But that was before she’d had his children. They and his absence had taught her an appreciation for her mate that she wished she’d had before he left.
“Did their differences ever bother you?”
Aimee’s features softened as she placed her hand over her stomach and lovingly caressed the unborn children she carried. “What bothered me was having to hide and lie about my true form because of the prejudices others hold. Having to hide and run with my parents and brothers before we were granted the license for a limani. The fact that my parents had to live in secrecy from even their own families, or risk harm to themselves or us.”
Seraphina could only imagine. The gods knew her tribe had never been kind to Maxis. The only thing that had saved her children was the fact that they were Arcadian born and her skills with a sword had forced the ridicule to stop. No one wanted to go against her battle skills or face her maternal devotion.
Even so, Hadyn had borne the brunt of it. It’d forced him to grow up much faster and harder than he should have. And there was a deep-seated bitterness in his eyes that tore at her heart every time she caught his unguarded expressions. He’d never been fairly treated among her people and she knew it.
Just like his father.
For that alone, Seraphina could almost hate her tribe.
Yet Aimee’s words gave her comfort that maybe Hadyn would one day find a woman who could love him as he deserved to be cherished. “Thank you, Aimee.”
She inclined her head. “Any time.”
“May I ask another question?”
“Sure.”
“Did…” Seraphina paused as she tried to think of a gentler way to phrase her question. “Does it ever bother you that Fang is a wolf?”
“Because I’m a bear or an Arcadian?”
“Either.”
Aimee shook her head. “No. It never mattered to me that he was Lykos Katagaria. Though I didn’t want to admit it, I lost myself to that face the first day I saw him. But it scared me how others – and in particular, my mother – would react to our union. And it terrifies me what they might do to our young once they’re here. My mate comes with some rather scary enemies. And not just in our community.” She cast her gaze to her massively large brothers. “But the good news is, I come from a scary, over-bearing family.”
She laughed at the bad pun. Then turned serious as she remembered why she was so harsh against the Katagaria. Those memories still woke her up at night with terrors that never faded. “But you never had the Katagaria tear apart your family, either.”
The anger returned to Aimee’s eyes. “No. I watched my older brothers and parents be viciously slaughtered because of lying Arcadian bastards and their needless hatred and intolerance for their Katagaria brethren… and my brothers they slew were Arcadian. But they didn’t want to believe it… Honestly? I’d rather lie down with the animals at night. From my experience, they’re a lot less likely to go for my throat than their human counterparts.”
Seraphina swept her gaze around the small group gathered on the third floor of Sanctuary as they prepped a rescue for her children.
Different species.
Katagaria and Arcadian.
All working together to save two teens they’d never met and knew nothing about. Each prepared to bleed and die for them.
She couldn’t fathom it, and she knew in her heart that her tribe would never do something like this to save strangers, especially Katagaria children.
Aimee had a vicious point.
Not wanting to think about it, she was just about to take a drink when three more wolves came up the stairs to join their raiding party, leading an attractive human female… each of them carried a small child in their arms. Three boys and one girl, ranging in ages from about a year old to around six or so. But then given the fact they were Were-Hunters, the children could be older than that. Unlike their Apollite cousins and humans, Were-Hunters aged much slower, and what might appear to be a six-year-old Arcadian Were could easily be as old as ten or even eleven or twelve.
Sound asleep, the babies were nestled in the arms of the adults.
Fang came over immediately to take the girl from the sole human. “What are you guys doing here?”
The human kissed his cheek. “Like big brother would let you face this alone. Or leave me by myself at the house with an imminent threat of any kind, even though I’ve got two packs of wolves denned in every house in and around my block? Get real. This is a blood alert, so here we are until it’s cleared and everything’s safe and quiet.”
Fang laughed. “Well, I’m glad to see you. Maybe you can talk Aimee into going to bed. She’s not listening to me and she’s been up for almost twenty hours straight.”
Tsking, the human walked over and hugged Aimee. “What have I told you about resting those puppies?”
“I know. I know. I was going to bed when all this happened. It’s hard to sleep when my family is up here planning to go break badass on a horde of Sumerian demons who were created to eat gods for fun.”