After using the en suite, I shut the bedroom door gently behind me and made my way down the hall, contemplating whether I should call my cousin, Ivy, who I'd barely met. She might know what had happened.
But I came to a dead stop seeing the man sitting on the couch in front of the television. It was quiet, and I couldn't smell him at all. Taking a few more steps, the sounds of the television and my father's scent hit me. He had up a shield that was impenetrable unless he wanted you inside it.
"Dad?" I looked down at myself, making sure I was decent and readjusting the hair tie in my hair.
He didn't speak, instead, chuckling at the cartoon he was watching.
I filled up a glass of water for myself and joined him on the couch, drinking half my water before I glanced over at him. I gasped, not comprehending what I was seeing.
He pressed the mute button on the remote before turning to face me. He looked like he had aged ten years since I'd last seen him. His eyes had wrinkles in the corners and the hair at his temples was starting to gray.
"Dad… what…"
He rolled his eyes. "Well, if I didn't keep getting woken up every five minutes, this wouldn't be happening." He gestured to his face. "Nothing a yearlong snooze won't fix, or if you want to give me a little boost."
My jaw was hanging open, and he reached over and pushed my chin up with a tight smile.
"Arbor Falls took a lot out of me, and then worrying about you… and last night I was woken up by Trevor, who tells me you were kidnapped, one of your lovers killed two humans, and you defied house arrest orders." He shook his head as if he couldn't believe it all. "Is this some repressed teenage angst?"
I snorted and took another sip of water. "I want to have a normal life, and he didn't say we were under house arrest. He said to stay here."
He made a humming noise of disapproval. "Getting yourself kidnapped and shacking up with three wolves that have caused a lot of issues is not a normal life, Wren."
I cringed and looked at the television screen. "It will all be settled soon, and then I'm staying here… with them. All three of them."
"Your pack." He made a strangled noise, and I glanced at him to see him making a gagging gesture with his finger to his mouth. For being as old as dirt, he certainly didn't act it. "Two of which might be going to prison."
Ignoring what he'd said, I cleared my throat. "My eyes were glowing gold for a long time last night when I was with them." My face heated, and I looked down at the water in my cup.
"I figured as much. I can sense your magic now. You made a pack." He patted my knee. "Now you can pull power from them instead of draining yourself."
"A pack? But I'm not a wolf." I put my cup on the coffee table and brought my legs up under me, turning toward him.
"Don't expect to be able to communicate telepathically like wolves do, but a pack is formed when you give an alpha your throat." His eyes moved down to my neck and shoulder, and I putmy hand over the invisible marks. Could he see them?
"They aren't all alphas." I frowned, thinking back to the night before when Kingston bossed the other two around so effortlessly.
"To your fox they are." He grabbed my water from me and took a drink, cringing. "Although, I'm sure if you wanted to be the alpha, you could."
I rolled my eyes. "I have no desire to be in a pack. Although, I should since I'm a shifter and all that, but with my upbringing, the desire is gone."
He nodded, a forlorn expression crossing his face. "I tried to get your mother to join a pack when she became pregnant. The coalition is not a place to raise a child." My mouth gaped, and he gave me a small, sad smile. "But it was the only way once she passed."
He turned back to the television, his jaw clenched tight. He rarely brought up my mother, and whenever I did, he got angry. She'd died before I even knew she existed, and while some of the coalition agents told me small pieces about her, she was an off-limits topic of conversation.
"How'd she die?" I asked it as gently as possible and watched as his hand tightened on the cup he washolding. I was surprised it didn't shatter. "I know nothing about my mother."
"She died because of me." His eyes didn't leave the television that was still playing some cartoon with a talking baby and dog. I didn't speak and waited for him to continue. "I pissed her off because I needed to deal with godly stuff for a while when she wanted me to stay. So, she packed you up and took off one night, rolled her car. She died on impact. You didn't have a scratch on you. I suspect you healed your injuries since you were covered in blood."
"Dad." I put my hand on his arm, not sure what else to do. He had never gotten emotional like he was in front of me before. "You can't blame yourself for that."
"I might seem like I have no heart, but it's easier that way. Hurts less when everyone dies around you." He glanced over at me, his frown deep and his eyes glossy. "I'm glad you've found your heart. It suits you."
We fell into a comfortable silence, and he unmuted the television, his face relaxing and his laughter returning with the next joke. I'd never spent much time with him outside of headquarters, but hanging out with him on the couch, watchingcartoons with adult humor, was unexpectedly filling my heart in a way I never expected.
Once he seemed completely at ease again, I cleared my throat, drawing his attention back to me. "Is it possible for me to heal someone with a severed spinal cord?"
His eyebrows lifted nearly to his hairline. "That's oddly specific."
