Page 133 of Wedlock

“I told you before. Your world isn’t mine, Falcon. At every turn, something new, something horrible is revealed. Even if you abdicated…your past, your kind, we can’t escape any of it. I can’t stand it any longer.”

“Angie, please, together we can…”

“This is goodbye, Falcon. For God’s sake, if you love me as you say you do, never contact me again.”

Hanging up, I drop the phone and cover my face with my hands, glad that Yin and the children are away from here so there’s no one to hear my sobs.

I know I’ll never love anyone the way I love this man. A man who would have given up everything for me, and I him. Everything, that is, except my child.

104

I stare at my study wall and shake my head.

‘What the actual fuck is happening?’

I’d done what Angie wanted, I’d learned my mother’s plans. She’d revealed her darkest secrets and hadn’t even quibbled when I told her she’d be imprisoned in her old wing indefinitely to teach her a lesson. It isn’t optimal, but I’d said it in a fit of fury and couldn’t back down once I’d uttered the words. Tiger’s been asking for her hourly, though, so it punishes him and me more than it does her. I’d banish her, but I can’t just let her go. Her links with The Free Men make her a very real threat. If the Queen should find out about her association with that group there’s nothing I can do to save my neck or that of my children.

‘What a fucking mess.’

It’s all too fresh for me to think straight just now. She can stay locked up until I figure it out.

‘I’d like to lock Tiger’s fucking mother up until she sees reason, too.’

I shake my head to dispel this thought.

‘No. I promised I’d never do anything like that again. But what the fuck is wrong with her? She loves me, I love her, yet she won’t come back to me. I promised no hupotasso, I offered to abdicate. What more can the woman possibly want? Maybe I should go see HER Mother. We’d had a good conversation the night of the Sunday roast. She seemed reasonable, and she knows her daughter better than anyone. Maybe she can tell me what it is I’m not offering, what I’m missing.’

I think back over the night of the dinner party. Her nephews all around the table, dogs underneath, the laughter and easy conversation. I understand that’s what she wants, I get it. I’ll happily give it to her, if only she’ll come back. I can picture it now, her nephews, my boys’ tiny cousins, all around the castle table. Our sons being part of that camaraderie. Normal, fun children, that’s exactly what Tiger and Talon would be in that environment.

‘Nephews. No niece. Where was the little girl? Marianna’s daughter. Strange not to see her. Why hadn’t I noticed she wasn’t there?’

Frowning, I think over my discussion with Adam and Marianna. Neither of them had mentioned the girl or her visit to the mountain-top to spend time with Talon.

‘In fact, the subject had been changed quickly by Jag.’

Leaning back in my chair, I stare at the ceiling of my study and order my thoughts. Jag had stayed with Adam and Marianna.Why? Why not stay with Angie’s parents if he sought to protect her family from vampires? And his face, his face when I’d discussed templates and spoke of my mother’s plans for any future daughter.

‘What had he said? ‘No wonder she ran.’

“Oh, fucking hell!”

Picking up the phone, I dial the one man I least want to talk to about this issue, but clearly have no choice.

“Falcon,” he sighs.

“I have a daughter,” I snarl, “and you knew about her. You tell me to trust you, that you wish to re-enter my circle, yet you liedagain,Viscount Speardon.”

“I never lied to you.”

“You knew the truth and you kept it from me; it’s tantamount to the same thing.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“There you go again. Is anything you said to me about my wife and children actually true? Did she have twins or triplets? You were there, you brought her back to me, you must know.”

“It’s not me you need to seek answers from, Falcon.”

“It was twins,” I shake my head, sorting my thoughts out as I voice them, “all along it was twins. We spoke freely about this during our visit to Angie’s family. There was too much truth in her mother’s eyes, in Adam and Marianna’s words, for it to be anything other. But if Angie had twins, and I have a daughter, who the fuck is Tiger?”