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My father simply shakes his head and sits down behind hisdesk. “Let’s talk about something more pleasant. We’ll deal with your cousins’situation when the time comes. Now, I know you need your bonding time, but thesunscreen project is at a critical state. I want you to get to work. Thechemists have the formula down, and we’ll be ready for testing soon.”

I know I should be excited. This is the very reason I gotmarried. I changed my entire life to stay on this one project. Now all I canthink of is how to keep my cousins alive.

“Dante?” My father leans forward. “Are you all right?”

No. I’m not all right. I’m changed, and I’m not sure I likeit. This is my home, and somehow I feel out of place. It’ll be all right. Iwent through a lot. I need time and space to forget what happened in the woods.It’s just a little post-traumatic stress disorder.

I will be fine. I will get back to normal.

I want to see Kaja.

“I’m good,” I say, forcing a smile on my face. “A bit tired,though.”

Yeah, almost dying will do that.

Dad gets back up and walks around the desk. He envelopes mein a bear hug. Love for my father rushes over me. I hug him back. Despite ourdifferences, I love the old man.

“I was wrong to say what I did to you, Dante. You’re my boy,and I would never kick you out,” my father says, emotion choking him. “You’llalways be my boy.”

Now the emotion that flows over me turns bittersweet as Irealize I’m leaving something behind. I might live in this mansion forever, butI’m changed, and my childhood is irrevocably over. I was Donald Dellacourt’sboy for thirty years.

But now I’m Kaja’s husband.

“I love you, too, Dad.”

ChapterTwenty-Two

Kaja

I come awake slowly, my consciousness opening inlayers. I slept so deeply that no dreams jarred me. Just sweet sleep. Each timeI awakened, my eyes would open and I would see Dante’s face hovering over me,protecting me, and I knew I could sink back into sleep.

This time, however, he is not there. I open my eyes, andDante is not holding me or standing watch.

I sit up in bed, feeling stronger, but there is still adelicious weakness to my system. I saved him. Dante is alive because my bloodsustained him.

All of my life, I allowed things to happen because I knew noother way. Until I was kicked out of the pack, I did not understand that I canchange things. I saved Dante. I am strong.

I push back at the blankets that cover me. They are rich andsoft, made of some material I never felt before. I touch the gown covering mybody. I vaguely remember Dante slipping it over my head and calling me aprincess as he tucked me in.

Where has he gone?

I look around the room, memories surfacing. Dante’s room. Itseems larger than my pack’s long house. Dante’s memories of this room arestrong. I see it when he feeds. I can see it as it was when he was a child. Heloved hovercars and bikes. He followed racing circuits, and was pastdisappointed when his father wouldn’t let him enter something called the BMXSky Racers. I find the desk where he sat and worked on homework when absolutelyforced to. He prefers to play with his tablet. It still sits on the desk.

I touch it and am startled when a woman pops up. She issmall but lifelike. How does she fit inside the thin tablet? Why is shehalf-naked? If I learned one thing about Dante’s people, it is that they preferto be fully clothed. Not this woman.

“Hello, Master. What can I search for tonight? I’ve foundsome amateur pornography guaranteed to shock and arouse you.”

I take a step back. “I do not think I wish to be shocked.”

I am already shocked by the small woman who hovers above thetablet wearing what appears to be strips of leather that do not cover herincredibly large breasts. And the minute I speak, the woman changes, morphinginto a much older woman in a business suit.

“Apologies, ma’am. I’ll go into mom mode. Now, would youlike a rundown of stock quotes?”

I turn away, a bit frightened by the magic that is here onDante’s plane. There must be a doorway out. I find double doors with filmycurtains covering them. I stride over and throw them open and gasp. I am nolonger in a building, but outside and so close to the sky. Lights twinkle allaround me, like fireflies in odd colors. Yellows, pinks, blues, and purpleslight up the sky in the distance.

I hold on to the doorframe. There is floor beneath me, but Ican tell I am up high. Very high.

“Kaja, you’re awake.”