ONE
“WHY DON’T YOU say that again,” Raider suggested in a deceptively soft voice.
The man who had served at her side for years, through thick and thin, during a war that threatened to decimate the human race seemed calm. Serene even. Unnaturally so, given the life-altering revelation that he had a daughter he’d never known with a woman long since thought dead in said war.
It was his eyes that gave him away. They burned with suppressed emotion.
Raider was on the brink, and Kira was standing directly in the blast zone.
The waif responsible for this whole mess kicked her feet from where she was seated beside Kira, utterly unconcerned over the repercussions of her dramatic revelation.
Oh, to be young and convinced of your own invincibility again.
Years of planning wiped clean by a few careless words.
Kira had known this day was coming. If she was honest with herself, this showdown had been inevitable from the instant Kira learned of Elena's existence and chose not to track Raider down to inform him that his and Elise's love bore physical fruit.
None of this made the coming explosion any easier to take.
You didn't drop a bomb of this magnitude and expect to walk away unscathed.
There were consequences to your actions. No matter how you struggled, they always came due.
This was the calm before the storm. You could see it on the horizon, feel the gathering pressure in the air, but there was no way to outrun it. No way to hide from it. All you could do was batten down the hatches and pray that the storm would leave you battered and bruised, but otherwise alive.
Kira’s uncle frowned unhappily from his spot next to the doorway. Piercing golden eyes lingered on Elena. "I'm interested in hearing this as well."
The Overlord of House Roake was built like an armored tank. Power was written in every line of his body and stamped on his features.
A stranger to Kira until recently, even she could admit the family resemblance between them was unmistakable. They looked like father and daughter rather than uncle and niece.
The line of their noses and the stubborn jut of their jaws were nearly identical. It was the hair, however, that clinched it. A distinctive deep wine color that verged on burgundy.
A vertical scar bisected Harlow's eyebrow, narrowly missing his eye before dragging down his cheek. Already physically imposing, the scar made Harlow even more intimidating. Kira was betting none who served him ever questioned his orders. One hard stare would have his warriors swallowing any protests.
Of those present, Harlow was the one most likely to understand why Kira had chosen this course. Why she'd made the decisions she had. Like her, he hadn't lived an easy life.
He’d been forced to assume leadership of a broken House when an attack from a shadowy organization left his twin brother dead and his baby niece stolen.
He knew sometimes choices had to be made that hurt the people around him, even as it kept them alive.
House Roake had not only survived but thrived under his leadership.
Already she could see him doing the calculations and arriving at answers that threatened her future wellbeing.
Elena frowned. "Auntie, you never told me the sperm donor had a hearing problem."
"Not helping," Kira told her niece in a sing-song voice.
Elena harrumphed, folding her arms over her chest.
Raider pointed at Kira. "Explain. Now."
At that, a mischievous expression crossed Elena’s face. "Didn't anybody ever teach you that pointing is rude, sperm donor?"
Raider's nostrils flared as he took a deep breath, holding onto his temper by a thread. He kept his gaze locked on Kira, not acknowledging his daughter's existence.
Mistake, Raider.
Elena might have biologically come from Elise, but there was a lot of Kira and Jin in her. Evidently, nurture was as important as nature when it came to personality, and a few of Kira and Jin's less than desirable traits had rubbed off on her, including the fact that none of them reacted particularly well to being ignored.
Sensing the danger, Jin inserted himself between the two. "Let's all stay calm."
In a universe filled with odd things, Jin's existence was unique unto itself. Once a Tuann boy in the same hellish camp as Kira, Jin's soul was now housed in a military combat drone that took the shape of a sphere the size of Kira's head.
Jin was Kira’s best friend, her partner in crime. He’d saved her life and sanity more times than she could count.
"Don't tell me to stay calm, Tin Can." Raider's composed mask shredded, leaving him looking vaguely homicidal. "You don't get to say that to me. Not when you knew about this."
Jin was silent in the face of Raider’s accusation. Guilt and regret filtered through Kira and Jin's bond, his feelings tangling with Kira's complicated ones.
There was a kernel of hurt that Kira buried almost as soon as it registered—especially in light of all the progress they’d made at rebuilding their relationship in the past weeks.
With that hurt came resignation. She knew she deserved his recriminations. She’d made decisions on his behalf that she had no business making.
"Are you going to say anything?" Raider snapped at Kira.
Emotion clogged Kira’s throat as she sought for the words to make this right. An impossible task. Where would she even start?
"She can't." Elena kicked her feet, unconcerned by the imminent explosion.
Graydon finally stirred from his place in the doorway. "What do you mean by that?"
There was something about the man known as the Emperor’s Face that always made Kira feel like she was standing on the edge of a storm front, watching it roll in, breathless at the magnitude of what she was facing. The cloud formations would be ominous, even as they whispered to the adrenaline junky inside. How much fun would she have pitting herself against its fury?
He was handsome. Almost brutally so with the kind of presence that punched you in the chest. Dark hair framed features that contained a harsh edge that drew the eye.
It was a good thing he rarely ventured into human space. The paparazzi there would have been all over him otherwise. Photos of him would have spawned a renewed interest in stories about human women falling in love with powerful and dangerous aliens.
Graydon didn't need any more reason to be arrogant. His ego was already big enough.
Kira wasn't a small woman, but Graydon towered over her. He was six feet plus of pure muscle, not an ounce of fat anywhere to be seen.
Memories of how exactly Kira came by that knowledge drifted through her brain before she firmly shoved them into the box marked “things you are to never think about”.
Kira looked over in time to see Elena aim a sweet smile at Graydon.
“She made a promise. Auntie always keeps her promises.”
Faint amusement touched Graydon’s face. "Is that right?"
"Elena," Kira warned.
Her niece was getting too close to secrets Kira didn’t want getting out. Beyond the fact that it could place Elena in danger, there were others Kira protected. A few of whom would stop at nothing to bury the past. Kira wasn't certain even she could rescue Elena if they decided to move against her.
"Please continue." Graydon sauntered across the room, sprawling in the copilot's seat opposite her niece. He aimed a conspiring look at Elena.