Of course, now facing her father in the dining room of her old home as he was blatant in his disregard of Terak, the earlier council of giving her father time and space was heading into the territory of don’t think so and a down-and-dirty yelling match became more inevitable by the minute. “Dad,” she said, trying once again to engage Jack in a way that didn’t involve him staring a hole through Terak, “How are things at the precinct?”
“I’d rather not talk about it.” In front of him rang through Jack’s tone and down the center of the dining table.
That was it. Larissa near sprang from her seat as she locked gazes with her dad. “Can I see you in the study for a moment?” Damn straight her teeth were clenched – so were her hands, her stomach, all the way down to her toes. No more of this.
Jack rose, defiance in the slow, steady movement. “Yes. Let’s go.” And he walked ahead without waiting for her to come beside him, like he usually did.
She brushed off Terak’s hand and went after her father. The door click was still echoing in the room as she said, “What is your problem? We talked about this already.”
“We didn’t talk,” her father shot back, restrained fury in his tone. “You waltzed in and informed me you were marrying a creature. Wait, that’s not it, you mated a creature. You left not five minutes later while I was still stunned. How is that talking?”
A tiny tremble of guilt fluttered through her stomach, but she wasn’t going to let that derail her from setting Dad straight. “It doesn’t matter what word is used. He and I are together forever and are it for each other. Words are meaningless.”
“I am your father, and you can be damn sure it isn’t meaningless to me if my daughter is married or not!” Jack paced around the desk, hands on his hips and fire in his eyes. “You didn’t talk through anything with me. You leave me in the dark while you are in danger. You trust strangers over family. And when it’s all over, you leave it to Michael to tell me everything – you can’t even face me and explain what was going through your head!”
“I’m twenty-six years old! I don’t owe you explanations, Dad!”
“Is that right, baby girl?
Deep breath…deep, deep breath. Her father had a point, and yeah, he was owed an apology for that. “I handled things poorly, and I’m sorry about that. But Dad, if anyone can understand the kind of confusion having your life upended like that can cause, it’s you. People and creatures coming at you, and this terror of something so much bigger than you, and you can’t tell friend from enemy. The aftermath of all that was chaos, and somehow in all that Michael got hold of me and told me about the panic over me and Taneasha, but I couldn’t get away so I had to trust him to handle it.” Larissa paused, bringing breath deep into her lungs to calm the panic even the memory of that time could instill in her. “I am sorry. It wasn’t how I wanted to let you know. At the time it seemed the only way and looking back, I still don’t know how else I could have done it. But I waited until I could tell you about Terak myself. I never wanted you to think I was ashamed of him, because I never will be.”
“Then why did you come in here and tell me and then run?”
“Because I don’t know what the hell I’m doing?” She threw her hands up in the air, needing physical movement to dissipate the tension building. “You think I don’t know how it looks to you, or that I like you’re not happy about who I love? Of course I want your approval. Never thought it was a possibility I’d ever be without it.”
They were toe-to-toe, prize fighters eyeing each other from their corners, each breathing a little hard as if they had gone a round. Long, still seconds, and then Jack broke off the stare, plunking down into the leather chair behind the desk, a long, low exhale accompanying the movement.
Larissa pushed her hair behind her ear, watching as her father let his head fall back against the top of the seat. His age was showing, lines and grey hair somehow more pronounced than they were even a few weeks ago.
How would Laura Miller look now, if that hellish moment never happened? How much grey would streak her hair? How deep would the lines around her eyes be? Would her mom feel differently about Terak, defending her daughter’s choice to her stubborn husband? Maybe it was self-interest talking, but something deep inside Larissa warmed, and there was no doubt in what her mother would say. Laura Miller knew all about love – great, deep, abiding love. She experienced it with this stubborn, ornery man sitting behind a desk. Laura Miller would tell her without reservation to stand beside Terak.
Larissa stood before her dad and held nothing back. “I know how I feel. What I feel is eternal, and it’s only him. Part of the reason I love him is because he is a gargoyle, and that honor and nobility he possesses because of it, the way he’ll stand between me and anything that would come after me. I find him beautiful, no matter what. But that doesn’t mean I know how to explain this. This love, this attraction, how I went from being a sheltered girl and a low-level teacher to being the mate of the Clan Leader of the Gargoyles, responsible now for this Clan that isn’t even my same species. It’s too big sometimes for me to think about. I realize you have doubts, Dad, and I understand why, because looking at it from the outside, it’s impossible.”
Jack hunched forward, his elbows resting on his thighs while his hands hung loose between his knees. Whole conversations took place behind his eyes, his mouth tight while the debate as to what he should say played in his head. “I don’t doubt you when you say you love him. I see it, Larissa. And if I was young and idealistic, I would send you off with blessings and pretend that was all that was necessary. But you have to know somewhere inside you, this situation is wrong.” He leaned up then, a fierce resolve playing over his features. “You cannot stay with him. It’s only going to end up bad for you. And if that truth isn’t enough to make you walk away, then the fact it will end up bad for him should.”
“Dad, we discussed-”
“You discussed like two people in love discuss, which means jack shit.” His words cut across hers like a sharp blade. He stood then, facing her fully. “Do his people really want you there? Don’t bother to answer, because we both know they don’t. They wouldn’t want you there, as the mate of their leader, even if you had grown up with them. You think they’re thrilled a human is wandering their compound and in charge of them?”
No, they weren’t. Malek, a few others were openly supportive and true friends and allies. The majority were reserved with her, still judging and waiting. Then the final portion, a vocal minority, and their contempt could be felt through the grey walls of the keep.
It wasn’t the easiest situation, but being with Terak was worth it. If he was worth dying for, he was worth fighting for.
And she had already proved he was worth dying for.
“It doesn’t matter what they think. They asked for Terak to be their leader knowing I was part of the deal. They may not be joyous over me, but they’ll accept me.”
“You think so? You are a risk to them. With this weird power you have, you’ll never be safe from the necro-” Jack’s voice faltered, stuttered over the word that was the greatest threat to her safety. For one moment his eyes grew round and haunted, the knowledge of what the death of a beloved truly meant stark in those eyes, before he cleared his throat and continued. “You will always be targeted, and you will always represent a risk to their safety. If things heat up like this Fallon woman claims they will, what do you think the gargoyles will do in order to protect their Clan? What do you think they’ll do to Terak if he tries to stop them?”
Goosebumps. One tiny portion of the goosebumps dotting her skin and the shivers descending over her body could be attributed to worry over herself. But Terak…was her father right? Would they force her removal, and what would they do to Terak in order to accomplish that? “They wouldn’t have invited us back…”
Jack’s hard voice cut through her weak protest. “They probably hoped he was going through a phase, an obsession with something foreign to them, and that he wou
ld grow tired of you and set you aside once he came to his senses.”
“He won’t.”
“Maybe he will and maybe he won’t, but do you really believe they are not going to force his hand? I raised you smarter than that.”
And as she opened her mouth the door swung open, and Terak stood in the doorway.
Chapter Two
‡
With almost forty years on the force under his belt, Jack Miller could claim – without pride, without ego – that he knew how to read people. What he saw of the male before him almost had him taking a step back before he remembered himself.
Terak’s human face was almost pleasant as he looked at Larissa. She walked to him, and with a light, steady hand he cupped her face, brushing some hair behind her ear. “I’m fine,” she said, answering an unspoken question.
“I think it is time your father and I converse. Please, let me be alone with him. Please,” he added again, when Larissa’s usual stubborn nature reared its head and it looked like she was going to argue with him. And then his gaze left Larissa’s face and came to rest upon Jack.
The quiet menace in that gaze was real. This was not some act put on by a stupid little shit who would piss himself if he ever saw real action. This was a warrior’s gaze and a warrior’s resolve.
That was fine with Jack. He was ready to have it out.
Larissa left without looking back, and a pang spread through his chest. His little girl didn’t even check with him. For her, all she needed was the words of this male to make her decision.
The unexpected loss put Jack on the attack. “I’m assuming you heard most everything. Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me some bullshit how it’s going to be fine and your people won’t revolt and betray her the first moment danger comes around them.”
Jack himself paced with strong emotion, a habit Michael had picked up from him. In contrast, Terak grew still, though the look in his eyes was anything but calm. “You speak of things you know not.”
“I may not know everything about gargoyles, but I notice you’re not denying my statement,” Jack shot back. “It might be called human nature, but its primal nature. It’s the core of us that’s going to survive no matter what. Her existence threatens your people. Do you think they’ll allow that? A woman from a race they consider inferior, who had the gall to marry their leader so he isn’t married to a gargoyle girl like he should be?”
“I am not so weak I cannot keep my people in check.” Now Terak advanced, his fingers curling inward. What would that sight look like if Terak was in his gargoyle form, where instead of nails there would be claws? “I am very aware of every danger to Larissa. I have already taken the needed steps to care for her.”
Jack scoffed, holding his ground. “Against your own people?”
Terak stood before him, his stone-grey eyes hard and flinty. “Against any enemy. A strike against her is a strike to me, and do I seem one who will not defend myself? You are her father, so I will make myself clear. Any who seek her harm I will kill. I will rip into them with claw and teeth and separate skin from bone from heart. An enemy, a friend, from within either of our Clans – it does not matter.”
For the first time in eons, a shiver ran down Jack’s spine as he took in the male before him. The will behind those words was absolute, the venom and the truth unassailable. “And if you are gone?” Jack forced the words through a closed throat, and swallowed to loosen the muscles.
Terak backed away, his voice quieted, but that venomous truth in no way diminished. “I have already made my deal with your devil to protect her no matter the circumstances. She is mine, Jack Miller. I fought against feeling for her, but my heart will have none but her. So I will claim her, and I will protect her, and any who become her enemy? I will destroy.”
Shards of a long-ago conversation flittered through Jack’s mind…
“She made her choice. If Laura Campbell had told me to go away and not bother her, that’s what I would have done. It wouldn’t have changed the fact I’d love her forever, but I’d never take what wasn’t freely given. But she chose me, and eighteen is legal. So I’m going to marry her and keep her with me, and old man, if you can’t accept that, don’t expect us to come into your home ever again.”
…and he took in the male before him with new eyes. There was nothing to like here. Even if he believed those two loved each other – and dammit, he did, he really did – that didn’t change the fact this was a bad match. Larissa was in danger by being with Terak, and as much as Larissa pushed to the side any objections to Terak being a gargoyle, that was no small difference.
But before him Jack saw the same look he was sure was on his face when he confronted Bill Campbell about marrying Laura – flinty determination and the willingness to set the world afire if that was what it took to accomplish his objective.
Bill Campbell was probably chortling in heaven even now, looking at his son-in-law being put through the same hell he’d given as a young man.
After long moments, Jack spoke. “I can’t give you my blessing. There’s too much wrong here for me to do that. But I can’t change your mind and I can’t change hers, and I can’t lose my daughter. So I will say I’ll try to understand and keep my fears to myself.” And here Jack put the full force of his will in his gaze, on this one point he would not back down on. “But in return you agree to keep me in the loop. You agree I’m going to know if anything is a threat to her, and you’ll let me and my boys protect her when we can. Do we understand one another?”
Terak nodded. “We understand one another.”
“Good.” Something inside Jack relaxed then, something that had been twisted tight since the day Larissa had gone missing from school. With that release it was time to lay some ground rules for his son-in-law. Bill Campbell would approve. “But here’s one last thing to understand. You may be some fearsome creature, but I’m her daddy. You hurt her, there aren’t enough stone walls to keep me away from you and prevent me from mounting your head on a pike. You think you’re a mean sonovabitch? Next to a father who’s listening to his little girl cry, you’re nothing more than pottery.”
Chapter Three
‡
A peculiar energy emanated from Terak, a vibration that had Larissa on edge, had done so ever since he emerged with her father from the study.
The night hadn’t lasted long after that, a perfunctory finishing of the meal and giving the expected thanks and parting words. But even as they left her childhood home and arrived back to their Clan and their bedchamber, the weird mood Terak was in didn’t abate.
It wasn’t safe – he wasn’t safe – but even as her mind acknowledged, her body remained calm. If there was one truth to her world, it was she never had anything to fear from Terak.
However, it did prevent her from asking what she wanted most to know, about what their talk covered, about where all their relationships stood right now.
The tense lines of his now gargoyle form were as bad as when they were fighting for their lives. As wound up as he was, she doubted he’d be going to bed for a long while. “Are you going to go out on patrol?”
His eyes met hers in the mirror. “No. I would not be effective.”
That was obvious, not that she’d tell him that. “Do you wish to talk about it?”
“Did he convince you?”
And this promised to not be good. Silly her, thinking maybe the actual dinner itself would be the worst part of the night. “What do you mean?”
“Your father,” and the word father in that tone was a blasphemy. “Did he change your mind about your place here?”
“My father didn’t change my mind about anything. I am where I want to be.”
“Are you sure?” No physical change took place, but somehow she could swear Terak wound tighter and tighter, drawing himself in as he unleashed what he had held back earlier. “He did not tell you how you were in danger here? About how you did not belong amongst the Clan? About how gargoyles will betray you the moment first
possible?”
“He doesn’t understand, and you yourself told me to be patient with him. He’ll get to know you and he won’t have such prejudiced views.”
Terak went on as if she hadn’t interrupted. “And did he not tell you about how you being here was to invite my death and put me in danger.”
Here she paused, the echo of her father’s warning rampant in her head no matter how hard she pushed down. The momentary silence was a mistake, as Terak honed in on the stutter. He turned away, the muscles so tight she could almost believe a hard poke would shatter them. “Terak, whatever Dad said tonight, no matter what he brought up-”
“So you believe his words?”
“It doesn’t matter-”
“Do you?”
“I’m not saying I believe them, but he might have brought up a good point.”
“What point?”
“Terak, quit this. We’ll talk tomorrow, after you’ve calmed down.”
He came before her, his eyes hot and unwavering. “What point?”
“That I’m a danger to you.” And tears fell, as they’d been wanting to since her father thrust the thought at her. “That you’re in danger because of me. That they’re going to come after me again. Maybe they can’t do the spell they wanted me for back then, but what I can do is so rare, they have to come after me again. That I’m selfish to be here with you.”
*
She met his gaze, thick lashes surrounding her stunning eyes, that cornflower blue which would now and forever be the color he associated only with her. In those eyes was a violent swirl of pain, and fear, but what loomed largest when she looked at him was love. Always love. She spoke again, and her words rocked against him with their unexpected force. “I would have died with you.”
Entwined Realms Volume One Page 29