This was the last thing he’d expected, and it ranked right up there with his unknown son. What other surprises did Ember have in store for him? At this point, he was getting punch drunk from being slapped in the head with them.
Stunned and unsure of how to proceed, Bastien stepped forward. “I don’t know what went on between you and my fath—”
“Ourfather,” Iskander corrected between clenched teeth. “Though he wasn’t much of one to me, for damn sure. I never saw him again after my mother died.”
Bastien held his hands up. “I meant no slight with that. Slip of the tongue, mate. I wouldneverinsult you that way.”
Iskander scoffed and rolled his eyes.
Damn, he was hostile. But then Bastien did the math in his head… Odile had died during his first year in the military. Given Iskander’s present age… A bad feeling went through him. “How old were you when she passed away?”
“You mean when she was murdered and I was left as an orphan? Seven. Barely.”
No wonder he was pissed off. Bastien couldn’t blame him, and he didn’t understand how his father could have done that to him. So much for all the lectures his dad had givenhimon taking responsibility.
There was no way he’d haveeverabandoned a child of his.
“Icky! Mama!”
Bastien scowled at that high-pitched squeal that was followed by the sound of a heavy, slapping footfall of a boy around the age of nine who came running across the bay like a frazzled blur. It wasn’t until he launched himself into Ember’s arms that Bastien realized the boy hadn’t said “Icky Mama,” but rather had been calling out to Iskander and Ember.
Disbelief filled him for the second time since he landed as he stared at the small, dark blond boy whose hazel eyes matched his and Badger’s.
It’d been one thing to see his son in pictures. In the flesh…
Bastien had no grip on this moment. Dropping his helmet to the ground, he went to the boy and Ember, and wrapped his arms around the two of them and held them tight. All he wanted to do was keep them there for the rest of eternity.
Ember couldn’t breathe due to Bastien’s crushing embrace. Still, she sank her hand into his unbound hair and held him while he kept Florian wedged between their bodies.
“I. Can’t. Breathe!” Florian growled as he struggled for freedom like a fish that had been dumped on land.
Bastien refused to let them go.
“Mama! Help! I’m being molested! Stranger danger! This is making me uncomfortable!”
She laughed at her son’s misery. He was so tall now that the top of his head reached her chin, but he barely reached mid-chest on Bastien. “He’s your father, Ri. Give him a moment to hold you.”
Florian stopped moving instantly as his jaw went slack. He leaned his head back to stare up at Bastien. “Papa?”
Bastien cupped Florian’s head in his hands. The anguish and love on those chiseled features brought tears to her eyes and reminded her of his face when he’d learned his family was dead. That restrained agony that wrung her heart. This was the man she’d fallen in love with. Irritating. Hostile. Reckless. Capable.
But most of all, he was loving to the depths of his soul. Bastien never did anything halfway.
He loved as he lived. With a breakneck speed that was impossible to keep up with.
His lips trembling, he smiled proudly. “Hi, Florian.”
Florian looked from Bastien to her and back again. “Mom never told me you were gigantic.”
Bastien laughed. “Not as big as my Andarion friends or my cousins, but I was taller than my brother.”
Iskander scoffed. “Not as tall as I am. Nor as muscled. AndI’mthe youngest.”
Ember slapped him playfully on his hard, muscled abdomen. “Now, now, no jealousy!”
“I was just saying…”
She rolled her eyes at that Cabarro competitive spirit.
