Artifice - Man x Man - Book Six

Chapter 43

"Yes? Can I help you?" 

The tone comes out of nowhere and I try to surface from the fog of worry and regret. My eye catches Marisol, knowingly moving Helen out of the way of the two males and Gary storms into the room, his body soaked and chilled, his hair matted down. 

In such a state, it would have been challenging to tell the two apart. While Gary's hair was white, those same startling eyes had passed over flawlessly along with their shape. His high cheekbones and sculpted nose, the way his hair possesses an almost boyish wave to its length even if Gary wears it shorter. 

Even if Verando was in better shape, physically, Gary's shoulders had the same rigidity, and while I had often looked at Tonic and seen his father the more I saw this male, the more I questioned how I ever compared Verando to Tonic.

"Can you help me? Is this some sort of joke?" 

I flip my hand, closing the door with a gust of wind to keep out the chill. Taking possession of Helen from Marisol, she departs with a grumble about more towels and I settle my arm around the girl's shoulders as she shakes beneath my fingers and it's not from the cold. 

Tyler meets her other shoulder, arm around her waist to rest his hand on her hip, and we hold Helen together where it feels like she might as well fall apart. 

"You have my daughter."

Verando scoffs, a very 'Alpha' thing to do. Did Gary not understand reasoning with his father was best done from logic? Hell, did I realize that? 

"Have? Or sheltering? Perhaps providing a sanctuary for your daughter would be a more accurate statement. Now, again, what can I help you with?" 

His curt nature stopped the lighter-haired man in his tracks for only a moment, making him possibly rethink his intentions when met with such indifference. 

"Sanctuary? You've gone and poisoned her is what you've done! Mother informed me she was but a whisp the last time she saw her. She won't come home, she won't answer her calls, I figured she'd be here with you and I see I was correct, filling her head with this nonsense about how amazing it is to be a lycan. It isn't your place to educate my child on anything to do with this depravity."

Verando sets his jaw, taking a slow breath as a leader does to settle the burn of dominance.

 "Helen was in the care of your people until just days ago; when she came to me and Kitten she was in quite a state but seems to be making a recovery. You, Legardo, are the cause of her suffering and I challenge you to place the blame on anyone but yourself. 

Rejecting your heritage for this farce that you can be a damned... what is it.. a cook? It's a joke and a bad one at that, you are a lycan if you prefer it or not. I have been incredibly tolerant of your behavior, Legardo-"

"Do not call me that! I do not prefer it! I do not wish to partake in any of this, it's a way of life that I turned my back on when I saw what a lunatic it turned you into. You weren't there, and you might not know this, but it's a father's job to take up for his children. No child of mine will be going down the path of this Viking-centered insanity!"

Verando laughs, abruptly, and I hear a growl rumble in Gary's chest. The sound makes all of our eyes shift, the tension weighing on us as if at any moment a spark would light the fuse to the brawl that had been building for some time. But, my warlord had more class than inferior displays of bravado. 

"Well, you certainly did create quite the abundance of children if you thought it was a curse. Did your mother not teach you how babies were made? You're more wolf than you think, I can see it in you." The threat was real, more provocative than I'd ever seen my warlord with how he taunts the white-haired man.