Total pages in book: 254
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
I was starting to understand why my bracelet bothered other people so much. Even I wondered what other people were hiding when they used them. Dang it.
Duncan didn’t growl, he didn’t even get a mohawk, but his tail stayed in that upright position, his eyes locked on the stranger. I’d introduced them during dinner, which had consisted of the other man talking to Henri and Franklin the entire time. From what I’d gathered, after the scene at the nursery, they’d invited him on a tour, while I’d gone back to the laundry room, trying to pretend like everything was normal.
I made it ten minutes.
I’d ended up calling Matti from my bathroom to tell him what had happened.
The man pushed off the tree when I handed Duncan his treat. My donut took it but held it in his mouth instead of plopping on the ground like he usually would have as he kept watching the stranger make his way over to us.
Duncan had seemed a little interested in him during dinner, but more in a cautious way. He hadn’t run over to him or tried sneaking around to smell him from behind. But a few times, I’d caught those red eyes peering at our visitor.
It was rude to be relieved over how much he hadn’t cared about him, but I’d been thrilled.
That was part of the reason why I’d busted out the beef tracheas tonight—for being such a good freaking boy.
“Is this a coincidence or…?” I trailed off, already knowing the answer as I took in the man’s strong features and suntanned face. I didn’t think I had anything to worry about with him, but there was no way I could forget how he’d looked at me earlier, just as warily as I had him.
Except I wasn’t a risk to what he loved the most.
He didn’t BS me. “No. I overheard the wolf tell the little girl not to leave her room tonight. He doesn’t trust me,” he explained, bright blue gaze snagged on mine. His features still weren’t giving anything away. “It made sense you’d be awake late.”
Blood rushed from my head. “Why’s that?”
“Because of what you are.”
I blinked. “You… you know what I am?”
There was still nothing on his face. Not amusement. Not surprise. Not even smugness at what he’d just implied, just total facts. “Of course I know.”
I opened my mouth and closed it just as fast.
Ilya slid his hands into the pockets of his black jeans, all casual. “You don’t get the cinnamon from him, but the rest of it….” He whistled. “You smell exactly like him.”
Him? What the hell did that mean?
Duncan pressed against the side of my leg, and it took everything in me not to pick him up and hug him. “Excuse me?” My right leg might have started going numb. “Who… do you think I smell like?”
Ilya’s eyes flicked toward the clubhouse. There was surprise in his voice, I thought there might have been a touch of it on his face too. “You don’t know?” he asked, eyebrows rising slowly on his forehead.
“I don’t know a lot of things,” I admitted as Duncan leaned even more deeply against me, and I reached down until my fingers could stroke the top of his head.
“Love,” my boy told me, like he knew I needed it.
“I love you too,” I whispered to him even as I kept my eyes on the man Henri had said was a firebreather. There were so many mythological ones, I couldn’t even begin to imagine what kind he could be. A dragon, a chimera, Jormungandr, Gaasyendietha….
Eyes narrowed in my direction. “How old are you?”
“Thirty-two,” I answered, but he wasn’t going to distract me from what he’d just dropped on me. We needed to circle back to that. “You know who my father is?” That had to be the “he” he’d mentioned. It had to. There was no other possibility.
And what were the chances that not one but two different sets of beings could be bringing him up since I’d gotten here?
One of those blue eyes had the nerve to wince. “I could tell you…”
I didn’t like where this was going.
“But he should be the one to do it instead,” Ilya said. “He knows more than I do. He’s your best bet for getting answers to the rest of the questions you’re going to have afterward.”
Was he talking in riddles, or was I imagining it? Because now that sounded like another “he” that wasn’t my father. I squinted up at him. “Who should tell me instead?” I asked to be sure.
Ilya’s eyes slid toward the clubhouse again, and I frowned.
“Henri?” I asked as Duncan stepped on my foot but said nothing.
A different glint sparkled in his eye, and something told me I wasn’t going to be a fan of what was about to come out of his mouth. He confirmed it a second later. “I’ll tell you, but I have a few questions first.”