***Content Warning! Mentions of sexual assault and violence. Mild swearing. Big Hanie Alert!***

Although Luna insisted she felt fine after her faint, Deus swooped her into his arms to carry her downstairs where he gently placed her in her chair at the dining room table. Erica refilled everyone’s wineglasses, and Luna said Grace would be having dinner with her friends and Tyrone at Cian and Theresa’s.

“Oh, she will enjoy that,” Erica smiled.

Luna nodded and grinned. “She says Aurora has some big news she can’t wait to tell everybody.”

“Goodness!” Erica chuckled. “I’ll be clutching my pearls. That girl is something else.”

“Grace and I had her friends over for dinner a few days ago, and I enjoyed it so much. Oh, the four of them and their banter! I don’t recall the last time I laughed so hard. They really should take their act on the road. They’d make a killing,” Luna laughed.

“I can just imagine,” Erica chuckled.

“It warmed my heart to see it. I can tell they love Grace and she loves them. Avery’s a dynamo, and Andrea’s a real pistol. Aurora is an absolute doll.”

“Agreed,” Deus said.

Luna took a fortifying pull on her wine and readied herself to ask the question that was foremost in her mind. “How did you know I was your daughter? How long have you known? You said you’d been waiting for me for a long time, but I don’t understand. Why did you not come to me before?”

Before Deus could respond, Erica placed a loving hand on her husband’s arm and looked earnestly into Luna’s face. “Before we go any farther, I hope you will consider not judging or resenting your father too harshly. Whatever choices he made, right or wrong, I can assure you he made them out of love.”

“I did,” Deus agreed, sorrow etching itself in every angle of his face.

Luna’s heart went out to the magnificent wolf. He looked so heartsick, his aura shrinking protectively around him. Several colors in it brought Luna up short. The prominence of blue signified him as a family man: trustworthy, loyal, grounded, and responsible. He was stable and level-headed. The abundance of green told of his great health, prosperity, and love for those in his protection. However, it was the black color that jolted Luna and made her want to hug him. She knew that was part of his aura anyway, for he was a protective Alpha Wolf, successful in his life and career, elegant, and extraordinarily powerful. However, instead of a tranquil movement of the black color, thunderbolts of it crashed through his aura, disrupting the other colors. Taking a deeper look, Luna got the feeling the black was usually more solid and flowed peacefully among the other colors. Upon meeting him, she also knew his aura was bright and beautiful, flowing openly and serenely around him. Now, however, he looked so careworn, every inch of his aura full of heartache. Luna couldn’t resist reaching dainty fingers toward her father to touch his cheek. “What happened?” she whispered.

“It’s a long story, sweet girl, and I hope you can forgive me once you know. Will you let your father hold you while he tells you the whole sorry thing?”

Luna willingly came into his arms, feeling as though she’d come home after a long, long, harrowing journey. “How bad can it be?”

“I’ll let you be the judge of that,” Deus said, resting his cheek atop her head. “Here it is from the beginning. Some of it you’ll know, I’m sure.”

“Let it fly,” Luna said, giving him a quick squeeze.

“When I was a much younger man, I was riding high. I was famous and raking in the dough. I was a free agent, footloose and fancy free, as they say. I was a force of nature, a cyclone taking the world by storm. I had fans, people who idolized me. There were women, a myriad of them, falling at my feet in worship and adulation. My ego was as big as the planet Jupiter, and I basked in the knowledge that my music enchanted all who heard it. I was untouchable and unattached, and I planned to keep it that way. I never expected to fall in love, let alone imprint. Then, Gabriella…your mother…came along, and everything changed. I’m sure you know that part already.” Deus said, beginning his story.

Luna nodded against his chest and sighed as her father tenderly stroked her hair.

“I began to care for her very deeply. I loved her but did not imprint on her. I wanted to give that to your mother, so I tried to force myself to imprint. If you know anything about imprinting, it doesn’t work that way,” Deus continued.

“I know. You can’t control it. It just happens when it’s meant to,” Luna said. “It’s such a romantic concept, something intimate and personal.”

“It is, but it can be painful in certain situations,” said Deus. “You see, I loved your mother very much and wanted her to be ‘The One.’ It bothered me, began to eat away at me. Your mother wanted it to happen, and it hurt me knowing I couldn’t give that to her. I won’t go into details, but it started to tear us apart. I started to withdraw from her knowing that there was a huge part of myself I couldn’t share with the one person I knew I loved. She withdrew from me because she was afraid of what would inevitably happen if and when I did imprint. When it does happen, it happens the instant you see your fated mate for the first time. She withdrew from me to protect her heart from being broken.”

“I know this, too. Mother has told me,” Luna replied.

“We both knew we couldn’t continue this way, so the decision to part ways and try to remain friends was mutual. We kept in touch for a while, and life went on for both of us. My career and fame grew, and Gabriella seemed happy with her job as a librarian while working on publishing her first novel.” Deus held her tighter, and Luna got the distinct impression that this next part was going to be difficult for him. “As I said, this went on for quite a while until one day, Gabriella seemed to have disappeared into thin air. Her phone was no longer in service, her landlord said she moved and gave no forwarding address, and she’d given notice and resigned from her job. I could no longer sense any part of her or track her. Needless to say, I was out of my head with worry.”

“Mother discovered she was pregnant and didn’t want you to know. She didn’t want you coming back out of a sense of obligation, which she knew you would.” Luna said, picking up where her father left off. “She knew as a wolf, you would know instantly if you saw her again. She hid herself in the fairy realm–Avalon–and cast a spell over herself so you wouldn’t be able to locate her.”

Deus blew out a long breath, shook his head sadly, and returned his cheek to rest atop Luna’s head. “I didn’t find this out until years later. I hired a team of private investigators, but they were unsuccessful in finding Gabriella. In the end, all I could do was say a prayer that she was happy and somewhere safe. Meanwhile, time marched on, and there was Erica. As you’re aware, I’m sure, it was Erica I imprinted on.”

“Yes,” Erica whispered, running a loving hand over her husband’s shoulder and down his back. “A few months into our marriage, I overheard Deus talking on the phone. It turned out to be one of the private investigators he’d hired. I heard Deus instructing him to call off some search. Now, I had no idea about any of this so naturally, I asked what this was all about. Deus explained about Gabriella and said he was calling off the search. He was with me now and didn’t want anything from his past to be hanging over our heads. By the time all this happened, I was heavily pregnant with Tyrone and Theresa. My mind started going a mile a minute, and I had my suspicions about Gabriella’s abrupt departure. To think like a woman, you have to be a woman.”

Luna laughed and agreed. “You suspected it was an unplanned pregnancy that sent my mother running.”

“Damn straight!” Erica confirmed.

“You could’ve knocked me over with a feather when Erica shared that with me. It hadn’t even crossed my mind, but it made total sense once Erica explained what she was thinking,” Deus said. “Talk about feeling like a first class dumbass.”

Erica smoothed her hand over Deus’s hair and grinned at Luna. “Darling, you’re not a dumbass. You’re just a man is all.”

Luna let loose a loud guffaw and produced an unladylike snort. “Erica!”

Deus chuffed out a soft laugh, sounding very sheepish. “Erica has the right of it. I mean, how thick could I be? Anyway, I had to know. I needed to know for sure if I had a child out there somewhere. I didn’t want to put Erica in an awkward situation so I mentally started making plans to locate a witch who could try to scry for Gabriella.”

Erica kissed her husband’s cheek and rested a hand on Luna’s shoulder. “I know my husband like the back of my hand and didn’t like where his thoughts were going. I told him I could do the scrying and reminded him I’m very good at it. I also reminded him that his child is and always will be a part of him. Deus is and always will be a part of me, so that makes his child a part of me, too. I told him if there was a child, we would find a way of working out the logistics so he could be an active father. You see, Luna, being a hands-on father is something Deus values very highly.”

“What I ever did to deserve this beautiful, magnificent creature goes beyond any understanding,” Deus said, bringing Erica into his embrace while keeping Luna close with one arm.

Luna felt a pang as she watched Deus and Erica share an intimate look. She wondered how it felt to be loved so deeply. Instead of sharing love such as what Deus and Erica felt for one another, all Luna knew was unspeakable terror and agony. Feeling a chill swamp her, the beautiful fairy gave an involuntary shudder.

For the first time in her life, Luna saw a werewolf go into true Alpha mode. As she watched her father’s eyes darken and his lips thin into a grim line, it became abundantly clear he sensed her pain. “Bloody hell,” he growled. Luna swore she saw the ferocity his wolf was capable of reflected in his eyes. Deus re-established his tight embrace, pulling Luna protectively to his chest. “Who hurt you, baby girl? You tell me who he is, and I’ll damn well see to it he never, ever hurts you again.” The once smooth, polished voice was now a gruff, raspy one that should’ve chilled Luna to her very marrow. Instead, the love and concern aimed at her flowed over her like warm caramel. She felt her heart swell, and a lump rose to her throat. His embrace was so warm, so safe, somehow so familiar. She blinked at the sting of tears, moved so intensely that she couldn’t speak for several seconds. When she did, what came out was barely a whisper. “Father–” she breathed into his shoulder, clung tightly to him, and was unable to say anything else.

“I’m here, baby girl, always here,” Deus rasped against her hair. Claws scraped ever-so-delicately over the back of her head and through her thick, dark locks. Dear Calista! He’d transformed, ready to go into battle…for her.

As much as Luna loved her mother, she’d always longed to know a father’s love. She’d never known what it felt like to have a father’s strong arms encircle her in comfort. She’d never known how it felt to lay her head against her father’s heart and whisper to him that he was her hero. Luna had never experienced a protective fatherly voice assuring her that everything would be all right. As the realization hit her that Deus had transformed and was geared up to kick ass and take names for her simply because she was his daughter and he loved her, the dam burst. Luna inhaled a sharp, shuddering gasp. Her shoulders shook with sobs, accompanied by a fountain of tears she hadn’t allowed herself to cry. She clasped him like a lost, weary child. It was ugly-crying at its worst, but Luna didn’t care.

Deus simply held her, rocked her, and stroked her hair. He was a rock, a solid force to anchor Luna as the storm thundered through her. Deus never waivered as she wept brokenly, wetting the front of his shirt with the flood of her tears. Meanwhile, Erica quietly left the room to give father and daughter the bonding space they needed.

When the torrent started to ebb, Luna’s sobs were replaced by soft little hiccups and sighs. Her cheeks flaming in shame, she slowly stepped out of her father’s embrace, her eyes cast downward toward her shoes. How could she ever possibly look at him ever again after such an outburst? “I’m so sorry,” she whispered in mortification. “Forgive me.”

Deus softly took her shoulders and turned her to face him. She didn’t fight it when he tenderly raised her chin with a clawed forefinger, enticing her to look at him. “There is nothing to forgive, sweet girl. You’ve been strong for so, so long, but you don’t have to be anymore when you need a break. Part of the job of being a father, you know, is holding his daughter tight when she needs to cry it out. I have a broad chest and big shoulders, my girl, and they’ve weathered many a storm.”

Luna gave a watery smile but nearly blubbered all over again when her father wiped her wet cheeks himself with a wad of tissues. “It’s just…I think this is more than my heart can take. To have you take care of me like this…you transforming and ready to do battle for me…my heart is so full.”

“I know, baby, but it just comes with the territory. Any father worth his salt protects and takes care of his little girl, no matter how grown-up and brave she is.” Then, he waggled his eyebrows at her. “You’re just going to have to get used to it, my darling, because dear ole Dad has a lot of protecting and care to make up for the years we didn’t have.”

Luna’s eyes widened for a split second. Then, a punchy, giddy feeling smacked her, and she burst out laughing. Geez, she must look like a complete headcase, but she just couldn’t help it. When the fit of mirth let up, she grinned crookedly at him. “Does that mean you’re gonna chaperone my prom night?” she teased.

“Damn straight, I am,” Deus fired back, his eyes twinkling. After sharing a shorter laugh, Deus took her by the shoulders, his gaze boring intensely into hers. “Now then, answer my question. Who hurt you so badly, baby girl?”

Luna heaved a fortifying sigh. “It was Grace’s father. See, we dated for a while, and I enjoyed his company. I wasn’t ready for more–um–intimate relations. One night, he took things too far. Let’s just say “No” took a powder from his vocabulary. That night, I became a statistic of date rape.”

Deus growled low in his throat and snarled. “I am going to kill him! He will rue the day he lived to be born.”

Luna leaned up to softly pat his cheek. “You don’t have to. He’s already dead. He was caught and punished. I finally had no choice but to tell my mother what happened when I discovered I was pregnant. She sought an audience with Queen Ella. The long and short of it is, Queen Ella has ways of getting at the truth. She clipped his wings and sent him to a human prison to languish for the rest of his life. He was shanked and ended up bleeding out on the floor of the prison laundry room.”

“I see. So then, you decided to continue the pregnancy, which resulted in Grace,” Deus replied.

“Yes,” Luna said, a true, radiant smile lighting her face. “What happened was truly the most awful thing I’d ever experienced in my life to that point, but I promise you, I’m okay. It happened, I came to terms with it, and I got Grace out of it. I’d do it again a hundred times over if it means having her in my life.” She touched his cheek again, caressing it to try to soothe his wolf. “You can shift back if you can…if you want to. I’m okay.”

Deus kissed the top of Luna’s head and took in a deep breath as though scenting the air around her. “I can see that you are.” Taking a few steps back, he morphed back into his human form with effortless fluidity.

“Wowza!” Luna whistled in stupefaction, then reached for her wine to throw it back as if it were a shot of whiskey. “How in the hell–? I’ve never seen a wolf shift with such ease and grace. Goddess! You did it so quietly, too. Hell, I didn’t even realize you’d transformed to your wolf until I felt your claws. How–just–how–?”

Deus chuckled low, his amusement evident when his eyes twinkled into Luna’s. “It’s called being a wolf for many, many years, my love.”

Luna grabbed the bottle of wine, refilled her glass, and swigged more. “I am gonna get shit-faced, ass-crawling drunk.”

Deus threw back his head and roared with laughter. “Sweetheart, you deserve it, so you go right ahead. But,” his expression turned stern, “you’re not allowed to drive home in that condition. I’m confiscating your car keys, and you’re staying the night. Got it?”

Luna rolled her eyes, flopped dramatically into a chair to pretend pout, then harrumphed. “Fine,” she muttered in mock-defiance. Then, father and daughter met gazes, grinned at the same time, and erupted into fits of hilarity. Deus pulled Luna to her feet and held her against his chest as they continued to roar with laughter. “You’re good for my funny-bone,” she chortled, wiping tears from the corners of her eyes.

Deus kissed her cheek and grinned. “I try,” he chuckled, then turned serious. “I’m serious about not wanting you to drive home impaired. Stay the night if you need to.”

“Don’t worry. I know my limits and came prepared. I know how to sober myself up quickly when needed, fairy style,” Luna smiled.

“Good,” Deus replied, then squared his shoulders as Erica reentered the room. “Right. The rest of the story. Where were we?”

“Erica offered to scry for my mother’s location and try to get some answers,” Luna supplied.

“Ah, yes. She did and was successful. Erica knew how to include the fairy realm, and that’s where your mother was…along with you. You were but five years old the first time I ever laid eyes on you in Erica’s crystal ball.” A look of abject sorrow clouded his features. “Here is where I begin to wonder if I made the wrong choices. More than anything, I wanted to come to you, to tell you who I was and be a part of your life. As I watched you, heard you singing and chattering away to your tiny dolls, I realized you were happy and well adjusted. I couldn’t bring myself to disrupt your life, to shatter your world. As much as it pained me, I let you be and decided it was better to wait until you were older and could process things on a more mature level. We checked in on you from time to time with Erica’s scrying, but I stuck with the decision to stay away until you were older.”

“I urged Deus to see your mother and work out a way to make it work for all of us. I encouraged him to seek visitation, but I respected his decision. No matter what, your father knew he had my support, and I certainly would have welcomed being a stepmother to you,” Erica added.

Luna furrowed her brow in contemplation. “The adult me can see both sides of the equation. I understand where you were coming from and am so sorry you were in such turmoil over all this. Love hurts sometimes. Believe me, I know.” She heaved a sigh, feeling as forlorn as poor Deus looked. “However, the child me wishes you’d have come to me anyway. I’d have been able to take it…I think. But we can’t wail over spilled milk. What’s done is done.”

Both Deus and Erica murmured their agreement, and Deus continued. “I made the decision to wait until you were sixteen. By then, I surmised you’d be old enough to decide for yourself if you wanted a relationship with me once you knew. Unfortunately, I never got the chance. When Erica scryed for you a few days after your sixteenth birthday, she could no longer locate you.”

Both understanding and sadness warred inside Luna’s heart, and she had to blink back yet another volley of tears. “When my pregnancy came to light, I fled to New York. Mother cast a concealment enchantment over me so my rapist…he doesn’t deserve to be called Grace’s father…couldn’t find and attack me again. Unfortunately, it concealed me from everyone who sought to look for me. Grace was born, and we lived in New York until Grace was injured.” Luna went on to tell them about Grace being wounded in a school shooting, her healing, the move to Aurora Skies, and the recovery process. “It was when Grace was in the hospital that I found out about you…that you’re my father.”

“Tell me,” Deus whispered, enfolding Luna in his protective embrace once again.

“Although Prince Silvan healed Grace himself–I owe that man a life–she lost a great deal of blood which needed to be replaced. We have the same blood type, so I insisted on giving it to her. They ran their usual tests to make sure I was healthy enough to give and that my blood was, indeed, compatible. When they informed me that my blood carried factors indicating my having a werewolf parent, I was completely gobsmacked. Not only would Grace not be able to tolerate taking my blood, I had no knowledge whatsoever about a werewolf parent. You see, I’d been told that my father was, well, unavailable, so I assumed he’d died before I was born. My mother never told me who you were, let alone that you were a werewolf. I guess I’d always assumed my father was a fairy,” Luna continued, her mouth thinning into a grim line while she recounted the awful events.

“Great Drogo!” Deus swore darkly. “If I had known–”

“I know.” Luna moved a few steps back to clasp her father’s hands, squeezed his fingers as if they were a lifeline. “I was so angry, so hurt that Mother would keep such information from me. I confronted her, and she finally came clean. She said she did it out of love, to protect me from disappointment and heartache. She believed you would deny your paternity, even spurn any attempts I’d make to see you. You had a family and being well known like you are, Mother believed knowing about Grace and me would be highly unwelcomed.”

Deus flared his nostrils, his face contorted in disgust. “Gabriella obviously thought very little of me, didn’t she? How can someone so smart be so clueless? She should have come to me herself instead of hiding out like a chicken shit.”

“I told her as much but not quite so succinctly,” Luna said wryly. “After I stewed in my own juices for a while and knew Grace would be all right, at least physically, I cooled off enough to look at it from her angle. Even though I wish things had been done differently, I get where she was coming from. Once I knew exactly who you were, similar thoughts were in my head. You have a well-established family and a career to protect. Having a grown daughter you didn’t know about would be quite a scandal and cause you a lot of damage in many ways. Believe me, I’m not the kind of person to desire causing upheaval in someone’s life. Most importantly, I had to consider what possible rejection would do to Grace. You see, she’s a huge fan of your music as am I. Having you as a grandfather would send her over the moon with euphoria. I couldn’t dangle it in front of her face only to have it snatched away if you wanted no part of us. This is why I didn’t seek you out until now…until I felt there was no choice. I reckon I’m my mother’s daughter. Hello, Father. Meet your long-lost progeny, Chicken Shit Junior,” Luna snorted ruefully and snickered, then snaked her fingers around her wineglass. “The thing is, neither of us never imagined you knew about me, let alone were looking for me. I’m sorry. Can you forgive me?”

Unhesitatingly, Deus wrapped Luna in a tight hug, whispered her name, and rested his cheek atop her head. “There is nothing to forgive, baby girl, nothing. I’m just thankful it’s out in the open now. What we do now, where we go from here, that’s what matters now. Can you ever forgive me for the choices I made? I’m far from blameless in this, too, and I could have made different ones.”

“There’s nothing to forgive.” Luna echoed her father’s words and squeezed him fiercely. “I love you already.”

“I love you, too, my beautiful, sweet fairy girl. Your father loves you so very, very much.” Deus’s voice caught on the last few words, and a lump rose to Luna’s throat. Offering her silent but unwavering support, Erica joined the embrace, smiling soppily at her husband and newfound stepdaughter.

Sniffling and swiping the back of her hand over her cheeks, Luna produced a watery, wobbly smile. “What now?”

“First, no more hiding,” Deus said firmly. “The concealing enchantment has to go.”

“It’s already been done. I had it removed when I was convinced Grace and I were safe here in Aurora Skies,” Luna replied.

“Excellent. Now, you need to tell Grace. Bring her up to speed and give her the time she needs to wrap her head around all this,” Erica added. “Deus and I will do the same with the other children. When everyone is ready, we’ll have a family dinner so everyone can get to know you and you them. How does that sound?”

“Works for me,” Luna said. Then, she slapped her forehead. “The house! Crap!”

“Don’t you worry about it a second longer. Consider it taken care of,” Deus said.

“But–”

“Don’t argue, daughter,” Deus said, shushing her with a finger to her lips. “Just know and trust that I’ve got you covered. We’ll talk about it another time, all right? There’s no need to rush.”

Luna shrugged. “Okay. I mean, yes, sir. I mean…well, hell!” Luna stammered, feeling overwhelmed and more thankful than she could’ve ever imagined. Her life was going in a direction she never thought possible. It was both wonderful and dizzying…and she had a father who loved and wanted her.

Deus smirked and tapped Luna’s nose with a forefinger. “Do you know how adorable you are, Chicken Shit Junior, when you’re flustered?” he teased her.

“Oh, get out of town, you!” Luna laughing punched his arm, then reached for her wine.

Erica grinned and snorted with amusement. “Now, behave yourselves, children, while Mother fixes dinner. We should be ready to–”

Erica was interrupted by the doorbell and desperate, thunderous knocking at the door. “What the–?” Luna spluttered and pounded her chest while recovering from her wine going down the wrong pipe.

Deus’s brow creased, a deep frown on his face. “It’s Valerie. My sixth sense is going off like a five alarm fire bell. Something’s happened.”

Author’s Note: Unfortunately, the poses used for this chapter are not available anymore, to my knowledge.

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