Page 191 of Pucking Feral: Part Two

He studies me. It's his deposition stare, the one that's broken stronger men than me from across negotiating tables. I've been immune to it since I was sixteen so he's mostly doing it out of habit at this point.

"Tell me about her."

So I do. I tell him about the tunnels. The two months of her living on vending machine food in his league's own arena, and he winces at that. The forced mark she burned off her own shoulder with a flat iron. The fire extinguisher to Valek's head, which makes Mom giggle. Wraith finding her, hiding her, protecting her.

The scent match.

All of us.

"Including Wraith," Dad replies.

"Including Wraith," I confirm.

His eyebrow's all the way up. "You're certain?"

And there it is.

He doesn't say it outright because he's not cruel. My father has never once been cruel about Wraith, and has thrown his entire career in front of people who were, but I know what he's not saying.

Are you sure someone could actually…?

"Dad." My voice comes out flat. "Stop."

"I'm asking a reasonable question."

"You're asking if a woman could genuinely want my brother, and I need you to hear how that sounds before you finish asking it."

He doesn't reply.

Mom's hand tightens on his shoulder.

To his credit, he doesn't get defensive. Probably because Mom is squeezing the living shit out of him and the nails are gonna be next if he starts up again.

Dad looks down at his coffee for a long moment. When he looks back up, the Commissioner is gone, and it's just my father, older than I keep remembering he is.

"I'd like to meet her," he says finally. "When things calm down. Dinner. Here."

"You'll behave?"

"He'll behave," Mom says, in the voice that ends discussions, wiping her eyes. I didn't realize she was crying. She catches my hand as I stand. "Thane. The girl… Ivy. She's good for your brother. But is she good for you?"

I blink in surprise.

And I think about how her hands felt on my head last night, and how tonight, I'm taking her out on a date. Just the two of us. And it's the most excited for something I've been in years. Even more than the biggest games.

I nod, my throat feeling tight. "Yeah. She's good."

I don't tell her the part about how I'm going to have fucking nightmares for the rest of my life about Ivy grinning and perched at the foot of my bed like a vengeful spirit.

It's part of her charm.

My mother pulls me down and kisses my cheek and tells me I look tired before sending me off with a Tupperware of leftover pot roast I didn't ask for. It's for both Wraith and me. She still doesn't understand Wraith won't eat meat, and she especially doesn't understand it's because he's the gentlest of us all beneath the… well.

The everything.

It's only in the car, halfway home, that the nerves hit.

I reserved a spot at a nice restaurant for tonight. The owner owes my father a favor, so we're guaranteed privacy, no cameras, good food.