by Leia Stone
“Oh! Right.” I giggled nervously. “We’re expecting…” I let my admission linger because what the fuck else was I supposed to say to the dad I’d known for all of five minutes?
“This is your husband?” my father asked me, looking again between Brock and me. “Did I miss the wedding?”
A nervous shrill of laughter bubbled out of me before I inhaled sharply and choked on my own spit. A hacking cough had me in its clutches while Cass grinned like an idiot behind my father, clearly enjoying my discomfort.
“No. Brock isn’t my husband, no. Just my baby daddy.”
Oh fuck. Did I just say baby daddy in front of my father? Why were my palms sweating so much?
My father nodded, his expression completely blank and unreadable. “I see. So you intend to raise the child … together … but unwed?”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Red alert. I needed out of this conversation, stat. What was even happening right now?
‘Pull the fire alarm,’ I told Cass.
His grin widened. ‘This isn’t school. No fire alarm. You just gotta deal with it.’
Brock had tensed beside me, and I squeezed his hand in reassurance, for my sake as much as his. “Yes,” I replied. “As I’m not married, our child will be born to unmarried parents.”
Keep it cool, Evie. He’s just trying to get to know you.
“I see,” my father said again. “You have no plans to marry, then?”
Why was he having such a hard time grasping the situation? Anyway, weren’t we just talking about the Akuma? How had the conversation turned so quickly?
‘Do something or I’ll never forgive you,’ I told Cass, who was red faced, clutching his little potbelly, trying to hold in his laughter.
“No—” I was saying when Brock interrupted me.
“My intention has always been to marry your daughter, sir.”
Say what? My eyebrows hit my hairline and my heart did all sorts of crazy somersaults in my chest. I was sure I wasn’t containing my shock.
“I see that this is news to my daughter,” my father said, and a hint of gentle amusement entered his tone.
But I ignored him for now, turned fully to face Brock. ‘You planned to … marry me?’
Brock’s eyes twinkled. ‘What did you think I meant when I said I loved you and move in with me?’ He chuckled at our private conversation. ‘You look as shocked as you did when you first found out you were pregnant.’
‘Well, yeah.’ There was so much more I could say, but the words weren’t quite forming. I sought out Cass instead. He would understand. He’d known me long before my life threatened to get all domestic. I widened my eyes at him.
‘Holy fucking fuck. He just said the M word.’ Cass sounded as shocked as I was.
‘He did.’
‘He sounds like he means it too.’
‘I know,’ I said.
“I’m glad to know that you intend to do the honorable thing here,” my father was saying, as if I wasn’t in the middle of a huge holy-fucking-shit situation.
Brock squeezed my hand. “I’ve not yet asked her to marry me, but I assure you that day will soon come and I’ll do anything to protect her.”
Ohmygod. Did Brock just offhandedly propose? ‘What’s happening?’ I asked my bestie. ‘Do something now!’
“How did the Akuma find you, sir?” Cass piped up, walking around from behind my dad’s wheelchair and taking center stage. “And what makes you think they’ll find Evie next?”
Thank fuck.
My blood pressure started to return to normal as my father took the bait.
“I don’t know how they found me. They shouldn’t have been able to. My kitsune power is gone. Nothing but faint remnants of it linger, not enough for them to track me with it. I managed to hide from them for many years—until a couple of weeks ago. And I know they’re hunting my daughter, because the demons asked me about her.”
Even though I understood that he’d stayed away to protect me, it still stung to know he was alive this whole time and didn’t tell me. If the roles were reversed, I would have found a way to get a message to my daughter.
As if he read my thoughts, my father reached for my hand. Unshed tears swam in his eyes. “Every second of every day we’ve been apart, I’ve thought about you. I wanted to call you a million times just to tell you I was alive.”
I swallowed hard. “Why didn’t you?”
He sighed, frowning. “It’s complicated, but basically I had an inside asset with the Akuma right after the car accident with your mother. An old friend, a warlock. He said the Akuma were watching you for any sign that you bore my gifts. He said that if they thought you had even one shred of magic or might be a threat, they would end your life.”
I squeezed his hand, swallowing a thick lump of emotion. “I understand.”
He wiped his eyes. “I also know that you’re your mother’s daughter, and that if you knew I was alive, you would have tried to find me. That would have led the Akuma right to us both, so I had to remain vigilant, carefully plotting my course of action all this time.”
Haru and Reo entered the room then, harried as if they’d run. I nodded toward my dad. “Haru, Reo, my father has come,” I explained.
They scuttled into the room—most unlike them—circled my father’s wheelchair to face him, and bowed low, their arms rigid by their sides.
Okay. This was a side I’d never seen of the warrior brothers.
My father nodded graciously like he was some kind of king, and only then did my protectors rise.
“Welcome, Master,” Haru added. “How may we assist you?”
I finally realized that, despite his paralysis, my father was dressed impeccably, his hair cut and combed with precision. He raised his head in a regal manner. “I am here to protect and train my daughter. She must close the gate to the underworld. Since my physical body is no longer up to the task, I will assist you in training her.”
Haru bowed his head in acquiescence. “Of course. It will be our pleasure. We’ve already begun her training, as you requested, but she does have to complete three more shifts before she acquires all nine tails.”
“Because of the baby?” he guessed, and they nodded. “We have much to do in little time,” my father continued. “The Akuma’s most recent attack on me has left me weaker than I’d like. I need to rest before I begin Evie’s training.”
“You are welcome in our home, as is your ... attendant?” Brock cocked a questioning brow at the woman behind my father.
“Yes, this is Cho. She is both my nurse and a witch. Cho has helped hide me from the Akuma all these years. If you have space for both of us, I’d be grateful for your hospitality, though we will need two rooms,” he added timidly.
“Welcome, Cho,” Brock said. “We have enough room for both of you, and would be honored to have you in our home.”
My father raised one eyebrow, like maybe he hadn’t realized we lived together in sin until this very moment.
Kill me now.
“Thank you. I’m quite tired from the journey,” my father finally said diplomatically.
Brock nodded. “Please follow my second-in-command, Ray. He’ll lead you to your rooms.”
Ray swept into the room as if by magic, though I knew Brock must have used his pack bond to call him. “If you’ll follow me,” Ray said, waiting for Cho to wheel my father around to leave.
“Wait,” my father commanded, and looked my way, reaching out to squeeze my hand. “I’m so pleased to see you again, kitten. We’ll catch up more later.” Emotion shone in his eyes as my throat went tight. And with that, Cho wheeled him from the room, leaving stunned silence in his wake.
I waited a full minute, long enough that I figured he couldn’t hear me. “Wow. That was … intense,” I breathed.
Brock was grinning like a fool next to me; he totally liked seeing me squirm.
Cass barked out a laugh. “I’ve never seen you so nervous.”
I released some of the tension I�
��d been holding. “I meet my dad for the first time, and in the first sixty seconds he’s asking me why I’m not married. Who wouldn’t be nervous?”
“You have to understand,” Haru implored—I’d almost forgotten he’d entered the room. “The kitsune were treated like gods in our homeland and raised in a traditional manner. They were revered for their powers. Your father would have been raised like a prince, and later treated as a king once he took over the mantle of kitsune from his father. Your way of life might be a bit shocking to him until he gets used to it.”
I was pretty sure Gran hadn’t treated him like a king…
“Don’t worry, he’s just trying to protect his only daughter,” Cass assured me.
I smiled. No matter how ludicrous the situation, he always had my back. “Thanks, Cass.”
“You got it, babe. Now, I’m off to see T. I left her with Molly at the cabin and she’s waiting for me.”
I blew Cass a kiss, which made him waggle his shiny butt while he sauntered away.
“All right, guys,” Brock said, looking from Reo to Haru. “My woman and I need some time alone.”
Haru and Reo were suddenly all business. They stalked from the room in four seconds flat. When I turned back to face Brock, the room empty of people, he was already staring at me. “So what do you say? Will you marry me?”
Holy fuck.
My eyes bugged out of my head as my heart jackknifed in my chest. “No way! That’s not fair. You can’t do it like that after my dad pressured you.”
Brock’s eyes were like steel cutting into my soul. “Your father reminded me of what I’ve wanted to do for weeks.”
I crossed my arms. “Okay. Then where’s the ring?”
Brock grinned. “In my top drawer. I’ll go get it.”
I gulped, forgetting to breathe. “Brock Adams, you bought me an engagement ring?”
He just smiled wider, scooped me up into his arms, and stalked toward our bedroom. I was speechless and fucking terrified.
Marry my baby daddy?
Then he wouldn’t be my baby daddy anymore, he’d be my husband.
We just moved in together.
‘You’re totally freaking out,’ he said as he locked the door to our room and set me on the bed.
“Just a little,” I squeaked.
Brock nodded. “That’s okay. I know how you work.” He pulled open the top drawer of his dresser, where he kept his underwear and socks, and started to rummage around.
I’m going to faint.
Finally, he pulled out a jewelry box, but instead of getting on one knee like I expected he would, he walked over to my side of the bed and set the black velvet box down on the side table. My heart was pounding so loudly, I could feel it vibrating in my ears.
Coming back over to where I sat on the bed, he knelt down in front of me. “I know you. You don’t make hasty decisions. So I’m going to leave that ring right over there, and when you’re ready to give me an answer, you can.”
I hadn’t realized I’d been holding my breath until it whooshed out of me. “Brock. I … just don’t want you to be doing this because I’m knocked up.”
A sly grin washed across his face. “Evie Black, I’ve waited my whole life for a woman like you to come along. You’re strong, confident, sexy as sin, and that night you chose me in the bar was the happiest night of my life.”
A grin pulled at my lips. “Yeah, because you had a one night stand that blew your mind. What guy wouldn’t be happy with that?”
Brock leaned forward and peppered my jawline with kisses, making heat pool between my legs. “The mind-blowing sex was amazing, obviously, but that night was the happiest of my life because my life intertwined with yours, forever.”
Forever.
We were having a baby together and that meant forever.
I was trying to think of something intelligent or sweet to say when his hand dipped into the elastic waistband of my jeans, reaching low for the sweet spot.
Would sex with Brock for the rest of my life be the worst thing in the world? No, no it wouldn’t.
I was dying to see what the ring looked like, but that would have to wait—pleasure surged through me like a wave, rippling up my center as I crashed my lips into his.
Shit! My dad was in the house!
But then Brock swept his free hand behind my head and pulled my mouth against his with an insistent passion I couldn’t refuse. I wouldn’t deny myself a quiet quickie with the man I was going to marry. I hadn’t misbehaved this long to stop now…
I was going to marry this man. Holy. Fuck.
I might not have said yes yet, but my heart already knew what my decision would be.
I moaned at the thought of sharing a life with him, and Brock growled, pinning wild amber eyes on me.
In five seconds flat he was out of every stitch of clothing and kneeling before me. I couldn’t help but ogle the alpha, and now that he was going to be all mine forever, I was allowed to, right? I trailed hungry eyes across every inch of him as he peeled my clothing off with a reverence that had my already-mushy heart melting.
When he spread my legs and positioned himself between them, I stilled in delicious anticipation. And when he trailed his lips from my mouth, to my neck … across my breasts, and finally, down my stomach … and further down, I closed my eyes and gave myself over to pleasure.
A lifetime of this? Sold. Sign me up.
3 From one kitsune to another
“First things first, we must anchor your power to the land,” my father said over his cup of hot tea.
The motherfucker had banged on our door at five am. Five.
If he wasn’t my father, I’d have told him to stick it where the sun don’t shine.
My eyes were barely open as I peered at the man who’d given me my kitsune gift. “Say what?” I mumbled, chugging my coffee like it was liquid gold.
My father wheeled closer to me while his nursemaid, the witch, leaned casually against the porch railing. “A kitsune and the earth are one,” he said once he was next to me. “You must anchor your new powers to her so she can help you when it’s time to close the gate.”
I really wasn’t in the mood for lessons. “Father…” I tried the word and it felt weird. “Dad … listen, I’m pregnant and tired. Can this wait until I nap?”
The world had to be ending to get me up this early.
My dad shook his head. “No, it must be done with the sunrise. That’s when the earth takes her first breath.”
What. The. Fuck?
The nursemaid stepped forward. “When you bind your powers to the land, it will also protect you somewhat from the Akuma.”
My father nodded in agreement.
Brock cleared his throat. “Anything that protects Evie is good with me, but what land? Her gran’s land or mine?”
My father’s gaze sharpened. “Both. Evie is the heir to both pieces of land, but your father took his part when he made a deal with the underworlders.”
I gasped. “Dad!”
Brock frowned, shaking his head in denial. “No. We’re protectors of the gate. Like Evie.”
My father looked at Brock with regretful eyes. “That’s what your father told you…”
Oh shit. Hadn’t Gran’s note said something about not trusting Brock’s pack? Maybe she knew more than I realized. Maybe the land feud was more than I thought it was.
“No. He wouldn’t.” But as Brock stared out at the land, I knew he was thinking about how his dad had made a deal with the siren Calista, and how his brother had planned to follow through with the deal.
“He did,” my dad said. “But that’s okay, son. We’re going to put things right today.” My dad started to wheel his chair to the edge of the porch like he was going to leave.
“Wait, what? How?” Brock stood while I wondered how we were going to get my father’s wheelchair down the porch steps. Then the nursemaid threw some sparkly dust at the wheels and he and his wheelchair floated, like Cass did.
&nb
sp; Cool.
The nurse floated my dad down the steps before returning him to the ground. Magic seriously rocked.
After I quickly chugged the rest of my decaf coffee, Brock and I walked out onto the lawn and faced him. As an unusual hybrid, maybe I was more like a mutant than human. Maybe all I needed was a badass superhero costume. I pushed my fantasy away and forced myself not to let my amusement show on my face.
One look at the seriousness on my dad’s face and all amusement ran away. Why did the Akuma and the underworlders keep screwing up my life?
“Energetically, we are going to give Evie power over the land again, just as I once had,” Dad said. “But it will weaken your alpha power, son.”
Brock and I collectively winced. This land was everything to him, to his pack. Without it, they didn’t have a home, the pack didn’t have a purpose. Territory was the single most important thing to a wolf.
Regardless, Brock nodded. “If it helps Evie…”
I looked at him with wide eyes. “Are you crazy? No. You’ll weaken.”
Brock shrugged, looking nonplussed. “If it helps you, I’ll be fine.”
Something dawned on me. “Wait. Brock made me a member of his pack—”
I couldn’t even get the words out before my father leaned forward in his chair, rushing to spit his words out. “He what?”
I winced. “Was that bad?”
My father took a few steadying breaths. “Kitten, when your mom and I had you, we knew it was risky mixing bloodlines like that. For you to then go and have a child with a werewolf and to then become part of his pack…” He blew through his teeth. “It leaves a lot of unknown variables.”
Brock looked at me nervously. “Well, it’s too late to change any of it now.”
Truth.
My father nodded. “You’re the alpha. It may be that we transfer the land’s power to Evie and you can still harness it through her, but I just don’t know. What I do know is that the Akuma are looking for her and they will come. When they do, I want her at full power and on red alert.”
We both nodded in resignation. My dad was kind of like a drill sergeant; he was definitely running this show while everyone else slept the day away.
