Total pages in book: 148
Estimated words: 139178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Elena smiled. “Good morning, Izar.”
“Where are you going?” He looked curiously at the gift bag in her gloved hand. “Lady Hannah isn’t open to visitors.”
“I have a special invitation.” She tucked her arm through his. He was warm and bright against her senses, a creature wild under the skin. “Are you awake early or up late?”
A grin that was a delighted baring of teeth. “I was roaming the mountains. Papa and Mama will be home soon—Papa has asked me to tell you that he is arranging a most perfect gift for your cub.”
Elena didn’t know whether to groan or laugh. Naasir’s gifts were always as extraordinary and as unusual as the man himself. “Any clues?”
He shook his head. “He likes keeping secrets,” he muttered, as if he wasn’t exactly the same. “But they’re bringing me and my brothers gifts, too.”
That was another thing Elena loved about Naasir’s pack—unlike many angelic families, they’d remained tight-knit throughout the centuries and would no doubt stay that way through time. Naasir and Andromeda’s boys continued to fly back to see their parents, or to meet up with them at various locations around the world. Not out of obligation but because they liked their parents and enjoyed being with them.
“Tell me something,” she said to Izar. “How did Naasir and Andi make it so that you remain so close as a family?” She wanted that for her own family, was secretly terrified that she had no idea how to create it—not when she’d spent so many years estranged from her father and half sisters.
Even her relationship with Beth had hit rough spots during that awful time.
Izar gave her an intrinsically feline look. “It’s like your Guard. They’re your family, too, aren’t they? You know how to build a family.”
“Yes, but it’s different with a child.” She wondered if he would even understand—he was still so young in relative terms. “Children want to push against their parents, want to rebel. My Guard chose to be with me—my child will only get that choice as an adult.”
Izar nodded, his expression solemn as he thought. “I think I understand—and I have the answer.”
“You do?”
“I wanted a wild tiger cub once, to keep as a pet,” he told her, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. “I didn’t understand then that it would be wrong, and I didn’t understand how much it would hurt my father if I did anything of the sort.” The words held a poignant depth of emotion.
“It was Mama who made me understand without making me feel bad—I was only a cub after all. She said to me that if I put a wild tiger in a cage, it wouldn’t be mine. Not truly. What I would have was a different being—one with a broken spirit, and she knew I did not wish to break my friend’s spirit.”
Elena had always liked Andromeda, but was used to thinking of her as the young librarian she’d first met—even after the other woman had raised three strapping men. Izar’s words showed her how Andi’s sons saw her—as wise and kind.
“She was right,” Izar continued. “I didn’t wish to hurt the cub I so admired. Instead of trying to cage him, I began to learn how he lived, so that I could be with him in the wild. Now, his descendants join me for runs in the mountains.”
“Don’t cage my cub, and they’ll choose to come back to me?” Elena said, and it sounded so simple when it would be the hardest thing she’d ever done to not wrap her child in cotton wool.
The irony of it didn’t escape her, either—some of the biggest fights she’d had with Raphael early on in their relationship had been about her need for independence.
“Unless,” Izar added, “your cub keeps trying to fly off the balcony when they don’t have strong enough wings, or to climb up to the roof to get away from their irate mother. Then you can put the cub behind a baby cage and have a cup of tea while discussing why they are incarcerated.”
Elena laughed at this glimpse into Andromeda’s years as a young mother. “Where was your father in all this?” She’d witnessed Naasir get all three in line with a single growl.
“That was when he was away for a month—and it was the first time we’d tried our mother so.” Izar grinned. “She threatened to put us on leashes and tug us along behind her if we didn’t behave. We were so horrified at the ignominy of it that we did behave…at least for the day.”
Throwing back her head, Elena laughed. “Poor Andi.”
Izar grinned. “She loves us.”
Elena wanted nothing more than for her and Raphael’s baby to be so certain and confident of their love, too.
Right then, an internal Refuge courier—a young woman only eighty-one years of age—landed a polite distance away from them. “Consort.” The youth with her blond braids, brown tunic, and darker pants bent in a respectful bow. “You received a message from the Tower that the sire thought you would like to see.”