“It was the only way I could stand-in for Roxie when we made the trade.”
He fingered her hair. “I guess that also explains why your hair is cut and colored to match hers.”
“We didn’t know if my father had seen Roxie from a distance.”
Leif searched her face. “How do you feel about all this? Being my mate, you being turned into a werewolf and Miles as your father?”
She reached up and cupped his cheek. “I want to be your mate, and I wasn’t going to give up the two thousand years we can have together. How do you feel about having Miles’ daughter as your mate?”
He gently brushed her lips with his. “I’ll love you no matter who your father is.
You’re mine.”
“Yes, I’m yours, and you’re mine.” She shifted her hips and grinned. “How about you show me how much you love me? Or, as the stand-in foretold one, do I have to order you to take me again?”
Leif smiled and slowly moved in and out of her. “That will be one thing you’ll never have to order me to do.”
He showed her over and over again what she had to look forward to for the next couple thousand years.
Epilogue
Alone in his highrise apartment, Miles went to his bedroom closet and took out a box he hadn’t looked in for a very long time. With shaking hands, he carried it over to his bed and sat down.
The box wasn’t very big, but it held some items that he held dear. He’d tried to throw them away once, but he hadn’t been able to do it. They were mementos from a time in his life when he thought he could be a better man. That was before it had all fallen apart.
Taking off the lid, he reached inside and took out a photograph that had been taken twenty-eight years before. The last time he’d looked at it had been eleven years ago.
Looking at the woman with long brown hair that smiled back at him from the picture, he gently brushed her cheek with the tip of his finger. It was a picture of Sarah, the mother of his daughter. She hadn’t been his mate, but he’d loved her just the same. And she had loved him until he’d let his greed and need to find the foretold one come between them.
For years, he’d tried to push her out of his mind, and for a while, he had succeeded.
Then in a moment of weakness eleven years before, he’d taken out her picture only to have a vision showing him her death. He’d had no idea that she’d left a daughter behind.
His daughter.
Jaden looked more like her mother than she looked like him. It had been a shock to smell his scent mixed in with hers. He’d never thought of himself as a parent, but knowing a part of Sarah lived on in Jaden, he longed to get to know her better. But the chances of that were slim. She was the mate of one of the Protectors, as well as the foretold one.
Learning his daughter was the one he’d sought to use and control for so long left him not knowing what to do. He may have taken the dark road of life, but the part of him that Sarah had made feel human had never really died. When it came to his daughter, he had a conscience after all. Ripping her away from her mate to bend her to his will, making her suffer, was something he couldn’t bring himself to do.
Stuck between what he knew was right and the ambitions he’d lived with for centuries, Miles stared at the one woman who had expected him to be more than what he was. With the knowledge of what his daughter truly was, his life would no longer be what it once was. What was he supposed to do now?
The End
The End
About the Author:
Marisa Chenery was always a lover of books, but after reading her first historical romance novel she found herself hooked. Having inherited a love for the written word, she soon started writing her own novels.
After trying her hand at writing historicals, she now also writes paranormals.
Marisa lives in Ontario, Canada, with her husband and four children. Check out Marisa's website at www.marisachenery.com. She would love to hear from you, so drop her an email while you're there.