Page 108 of Shattered Veil

Katya glides up to us while holding the little girl’s hand. I see hints of attention deficit disorder from the way she’s agitated. The faint crusting around her ears suggests a chronic infection might be the source of balance issues.

“Hi, are you Ella?” Katya asks me in a voice so sweet, I could bake cookies with it. But she also sounds real, genuine.

“I am. Nice to meet you,” I say, smiling then crouching down. “And who is this? What’s your name?”

“Her name is Lia. She’s non-verbal,” Katya says. “I can tell she hears me. She just gets...lost.”

“Not anymore. Hi, Lia. You have a beautiful name.” I shuck off my coat and hand it to Balor. “I got this.”

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

Balor

Holding Ella’s coat, her perfume hits me in the chest. I smile, watching her take the little girl’s hand over to the snack table.

She’s going to be an amazing mother. What the hell kind of father will I be? Especially if I had a monster for one. All I have to go by is Kieran, whose twin sons are toddlers, and he can’t stop hugging and kissing them.

The kind of affection we never got growing up, only Shea-Lynne.

Ella sits across from Lia, engaging with her without getting too close. She smiles and eats the cookies, getting Lia to eat as well. Ella speaks, pointing around the room, and Lia follows her hand gestures.

“She can’t stop begging for cock, right?” Lachlan whispers to me with that deep baritone voice of his. “From the hormones and all.”

I roll my eyes, but I’m still a man with an ego to maintain. “Oh yeah.”

“I knew it.” Lachlan smacks my arm. “I didn’t see a ring on her finger.”

“I haven’t given it to her yet.”

“Why?”

“Because we’re taking it slow.”

“Not when a kid is involved. Kieran won’t allow you to—” He stops when I glare at him.

“Careful how you end that sentence. You can pummel me, but I can cut off the electricity in your house.”

“And put my wife at risk?” He stands over me.

I push him away. “Stop with that hovering. It doesn’t work on me.”

“I’m just preparing you for what I know Kieran will say. We can’t have a woman walking around Astoriapregnant with your wee-one in her belly without at least a diamond engagement ring on her hand.”

He’s not wrong. It goes against everything we stand for as far as our treatment of women.

“We’re seeing her doctor in a couple of weeks. Just to make sure everything is all right. I’d hate to make a big announcement and then disappoint people in case...”

“In case what?”

“Her home tests weren’t accurate.” As the words fall from my lips, my chest tightens at the idea she’s not really pregnant.

It confirms how much I want this.

“She’s with child. I’ve inherited Da’s knack for sure. Of all the things to inherit, right?”

“So long as you don’t hit—” I stop, flinching that I almost spilled the secret I’ve been keeping about my father.

“And when the doctor confirms, you’ll marry her?”