And she thought I was good enough.
That realization made me feel…suddenlylightersomehow. Liladidthink I was good enough. Her world might not welcome a hockey-playing berserker orc, butLiladid. She had.
And she hadn’t given up on me.
That was worth everything.
And I was going to do what needed to be done to keep her, even if that meant doing something unfathomable like quitting the team so there wasn’t a conflict of interest.
Fairbanks was watching me, and now he nodded once, as if this confirmed something. “Kardok, do you love my daughter?”
Love love love love.
The question seemed to echo through the room.
Did I love Lila? It was a…sillyquestion. One that was easy to dismiss, but when I saw Fairbanks’ expressionharden, I knew that hesitating hadn’t endeared me to him.
So with a sigh, I reached for the chair, pulling it out and plopping myself into it. I planted my elbows on my knees and leaned toward him.
“Mr. Fairbanks, my heart loves her, yes.” I hadn’t told her that any more than I’d told her I was her Mate. “But it’s more than that.”
“No, it’s not,” he said coldly, his voice stiff. “Trust me, I’ve been married four times, I know what is necessary, and love is?—”
“For humans, love is something you can fall out of,” I interrupted him. “That’s why you’re notstillmarried.”
The older man’s mouth snapped shut and one of his brows rose, as if inviting me to continue.
It wasn’t until I felt my claws digging into my chest that I realized I was trying to scratch the itch myKteerhad been plagued with, and I took a deep breath. This wasn’t the sort of thing I’d ever expected to have to explain to another male, much less the father of my Mate.
But if I wanted Lila…
“Orcs—some orcs who are lucky enough…” I trailed off with a wince, then shook my head and started over. “Among my kind, there’s something called a Mate Bond. Someone the gods choose for you—afatedconnection.” I watched his face, which didn’t give anything away. “It’s not a feeling, Mr. Fairbanks. It’s not just love. It’s a recognition, aknowing. The way you know your own heartbeat.”
Rex was listening carefully, watching me as if he wasn’t sure what to make of me.
“Lila is my Mate.” The words felt…enormous. “That means it’s not something I chose, and it’s not something I can unchoose. It’s permanent. Not the way marriage is permanent on paper.” I searched for the right words. “The way thetideis permanent or the mountains are permanent. It doesn’t stop because circumstances change.”
Rex was quiet for a long moment, watching me. The pen rested in his fingers, but he didn’t fiddle with it, didn’t move at all.
Finally, he took a deep breath. “You’re going to marry my daughter.”
“If that’s what she wants.” My chin rose. “But what I’m telling you is that even if she never wants that—even if she decides this is over, and I need to let her go—she’s still mine. MyKteer, my instinct, every part of me that’s feral and orc and not very civilized…it recognized her. That doesn’t stop.”
Rex sat with this. I could imagine him thinking of his daughter gliding elegantly across the ice in the complex he’d built for her because she’d loved to skate, and he hadn’t known what else to do with that love.
“Hearts, minds, souls,” he said finally. Quietly. “Linked.”
I dipped my head once firmly, my hand dropping from my chest. “Yes.”
When the corner of his mouth curled upward, he looked like his daughter when she was about to tell a joke.
“Well, Kardok, that vow sounds like marriage to me. If you do it right.”
Then something shifted behind his eyes—something more private, and older. “I’ve spent my whole life looking for what you just described.” He said it without self-pity, just the clarity of a man who has examined himself honestly. “Four times, I thought I’d found it. Four times, I was wrong. Or I wasn’t paying attention. Or I was working.” He paused. “Lila watched every one of those marriages. She watched me search and fail and search again.”
“She thinks she’ll make you look bad,” I offered, not caring if I was adding to his pain in an effort to make him understand his child. “That’s what’s underneath all of this. It’s not just the League. Besides the threat to the team, she thinks her happiness—ourhappiness—costs you something you can’t afford.”
Rex was quiet for long enough that I wondered if I’d overstepped. Then he exhaled, a slow and deliberate sound.
