by Zoe Chant
His pegasus surged up, taking control. Conleth shifted as well, rearing to meet him, front hooves clashing against his own. Instinct drowned all human thought. It wasn’t his brother in front of him, but another stallion, a challenger, a rival-!
“Stop!” Diana shrieked. She was retreating, shielding Beth with her own body, but her voice was furious and unafraid. “Both of you, stop it, now!”
Her voice dragged him back like a lasso around his neck. Callum dropped down to four hooves, backing off. He kept his wings spread, ready to attack again if Conleth made the slightest move towards Diana and Beth.
Conleth, however, shrank into human form. His usually pristine business suit was creased and rumpled, tie askew, shirt sweat-stained. He looked like he’d been flying flat-out for hours.
“Ask him what dress you were wearing,” Conleth snarled.
For a moment, Callum couldn’t make any sense of the words.
Then he realized they weren’t addressed to him.
“What are you talking about, Connor?” Diana said, sounding utterly confused—and then her eyes narrowed. “No, wait. You must be the other one. Conleth, right?”
Conleth’s chin jerked down in a sharp nod. He never took his eyes off Callum. “Ask him what dress you were wearing, the night of the charity bachelor auction. Ask him!”
Everything stopped.
His breath. His heart. His whole world.
No. No. Impossible.
Conleth hadn’t recognized Diana. Callum had shown Conleth her picture, and watched his face, and he hadn’t so much as flickered an eyelid. It wasn’t Conleth. It couldn’t be Conleth…
Yet here he was, chest heaving, teeth bared in aggression, more furious than Callum had ever seen him.
Diana’s eyes found his. She didn’t ask him anything. She didn’t have to. The mate bond told her everything.
Conleth took a deep breath, regaining a little of his usual air of confident composure. “You wore a green dress, knee length, embroidered with leaves at the hem. You had a necklace on, a little gold bird.”
Every word hit the mate bond like an axe-blow. He could feel it fraying, parting, leaving him dangling by a single thread over a black abyss.
“You took me up to my room on the sixth floor,” Conleth continued, relentless, ruthless, his eyes cold and unforgiving. “You made out with me all the way up in the elevator. And that is my daughter.”
Chapter 25
“Hello, little one,” Conleth murmured as Beth eyed him dubiously. “I’m your daddy. I’m here now. I’m here at last.”
Conleth was down on his knees on the grass, heedless of his expensive designer suit. His soft, wonderstruck expression stabbed through Diana. It was the same way Callum looked at their daughter.
No. Not their daughter.
Her daughter.
And Conleth’s.
Beth continued to regard Conleth owlishly for a moment, as though searching for hidden defects. Then, without warning, her little face broke into a broad grin. She held her hands out to him.
Conleth’s breath caught in a dry, rasping sob. He hugged Beth tight, pressing his cheek to hers. Diana could see the bright gleam of tears leaking out from his closed eyes.
“I didn’t know,” Conleth murmured, so softly Diana almost didn’t catch the words. “I didn’t know what I was missing. Until now.”
Beth, with a toddler’s attention span, was already more interested in undoing Conleth’s tie than participating in a heart-warming family moment. Conleth sat back on his heels, tugging off the strip of red silk so that Beth could play with it. He swiped the back of a hand across his eyes, then looked up at Diana.
“Thank you,” he said, voice hoarse with emotion. “I only wish I could have been here for you earlier.”
“You don’t need to apologize. It wasn’t your fault.” Diana tried to smile at him, because it wasn’t his fault. The mate bond lay like a stone on her heart, cold and heavy. “You—you had no way of knowing.”
Conleth’s gaze flickered to Callum. He’d retreated to the edge of the forest, half-hidden in shadow, to give Conleth space to meet Beth. The rest of the squad had gathered nearby too, in an uncomfortable, fidgeting huddle. Nobody seemed to want to approach Callum.
“I shouldn’t have lied,” Conleth said, still watching his brother. His jaw clenched. “He called me, you see. Last week. He didn’t mention Beth, but he showed me your picture. Now I realize he was fishing for a reaction. If I hadn’t pretended I didn’t recognize you, he would have been forced to tell me the truth.”
“Why did you do that?”
Conleth gave her a wry, disarming smile. It was bizarre, seeing the face she knew so well animated by yet another personality. His mannerisms were somewhere between Callum’s tight restraint and Connor’s bright exuberance; controlled, smooth, confident.
“Because at that point, I thought that I’d just made out with you,” Conleth said. “And that seemed bad enough. I thought he’d never speak to me again if he knew I’d kissed his mate. There’s enough of a rift between us as it is. The last thing I wanted was to make things worse.”
“Wait, you didn’t realise that we’d slept together?”
Conleth grimaced. “Please don’t think that I’m trying to make excuses for my appalling behavior, but by the point you encountered me in the elevator, I was having a rather unfortunate drug interaction. I take a particularly potent medicine to control my ADHD, specially formulated for shifters, and it does not mix well with alcohol. I’m normally very careful not to drink when I’m on it. But before the auction, when I was impersonating Connor, I was carrying around a bottle of whiskey, in order to be more convincing. And when I first saw you hiding behind the potted plants at the bar—”
“That was you? You’re the one who gave me all that money, and asked me to bid on you?”
“Yes. I was buying time for Connor to sober up enough to actually appear at the auction. I couldn’t go on stage myself. I’m not a firefighter. It would have been fraud.” Conleth heaved a long-suffering sigh. “Which Connor should have realized before he’d emptied the entire minibar in his room. Never leave him alone with tiny food. Anyway, when I first saw you, my pegasus kicked up such a fuss that I thought you were my mate. I was so startled I actually took a swig from the bottle.”
“I remember you drank a couple of times while we were talking.”
Conleth looked a little embarrassed. “One slip leads to another. Or sip, in this case. I was very distracted by my pegasus yelling in my head that you were somehow important. That’s why I gave you the money to bid on Connor. I thought perhaps you were his mate.”
Diana remembered how ‘Stallion’ had looked at her strangely for a moment, when she’d won the auction. “I’m pretty sure Connor’s pegasus recognized me too.”
Conleth nodded. “Anyway, by the time you ran into me a second time, I was so out of my head that everything seemed like a great idea. Including kissing you. I thought perhaps you were my true mate, and my pegasus just needed a push to realize it. And…I don’t really remember much beyond that.”
She felt just as embarrassed as he clearly was. “I owe you a huge apology. I only meant to take you back to your hotel room. But I got to the elevator, and some stupid, stupid mad impulse made me turn around and go back to your hotel room. I’m so, so sorry.”
“Neither of us was exactly our best selves that night.” Conleth looked down at Beth. “And something wonderful came out of it all.”
It was good, that he was looking at Beth with such adoration. It was good, to have everything explained at last. This was all good.
So why did Diana feel like her heart had shattered into a million splinters of glass?
Conleth cleared his throat, turning brisk. “There’s so much we need to discuss. Money, for a start. I don’t know if Callum mentioned this, but the Tiernach family is, shall we say, fairly well off. I’ll start transferring assets over immediately.”
“Oh, no. I can’t a
ccept—”
“Not negotiable,” Conleth interrupted.
His eyes gleamed with amusement, but his tone made it clear that he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Diana suddenly realized that he was very used to getting his own way.
“I’ve been stuck managing this damn investment firm for years while my father and brothers flitted around playing fireman,” Conleth went on. “It’s about time I got some use out of all this money. Now, a proportion will be held in trust for Beth, of course, but I’ll sign some investments over to you directly. More than enough to support you in comfort. As long as you don’t need more than, say, two or three houses, I admit.”
Diana’s mind reeled. She’d been overwhelmed enough by Callum sharing his small cabin. Now here was Conleth casually talking about giving her multiple houses?
Conleth was already continuing on. “We will need to thrash out all the legalities as well. Access rights, shared custody arrangements, how we’ll handle decisions about her education and so forth…I’ll have my lawyers start drawing up the itinerary for discussion.”
“Yes,” Diana said faintly. “That sounds…sensible.”
Conleth hesitated, eying her. “I’m sure we can make this an amicable process, but you’ll need your own legal representation too. Though I trust you aren’t planning to contest my claim of paternity?”
Lawyers and contracts and arrangements…it was all so different. So much more complicated than Callum’s simple, quiet statement, back when he’d first told her his feelings: I want you. I want to be with you. Not just as Beth’s father.
But Callum wasn’t Beth’s father. Conleth was.
Diana forced down the crushing wave of bleak despair that accompanied the thought. She couldn’t let her own heartbreak get in the way of what was right for Beth.
Conleth was right. This was the sensible way to go about things, the adult way. Formal contracts and careful discussion. Not foolish trust in true love, and everything magically working out.
After all, she’d trusted Callum.
She swallowed, forcing a bright, optimistic tone. “Of course I’m not going to contest your paternity. You are Beth’s father, after all.”
“Yes. I am.” Conleth glanced again at Callum. His mouth flattened. “And he tried to steal her from me.”
“Cal—” His name stuck in her throat painfully, like a fishhook. “Callum’s still my mate.”
Conleth’s face set in hard, cold lines. Suddenly, he looked nothing at all like Callum.
“Then you have a decision to make,” he said. “Because Beth is coming back to England with me.”
Chapter 26
“No,” Callum said.
His brother folded his arms, glaring at him. “This is not open to discussion. Connor told me about the escaped hellhound, and all the other dangers targeting your squad. My daughter is not safe here. I will not permit this situation to continue.”
Callum could feel the feral energy coursing under Conleth’s skin, barely held in check. Conleth might appear as cool and collected as always, but underneath the surface he was poised to shift and fight.
Yes. His own pegasus bared its teeth, more than willing to settle this hoof to hoof, stallion to stallion. Drive off the rival! Fight for our mate and foal!
But Beth wasn’t his.
And now he was losing Diana, too.
Diana stood in Conleth’s shadow, holding Beth. Her whole body was tight and drawn, huddled protectively around her child. To his pegasus senses, she was a pale ghost of herself; all her bright strength smothered, leaving only faint flickering embers.
He’d done that to her. Broken her trust. Made her doubt all her decisions, leaving her vulnerable to Conleth’s manipulation.
Conleth. Conleth with his smooth words that came so easily. Callum had watched him talking to Diana, talking and talking. He’d been too far away to hear what Conleth had said, but he’d seen the effect on Diana. Seen how every sentence settled on her shoulders like a snowflake—so light, so reasonable—until she bowed and gave way to the cold, crushing weight of Conleth’s logic.
He couldn’t wield words like a weapon as Conleth did. Especially not now. Every life form for miles around grated against Callum’s mind. His pegasus was raging, his guilt was a cavernous void in his chest, the mate bond was running through his fingers like sand from an hourglass no matter how he tried to hold onto it—everything was wrong and it was all his fault, and he couldn’t focus, couldn’t think.
All he could do was say again: “No.”
“It is over, brother,” Conleth snapped. “You know full well that the only reason you insisted Diana and Beth stay here was because you were trying to hide the truth. Well, that reason is gone now. I’m taking them back home, where they can be safe.”
“They are safe here. With the squad.”
“But they would be safer with their family,” Conleth countered instantly. “Our parents are waiting back in Brighton, desperate to meet their first grandchild. And the city is a far better place for a child than this backwater wilderness. For pity’s sake, Callum, Brighton is protected by the Phoenix Eternal! You think any enemy can get past him?”
Callum’s feeble arguments died on his tongue, smothered by the inescapable truth. The Phoenix—Blaise’s father—was one of the most powerful shifters in the world. There was no doubt that Diana and Beth would be safer under his burning wings.
No, no, his pegasus raged. This is our home, our place to protect, and it is their home too! Our mate and foal belong here, with us! He cannot take them away!
In desperation, he looked at Diana. “You didn’t want to go to England, before. You didn’t want to uproot your life.”
“Diana only wants what’s best for Beth,” Conleth said before Diana could speak. He put a possessive hand on her shoulder, fixing Callum with cold, scornful eyes. “And if you were Beth’s real father, you would too.”
The words sliced across his throat like a knife. He couldn’t speak, because what if that was true?
“Conleth.” Diana touched his brother’s arm. “Would you watch Beth? I need to talk to Callum.”
“Of course.” Conleth took Beth. It hurt, even more, to see how easily she went to him. “Please, beat some sense into my brother’s stubborn skull. Take as long as you need.”
Conleth walked off. Every instinct screamed at Callum to run after his brother, snatch back his child, claim what was his.
Instead, he turned to Diana. “This is really what you want?”
Diana nodded, her face pale and wan. It ripped his heart in half to see her look so defeated.
“Conleth is right,” she said. She rubbed her arms as if she was cold, avoiding his eyes. “Going to England is the sensible thing to do, especially with Maurice on the loose again. There’s so much Conleth and I need to sort out between us, and it will be easier to do back at his place. I do want Beth to meet her grandparents, as well. There’s…there’s no reason to stay here.”
Me, he wanted to say. I’m here.
But he wasn’t a reason for her to stay. Not anymore.
The words were ludicrously inadequate to express how he felt, but he had to say them anyway. “I’m sorry.”
Diana lifted her head. She met his eyes at last, and the hurt in them was the worst pain of all.
“Sorry you lied?” she said. “Or sorry you got caught?”
“Both.”
She made a small sound, a sob of mingled despair and surprise. “Well, at least you admit it.”
“Only the truth from now on. I promise.”
“You said that before.” Diana shook her head, still holding his gaze. “Callum…I understand why you did what you did. But that doesn’t mean I’m okay with it.”
“I’m not asking that. You shouldn’t be okay with it. I betrayed you. I…I honestly thought that I might have been Beth’s father. I took sleeping pills that night, and I don’t remember any of what happened. I was clinging to hope that you’d somehow come into my h
otel room by accident, since my pegasus kept insisting that Beth is mine. But even though we all know the truth now, I still…I still…”
Callum stumbled into silence. The mate bond was just a dim, flickering candle in the void of his soul. He reached for it, trying to reach her, to show her mere words could never convey.
Diana’s eyes searched his face. He couldn’t read her own expression, didn’t know if he’d reached her or not. “You still what, Callum?”
“I still love Beth,” he got out, though his chest felt like it was being squeezed in a vise. “I still want to be a father to her, even though she’s not mine. I’m still your mate.”
“And I’m still yours,” Diana whispered. Her tears overspilled, making shining tracks down her cheeks. “But I have to be a mother first.”
Then take me with you.
The words stuck in his throat, refusing to come out. But he had to say them. If she was going to England, then he had to beg her to let him come too. If that was the price of keeping his mate, he had to pay it.
Even if it meant leaving the gentle peace of the mountain for the screaming chaos of the city, with countless human lives shrieking in his awareness.
Even if it meant leaving his crew, his friends, the only place he’d ever truly felt he fit in.
Even if it meant—
“Diana!” Conleth interrupted. Callum had never before heard such pure joy in his brother’s voice. “Look! Look at Beth! She’s walking!”
Callum jerked round, just in time to see Beth take another toddling, wobbling step.
Towards Conleth.
Diana abandoned Callum without hesitation, pelting for Conleth and Beth. She reached them just as Beth teetered into Conleth’s outstretched hands.
“Baby! Oh, my baby!” Diana flung her arms around both Conleth and Beth, hugging them indiscriminately. “Your first steps! I’m so proud of you!”