“Yes, but it’s doubtful he was in her life on a daily basis before her brother Danny died and the man she knew as her father left Lynne,” Drina said with a frown. “Richard Carne would have hardly welcomed him.”
“True,” Marcus commented. “No man wants his wife’s old lover hanging around.”
“Even if he’s the girl’s birth father?” Basha asked.
“Especially if he fathered her,” Marcus assured her. “There’s a reason lions eat the offspring of previous mates of the lioness when they take over a den. Mortals may not kill the woman’s offspring, but many resent a child that isn’t theirs. It’s a constant reminder that she had a previous mate.”
“Is there a male she sees daily now?” Lucian asked.
Drina glanced through the list. “Eric, Zander, and Allan. They’re all employees at the store.”
“Seems easy enough,” Bricker said now. “Uncle Al is now Allan.”
“Wasn’t the roommate’s real name Lex?” Stephanie asked suddenly, and Basil glanced to where the girl sat, feet up on the couch and arms wrapped around her knees, eyeing them all with eyebrows raised. She looked pale and her eyebrows were drawn together as if she were in pain. Katricia had told him that Stephanie not only could hear the thoughts of mortals, young immortals, and even older immortals, but she couldn’t shut their voices out, that it seemed to her as if they were shouting their thoughts in her ears. He suspected that having so many of them there, their minds all screaming at her at once, was causing her a great deal of distress.
“Yes, Lex Brown,” Drina answered when no one else spoke. “What about it?”
Stephanie raised her eyebrows, uncrossed her arms and sat up. “Seriously? You don’t see it?”
Basil glanced around. The others were peering at each other, looking as blank-faced as he probably did . . . all except Lucian, who was almost smiling. If Basil were to guess, he’d say Lucian had seen whatever Stephanie was talking about. And probably long ago. The bastard had just been sitting around waiting to see who would sort it out first.
“And it was the child rather than one of the adults who sorted it out first,” Lucian said dryly, obviously having heard his thoughts.
“I am not a child,” Stephanie said with annoyance.
“Can we skip to whatever it is the rest of us aren’t seeing?” Basil asked impatiently.
Stephanie glared at Lucian for a moment longer and then turned to Basil and shrugged. “Think about it . . . Uncle Al? Lex? Zander?”
Basil frowned at her briefly and then his expression cleared and he breathed, “Alexander,” with sudden understanding.
“So . . . he’s been around since she was seven at least. That’s twenty-five years. Definitely long enough for her to have built up a strong resistance,” Basha realized.
“I suspect he’s been there since she was born,” Lucian said quietly.
“Then you don’t think he’s another life mate?” Basil asked, feeling relief slide through him. That possibility had bothered him.
Rather than answer directly, Lucian asked, “Could you have refrained from claiming her all this time if you’d met her at seven or younger?”
“I’d have had to. I’d have hardly tried to claim her as a child,” Basil pointed out dryly.
“True, but once she was sixteen or so it would become very difficult to not claim her. You might want to do the honorable thing and allow her to mature without interference,” he said solemnly. “But your mind would remind you she was mortal and an accident could steal her from you. You’d want to watch her, keep her safe, and doing that would make it very difficult to refrain from bedding and claiming her.” He shook his head. “This Alexander is her father.”
“Great!” Stephanie said brightly. “Now that I’ve solved that for you, does anyone else have a hankering for a shake? I could really use one of your famous chocolate shakes about now, Harper . . . and I’m sure the milk is good for my growing bones,” she added in wheedling tones.
“One chocolate shake it is,” Harper said with amusement, standing to lead her to the kitchen.
“Does anyone else want one?” Drina asked, getting up.
“Oh, yeah. I’ll take a chocolate one too, please,” Bricker said at once, but everyone else merely shook their heads.
“So . . .” Basha said as Drina headed for the kitchen to tell Harper that Bricker wanted one too. “Now that you know or think you know who the immortal in her life is . . .” She raised her eyebrows. “What next? Go question him and find out why he wanted her to think she ran into Leo in London?”
“We already know the answer to that,” Lucian said, and then pointed out, “It was because he wanted her back in Toronto.”
“Yes, but why?” Basil asked, and then tilted his head and eyed him suspiciously. “You know the answer to that as well, don’t you?”
“Sherry gave us the answer when she said she was born a year after her parents married,” he said mildly.