The Delta's Daughter Chapter 317

TAWNY

Crimson spoke. I listened.

I listened to everything he had to say. His explanation - not an excuse.

Hearing it from him, why he couldn’t say anything, why he couldn’t tell me, I understood.

I had already forgiven him, but I wasn’t going to tell him. When I woke this morning, it was with a clarification that, I would be going back to Cambiador. That I would hear Crimson out and pray to the gods we could find our way back to each other.

As soon as I scented him walking into the holding facility, All I wanted was to be in his arms, for him to hold me and tell me everything was going to work out.

And he did.

We walked in on what could have become an even worse scenario, but thankfully my presence calmed him and Morgan’s calmed Hunji.

My heart melts and my resolve breaks. Each wall I had built from such a young age to keep myself, my heart, protected crumbled listening to him. I watch the tears form in his eyes, eyes that told me everything that mattered. They held so much love and so much sorrow at the same time.

I had so many questions but none he could answer or hadn’t answered. My throat was clogged and so raw with emotion that I don’t think I could form words even if I tried.

When he kissed my stomach, his large hands splaying over the skin beneath my shirt, I knew he had discovered what I only figured out this morning as I devoured my food and then Masons. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure until my feline's emotions ran rampant through me and she pushed the feeling of carrying a child onto me, and his reaction only confirmed what I hoped/knew was true.

“You’re it for me Tawny. I love you and nothing will ever get in the way of us again. I will never let anything get in the way of me and my family never, ever again. My everything.” He pours his heart out to me and I can’t contain my feeling of joy any longer.

Except my joy comes out in sobs and my emotions overtake my logical thinking as big fat tears pour from my eyes.

“Crimson,” He stands and looks down at me, yellow eyes bore into mine. His hand cups my cheek gently and my body vibrates under his heated stare and touch. “I love you.” I manage to say.

He crashes his lips to mine. Devouring me most deliciously and feverishly. His tongue pushed past my lips, stroking over mine and I moan into his mouth when he pulls me tighter against his hard body. His hands roam over me, feeling, grasping, soothing.

“We can get through this together. You, me, and our cub that grows inside you.” He whispers in my ear when he lets me come up for air. Trailing his hot lips down over my neck and nipping the sensitive skin shooting a shiver right down to my core.

‘Cubs.’ Juniper speaks to me mentally, a rare occurrence. Either way, I internally smiled. Not one but two kittens.

“Kolby,” I moan when his tongue moves lower to taste my collarbone, “Cubs,” I tell him.

“Fuck that’s even hotter, Kitten.” He hisses and nips.

Much to my dismay, he sighs and pulls away only to rest his forehead against mine. “Where do we go from here Tawny?” His raspy voice asks.

“A hotel?” I laugh.

“I can get with that.” He laughs before he becomes serious. “You and me. Where do we go from here?”

“Forward,” I tell him with all honesty. “Our future is together. We move forward together we face whatever is coming together. We rule together.”

“How did I get so lucky to be gifted with you?” Crimson groans. The vibration tickled my senses, igniting my need for him all over again.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the place or time for us to become reacquainted with each other's bodies.

*****

When Crimson and I left the room, we found Hunji, Mason, and Morgan waiting for us.

“There's more than just me giving Abner the folder, What Tawny and I read were only snippets,” Crimson told us all. The stones are just one of many ways to open the gateway. There are more according to Abner Brooks.”

Morgan clears her throat, the pale violet-eyed witch looked like an innocent little bird amongst the shifters, but I had been told by Lamia that she may look innocent but that purity she embodied was deceiving. Morgan was powerful and could be downright scary with what she was capable of.

Morgan reminded me of Gillian but where Gillian lacked confidence, it oozed from Morgan. “My mother once told me, the veil that surrounds our realm resonates on a frequency. In certain spots that veil is thin - weakened. And where it is weak the veil will thrum at a lower frequency. A sound only those with power magic will feel. She said those powerful enough would be attracted to it.” Morgan looks at Crimson, rolling her lips and pulling them into a tight smile. “I don’t know if it's true or not, but her story would line up with yours.” She tells Crimson. “If these veils exist then they could be torn open revealing a doorway to another realm.”

We talked for a while, disclosing information to Hunji and Morgan. It was better if we were all on the same page. It seemed each of us had knowledge that began to fit together like pieces of a puzzle.

Lamia being the chosen one, Mathias part god. Hunji a disciple of the moon goddess and Knight was sent to protect the chosen one. Morgan and her brother Finnegan, half-siblings to Mathias and Morgan the last in the line of Morrigan’s.

King Kellen, also a Knight of the chosen, a Royal with Lycan blood and ties to the goddess Morrigan. And his wolf's spirit - forever bound with Lamia’s.

The Royal beta, Mike, is also a Knight who, according to Hunji demonstrated a strange electric force at the battle of Riocht.

And Rhett. A hunter who had shifter abilities. Able to half transform but had no spirit animal.

Then there was Kolby Crimson. A rare species, a Grimalkin. He had only just begun to scratch the surface of his power. His full capabilities were unknown at this time.

“We already know where one stone is,” I tell Hunji lifting the ring from under my top and presenting it for them to see. “I don’t believe it is in our best interest to try and find the others.”

“Agreed,” Hunji says, a glazed look in his eyes as he mulls over the information. I can practically see the cogs in his brain turning as he analyses all the information. “The stone has been safe in Cambiador all these years, It should remain there.”

“And the library in Tolba should remain a secret,” Crimson adds. “With not knowing who it is that attacked me, I can only hazard a guess that if Senko is still alive, with all the information, it could be him.”

“Or someone he, Orion, and Silas were aligned with.” Because that’s what makes sense to me. If only we had more information, we could be sure.

“I don’t ever remember my father mentioning a man by the name of Senko. Silas, yes but not a man named Senko or a blood alchemist. My brother, Finn said that a wolf named Oliver could have filled in some gaps.” Morgan begins but is cut off by Hunji.

“He was executed,” Hunji states to his mate. “We will get no answers from him.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Morgan says lowly, more to herself her pale blond brows pulled together. “If I could be where he died, I may be able to communicate with him.”

Crimson and I share a look. Lamia gave me snippets of Morgan's power. I had no idea she could speak to the dead as well as raise them.

“Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.” She smiles at me. “Like my visions, they come as they please and even then, they are only ripples, mirages of a possible future. That’s the thing with magic,” She looks at Crimson and directs her next words solely to him, “It's never a certainty. Bad things can come from good magic and worse things from those who abuse it.”

In my opinion, the dead should stay dead. Only bad things could come from speaking to an evil person like Oliver. He was where he belonged, and he should stay there.

As if hearing my thoughts Mason echoed them out loud. “Nothing good could come of speaking to the dead, especially trying to communicate with Oliver. You all forget, I served under Silas and know what sick bastards they were, what they were capable of. I had no choice but to join their ranks and many of us who served the Rogue king will be forever grateful that we were set free by Queen Lamia.”

*****

It was getting late, and I hung around to try and see Mike. I didn’t want to leave without seeing him, but we had been away from Cambiador for too long and it was time for us to return.

Crimson made a promise to Hunji that he would keep him updated on any significant changes within him. Hunji still didn’t trust that something hadn't been done to him, aside from taking blood from him. Even then, none of us was a hundred percent sure that that was what happened to Crimson. Nor would we find out where he went in those missing hours.

It warmed me when Crimson and Hunji shared a handshake, and I shared a satisfied look along with Morgan. “Come visit us in Cambiador,” I tell her as we say goodbye.

“I would love to!” She gushes back at me. Her strange violet eyes lit up with excitement. “And maybe Tolba too?”

“Definitely Tolba.” I laugh. “And don’t take any shit from Hunji.” I half-joke.

“Oh, believe me, Kian knows not to get on my bad side.” I wince at the use of Hunji's birth name, only because it sounds so foreign. I’m sure she is the only one to call him by that name.

We say our goodbyes and finally once in the car, with Mason driving, Crimson tells him to take us home.

“Wait!” I balk. “We have one more stop. Take us back to my father's Mason.” I smile snidely at Crimson. There was no way we were leaving here without one, letting my father meet my mate and two telling him he was going to be a grandfather.

We had decided not to disclose the information about my pregnancy to anyone else. Although it wouldn’t surprise me if Hunji heard the whispered conversation from the other side of the door. If Mason had heard, he hadn't said anything. But I planned to make sure he was there to hear it firsthand when I told my father.

I knew my father would be back from training at this time in the evening. He had been taken off night patrol and was a trainer now.

No sooner had we pulled up outside his house, than my father was swinging the door open. “Tawny, I thought you had already left back to the werecat Kingdom,” He said as I stepped out the back of the car and into his arms.

“I couldn’t leave without you meeting someone special to me,” I tell him smiling over at Crimson as he and Mason emerge.

My father lets go of me. His chest puffed out making him look larger and the wide grin that graced his freckled face only moments ago drops. He stares down Crimson, putting himself between me and my mate in a protective manner. “So you are the mate that broke my little girl's heart.”

It's not a question but an accusation.

“I did sir. And I am truly sorry for causing her pain. I can promise you, it will not happen again. Your daughter means everything to me.” I watch as Crimson's body language submits to my father in a gesture of goodwill. “I love your daughter sir, and I am honored to meet the man that raised such a fine and strong woman.”

“No need to grovel.” My father grunted. “Long as you take care of her. She is her own woman and if she says you are good enough for her, then I will accept that. But mark my words, you break her heart again and I will kill you. I have friends in high places you know.”

I try not to laugh at my father's warning. He has always been protective of me and it's sweet that he will still defend me. Even to a Grimalkin.

“Mr. Johnson, in the werecat Kingdom it is customary for the suitor to ask permission from the family for the female's hand in marriage.” Crimson talks to my father once we step into the house. “As you know we are fated mates, I have every intention of marrying your daughter and ruling alongside her. Still, I seek your approval for our marriage and your blessing for our future?”

My father shifts in his chair with an uncomfortable jerkiness. “Well,” he grumbles, his eyes landing on mine questioning what he should answer. I softly smile and nod my head slightly. “Who am I to stand in the way of love and fate? You don’t need my approval, but you have it.”

An enormous and electrifying smile takes over the seriousness of Crimson’s face. “Thank you. Sir. I believe Tawny has something else she would like to tell you now.”

With an eyebrow raised my father turns to me, “okay.”

He waits patiently for me to talk. Crimson sits on the couch, me next to him and Mason sits on one of the kitchen chairs. I look at the three most important men in my life and the corners of my mouth stretch wide. “You're going to be a grandfather,” I announce then scoot onto Crimson’s lap, his large hand automatically covering my stomach that will not show anything for a least a few more weeks.

I couldn’t wait to get back to Cambiador and tell Tristan and Gillian. Gillian was going to shit a brick that we would deliver our kittens so close together.

“Holy shit!” Mason gasps, solidifying that he indeed didn’t already know. “I’m going to be an uncle?”

When I look at Mason, tearing my eyes from my father whose reaction was yet to come, I saw tears in Mason’s eyes. “Yes,” I tell him. “Of two.”

“Two?” It's my father's turn to gasp in surprise, “Twins?”

I nod excitedly. The next thing I know, Mason has pulled me from Crimson's lap and into his arms. “Congratulations Princess. You will make one heck of a kick-ass mother.” He breathes squeezing me tightly.

My father congratulates us both, shaking Crimson's hand and clapping him on the back. Mason doing the same thing. Eventually, my father holds me at arm's length and looks me over. “I’m so proud of you Tawny. For everything you have overcome, and the strong woman you have become. I know life, living in wolf packs had never been easy for you and I wish I could have given you a better childhood. But your mother is looking down from the afterlife at you and I know she smiles. I know just how proud she would tell you she is.” He smooths my hair with his large pale hands, his eyes filling with unshed tears.

“My beautiful girl. A Queen. Your mother loved you so much. Each day she would smile brightly because she had you. She never cared that she had been cast out of Cambiador, all she ever need was right in front of her, That’s what she told me every day. All she needed was me and you, and that was more than she could ever dream of.”

I had no words, and if I did try to speak I know they would come out wrong, that I would cry harder. I started at my father for the longest time until I felt I could talk, even then “I love you daddy” were the only words that seemed fitting enough for the moment.

My father did his best to raise me, I would always be grateful. Never once did I blame him for my shitty upbringing, or that my mother died at the hands of a Pack my father moved us to. Because things could have been much worse. His only other option was to have us become rogues.