“Until they start doing that,” he admitted. “So, you joined to get revenge for your uncle?”
“No, I joined to prevent other families from suffering the same fate. No one should lose someone they love to these bastards, and no one should be forced into becoming one of them.”
Fire burned in her eyes when she met his gaze again. He didn’t have to feel her determination; it radiated off her in waves.
“And I do it for Doug,” she admitted.
“Understandable. Vicky wasn’t thrilled when you joined us.”
Willow snorted. “That’s an understatement.Noneof my family was thrilled about it, but they’ve gotten used to the idea, or at least they don’t constantly try to talk me out of it anymore. I’m sure that will change after this.”
“They care about you.”
“Too much.”
“Is there such a thing?”
When she tilted her head, the sun’s rays filtering through the trees emphasized her delicate beauty. He almost stopped walking to draw her against him. He didn’t think she’d deny him if he tried to kiss her, and he imagined those full, red lips tasted as good as they looked.
His hand dipped into the pocket containing what remained of his stash of lollipops, but when she smiled at him, he released the sticks.
“It is when you have nine siblings, parents who are madly in love with each other, and four… I mean,threeadopted uncles.” She’d been talking to him about Doug, but sometimes she still forgot he was gone. When she remembered, it was like a blow to her all over again. “Not to mention brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, and a troop of nieces and nephews. Sometimes the amount of caring can be overwhelming, but I guess it never can be too much.”
“I bet holidays at your house are a little hectic.”
She chuckled as she pushed aside another branch. “Christmas was a war zone when I was a kid. Even if a present had your name on it, there was no guarantee you’d get it. My brother Julian took a wooden Santa to the head when he tried to steal my brother Aiden’s PlayStation.
“In the process of the fight, they both broke the PlayStation, and my father grounded them for a week. The sad thing is, the broken PlayStation made Julian happy as he’d planned to take it apart and learn how it worked. We tortured each other daily.”
Despite describing it as a war zone, the sad smile on her face said she missed her family and all their craziness.
“It sounds like fun.”
“It was… interesting, frustrating, brutal, and a lot of laughter. We loved it. What about you, why did you join the Alliance?”
“My father was a member before me; I always knew I would join one day too. When I stopped aging at twenty-four, I went into training, though I was preparing years before that.”
“Did your mom give you a hard time about it?” she asked.
“She was killed by Savages when I was five.”
Willow winced and wondered if she could pull her foot out of her mouth. “I’m sorry.”
“It was almost six hundred years ago, and I don’t remember much about her.” But he could recall feeling an overwhelming amount of love in her presence and the sweet sound of her voice when she sang to him. “She loved me.”
The wistful way he said it caused a pang to tug at Willow’s heart. He was gorgeous, powerful, brave, and a man willing to sacrifice himself for others, but she suspected that, unlike her, there hadn’t been a whole lot of love in his life. Yet, she couldn’t think of anyone who deserved it more.
She rested her hand on his arm before realizing what she’d done. The gesture was so instinctive, she hadn’t thought about it before acting, but now she was holding the arm of a man she was supposed to be strictly business around.
Chapter Seventeen
Lowering her hand,she focused on the trees as she tried to think of something to distract from her awkward gesture. “Were your parents mates?”
“No, they were just lovers. My father didn’t talk about her much, but it sounded like they were also good friends.”
Willow almost asked what became of his father, but after her blunder with his mother, she wasn’t sure if she should. “So, you joined when you were twenty-four; how old are you now?”
“I’ll be six hundred and five on June first.”
