bridal style and began to head back to the house. We still had three hours until we met with the Cullens and I wasn't about to let it go to waste.


A/N- HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Didn't expect that one, did you? I legit cried (happy tears) while I wrote this chapter. I did make up the ceremony in its entirety. The symbolism of the colors in Native American culture were real though, so I thought it would be the perfect thing. And shamans have the ability to perform marriage ceremonies as well.