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“Because the tide is turning, son. If our government decides to recognize Torin’s claim to the throne, they have to acknowledge that Beckett and Cian are renegades. Those mercenaries who are after them now, they’ll be joined by every soldier on every plane who hears the news.”
Dante’s stomach turned. How was this happening? “Beck and Ci won’t go.”
They would stay and fight. They wouldn’t leave their people behind.
His father simply shook his head and sat down behind his desk. “Let’s talk about something more pleasant. We’ll deal with your cousins’ situation when the time comes. Now, I know you need your bonding time, but the sunscreen project is at a critical state. I want you to get to work. The chemists have the formula down, and we’ll be ready for testing very soon.”
He knew he should be excited. This was the very reason he had gotten married. He’d changed his entire life to stay on this one project. Now all he could think of was how to keep his cousins alive.
“Dante?” His father leaned forward. “Are you all right?”
No. He wasn’t all right. He was changed, and he wasn’t sure he liked it. This was his home, and somehow he felt out of place. It would be all right. He’d just been through a lot. He needed time and space to forget what had happened in the woods. It was just a little post-traumatic stress disorder.
He would be fine. He would get back to normal.
He wanted to see Kaja.
“I’m good,” Dante said, forcing a smile on his face. “Just a little tired.”
Yeah, almost dying would do that.
His father got back up and walked around the desk. He enveloped Dante in a bear hug. Love for his father rushed over him. Dante hugged him back. Despite their differences, he loved the old man.
“I was wrong to say what I did to you, Dante. You’re my boy, and I would never kick you out,” his father said, emotion choking him. “You’ll always be my boy.”
Now the emotion that flowed over Dante turned bittersweet as he realized he was leaving something behind. He might live in this mansion forever, but he was changed, and his childhood was irrevocably over. He had been Alexander Dellacourt’s boy for thirty years.
But now he was Kaja’s man.
“I love you, too, Dad.”
* * * *
Kaja came awake slowly, her brain opening in layers. She’d slept so deeply that no dreams had jarred her. Just sweet sleep. Each time she had awakened, her eyes would open and she would see Dante’s face hovering over hers, protecting her, and she had known she could sink back into sleep.
This time, however, he was not there. Kaja opened her eyes, and Dante was not holding her or standing watch over her.
She sat up in bed. She felt stronger, but there was still a delicious weakness to her system. She had saved him. Dante was alive because her blood sustained him.
All of her life, she had allowed things to happen to her because she knew no other way. Until she had been kicked out of the pack, she had not known that she could change things. She had saved Dante. She was strong.
She pushed back at the blankets that covered her. They were rich and soft, made of some material she’d never felt before. She touched the gown covering her body. She vaguely remembered Dante slipping it over her head and calling her a princess as he tucked her in.
Where had he gone?
She looked around the room, her memories surfacing. Dante’s room. It seemed larger than her pack’s long house. Dante’s memories of this room were strong. She’d seen it when he fed. She could see it as it was when he was a child. He’d loved hovercars and bikes. He’d followed racing circuits, and he’d been past disappointed when his father wouldn’t let him enter something called the BMX Sky Racers. She found the desk where he’d sat and worked on homework when absolutely forced to. He preferred to play with his tablet. It still sat on the desk.
Kaja touched it and was startled when a woman popped up. She was small, but lifelike. How had she fit inside the thin tablet? Why was she half-naked? If Kaja had learned one thing about Dante’s people, it was that they preferred to be clothed. Not this woman.
“Hello, Master. What can I search for tonight? I’ve found some amateur pornography guaranteed to shock and arouse you.”
Kaja took a step back. “I do not think I wish to be shocked.”
She was already shocked by the small woman who hovered above the tablet wearing what appeared to be strips of leather that did not cover her incredibly large breasts. And the minute Kaja spoke, the woman changed, morphing into a much older woman in a business suit.
“Apologies, ma’am. I’ll go into ‘mom mode.’ Now, would you like a rundown of stock quotes?”
Kaja turned away, a little frightened. She looked around, seeking the doorway out. There were double doors with filmy curtains covering them. Kaja walked over and threw them open and gasped. She was no longer in a building, but outside and so close to the sky. Lights twinkled all around her, like fireflies in odd colors. Yellows, pinks, blues, and purples lit up the sky in the distance.
