AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Dad!” I complained, whacking his leg beneath the bed covers.
“And speaking of Iain...”
I sat up and twirled around, sitting cross-legged on the massive bed and staring at my dad with shock. “What about Iain?” How had he known?
My dad’s face reflected amusement, a slash of welcome color highlighting his still-too-pale cheeks. “You think I didn’t know?”
I rolled my eyes. “Mom.” He’d only been conscious a few hours and she’d already caught him up on all the news.
Dad shifted a little, adjusting the pillows behind him and sitting up straighter in bed. “No. It was Iain, actually.”
My jaw dropped. “Sorry... what? When? He hasn’t seen you yet, since you woke up.” Had my father seriously found out who my fated mate was, before I had?
“He told me just before the accident.”
Anger flashed through me. “Why am I the last person to know everything?”
Dad reached out and touched my hand, as if sensing my distress and wanting to reduce it. “Hey, sick man over here.”
I took a deep breath to calm myself. “Yes, you’re right. Okay. Sorry.”
I would have something to say to that damn annoying mate of mine about this, and he wouldn’t like it, I was sure. “Plus, if I might correct you... I believe you already knew he was your mate. Didn’t you? Before you went away.”
I looked down at my fingers, clutched around my father’s weatherworn, strong, capable hand.
I nodded. I couldn’t deny it. “Yes. Anthony accidentally gave me a vision about my future.”
“And you didn’t want to know the truth?” Dad prompted, “You didn’t think to tell us, obviously.”
“I didn’t want it to be true!” I cried. “Iain! He... Iain—”
“Had always been mean to you, I know.” Dad let out a small groan as he moved his leg.
“He wasn’t just mean to me!” I said, snorting in exasperation. “He made me feel like I had the plague or something! I was already the youngest of all the cousins, and he had me thinking he hated me.”
Dad leaned back against the bed’s headboard. “To be honest, I feel sorry for him.”
“You what?” I gasped out, blinking at my father. Did I hear that right?”
“Well, put yourself in his shoes,” Dad said, then rolled his eyes. “Oh my God, strike that. For a second I forgot who I was talking to.”
“Hey!” I put my hands on my hips and glared at my sick father, not an easy feat while still sitting cross-legged on his bed.
Dad chuckled, then coughed, hard.
I quickly leaned across to grab his glass of water from beside the bed, and handed it to him. “You okay?”
He took a sip, then nodded. “Yes.”
I waited, then asked, “Are you going to repeat that insult?”
Dad laughed, and this time managed it without coughing. “Oh sweetheart, you’ve never been good at putting yourself in the shoes of anyone else. You’re too hot-headed. And right now, all you’re focusing on is how hard Iain was on you for all those years. But did he ever hurt you? Really? Or was it more about a bruised ego?”
I crossed my arms over my chest and pouted. A bruised ego? I wasn’t sure I wanted to answer that question.
“Okay then, Veronica. Prove to me that I’m wrong. Put yourself in Iain’s shoes. You’re almost ten years older than your mate, and once you reach maturity, you turn around one day and gaze upon an eleven-year-old child—a boy, in your case, and realize he’s your mate. How do you feel?”
I opened my mouth to snap out a response, only to realize that I really had no idea how I’d feel in that situation. I could only guess.
