Page 142 of Wedlock

“Falcon!” I gasp. “You can’t kill your own mother, no matter what she’s done.”

“I might have, had Jag not stepped in,” he scowls. “Luckily for her, he had a better plan. She’s going to be given over to the group she identifies with so strongly that she’d risk all to support it.”

“The Free Men?” I widen my eyes. “She’ll just have more opportunity to act out her plans.”

“No,” he shakes his head, “and yes.”

“Huh?”

“Not all her plans were bad, Angie. You and I both agree there are rites and rituals we vampires have clung to for aeons that are wrong. Humans are food, yes, but they can also be so much more. You’ve shown me that. Some of Mother’s plans with The Free Men will continue to be pursued, just not at the expense ofmyfamily. Her joining them neutralises at least one enemy of my house.”

“What if she just goes about doing her own thing behind the scenes? She seems pretty adept at that.”

“If she steps out of line I’ll reveal she rigged The Games and the Queen will surely execute her.”

“So, you have that as insurance,” I murmur.

“Yes, and she has another role. She’ll be travelling with Wolf. She’ll act as his free pass into as many of the international queens’ royal circles as possible. Her job is to report back to him any information she can find about the templates and where they might be hidden.”

“Surely you can’t believe she’ll be satisfied with this?”

“She has no choice,” he growls. “She’s already lost more than she bargained for. I’ve told her I never wish to see her again. As faras I’m concerned, she’s out of our lives. She’ll play no part in the upbringing of our children, or even be acknowledged as ever having existed. You have to remember, Angie, she hasn’t been under hupotasso for a very long time. She’s aging. I expect she won’t live beyond another thirty years, fifty at most.”

‘Of course, I forgot she was mortal now.’

“And Jag? You said he helped come up with this plan to save Suzume. Are you going to let him back into your life now that he’s proven himself so loyal a friend once more? I tried calling him, but his number is disconnected.”

His face darkens at my mention of his once-friend.

“Jag has something he has to do for me first,” he says cryptically before changing the subject and gripping both my hands in his. “We, you and I, need to concentrate onourfuture now. That is, if you’ll come home with me.”

“I don’t see I have much choice,” I murmur.

“You will always have a choice, Angie. I only ask you to return if you can love me as I love you.”

“Love isn’t the issue,” I whisper. “It’s love for my children that stands in my way.”

“It did, but no longer. I’ve done all I can to show you that I care for you. I’ve offered every sacrifice. You know who I am, you know what I am. If there’s anything else still acting as a wedge between us, tell me now. I want no more secrets between you and I. None.”

I raise my eyes to his and shake my head. He’s right. I know what he is, I’ve always known. I took him for better and for worse, and right now, I love him more than anything on earth. Every cell in my body wants to return with him as his wife, and I can’t deny that his solution is the best of a bad situation. I know there’ll be things in the coming weeks, months and years that will make meuncomfortable, and by accepting him, I’m accepting his world; the good, the bad and the utterly despicable. There’s no use trying to sugar-coat any of it.

“There’s nothing,” I whisper. “You know you have my heart.”

Dropping my hands, he pulls me into his embrace. His arms are strong around me, his chest against my face is as hard and broad as I remember, and his smell, even here with the sea breeze blowing all around us, is so familiar, and so delicious.

“You won’t regret this, my angel,” he murmurs into my hair.

Raising my face to his I search his eyes and see only warmth, love, and worry.

“What is it?”

He sighs, his eyes not leaving mine.

“I said I don’t want any more secrets or matters of the past to come between us again. Although I’m loathe to raise the issue, I need to know. Can you bear to raise Tiger as your own, knowing whose child he is?”

“I already know I’ll love him,” I bury my face into his chest as I try to make sense of everything he’s telling me. “I’ve reconciled my anger over you making Sophie pregnant at the same time as me.”

“I can’t ask you to forget, and he’ll be a living reminder of that. A reminder of all my past wrongs against you.”