Her Commanders - M.K. Eidem Page 0,110

could only mean one thing.

"You can heal," Dakota whispered.

"You didn't know?" Taarig frowned down at Cali. "But you said you're healing gift appeared two hundred years ago."

"When you were only a hundred and twenty-five?" Dakota hadn't thought she could be any more shocked or hurt. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You know why, Mom," Cali told her.

"Wait," Jamis’s order had both mother and daughter glaring at him. "Are you saying you’re three hundred and twenty-five?" he directed the question to Cali.

"Yes," Cali told him.

"So, you're older than us?!" Jamis had never considered that, especially not when her mother looked more like her sestra.

"Am I?" Cali just shrugged her shoulders. "Age doesn't matter to a Zagreus."

"It seems you've been keeping a great deal from me, California Rose," Dakota pulled her daughter's attention back to her.

"Because I wanted to live my life the way I wanted to live it. Not the way my brothers do, always trying to earn Father's approval. It's why I embraced my Earthan side. It allowed me to grow into the being I wanted to be and choose my own mates."

"Oh, Cali, you can't possibly think…" the rest of Dakota's words were drowned out by an exclamation that had everyone looking toward the passage Dakota had used.

"Where the ruk is my daughter?" another even more powerful voice demanded.

"Paul," Dakota whispered.

Jamis watched as Dakota hurried toward the male just emerging from the passageway. He was tall, not Apre tall, but taller than Cali, which meant he came up to Jamis’s shoulder. His pants and loose shirt covered his arms and protruding stomach. His hair was shades of grey, and he had the facial wrinkles of an elder.

He was the Supreme Chairman of Wik Corp.

"What the ruk?" Taarig muttered, his gaze fixed on the couple. Then before their eyes, the wrinkles, grey hair, and extra weight disappeared and were replaced by smooth skin, glowing black hair, and a muscular body that his shirt's fabric retracted and conformed to. The Supreme Chairman pulled Cali's mother into his arms and kissed the top of her head as his glowing, topaz eyes scanned the rest of the room, coming to rest on the three of them.

"I told you to wait for me," he admonished Dakota.

"I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself, Paul Baker-Wik'ax," Dakota told him, stepping back slightly so she could look up at him.

"You didn't know what you were walking into," Paul argued.

"Which wouldn't have changed if you'd been with me. It just would have made a complicated situation even more so."

"Oh really," Paul raised an eyebrow at his mate.

"Yes, because you would have gone all Supreme Chairman, giving orders and demanding answers, instead of listening and acting like a dad."

Paul closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath, consciously reigning in his power because his Dakota was right. As usual.

"It seems you left something out when you told us about your parents," there was no censure in Jamis’s words or gaze as he looked down to Cali.

"I warned you it was going to be tricky," she reminded him meeting his gaze.

"Tricky is a bit of an understatement," Taarig murmured, pulling her gaze to him.

"You have no idea," she breathed.

"California Rose, you have some explaining to do," Paul said as he and Dakota crossed the room, taking in how Cali and the two males were touching. "As do your Commanders."

Stepping away from her mates, Cali placed her hands on her dad's chest as she rose on her toes to kiss his cheek. "Hi, Dad."

Jamis watched as one of the most feared males in the universe wrapped his arms around his daughter, their Lalla, and pulled her in close. There was no doubting the love he felt for Cali. It was in his every touch and look.

"You're okay?" Paul whispered in her ear.

"Yes, Dad. I swear. I'm so sorry. I scared you."

"Are you sure?" Paul held her at arm’s length and ran a critical eye over her. His daughter had always been beautiful, but now there was a special glow about her.

"Yes," she reassured him. "I wouldn't lie to you about something like that."

His gaze shot to the Commanders. "But you did about these two, it appears. You assured me you weren't involved with them."

"If you remember, I asked if you wanted to know, and you didn't answer." Cali maintained eye contact with her dad as she stepped out of his arms and back into Jamis’s and Taarig's, which immediately wrapped around her. "We were just getting to know one another