“I am who I am because of you,” I said. “You were a parent, a brother, and a friend. You never had to be, but you chose to be. I never forgot that. You encouraged me to bebetter. I allowed myself my dreams because of you. You have nothing to thank me for. I’m only happy you’re here.”
“You’ll forgive me?” he asked quietly.
“Of course,” I breathed, leaning forward to wrap my armsaround his neck, embracing him. “You’re here now. That’s all that matters. Nothing else.”
We embraced longer, a sense of relief snaking through both of us. Luc was a wound that had never quite healed since Laras. He’d always been a restless question, a worried ache in my mind. Kaldur knew that. He’d made this happen—he’d brought Luc here to make me happy.
Every day it seemed I found more reasons to love my husband a little more, and I’d already thought that an impossible feat.
“One day I want to come see the shop in Laras,” I told him. “All right?”
“You’re always welcome. When you get them printed, I’ll stock Kavelyn’s books. A big display, right in the front window, so everyone can see them. Just as you always dreamed.”
Tears stung my eyes. Happy ones. I pulled back.
“I’dlovethat.”
We grinned at one another.
“Come,” I said, taking his hand before standing, wiping away my tears. “It’s time for you to meet your niece.”
“Another surprise?”I asked, my laugh a little disbelieving. “I don’t know if I can take much more.”
Kaldur’s gaze practically twinkled, and I heard his unspoken thought. A naughty twist of my words that left me blushing.
“You can, my love,” he purred. Which was exactly what he’d told me the last time we’d had sex—before the birth—when I’d moaned into his ear.
While Kaldur hadfinallyresumed his feedings from me, he still wanted to wait another week to be physically intimate again. Which made me impatient, considering we’d gotten the go-ahead from Ekor. But the last thing Kaldur wanted to do was hurt me, especially after a difficult labor, which I thought still haunted hima little. He was being cautious, and while it frustrated me, I also loved him for it.
His hand was curled around my hip, tucking me close to his body. The gardens were a wintry, quiet paradise this time of the year. Not a soul was around us, even though it was a beautiful sunset.
“I can’t tell you enough how much seeing Luc meant to me,” I said, enjoying the private moment with my mate. “Thank you.”
He leaned down to press a kiss to my temple. “He was already looking for you. Finding him was easy. A small thing.”
“But a wonderful thing,” I said. “You make me happy. So very happy.”
If I thought Kaldur could ever lookshy, I saw the expression flit across his face at that exact moment.
“That’s all I want,” he said quietly, meeting my eyes. “To make you as happy as you make me.”
A bloom of warmth made me take a deep breath. Sometimes I thought my heart could pound so fast and hard it might burst out of my chest.
“But what’s this surprise, now?” I asked. He was leading me further into the garden, past the starwood bloom courtyard, the indigo flowers finally having gone dormant for the season, their crawling vines retracting. Very near to the Orchard, there was a new section that had recently been created. At the center was a large tear-shaped planter bed, which was the meeting point for multiple different pathways, all leading to different parts of the garden.
“This is your surprise,” he told me.
In the center of the planter bed was a tree. A gnarled tree with thick ropes of bark that trailed up its dark trunk. It didn’t have any leaves in winter and the trunk was rather slim, but I gasped nevertheless.
My lips parted, awe touching the edges of my mind.
“Is that…?” I breathed.
“Yes,” Kaldur said, smiling as he saw my reaction. “It is.”
“But…”
Adalliatree.
