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Neri.
I forgot my cane and tripped out of the Jeep.
I left the engine running and the door open as a tiny girl on swift feet slammed to a stop before me. It took all my effort to tear my gaze from my soulmate’s and look at my daughter.
In another moment, in another life, meeting the person I’d helped create would take precedence. I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from scooping her up, inhaling her deep, and pledging everything I was to her.
But...in this life...the one that I didn’t trust was real—the one that might be stolen and proven to be false—made me awfully selfish.
I only had eyes for her mother.
I couldn’t breathe until I’d touched her and knew, once and for all...I was home.
My knees shook as I studied the little girl, dripping wet and clad in a bright-yellow swimming costume. She reminded me of Neri when she was younger. Always dressed in Lycra and trailing droplets of water.
“Who are you?” She poked me in the thigh. “Where’s Nana and Pop Pop?”
I swallowed hard and struggled to speak. “I...I’m—”
The two shirtless men who’d been playing with her darted across the sleepy street and scooped Ayla into their arms.
Part of me was jealous.
The other part possessive.
But in the distance, kneeling on an overgrown lawn, her eyes never wavering from me, Neri kept me trapped.
I felt her calling me even though she didn’t speak.
I felt her heart summoning mine even though she didn’t move.
I didn’t have the capacity to feel anything else.
Just longing.
Soul-deep, raw, fervent longing.
“Aslan.”
My name spoken by the guy holding Ayla wrenched my head up.
I blinked. I recognised him from long ago video-call sessions and late-night brainstorming. “Teddy?”
He nodded. “Hey, mate. Long time no see.” Holding out his hand, he waited for me to place mine into his, then shook me hard. Glancing at the man beside him, I swallowed hard. “Edmund.”
“Hi, Aslan.”
Ayla reached for my cheek. Her small, clammy hand stung me like the bees on her costume. “That’s my Daddy’s name. Are you a lion too?”
A groan worked up my throat. A noise of desperation, disbelief, and despair.
She knew about me.
Neri told her about me.
Her little nose wrinkled as she cocked her head. “Sen kimsin?”
I swayed backward against the Jeep.
