worth it. Especially now that he knew the girl’s importance to his daughter.
The two of them were sitting on the couch with bowls of ice cream. Elizabeth, or Lizzie, as she preferred to be called, was talking animatedly about the nursery Jayson had built for the baby. Sethios had never heard of a Hydraian being able to procreate, which he said now to Issac.
“Elizabeth was created in Jonathan’s lab,” the male replied softly, his voice pitched low so as not to be overheard by the females in Jayson’s living area. The reason for his softness was evident as a result of the sensitive nature of his comment.
“Jonathan, as in the Ichorian who forced truths from others?” Sethios asked, clarifying whom he meant.
“Yes. He and your father were working together on experiments through the Catastrophic Relief Foundation.”
“I’m familiar with the CRF and my father’s pet projects,” Sethios confirmed. “But I wasn’t privy to the details.” Nor had he honestly tried to learn more about it. He just assumed it was another one of his schemes to craft and mold a stronger army against the Seraphim.
“One of those pet projects is Elizabeth. She has Seraphim genetics but was carried to term by a mortal female,” Issac murmured. “From what Ezekiel has said, your father had her created for mating. To replace you.”
Sethios snorted. “Sounds like something he would do. But the baby isn’t his, right?”
“Jayson’s the father.”
“Interesting. I’m surprised Osiris allowed her to keep the child.” Another thought occurred to him immediately following that statement. “Ah, I see. He considers this a test run.”
It would be just like his father to fully trial the experiment before bothering to use the product. Unfortunately, that meant Elizabeth was a ticking time bomb. The moment she proved viable, Osiris would come for her again.
“What security measures are in place to protect her?” Sethios wondered out loud. “Aside from the usual Guardians.”
“Should I take that as an insult?” Jayson asked as he entered the kitchen area that overlooked his living room. “You don’t think I can protect my wife?”
“Wife?” Sethios’s eyebrows hit his hairline. “Is that your pet name, or did you actually buy into that human bullshit?”
Issac grinned, explaining, “Elizabeth was raised in a mortal society. She very much values the sanctity of marriage. I’m waiting for her to plan Astasiya’s wedding.”
Sethios gaped at the man. “You’re going to marry my daughter now?”
He lifted a shoulder. “It’s a frivolous ceremony meant to appease family and friends.”
Yeah, fuck that. “It would not please me in the slightest.”
“Does that mean I don’t have your blessing?”
“Considering she’s still seven in my eyes, no. You absolutely do not.”
“Then I suppose it’s fortuitous that Astasiya doesn’t require your approval to marry,” Issac replied without missing a beat.
“I’m doing what now?” Astasiya asked as she joined them, her green eyes wide as she gaped at the suit-clad male. “We’re already married.”
Issac’s lips twitched. “Indeed we are,” he agreed.
Sethios’s blood ran cold. “You married my daughter?”
“I’m sensing a hint of animosity surrounding the whole wedding thing,” Jayson interjected, waving his hand in the air. “I had no idea you bought into this ‘human bullshit.’ ”
There was a time when others feared Sethios and what he could do. He wondered when the fuck that had changed. Less than two decades of imprisonment did not compare to several millennia of life.
“Did you just call our wedding bullshit?” The feminine voice drew everyone’s gaze to the pregnant female in the doorway.
And the pigment in Jayson’s skin went from tan to stark white in a second.
Sethios smirked, delighted by the change.
Until the female began to cry.
That put an immediate end to his amusement and struck a chord of terror inside him instead. Dealing with upset women was not in Sethios’s repertoire.
“No, Red. I swear, that’s not what I meant at all.” Jayson tried to console the female with his outstretched arms, but she stepped back, her lower lip wobbling in a way that had Astasiya jumping in to wrap the female in a hug.
“They were talking about me and Issac,” she quickly explained. “You know Jay loves you. He planned the whole wedding, Liz. He did it for you.”
“But considers it bullshit,” the girl said, her shoulders hunching.
Oh, for fuck’s sake. “I said it was bullshit,” Sethios interjected. “He was throwing my words back at me. Weddings are a human invention, one I clearly don’t understand.”
How the hell had they gone from discussing Caro’s whereabouts in the Seraphim world to bantering about weddings?
Sethios shook his head and