Fourteen
Killian
About half of the pack who’d come to the fair was relaxing in the tent, the rest of them out enjoying the sights and shopping.
Chairs were scattered around, next to folding tables, with wolves reclining or chowing down on turkey legs or stacks of funnel cakes. There was one chair that sat empty out of respect. Grandfather’s chair. We’d brought it with us and set it up as a symbol; he was still technically our alpha, but really it was only in name now.
He wasn’t speaking to me since our argument. Ignored the messages that I sent to him. I’d heard that he was actually doing better, that the healing was working better than it had before, and it had given me some hope that he could maybe even join us at the festival—but he declined. And my grandmother was staying up there with him, where she’d remain by his side until the end.
Some of the pack’s more musically inclined members stood on a small stage we’d erected. A guitar and a fiddle, backed by a clarinet and the high, sweet voices of several pack members, drifted through the air.
Daphne and I were at one of the back tables. She looked…content. Not angry, not feisty, not resigned. Content.
But I could do better than contentment. I wanted her smiling, I wanted her to be as happy as she could be.
And I’d come prepared.
“I got something for you,” I said, reaching for one of the nearby tables. It had been personally delivered earlier after I made a few phone calls.
I brought out the big hardcover and slid it across the table between us.A History of Our Realmwas the classic book we’d all read growing up in school. All the magic folk, anyway.
“Here you go, my fair lady. Get it? Because we’re at a fair, and…”
She choked on a laugh. “Wow. That was a next-level dad joke, and you’re not even a dad.”
Not yet,I thought.But I will father your babies and protect them with my life.
Then she looked down at the book and started flipping through the pages.
Her eyes lit up. “I thought it was full of fairy tales and legends and stuff. Like, King Arthur and Robin Hood and stuff... but I guess this is actually stuff that happened?”
I nodded, amused. “That’s what history books tend to have, yes.”
She turned a page again. “How did you know I even wanted this?”
I shook my head. “Juniper is a friend and had noticed that you admired this. So I paid her for the book and for her to bring it here as a surprise.”
“This was…the perfect gift.” She blinked hard. “You didn’t have to do this, Killian. It’s not my birthday. Or Christmas... or...”
“It doesn’t need to be a special occasion for me to bring you joy, Daphne.”
She shook her head. “You are making it very hard to hate you.”
“I know. I’m a real bastard that way, aren’t I?”
The alpha knew his fated mate when he saw her. The knowledge was one way at first, but it would soon become clear to both that they couldn’t go on without one another. Daphne was learning this and fighting it every step of the way.
It all just honestly made her sexier to me. I wanted a woman with spirit, a woman who’d challenge me. How was it that Daphne was so perfect for me in every way?
She looked down, riveted, her eyes eagerly devouring the introduction page. The illustrations on the page moved, and her eyes widened as a dragon blew tiny flames.
“So. Cool.”
I nodded. “There’s a lot of cool stuff here,” I agreed. “That’s why you’re going to love it here. That, and all the good sex I provide.”
“Yeah yeah.” Her fingers caressed the pages. “I love this book so much.”
“Don’t make me jealous of a pulped tree, woman.”
