Hunter cleared his throat. “Thank you for giving me these two days. I know that wasn’t easy.”
Layla took a deep breath and shoved off the swing, breaking the contact Hunter was so desperate for. She took several steps out of his reach and turned around to face them both. “This is beyond overwhelming. I haven’t wrapped my head around anything. Every time someone tells me something new, I feel like it just piles up. I haven’t even grasped the idea that I’m half shifter yet. Now I have a father?” She took several small steps backward again, her butt running into the railing to stop her.
“I can’t imagine your confusion,” Anders stated gently. “It must be monumental. I hope you and your sister will grant me the privilege of getting to know you both. I have no idea where you’ve come from or how long you planned on staying in Canyon Springs, but I won’t hesitate to beg you to stay. I’ve lost so much already. Twenty-four years of your lives. My mate. My heart. I’ve been a fool for too many years pining over your mother and everything I lost. I took the last two days to think about my options and how I should react to finding out I have two daughters I never knew about. I want to be a better person. I want to let the past go. I can’t change what happened, but I can promise to be someone you and your sister can be proud of from now on.”
Hunter sucked in a breath. “Don’t let Anders fool you. He’s a great man. One of the best. He acts like he’s been living a life of crime or something. He has every right to have been sad and remorseful. No one can take that from him. But he’s still got a lot of love to give.”
Layla shifted her gaze from Anders to Hunter. “You have a rather steep vested interest in standing up for him.” She looked like she was fighting a smile. “Don’t try to combine these two issues. The fact that I just found out I have a living breathing father I never knew about is unrelated to my relationship with you. Just so we’re clear.”
Hunter blew out a breath and nodded. One step forward. Two steps back. All he cared about was Layla agreeing to stay in town. If she did, she would not be able to avoid Hunter or her feelings for him forever.
Anders spoke again. “I know you must be furious with Hunter. I can hear it in your voice. And I get that. You have every right to be confused and angry. I would be worried if you weren’t. But please consider this from our perspective. We both met you Friday night. We both knew in an instant who you were to us. We both also knew that you were totally innocent about the ways of shifters. It would have been premature to spring every detail on you at the same time. The overload would have driven you from town.”
She glanced back and forth between them. “So what did you do? Have a meeting and decide who got to be first to confuse the new human in town?”
Hunter shook his head alongside Anders. “Not at all. We exchanged a glance and a few words Friday night. Nothing more. Until that moment, I had no idea you were Anders’s daughter. I only knew he had a mate who passed through town many years ago and left him.”
“When we made eye contact Friday night, I knew I needed to cool my heels and step back. Let Hunter talk to you first. Nothing can change the fact that you’re my daughter. But relationships between shifters and humans can be dicey. I know that better than anyone in town.”
“Why do you always refer to me as human when you’ve finally informed me I’m half shifter?”
Hunter decided to answer that one. “Because you thought you were human. And you are, babe. For all intents and purposes, you’re human. What you got in your DNA gave you some extra senses, but I doubt anyone you’ve ever come in contact with would have noticed. Not in the human world.”
“Most people just assume the weird idiosyncrasies Elena and I share have something to do with us being identical twins,” Layla responded.
Anders nodded. “Makes sense. That assumption probably also kept you safe.”
She nodded and turned around and ran a hand through her hair. Her stress was palpable, and Hunter knew he needed to give her some space. Let her spend some time with Anders.
Hunter rose from the swing. Walking away from his mate wasn’t on his short list of things to do today, but he would do it anyway. More than anything, it was time to back off and let her come to him. He had no idea what he would do if she didn’t before the end of the day, but he needed to find the strength to let her pull her thoughts together.
He wouldn’t leave her without touching her one more time to remind her what they were to each other. He came up behind her and gently set his hands on her shoulders before sliding them down her arms and around her middle, pulling her back against his chest. He leaned his face in to her neck and inhaled her scent before whispering. “I know this is hard, and I’m so sorry. I’m going to go inside so you can have some time with your father. I’m here for you when you’re ready.”
She sighed. “You should have told me about Anders.”
“Maybe. It was a tough decision. I bombarded you with information. You couldn’t have absorbed it all at once.”
“You didn’t give me a choice.”
He nodded against her shoulder. “I’m sorry.” He released her and padded into the house, not looking back. He didn’t want to see the look on her face or the frustration in her eyes.
Maybe he should have told her sooner. Maybe not. He’d made a judgement call. For better or for worse, it was done. She had all the information. It was time to let her process it while he begged the universe to ensure she managed to see things through his eyes.
Chapter 17
Layla immediately missed the feel of Hunter’s touch on her skin. The scent of his body against hers. The warmth of his breath on her neck. The tone of his voice as he tried to soothe her. She also knew she needed some space, and he was giving it to her.
When she turned around, she found Anders—my father—resting his elbows on his knees. He was watching her. His expression was serious, but there was a hint of a smile at the corners of his mouth.
“I can’t believe you even exist,” she murmured.
“Nor I you,” he responded. “I can’t believe I went twenty-four years without knowing I had two beautiful daughters.”
“Why didn’t you look for us? For my mother at least?”
He sighed. “I knew she was no longer with us. She was my mate. I sensed her passing even from far away. It was the worst time in my life, so much harder than when she left me physically. A part of me spent that nine months hoping she would feel the pull and come back to me.”
“You could sense when she died?”
He nodded. “I woke up on a gasp, bolted awake. My chest hurt. The loss was profound. Inexplicable. I couldn’t shake the burning dread. I knew she was gone. How did she die?”
“In childbirth. She lost too much blood. They couldn’t save her.” Layla’s heart ached for the loss. Not her own for once, but for Anders. Her mother’s mate. How cruel life could be. “You’re not wrong. We were born in the middle of the night. She died in the early hours of the morning.”
“And your grandmother raised you?”
She nodded.
His brow was furrowed. “I assume she filled your heads with the same shit as your mother’s.”