Rowan gave a stiff nod, his gaze shifting to me slightly. “Cooper should talk to his daughter while we meet.”
“Brilliant idea.” Faith squeezed Dad’s hand and smiled at me.
My heart fluttered as Rowan stepped forward and respectively bowed his head to Dad before leading the humans and Blair toward Arcane Hall, leaving Kian and Damien with my dad and me.
“Wren… It is so good to see you,” he murmured, stepping closer.
Overwhelming joy clogged my throat as tears spilled down my cheeks.
Kian snapped his fingers, and Dad was suddenly wearing a regular pair of jeans and a plain white t-shirt.
Dad grinned, moving his hands down his shirt as he stared at Kian. “Thank you. It was a little embarrassing to be wearing a blanket while I reunited with my daughter.”
“I can imagine.” He pushed his glasses up his nose, a tell tale sign that he was about to ramble. “Not having clothes really makes you feel exposed, especially when you're somewhere unfamiliar. I just can't imagine how awkward it must be. And since you’re my mate’s father, I wanted to make sure you were comfortable. And comfort includes being clothed.”
“Comfort sometimes includes being unclothed,” Damien muttered before Kian shot him with a bolt of purple magic.
“Be respectful.”
Damien blocked it with his shadows as he mocked a wounded gasp. “How dare you insinuate I’m not being respectful.”
“I get it.” Dad chuckled, shaking his head. “I can absolutely see why the Fates paired you with them.”
I moved forward before I even realized, and my dad took me into his arms.
“You look so much like your mother.” He held me close and stroked my hair tenderly.
“I thought you died.” My voice broke as tears started to soak the shirt Kian had given him.
“I thought you died until I was told otherwise.” His magic soothed mine, and I took comfort in it. My parents’ magic had always been so comforting as a child, and I’d only ever found compatible magical energy with my mates since.
“I know. I found a journal of experiments performed on you. I am so sorry… if I had known you were still alive, I would’ve searched for you.”
“Wren, you were just a child. You barely knew how to tie your shoes when this happened. There was nothing you could have done. You did exactly what I told you to do. You ran, and that’s why you’re still alive. Look at you. You have so many mates. Was it seven or eight?”
I barked a laugh through my tears. “Seven, and that’s all of them. Our magic is stable. All of ours.”
“That's more than I've ever seen.” He chuckled before he tensed. “When I told you to run, where did you go? Where have you been before this year? I’ve missed so much.”
“We were the closest to the Arctic Wolf Village, so I went there. I went to Uncle Greg and Alice.”
Dad’s body stiffened like a rod. “Was Greg able to take care of you?”
I shook my head “No, but he wanted to. Alpha Haven killed him because of it. Alice took me in and raised me, though. I helped with the shop and became an herbalist like her, which I really loved. I still do—love it, I mean.”
“So you stayed in that village?”
“Yes… I wasn't supposed to talk to the pack members, but Alice did her best.”
“Debatable on that front, but my little bird did sneak out to meet a fae in the forest growing up.”
“A Fae.” Dad pulled back to look at my face with a worried expression. “Tell me you didn't make a contract.”
“Oh, but I did.” I giggled as the wind bristled, and Thorn, Alister, Lachlan, and Rhett materialized. “Thorn’s an ice fae, but he’s my mate.”
“Ah, the fae is him.” Dad’s muscles relaxed slightly, and he kept an arm around me as I held on to him, feeling like a little girl again. “I know the headmaster of this academy is your mate. He’s a firedrake. So these are the rest of your mates, then?”
“Yes.” I grinned.
