“You’re home,” his father said as he glided across the floor toward them.
He embraced Brokk first, and they hugged each other before breaking apart. His father grasped Brokk’s shoulders and leaned back to study him. “How are you?”
“Much better now,” Brokk replied. “Though I could use a shower and my clothes.”
“Go do what you must and then meet me in my solar.”
Brokk nodded before leaving.
“And how are you doing?” his father inquired as they embraced.
“I’ve been worse,” Cole said. “But I have to agree about my clothes.”
His father laughed and squeezed his shoulders. “Go on then; meet me in my solar as soon as you’re finished.”
Cole slipped away. He retreated to his room, where he showered and dressed in clothes that fit him. His clothes were far more comfortable, but he missed the ones he’d worn as they still smelled of Lexi.
The soap and water had washed her scent from him. However, the memory of it teased his nostrils as he recalled the feel of her in his arms. And the sooner he returned to his father, the sooner he could see her again.
He left the room and practically jogged across the palace to his father’s private solar. The candles floating in the air cast shadows across the dark floors and walls.
His steps reverberated off the stones as he passed countless closed doors to rooms he’d never entered. He had no idea what lay beyond most of them.
When he arrived at the solar, he knocked and waited for his father to bid him enter before stepping into the room. His father sat in his favorite chair with a glass of whiskey by his hand. The fire crackling in the hearth filled the room with the sweet aroma of fae wood.
Cole helped himself to a glass of the amber liquid and settled into the chair across from his dad. The warmth of the fire helped soothe some of his lingering anxiety, but he was impatient to get back to Lexi.
“What happened out there?” his father inquired.
Cole had only given him scant details in his letters, and now he filled him in on the rest of it.
“You were lucky to find the witch,” his father said.
“Luck had nothing to do with it. I knew she was there.”
“And how is that?”
“It was Del’s mansion; his sister was the witch.”
“I see. I recall her from the party. I also recall that his daughter is a beautiful woman.”
“Yes, she is.”
“You sound intrigued by the girl.”
“It’s more than that; she’s my mate.”
“Your lycan mate?”
“Yes.”
Cole sipped his whiskey as he gazed over his father’s shoulder. One of the moons, Carpton, hung outside the window. The sight of it caused the lycan part of him to stir in a way it never had before.
He’d never transformed because of the moon’s pull, but now that Lexi had awakened his more primitive urges, they were making themselves known more often than they had before. Lycans didn’t transform with every full moon, but they felt connected to the moon’s cycles that often drew the beast out of them as the moon became fuller.
His need to shift grew as he imagined feeling the earth beneath him and the wind in his hair while he raced back to her. The impulse was so strong his fangs lengthened, and the scent of the night air intensified as it filled his nose.
His fingers clenched on his glass. It would have shattered in his grasp if his father didn’t lean across the distance separating them to remove it from his hand.
“Easy, son,” he murmured as he set the glass on the table.
Cole took a steadying breath as he leashed the lycan part of him once more.
“Have you claimed her?” his father asked.
“No. I didn’t have the chance to discuss it with her before your last letter asking us to return.”
“It will be easier for you once you do. It was for your mother.”
He fucking hoped so. He’d never liked feeling out of control; it was why he’d always identified more with his dark fae side, but the lycan was nowhere near as detached and calculating. It was making that clearly known.
“Do you care for her?” his father inquired.
“More than I ever believed possible.”
Until he said the words, he hadn’t realized how much he cared for Lexi. Not only was she his mate, but he liked her and admired her determination to keep her manor going and the ones she loved safe.
His father’s grin lit his eyes. “I’m so happy for you!”
Cole didn’t know how to reply, and before he could respond, the smile slid from his father’s face.
“Protect her, Colburn,” he said. “Don’t lose her like I lost your mother. It’s not something… it’s not something you ever fully recover from.”
His father’s eyes flickered away as anguish briefly replaced his joy. When he looked at Cole again, his smile was back in place, but it no longer lit his eyes.
“I will keep her safe,” Cole vowed.
“Good. Why didn’t you bring her back with you?”
“She refused to come. She has responsibilities in the human realm, and she couldn’t leave them. I plan to return to her as soon as I can.”
“Ah, so she is stubborn.”
“Very.”
His father laughed as he sipped his whiskey. “I was with a stubborn woman once. She drove me crazy, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I was fortunate I got the time I did with her and my firstborn son, but I’ve missed her every day since I lost her.”
“So have I,” Cole admitted.
It was these times, when it was just them, or them and his brothers, that Cole enjoyed the most. No one else would ever see this side of his father. It was reserved solely for his family.
His father was a ruthless ruler who didn’t tolerate disobedience from his followers. He handed out punishments with no remorse and rarely smiled. But when he was alone with those he loved, he was an entirely different entity.
“I never thought I’d see the day when you would find a woman,” his father murmured.
“Neither did I.”
His father finished off his drink before pouring himself another. Then he dipped a hand into his shirt, pulled out the chain he wore around his neck, and unclasped it. Cole had seen the chain countless times over the years, but he’d never seen his father remove it.
His dad slipped the two rings from the chain and hefted them in his hands. Sorrow radiated from him as he inspected them before rising and walking over to Cole. He tipped his head back as his dad stopped in front of him.
“Hold out your hand,” his dad commanded.
Cole did as he said, and his father placed the rings on his palm.
“These were mine and your mother’s,” he said.
“I know,” Cole murmured as he inspected the delicate bands.
The light reflecting off the silver bands emphasized the markings etched onto them. His mother’s ring was so delicate he was afraid he’d crush it in his fingers, but made of fae metal, it was far stronger than it looked.
He held them back out to his father, but his dad clasped his hand and closed his fingers over them. “Keep them. Give your mate your mother’s ring.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Yes, you can.”
“They’re yours. It’s… it’s Mom’s.”
“And now they’re yours.”
“You’ve worn them—”
“For six hundred and sixty-five years.”
Had it been that long? He bowed his head as he stared at the rings and remembered the woman whose love he still felt after all these centuries.
As he gazed at her band, he recalled seeing it on her hand as she ran her fingers through his hair or worked in one of her many gardens.
“I don’t need them to remember her,” his father said as he rested his hand on Cole’s shoulder. “She’ll always be in my heart, and I have only to look at you to remember her.”
Cole’s head fell back, and he gazed up at his father. He hadn’t expected the sheen of tears in his dad’s eyes, but then his father blinked them away.
“Give your girl your mother’s ring. It’s what she would have wanted, and it would have made her so happy,” his dad said.
“We’re not anywhere near that stage.”
“When you are, give it to her.” His dad squeezed his shoulder before releasing him and returning to his chair. “If you’re a fraction as happy with her as I was with your mother, you’ll have a wonderful life together, and that is all I ever wanted for you and your brothers.”
Before Cole could respond, Brokk breezed into the room with his wet hair hanging into his eyes and a smile on his face. “What did I miss?”
“Nothing,” their father replied as he lifted his drink.
Cole slid the rings into his pocket. When he met his father’s eyes again, they smiled at each other before his dad’s face became more serious.
“We have a meeting with the others tomorrow,” his father said. “They’re arriving here at lunch.”
Cole knew the others meant the coalition.
“What the Lord did to that marketplace never should have happened,” Brokk said. “He’s becoming more unstable and crueler.”
“I know,” their father murmured as he twisted his glass in his hands. “What we don’t know is how to get at him and kill him.”
And a solution to that would solve so many of their problems.