I stepped into the kitchen and snarled, “Did I not say you were to behave, Father?”
Marlon lifted his plate and walked to the round wooden table. “Did you feel it in your Fae-spark? If you weren’t consumed by the need to heal him, then I fucking behaved just fine.”
Grinding my jaws together, I turned my glare on the shifter. “What do you have to say for yourself?He is my father.”
Bishop grabbed two plates and headed to the table, shrugging as he stalked past me. “Self-defense.” He glanced over his shoulder and added, “Grab the eating utensils.”
“Fucking Fae,” I muttered in exasperation and nabbed the silverware, handing it out to each person as I took a seat at the table.
I tucked into the light midnight fare, eating like a starving peasant with my head tucked down, and shoveled the food into my mouth. Besides the candies, I hadn’t eaten since yesterday; I was famished.
When my plate was clean, I shoved it away.
Only to happily take the leftovers my father pushed my way, eating all those with due haste, the man looking on with a glare in my soul mate’s direction.
“He’s a shifter, if you didn’t notice,” I mumbled, licking the fork clean of yummy juices. “There won’t be any leftovers with him.”
“Then he should make more food,” Father sniped.
“Or I could make more food for myself since I am perfectly capable of that.”
“Are you trying to start this atrocious relationship out on a lie, son?” Marlon sent that disapproving expression in my direction. “You don’t know how to cook. That’s why you employ housekeepers once a week. They do all the work for you.”
My mouth jammed shut in mortification, and I hissed furiously, “I was a little busy learning a different trade my entire life. One that you taught me. My apologies if I can’t fry an egg up for breakfast.”
Bishop coughed under his breath, sounding suspiciously like broken down laughter, as he placed his fork on his empty plate. His solid shifter honey-brown eyes turned in my direction, and he stated studiously, “Are you still hungry?”
“No,” I griped.
“Yes, he’s still hungry. Or did you miss the way the pig ate mere seconds ago?” Marlon grabbed my empty plate and shoved it in the shifter’s direction, sliding it across the wooden table. “He eats twice as much as any elf I know.”
Bishop stared into my father’s violet eyes, a stare down that would not end well between the two—their stations in life were identical.
In other words…
They were both used to being obeyed.
I ran my fingers through my damp, white hair, pulling it back from my face in a rare show of stress, before I uttered coolly, “Where’s the candy you brought me? I’ll eat that.”
“By the front door,” Bishop rumbled offhandedly, slowly pulling his attention away from my father and back to me. His calm expression was merely a front, but it didn’t crack when he said, “I left it on the table.”
Nodding, I quickly left the room and returned with the white bag full of sweet treats. I popped one into my mouth and set the bag between the shifter and me as I took my seat again.
Marlon asked bluntly, “How do you plan to handle this mess?”
“I don’t have a bloody fucking clue,” I muttered honestly and slouched in my chair. I kicked my bare feet up and shoved them over the shifter’s thigh under the table, startling him enough that he jerked on his chair—but I left them there. My feet were damned cold, and his body radiated a lot of heat; he had to be good forsomething. “Any words of wisdom?”
“I gave them to you once. I told you to stay away from him.” Father flicked his irate gaze back and forth between the two of us. “A Fae once warned me that you two must stay apart. Now I see why.”
Bishop and I stilled in place at his words.
My heartbeat took off at the implication.
Then the shifter leaned forward absently, placing his hands under the table and over my feet, cupping them in his large, warm hands. He asked casually, “A Fae told you to keep us apart?”
“For as long as possible, she said.” Father snorted and rubbed at his jaw. “I suppose we’re lucky this didn’t happen sooner.”
I blinked slowly at the man who raised me. “Father…are you saying you kept me away from my soul matefor five hundred years?”
