A/N: I don't really like putting these things at the top of the chapter but I just had to say this: LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!!!!!! This is it: the family. ... Well, not all of them, but the dynamics are rather like my own family so let's see what happens. Oh, and I gave Wyatt's sisters different initials so that they're easier to tell about.

"So?" DG prodded after a spell of silence.

"So, what?" Wyatt asked, knowing what she wanted him to say but wanting to hear her say it first.

"What are your sisters like?"

"Gwen is older than me by a few annuals. Real mother hen, that one. Been pregnant twelve times. She had four little ones by the time Jeb came along," Wyatt explained, glancing back at his son and feeling something akin to peace in the way his life had come together. "Amy's two annuals younger than me. Took up law enforcement, too, as soon as she was old enough."

"So she's a lot like you?" DG questioned, interrupting him.

He sent her a chiding glare, "Guess so. Then there's Babette and Hanah. They're less than an annual apart - Babette's six annuals younger than me and Hanah is nearly seven. They like to cause mischief."

"Like the goblins," Jeb shot in from the back seat.

His father glared at him, "Yes, like the goblins. Then there's Jael, the youngest. As soon as she was old enough she dedicated herself to Lurline's temple."

DG furrowed her brow. She had more questions but first she wanted to get something straight, "So the oldest is Gwen, and she has a lot of children; then there's Amy, who's also a Tin Man; then Babette and Hanah who apparently act like goblins; and then Jael, who's a priestess. Right?"

Wyatt nodded, "That's right."

"Why didn't any of them help you with Jeb when he was little?" The question was blunt, but DG still wanted to know why his five sisters wouldn't help with his son.

He shook his head, "Like I said, Gwen already had four little ones to look after by the time Jeb came around - the youngest being about his age. She helped as much as she could ... but I wasn't expecting much from her in that way. She had a lot of other children to worry about without having to add Jeb to the list. Amy was working in the Realm of the Unwanted from right out of training up until about three years ago. Babette and Hanah by that time were traveling with a group of gypsies. And Jael did help at the beginning. Before she took her vows when Jeb was two."

"Oh," DG replied, shocked that his family could have such a variety of characters within it. "And where does Elliot fall into all of this?"

"Elliot is younger than me by about three minutes," he glanced at her to see the shock on her face that he had a twin. "Don't worry, we're not identical. His hair is brown."

DG had to repress a smile at that, wondering if Elliot would be anywhere near as handsome as her Wyatt was. Not that she'd tell him that she thought he was handsome - his ego was already inflated enough as it was with the fact that the Labyrinth chose him to protect her. No one else, just him.

"You never talk about any of them," DG whined good naturedly as the forest they had been driving through transformed into the field lands of the southern quarter of the O.Z.

Wyatt gave her a mock glare, "That's not true. I told you about my parents."

"After I nagged you for three weeks straight," DG replied with an eye roll, "And you never once mentioned your siblings."

"Now I know that's not true. I must've mentioned them at least once." He frowned slightly as he thought. "I know I told you I had siblings last solstice when we were talking about the wedding plans."

"I seem to remember you just saying that you had family in the temple. That was it."

"I'm sure I mentioned the gypsies."

"Marcus, Andy! Hurry up and get in here, they'll be here soon!" Gwen called out to her two boys as they ran around the yard. Her brother was coming home. Bringing with him his bride - a Crown Princess, no less. Gwen smiled as she thought about Wyatt ... he always did have a way to make a stir in the family. First marrying a Goblin citizen and now the heir to the Goblin throne. What would he do next?

She so wanted the princess to like the family. "It would be horrendous if the Princess DG thought us uncivilized. She is so accustomed to palace life ... how will she react to our country ways?" Gwen thought out loud. Her husband looked at her with eyes that glittered with love.

"I'm positive that she'll love you once you give her room to breath, Gwen," Erik said with a smile. "Wyatt and Jeb both seem taken with her - she can't be that bad."

Gwen gave her husband a hard look, "Wyatt also thought Adora was a good catch. We both remember how that turned out, don't we?"

Erik nodded, "That doesn't mean the Princess is going to desert him like Adora did. I'm not even sure she could if she wanted to. Didn't he say something about a bonding?"

Gwen shook hear head in defeat as her mother came back into the kitchen, "But to grow up without a mother? We've all heard the stories of the Labyrinth and its king."

Millie set down the basket of vegetables she was carrying with a bang. Her voice dripped with barely controlled anger as she said, "You'd do well to remember, daughter mine, that you are talking about your in-laws and some of the most powerful magick wielders in this or any land."

Gwen hung her head, unsure what to say in response. Her husband responded for her, "But, Millie, you have to admit that it does seem a bit ... odd that Wyatt and Jeb find themselves attached so firmly to the Crown Princess of the Goblin Realm."

"You don't have to be so formal about it, Erik," Millie replied in a chastising tone. "Yes, she is many annuals younger than Wyatt, but that does not mean that they don't love each other and it does not mean that they are not perfect for each other." She started unpacking her basket, "Besides, in his letters he mentioned something about a bonding with the Labyrinth itsself. He said that the Land chose them for each other."

"Wait, Mother," a new voice said, "Are you saying that a maze decided that Wyatt should get remarried to a women barely four annuals older than his son?"

"The Labyrinth is much more than a maze, Babette," Millie reminded her daughter. "But, yes, that is exactly what I'm saying."

She gave her two daughters a hard look, "Now no more of this nonsense. There's work to be done."

"How can you be so sure that they'll like me?"

Wyatt raised an eyebrow at his bonded as she packed back and forth in front of him as they stopped for a quick break in a small town that they were passing through. There was still another three hours of driving before they reached the farmhouse where he'd spent his childhood.

"You seem mighty out of sorts for a woman who has stared down a king and threatened to castrate him," he commented, taking a drink of water before setting the canteen down.

DG stopped pacing and glared at him, "This isn't funny!"

"No," he replied, grabbing her hands and pulling her into his lap. He wrapped his arms around her as he said, "It's hilarious."

She humpfed as he chuckled. "I don't know what's wrong with me, Wyatt. It's just ... it's really important to me that they like me. And you didn't even tell me who most of 'them' were until a few hours ago!"

"Just be yourself, darlin'," he whispered into her hair, "And they'll love you just as much as I do."

DG gave him a peculiar look. "Well ... maybe not just as much," she replied with a grin, "Wouldn't want any jealous siblings on our hands, would we?"

Instead of a verbal response, Wyatt leaned in and captured her lips.

"Eeeww," Jeb said. "You guys need to stop doing there where I can see you."

DG and Wyatt couldn't help but laugh as they remembered a few weeks back when Jeb had caught them kissing on the gazebo at Finaqua. DG couldn't recall a single time in her life when she'd been as happy as she was with Wyatt and Jeb.

Now if she could only convince Wyatt that it was okay for them to ... consummate their bonding before their marriage in a little over six months.

Azkadellia looked at her reflection in the mirror. She looked like a snowball with all the petticoats the seamstresses put underneath her gown to give it shape. A lone tear escaped to run down her face as she listened to her heart break again.

Why had she agreed to this? She didn't want to marry Duke Sommerfield. He was a horrid man with too much money ... and that was why she'd marry him.

His money would help the farmers whose crops were failing. It would allow the O.Z. to repay the foriegn debts the crown owed. All he asked was for the princess's hand in marriage. Azkadellia's hand.

With all her heart she wished her dress didn't make her look like a snowball ... or the angel that the Duke insisted she resembled so strongly. She felt like a cad.

Another tear escaped her eye to run down her face and leave a mark on her breast, just above her heart.

"Your highness?" the seamstress asked, looking up from where she was pinning the hem of the gown. "Are you alright?"

Azkadellia nodded stiffly, "Of course. I'm just a little overwhelmed with the preparations for the wedding."

The older woman nodded, her eyes betraying her lack of trust in Azkadellia's words. "Of course, your highness. I'm almost finished."

Half an hour later Azkadellia was alone in her dressing room, having dismissed her maids after they had helped her remove the monstrosity of a gown she'd be forced to wear in a few short months.

She looked around to double check that she was alone before she waved a hand to put a silencing spell over her chamber. She moved to her vanity and opened the bottom drawer. She removed the contents before waving her hand again, revealing the box that fit snugly into the bottom of the drawer.

Opening it, Azkadellia removed the two items inside: an old cotton shirt obviously made for a man; and a compass attached to a chain so she could wear it around her neck. She slipped it around her neck, knowing it would rest next to her other pendant perfectly. Her hand caressed the face of the compass with tenderness and love.

"So you'll always be able to find your way back to me," he had told her, giving her a smile that made her heart burst with love.

Azkadellia brought the shirt to her face, enhaling the scent of the man she so longed to be with.

Tear began to flow again, and this time she did not stop them as she clung to the shirt, "Oh, Adrian."

DG could feel her sister's heart breaking through the magick of their pendants. She knew what would heal it, but Az wouldn't let her. The older princess insisted that she must go through with the marriage -- no matter who ended up getting hurt in the process.

Unconsciously, DG began to finger the pendant she wore above her clothes, sending comfort to her sister through their bond.

Wyatt watched her actions out of the corner of his eye. "Azkadellia?" he asked curiously, worried for the woman who was as good as his sister-in-law.

DG nodded, clutching the pendant in a firm grip. "She grows sadder and sadder as the wedding grows closer and closer." Her imploring eyes met her bond mate's, "Wyatt, I don't know how to help her."

He took one of his hands off the steering wheel and squeezed her thigh comfortingly, "Sometimes there's nothin' you can do, darlin'. This may be one of those times. She's made her choice."

"Well it was the wrong one," DG was adamant on her opinion of the matter. "It isn't just about her, either. You saw how upset Zero is about all of this."

Wyatt nodded, unsure what to say but knowing that he had to say something otherwise his bonded was going to do something foolish. "When did you find out about the bonding?" he asked even though he knew the answer.

DG gave him a funny look, "When Az got kidnapped. You know that, Wyatt."

He nodded, but answered by asking another question, "Why didn't you tell me about it then?"

"I wanted what was best for you," she answered slowly. "If I had told you then you would have felt obligated in a way that you weren't."

"This isn't so different from that, darlin'," he replied after a time.

"How so?"

"You did what you thought best regardless of how you felt about it." His eyes flickered to hers for a moment before turning back to the road, "Just like she's doin' now. Only difference is that she has a choice in who she marries."

"There was a choice, Wyatt." Her voice was so soft he had to strain to hear it. The uncertainty there was enough to make him wonder exactly what she thought he thought of the situation.

His hand squeezed hers again as he said, "I don't regret for one moment making the one that I did."

Two travelers on horseback approached the farmhouse. One was clearly visible, a woman, dressed in the uniform of a Tin Man astride a black gelding. Her hair was a muted blonde color that glinted red in the late afternoon sun. The other was dressed in the flowing robes of a priestess of Lurline, her hair so blonde it was often mistaken for white.

There was no mistaking that they were sisters.

"When did he say that they'd get here, Amy?" the younger of the two women, the priestess, inquired as the two women dismounted.

"Before the second sun sets, Jael," Amy responded in a manner that would lead one to believe she'd been responding to the same question for the past three hours. Boy could Jael be impatient.

"I think it might be a bit sooner than that, Amy," Jael replied, holding her horse's reigns in one hand as she pointed with her other to a spot down the road where two transport trucks were approaching.

"Best go inside to tell Mother, then," Amy replied.

"Tell Mother what?" Millie asked, sparing her daughters a warm smile. Jael pointed to the trucks and the protective mother inside of her came out to play, "Take the horses to the barn then get into the house. We don't know for certain it's Wyatt."

Another woman came out of the house and laughed when she saw the trucks. "It is Wyatt!" she cried.

"How do you know, Hanah?" Jael questioned.

Hanah pointed to the top of the first truck, "Can't you see the hat? He probably nailed it to the top of the truck so we'd know it was him."

Millie gave her daughter a curious stare, "Wyatt loves that hat, he'd never stick a nail in it."

"Well that's his hat," Hanah insisted.

Even after Jael and Amy had returned from putting their horses in the barn, Hanah was still arguing with their mother and the trucks were quite close. Close enough that the girls could clearly see that it was indeed their brother who drove the truck and there were two other people in there with him.

It wasn't until both of the trucks pulled to a stop on the grass to the side of the house that Millie and Hanah stopped arguing.

Jeb bounded out of the back of the car, running up to the women in front of the house, "Grandma!"

"Jeb!" Millie cried happily as she hugged her grandson tightly. She looked up and found Wyatt glaring half heartedly at a slip of a girl who was grinning back at him, the fedora spinning in the air just out of his reach.

"That's enough, DG," Wyatt huffed.

She shook her head, uncaring that they were attracting an audience. It wasn't exactly that she wanted to make him upset, but he was so easy to pick on sometimes. "But the hat wants to fly."

"No, it doesn't," he insisted, advancing on her and while she backed up toward the house.

"Oh, fine!" DG said, causing the hat to fly and land on top of Jeb's head. He giggled as she shrugged at his glare, "It's not flying now, isn't it."

Jeb laughed at the indignation on his father's face. DG always brought out the worst in him - and the best. She was the only one who was allowed to tease him like that. He let go of his grandmother and brought the hat back to his father. "You know, it's your fault the hat started flying, Dad," the boy commented as his father put his beloved hat back on his head.

"How so?" Wyatt asked, pushing his hat down to hide the pink tips of his ears.

DG raised an eyebrow at him and crossed her arms, "If you can't remember what you said half an hour ago, then I am not going to remind you."

She turned her attention to the four women who were standing watching the interaction. Immediately switching to public relations mode, DG smiled and went to greet her in-laws.

"You must be Millie," she said to Wyatt's mother. "Wyatt's told me almost nothing about you."

Millie laughed heartily at that. "Sounds just like him - not mentioning his poor old mother to his ... what was that, bonded, your highness?"

DG grinned warmly, waving a dismissive hand, "It's DG. I'm your highness only when I have to deal with nobles who think I should be covered in fifty pounds of petticoats."

She looked at the three women who were watching them with hesitant smiles. "You must be Amy," she said to the sister wearing a well cared for Tin Man uniform. She turned to the young woman wearing the priestess's robes, "And Jael." She nodded as DG turned to look at the third sister, "And ... Hanah, right?"

"That's right, your - DG," Hanah replied. "I thought Wyatt didn't tell you about us?"

The teen nodded, "He didn't until about three hours ago. But, now we'll have plenty of time to get to know each other and tell horrid stories about Wyatt to make up for it."

"Hey!" the man in question said, an indignant look on his pink face. "I can hear you plotting, you know."

The women just laughed, Millie quite certain that DG would fit in just fine once the family got over her being royal and all.

"What about your bodyguards?" Amy asked as the group moved to go into the house.

"Right, them." DG turned to look at Zero and the four other men with him, the other five were at the inn where they would be staying, making sure all the proper security was in place. "Go stalk around the perimeter glaring at renegade squirrels."

Zero silently chuckled while Wyatt huffed. She'd never let him forget about that. "Yes, your highness," he said just to irritate her. "Shall I shoot any possessed squirrels I see?"

DG chuckled, winking at Wyatt, "I think we can afford to let any possessed squirrels you find off with a warning this time, Captain."

A/N: I had to add a bit about Az so we could see how she's fairing with the wedding and all coming so close. Don't worry, though, we're not done with her just yet.

I hope you enjoyed this extra long chapter. It kept me from writing a paper I had to turn in today, I'll have you know. ... And writing it made me late to class twice this week because I write at night and woke up late. Feel the love.