The Luna's Vow

Chapter 3. Mating Accidents (Blake)

Father?

I snapped my jaws at the stranger behind Este's back. "Pretender!" The 'r' on the end of the word rolled into a growl.

Steinar's blue gaze twinned in my vision, despite the extra-raw edge that the shift put on my senses. I squinted, and no, I wasn't seeing double. Two pairs of identical blue eyes looked at me. Steinar's mocked me, and Este's pleaded with me. Like father and daughter...

Absurd! A trick! I gave myself a shake, but I couldn't unsee it. Her father?

My heartbeat slowed down, my blood flow cooled, and my inner wolf let go of me. Walls and ceiling receded, proportional to my human shape. I stifled a wistful sigh, missing the primeval energy of a werewolf. They said, it got easier to release that jetstream of power with years... you wish!

Under Steinar's gaze that seemed to document my every misstep, sizing me up like a bona fide father of the mate, I didn't have the luxury of a post-shift hangover.

I focused on the problem, on Este buying Steinar's bullcrap. "That's impossible, my love, because your dad is of a meteoric bloodline. Steinar is a rogue."

Even before I finished speaking, Steinar pushed his preposterous hat up with the tip of his finger, opening the specks of silver on his tall forehead to my view. "Don't mistake the impossible for things simply outside the dogma, Alpha."

His mocking tone would have been easier to swallow if the cad didn't unwrap his scarf, then took off his mask, all in slow, deliberate motions. To make sure a slow guy like me kept up, his lopsided smile said.

"Enough," I snapped when he started to peel his right glove. "You're somehow a meteoric blood and Este's father. I get it."

"At your service."

So smug, when he had nothing to be proud of! "So, why are you showing your ugly mug after ignoring your daughter for twenty years? Because she's mated to an Alpha now and is useful to you?"

Steinar didn't have the grace to flinch. "Don't worry, I don't need your largesse. I came because I have the answers to your questions, and for no other reason. And, frankly, I find your hospitality lacking to stay long."

If he thought I would flinch, he was stupider than he looked. I matched him glare for glare. "Hospitality? You lost your right to my hospitality when you abandoned my mate to the humans."

"I didn't abandon her." He shrugged. "Not deliberately, at any rate. I simply forgot she had existed until those Northern Lights last Winter Solstice."

Este cried out in distress, and I cradled her to me. There was nothing for it but to let her drink the bitter brew to the last drop. She had to see through this man, survive her disappointment and put him out of her heart forever. He would bring her more pain otherwise.

Fortunately, Steinar didn't even try to dress up the ugly truth. "Vesper and I became friends after I helped her free herself. Close friends, I emphasize. Very close."

"With benefits," Celeste whispered.

He nodded. "At times. She moved a lot, I moved a lot...once, our path crossed again, and she went into heat. Bahm! A mating accident. I tried to do right by you, but a she-wolf's pregnant brain...ouch."

Este's breath hissed as she exhaled slowly. Her grimace was so pained, my chest ached. I kissed her hair and closed my eyes, breathing in her sweet scent.

"Yes, pregnancy changed Vesper," Steinar said, oblivious to Este's suffering. For that alone, I should mutilate him so no other she-wolf suffers a mating accident. One word from Este, and I'd do it, but she remained silent. How hungry she must have been for the family to tolerate this reprehensible cad...and why didn't I fill her need? Wasn't I and my pack enough? Why?