To Love a Vampire - A.K. Koonce Page 0,51

only urge you not to proceed with your plans. Just lie low and this could all blow over. She said it was meant as a message. Just accept the message. Stop trying to change what you have.”

My eyes narrow on him, on the sweat that’s slipping down the side of his jaw, at the quiver in his weak voice, at the man that’s supposed to be my father. Not at all like the father figure that I loved; not anything like Ky.

Ayden pulls at Michael's arm and cautiously helps the man stand, his brass eyes wide as he holds the stare of the deadly wolf before him.

“If the Wanderers are anything, they are resilient, they are unyielding, they are valiant.” Raske’s eyes are hooded, his brow pressed low over his irate glare. “Do not threaten my people—my family—and expect us to look the other way.”

Michael glances at me, my father looking at me for the first time since his president attacked us. Attacked me...

“Your people are my people,” he says in a quiet voice, his shoulders falling as he keeps his eyes on mine.

My heart pounds, my lips falling open without a sound, his admission sending a blooming feeling through my chest.

Raske turns his back on my father, sending him a single message as he leaves, “You know nothing of these people.”

My father doesn’t know me at all. He should have protected me. All my life he should have protected me.

You know nothing of these people.

He’s right.

“Have you decided, Fallon?” Raske asks, nothing but kindness and concern fill his deep amber eyes. He looks at me the way a father would look at his daughter. He speaks to me the way a father would console a daughter. And yet, he doesn’t acknowledge Luca in the least, and she returns his sentiment.

“No, I have not decided,” I say in an even tone as if we’re discussing which dessert we might eat after dinner.

How can he even be thinking about this after what just happened? A union won’t fix the damage that’s been done. The suggestion of a biracial union is what caused this mess. President Docile said they’d return to check on us.

And so they did.

The thought of what they did to this community burns anger and hate through my veins like I’ve never felt before, setting my fists tight and my mind reeling.

“I don’t mean to pressure you. It’s just,” he pauses, scrunching his brows as he thinks, “with the bombing… There’s still a chance to unite the mortals and the mystics. The races once worked together against a greater evil… We could do it again…” He can’t seem to find the right words to convey his thoughts. “Everyone’s morale is a little down… You don’t seem taken with anyone really. I know for a fact you have more than enough offers. I watch males flag you down daily, but you don’t give them the time. You have to make friends with the wind if you ever expect to fly.”

I want so badly to roll my eyes at his remark but somehow I remain neutral to his ridiculous words.

“I am not unkind. I’m just…”

“Uninterested?” He finishes for me.

I laugh loudly at his remark. Unable to keep the hysterical noise within my tired body.

His brows rise at my brash behavior and it makes me laugh more. The people cleaning up the fallen limbs and debris pause to take notice of my fit of laughter. Asher smiles into his glass, cocking an eyebrow at me over the brim. Kaino continues to talk to the hybrid as if I’m not sitting before them all like a hyena on laughing gas.

“The finest warriors in our community are funny to you? My son is funny to you?” Raske’s stern voice rises. He is no longer amused by my inappropriateness.

The reminder of Kaino sneaking around behind his father’s back to be with Shane surfaces in my mind and I can’t help but laugh some more, touching my palm to my aching stomach as the uncontainable laughter swirls within me.

“You do understand that these mystics have been watching you with bated breath, for you to take an interest in any one of them and you do nothing but laugh in their faces for their efforts. I’m not forcing you, Fallon, but you could at least have the courtesy to take them seriously.”

My labored breath halts entirely, the laughter is sucked from my body. All the hysteria leaves me and is replaced with anger. The emotional flow is