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Feels like it’s on fire. “I’m okay.”
She sighed. “Eat first. Then go see them. And as far as Veronica is concerned, well, all I can say is, try to be honest with her, Iain. She’s most likely feeling confused and betrayed, and that’s going to take time to get over.”
I inhaled sharply, hating that she was right. I’d never been honest with her. Not about our connection, nor my feelings for her. Not until the past day. “Thank you. I will.”
We walked together to the dining room, where my father and Erik were still eating.
“Morning, son.” Dad nodded at me with a cup of coffee in his hand. “How’s the leg?”
I grimaced as I pulled out a large chair and sat down. “It’s still attached.” And throbbing with the beat of my heart.
I reached for the waffles and cream, my appetite huge this morning. I piled up my plate and picked up my knife and fork before I noticed the other three staring at me.
“What?”
“Worked up an appetite, son?” Dad asked, his lips quirked in amusement.
I put my head down and started eating, before reaching across and grabbing some crispy rashers of bacon as well. “I didn’t eat at all yesterday. I’m starving.”
The older generation continued to eat and talk about the running of the fields and the kingdoms. I was lost in my own head, because very soon I was going to have to confront my mate, and her father who’d almost died trying to save my life.
Chapter 10.
VERONICA.
I gripped my father’s hand, determined to make up the ground I’d lost. “Dad, I need to apologize for running away last year, and for not coming home for Christmas. That was so wrong.”
He still lay in his huge bed, his face pale and his eyes looking haunted and dark as he stared at me. He looked nothing like my father, the strong King Damon I remembered. But when he smiled, it was like the sunshine peeking around dark clouds and my heart lifted at the sight.
“Sweetheart, you don’t need to apologize for leaving. You did what you needed to do, as you always have. As for Christmas, yes, that wasn’t the right choice as far as we were concerned, but I have to assume there was a good reason for staying away?”
His question hung in the air, and my guilt consumed me like a ravenous animal, snapping at my flesh. “I... ah... um, no. I mean, I had to work. But really, I was just being selfish.”
Dad squeezed my hand. “I don’t believe you, sweetheart. You’re not selfish. You may be the dragon daughter whose fierce temper everyone fears, but I have to tell you, it’s always given me so much joy, and pride, to have sired the daughter that intimidates everyone else. And you, the baby, too.”
Hot tears blurred my vision at his kind words, and I blinked them away. The pain of guilt constricting my chest had gotten worse since speaking to my father, not better. It felt like my heart was about to break.
“Oh Dad, I’m so sorry.”
“Oh, baby, come here. Come here.” He pulled me further onto the large bed and I curled up and put my head on his lap like I used to when I was little.
He stroked my hair and sighed. “When did you grow up? Huh? I feel like I blinked and I missed it.”
I giggled against his leg. “Hardly, Dad. You’ve rebuilt your whole kingdom, and taken us along for the ride.”
For a king who had more responsibilities than most, my dad had been in our lives more than any other father I knew. He’d read us stories at bedtime, taken us walking in the fields and on trips to visit with the tenants.
Anselm and his sisters had been treated like royalty since the day they were born, but often, I’d felt like a regular child growing up in the Northern Kingdom. Special, and loved, but not royal.
Not until I turned thirteen and my mother decided it was time for me to learn the responsibilities of my position as a dragon princess. That was when the world had changed for me.
“Sometimes I wish I could go back there,” I whispered, not speaking specifically to my dad, but he heard me anyway.
“Back where?”
“Back to the fields, when I was ten years old. Riding the sleigh, taming the horses, running through the snow. Enjoying our lands, in the simplest and most pleasurable of ways.”
My dad’s sigh was heavy. “You really were made for this kingdom, weren’t you, my daughter? Part of me knew it was the wrong choice to force you inside, to learn the more traditional female skills. But...” He sighed again, then chuckled. “Whatever husband you choose will have to like the outdoors. Be able to get his hands dirty... put up with your temper...”
