Page 38 of Awakened and Betrayed
"I'm Rodrick, dad number two," he offers, with a cheeky smile.
I match it, but don't get the chance to do more than that as Rodrick is boxed out and dad number three takes my still outstretched palm.
"I'm Jason,” he tells me.
His deep brown eyes are lit up with warmth and curiosity, and I have a feeling he has just as many questions brewing in his mind as I currently do.
Knox points to a Native American caster, who steps forward answering Knox’s summons. He pulls my hand from Jason's and gives his compeer a teasing smile as he bumps his hip and body checks Jason out of the way.
"Don't go hogging all the pretty," he teases, and my smile grows even wider. "We've been dying to meet the female who captured our boys’ hearts, but you're not allowed to pick a favorite dad until the end of the night, okay?" dad number four tells me with a wink. “I'm Merlin, but everyone calls me Lin.”
A snort escapes me unchecked, and I immediately feel like an asshole for laughing at his name. He gives my hand a reassuring squeeze and an accompanying smile, and my chagrin fades slightly.
“It’s okay; clearly my parents had a sick sense of humor,” he whispers to me conspiratorially, and I laugh.
“Was he a real person, Merlin, I mean?” I ask, not able to help myself.
Merlin’s face blushes ever so slightly.
“No, his origins are firmly in the land of make-believe. My older brother was a hugeSword and the Stonefan, and my name is his contribution to welcoming the new baby,” he tells me, with awhat can you doshrug of his shoulders.
“Could be worse, you could have ended up an Archimedes,” I tell him with a cringe.
Merlin bellows out a laugh, and the group around us does too. He pulls me into a hug that squeezes the air out of me and then steps back laughing and mumbling, “Archimedes that’s a good one,” to himself and the others.
He hugsRyker and Knox one after the other, announcing, "Oh, she's definitely a keeper, boys!"
His announcement confuses me for a minute, and I once again wonder why Ryker is here and no one else; didn’t Knox say this was a family thing? Another dad steps forward on a chuckle as he wipes a laughing tear from his golden-hued eyes. The tone of his irises is stunning, the molten shade one in a million. He smiles, and a familiar twinkle shines in his golden gaze. It’s a dead ringer for the cheeky glint I've spied in Knox’s stare from the first day that I met him.
I would bet anything that this man is Knox's biological father. Although I’m getting the distinct impression that all the men in this coven claim daddy-ship, regardless of genetics.
“I'm Trace,” dad number five tells me with a hug. “And these are our other two sons. Kace is the oldest, then Kiere, Ryker, and Knox,” he explains.
We exchange hellos and waves, as I try to stay in the moment and not focus on the fact that apparently Knox and Ryker are brothers and I had no idea. Kace looks like a skinnier version of Knox, but with a little lighter skin tone and a reddish-bronze tone to his hair. Kiere is dark like dad one, Blake, but somehow has Merlin’s Native American features and bone structure.
I tuck all my pressing questions away, not wanting to give their family a front row seat to how little I clearly know their sons. Especially when the plan is to drop theSentinelandmarked for lifebomb. Letting them in on just how much I don’t know about anything, including myself, might not be the most reassuring move.
After the introductions are made, I’m led to two long tables stuffed with food and my mouth immediately begins to water at all the amazing BBQ fare in front of me. I start to load up a plate, already making plans for what plate number two is going to have on it, when I spot two females making their way down the steps of the wrap-around porch with pies in their hands. I’m not sure who the one female is, but I know right away the other is Knox’s mom.
Her gaze lands on mine and where Knox’s eyes are a stormy gray, his mother’s are the rich gray-brown of a flash flood. Their skin tones are the same, water-kissed-sand color, and I know right away from just one look, that you don’t want to be on her bad side.
Her face softens as she takes me in, and I set down my plate and step back from the food to greet her. Without missing a beat, she hands the pies off to one of her mates, and next thing I know she’s wrapping me up in a firm hug. She doesn’t say a word to me, and yet, I canfeelthe welcome, the worry, and the hope in her embrace. I don’t shy away from the contact with her. Instead, I squeeze her tighter, hoping she can feel my promise and commitment to be everything her boys deserve. I don’t know how a hug can be filled with all that this one is, but she gives me a warm nod as she pulls away, and I know we both experienced the same phenomenon; that we understand each other.
“I’m Reese, but I think it’s best if you just call me Mom.”
Reese gives my shoulders a gentle squeeze before she pulls Knox’s big hulking frame into her arms and then grabs Ryker for a squeeze, too. They both get kisses on the cheek before she steps over and reclaims the pies from dad three’s hands. With that, the jostling around the food commences, and the heavy weight of rejection that’s been sitting in my heart, lifts, and flies away like the unwelcome interloper it is.
21
Iwatch the flames consume the new logs that were just added to the fire pit. The wood chars and blackens as the fire consumes it mercilessly, taking everything the wood has, whether it’s freely given or not. Knox and Ryker’s family laugh and joke, and the jovial sounds fill the night air as everyone eats and enjoys the fire under the star-kissed sky.
I lean back into the camp chair I’m perched in, trying to make a little more room in my stomach for my fourth piece of peach pie.
“How you doin’ over there, Squeaks?” Ryker asks, wiping a spot of pie filling from the corner of my mouth with his thumb.
He draws his hand back towards his mouth, and I watch transfixed as he sucks off the dash of peachy goodness from his thumb.Fuck, that’s hot!Absently, I shove another delicious bite of flaky, buttery crust and sugar-and-spice glazed peaches into my mouth, and give Ryker a dopey pie-loving smile. He laughs, and I can feel Knox’s matching rumble on my other side.
“I think we got her drunk on happy, what do you think, Knox?”
