VIKTOR
I take my place beside Rowan, lying down beside her even as Jhenelle rushes towards us and collapses in my arms.
“Louis,” she calls as she smiles at me. “Can you come push me on the swing?”
“Sure,” I tell her. “But after we have all eaten.”
“Oh, come on. I am not hungry.”
“You are hungry, you just don’t feel it yet because you are too excited. We will eat first and then go play in the swings. Okay?”
“Fine,” she says with a pout before slouching down on me.
Rowan chuckles at our conversation before passing me a kiddies plate for Jhenelle.
“What about mine?” I ask with a pout.
“You have your hands full with her, I will feed you” she replies with a smile.
“Oh, please. Don’t be disgusting,” Rina pleads and Lisa just chuckles at her. “You, don’t get to make a sound,” she replies to her sister. “You have joined the bandwagon. I am all alone, now,” she whines before flopping down on the blanket.
I notice Rowan and Lisa exchange a glance but before I can comment on it, Jhenelle takes my attention by demanding for her food.
“Come on, Louis,” she whines. “Hurry up so that we can go play.”
“As the princess commands,” I reply before feeding her a piece of crepe.
The conversation that flows is easy and fun, calm.
I cannot remember the last time I had done something like this.
I mean, just existing and enjoying the day, not thinking about anybody, or business.
Ever since my father passed away, I have been so busy and consumed with making the pack more secure, more powerful, more untouchable- I mean I have dedicated my whole life to that cause thinking it was all that mattered and even the thought of mate was fine from the perspective that it would make the pack stronger
It is amazing how much I had wrong, how much of life I have been missing and how much Rowan had brought into it.
Peace.
Joy.
A daughter
Love
All of this, made possible because of a rogue rogue.
The irony isn’t lost on me.
“… is not true and you know it,” Rowan says with a chuckle at Lisa before placing a chicken strip into her mouth, with one end hanging out.
Without even thinking, I reach over to her and bit it off, leaning even closer to kiss her.
“I said behave!” Rina snaps. “Some of us here are mateless. And there is also a kid present. Have some decorum.”
“The one you should be telling that to is your sister,” I reply. “Do you know where we found those two this morning?”
“Hey! Quiet,” Lisa rushes before a fierce blush crawls over her face.
“Oh my god,” Rina whines as she watches her sister blush. “Don’t tell me. I really don’t want to know.
“Why are you kissing my mama?”
Jhenelle’s innocent question has us all freezing up.
Damn.
For a moment, I had forgotten I had a kid on me.
“Uh… because I like her very much,” I reply. “Very much that I want both you and her to come stay with me. Forever.”
“Forever? Really?”
“Yes. But if you agree and that happens, you won’t be calling me Louis again. You will have to call me Dad.”
“Dad? You mean like Daddy?”
“Yeah. I will be your daddy. Would you like that?”
Everyone is quiet as we all watch as she processes that idea.
I know she loves me but…
I can’t help having a little fear.
“Does that mean I will get to see you everyday?” She asks.
“Yeah. Every morning and night. But it won’t start now. We still have a few adult things to settle,” I tell her before sending a quick glance to Rowan and she responds with a small, tentative smile.
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“I want you as my daddy. I will get to see you everyday and we will get to do things together. I like that.”
“Great! That is… great,” I tell her with a wide smile while town leans over to peck her on top of her hair.
“Can we go to the swings now?” She asks.
“Sure baby,” I say as I get to my feet with her in my arms. “Let’s go to the swings.”
“Have fun, you two!” Rowan calls after us and I just send a smile over to her.
As I make my way towards one set of swings, I notice the eyes of some humans on me, noticeably the women.
“Why are they all staring at you?” Jhenelle asks as I set her on the swing and start pushing
“Well, most of them are humans, you see,” I begin to answer. “So deep down, they notice that there is something different about us. So, they can’t help but stare.”
Or maybe it is just the fact that we werewolves are infinitely more good looking than they are and they can’t help but stare
Yeah, that is most likely it but I am not going to tell her that.
“Oh, okay. If you and my mummy get together and you become my daddy, you are not going to leave like you did before, right?” She asks with a little wobble in her voice.
The fact that she waited until we were away from the rest to ask me this tells me how much it bothered her and that my absence the last time really hurt her.
“No, sweetheart,” I tell her as I walk over to her front so that I can stare her in the eyes. “I am never going to leave when your mother and I get together. You will become my daughter and everyone will know that.”
“What if the two of you get in a fight again? Like the last. What if mummy gets angry or you get angry, what happens then?”
“If we both get into a fight, she and I will just have to work it out, but it will never affect the way we will both treat you. You will still remind my daughter.”
“Do you promise?” She asks as she stares into my eyes.
I lean over and place a peck on her hair before leaning back to look at her and in a whisper, I answer.
“I promise.”