Page 139 of Unveil

“Much to my immense dismay.” His gaze flicks away from me and back to her. Then his voice lowers. “I’m afraid she’ll choose you.”

My jaw works, as all the times I fucked up flash like a heat storm in my mind.

“I’m not so sure about that,” I whisper.

Almost like she’s arguing with me even in her sleep, a faint furrow creases her brow, and her bottom lip juts out in an adorable pout. So rebellious, and yet still so, so soft.

“I am.”

My gaze snaps up to Sol’s. “How do you know?”

He huffs wryly. “Call it father’s intuition. She’s a lot like her mother, but more… spirited, as you know. We’ve been white-knuckling Luna’s love life since she turned eighteen, terrified she’d pick a masked, stalking asshole.”

He gestures to me. “And lo and behold.”

I almost snort, but hold it back in time as his face stays serious.

“So, when she chooses you—if not now, then later—take care of our daughter. And better than you did this last time,” he growls.

“I will. I promise.”

“I’m serious, Fury. If you hurt her?—”

“I won’t.”

“But if you do…”

“I’ll give you the gun myself, Bordeaux,” I finish evenly. “Locked and loaded.”

He holds my stare for a beat longer, then rises to stand. “Her mother’s on the way. In the meantime, I’ll be downstairs. Send my daughter to me as soon as she wakes.”

I willnotbe doing that, but I agree with a grunt anyway as he leaves. He doesn’t need to know I plan to soak up every second I have left with Luna, just the two of us, until the world and everyone else in it crowds back in.

Right before he’s gone, Sol pauses at the doorway, hand on the doorjamb. He taps it like he’s thinking, then speaks over his shoulder without looking at me.

“And Fury? If I see another bite mark on my daughter, I will rip your fucking head off with my bare hands.”

Then he’s gone.

It takes a second before I finally snap my slack jaw shut. Not gonna lie, the murder in his voice was alarming. There’s no way on God’s green earth I’ll stop marking my wife, but I might ask Luna to carry a scarf whenever we’re back in New Orleans.

I give a two-finger mock salute to the empty doorway and smirk as I whisper to the ghost of him, “Yes, sir, Phantom, sir.”

My smile softens as I brush Luna’s hair back, caressing the mark beneath the neckline of the shirt she borrowed from me. The mark that, one day, might very well get me killed.

But the proof of my claiming settles something in me that’s been on edge for a long fucking time.

I breathe her in and, ignoring the pain radiating through me, snuggle her closer. My heart thumps under her cheek with desperate hope. Hope that, when I give her the choice, she chooses to claim me too.

“Ugh. Where am Inow?” I rub my eyes, grumbling. “I keep waking up in new places…”

A delicious scent wafts in my nose as I shift. Maple, bourbon, and pine settle me.

Orion.

“You’re in our bed, baby.” He laughs hoarsely against my hair, and memories rush back in a sleepy haze.

Fleeing Whitby Rose. Going to Orion’s home on Fury land. I was a total zombie when we got to the gorgeous cabin by a lake, and this must be where I wound up after Orion led me inside. His bedroom. And not a cot.His. Bed.