I step closer to that lion -my lion- and place a hand on his muscled forearm, secretly delighting in the way his skin-stars race to meet my touch. “It doesn’t matter now. I wouldn’t want him here anyway.” The thought is actually quite a comical one - a middle-aged human man trying to grasp some form of controland power over these seven foot warrior Gods and getting pissy because no-one’s paying him any attention. That’s what I’d come to realize later on in life; that he’d sought out two families for himself because the attention and status from just one wasn’t enough for him.Weweren’t enough.
I wasn’t enough.
I often wondered if he went on to repeat the pattern after Mom made him choose. Did he start afresh with a new second family, or was that other woman andtheirtwo kids enough after all?
I’d tried to approach the daughter once. We had both been around 15 or 16 and I’d found out a lot about this other family by talking to Mom when she had taken to the bottle. When she had good days, Mom wouldn’t touch a drop. But on the bad days… well, I just tended to stay out of the house. They were few and far between, butGod, she’d like to talk about my dad on the times she caught me before I could leave to beanywhereelse but with her.
‘Delphine is her name.’ Mom had mumbled before tipping the last of the bottle of merlot into her glass.‘Called her pretty little daughter that, too. I mean… who does that? Sons get named after their fathers, but what kind of self-centered woman would name her daughter after…’She’d babbled on and on after that, calling it a stupid, pretentious name and making me promise that I would never approach that family because Dad was still paying the mortgage on our home and heaven forbid we upset that man’s perfect life with his perfect family.
She’d cried herself to sleep on the couch that night. Finding out that Dad had proposed to this ‘Delphine’ recently was just another stab with an invisible knife. Mom had been waiting on a proposal ever since she and Dad were teens.
As it turns out, there weren’t too many Delphines in the county, and even fewer who also had mothers by the same name. My half-sister was easy to find.
I found out via social media that she preferred to go by‘Delphi’and soon I was skipping my school to go to hers, trying to catch her after cheerleading practice. I remember she looked nothing like me. She was tall and slender, built like a model with beautiful raven-black hair and olive skin. I looked like a blob of uncooked dough compared to her - like she was the perfect prototype of a fully-formed woman, and my maker had given up half-way. I should have taken that as a sign not to approach her, not to explain about our dad.
It didnotgo down well.
I don’t even know why I’d done it. She hadn’t believed me, and I assume Dad lied like his life depended on it when she confronted him. There were happy, smiling photos uploaded online of them all at their lake house a few days after. Delphi had these gorgeous dimples and perfect teeth that I couldn’t help but stare at.
Dad withheld the mortgage payments on our house for the next five months.
I never tried to contact Delphi again.
Although, as I got older, it was difficult to escape her. She became a bit of a minor celebrity having been a professional physiotherapist who ended up marrying one of her big star football player clients. Her, and her perfect husband even had their own reality show. Then came her own clothing and make up lines…
It’s kind of hard to believe that we even shareanyDNA sometimes considering how different our lives turned out.
There was a time at the beginning of this whole mess that I felt like she’d stolen my dad away. But it was never her fault. It was his. Because he was a selfish, cowardly little man and believeme, there have been many times in my life that I’d wished someone would knock some sense into him… or at least a little empathy.
But none of that even matters now. I’ll never see him, or my almost-sister, Delphi ever again.
“Let’s just go to sleep,” I tell Aloryk with a squeeze to his arm. “We both need the rest.”
Chapter 19 - Aloryk
I had tried to keep my hands from my mate as we slept this last night. The effort was futile, though. First, my tail seemed to have formed a mind of its own, and wrapped itself around her calf as if she were a downy feather that may blow away in the breeze. Then, while I lay on my side, avoiding any undue pressure to my bandaged wings, I found I could not help but hook an arm over my mate’s soft body, pulling her closer into me.
Polly finally let out a gorgeous little giggle when my leg had slung over hers.
“You’re like the world’s biggest spider monkey,” she had whispered into the night. “With the world’s heaviest legs, oh my God!” She had started touching my outer thigh, then. I had been unable to repress my purr. “What are you, like 98% muscle?” Her touches to my leg had grown into slow strokes and her voice became gentle. “Aloryk?”
I had answered her with a caress of my thumb over her shoulder, and a hum for good measure.
“Thank you for rescuing me and… and,just thank you.” Her voice had sounded small in the dark of the night, but I knew her words were sincere. She need not thank me, though. I would have rescued her in a thousand dreams, no matter the consequences.
I had held her for the remainder of the night, pleased beyond measure when she sleepily turned into me, her little human noseand forehead pressed into my chest. I could not pry the story she had told out of my head, though. With Trixikka, it is often the case that a Protector will be permitted to sire a son, and once his seed is accepted by a female inside the Temple, he need do no more for that youngling. Truly, it is the Caregivers that get to celebrate on days where a son is given to the tribe, for it is them that raise us. From what I gather, human fathers are expected to behave differently. Their offspring are not just an honor to your memory, or a daughter band to wear on your tail. Polly’s father was someone she had loved, and he had turned his back on her.
For what seemed like the whole night, I had thought of my Polly and her heart. How the male who had sired her had considered her so easily disposable for a new tribe.
Unthinkable.
Not my Polly.
She will never feel such a betrayal again.
This is my vow to Tribe, Temple, and most importantly,my mate.
When the twin suns finally do rise, I have not had a restful night in my nest. I am not used to sharing it, and it was hard to keep the level of excitement down to have my Polly so near and not tucked away in the lands of dreams and slumber. Every time she would make the smallest of movements, my chest would rumble into a purr and I felt the need to hold her tighter.
