Chapter 22

22

Tavi

I stared at my phone. It had full service and was completely charged.

I pulled up Papa's number. My finger froze over the green call symbol.

I had been thinking for days about what I might say to him. I wanted him to know I was all right, but I was still a little mad about wolf culture right now.

If a man with a nearly feral dragon who had forced his human half to purchase him merely to create an heir could come to his senses, so could anyone. If they bothered. If they could, for a moment, think with their hearts.

Papa had done his best, but it wasn't good enough. I was still upset.

I swiped the call button. Papa picked up right away.

"Tavi! Tavi, is that really you?"

"Hello, Papa." Though I heard the love and concern in his voice, something in me still held back.

"Put yourself on video. I want to see you."

I complied. Papa came into view. I'd been gone less than four months, but he looked older, more gray stripes in his hair.

"You look good, Tavi. So beautiful. You always were. And you look healthy. Are you being treated well? Fed?"

I stared at the caring on his face. He'd cried when I left.

"I am well, Papa. And you?"

"Where are you? Can you tell me that much? Have the dragons harmed you? Are they the wild, cold ruthless creatures we've been taught to imagine?"

"Hmm. I'm not sure where to begin, Papa. With the wild and cold question? Or with the ‘treated well' question. I could say our own pack is wild and cold and ruthless the way they treated me. It isn't fair and you know it."

"I could do nothing for you, my son. I thought about running away with you, but we didn't have the means. Where would we have gone? How would we have lived if I had to give up my job?"

He was right. We'd been poor. He worked hard to provide, to make sure I had what I needed and a full belly. When I was a kid, I never knew we were poor, that Papa lived paycheck to paycheck always with the stress in the back of his mind that he couldn't make ends meet, counting those pennies at the end of every month. But as a single parent, he had always come up with those pennies.

In all my years, I never remembered him taking a vacation. I was happy. I was loved. Until the set designation.

"It's all right, Papa. I know your hands were tied." My voice had gone soft. Now that I saw him looking older, a few more lines in his pretty face which he'd passed on to me, I realized how out of place even he as a shifting omega he had been raising a child alone. I realized I didn't blame him. There was none of that inside me, not even resentment. Not toward him.

"Papa, I want you to know I am fine. I am with a kind young man who is my mate now. I am not held against my will. Not anymore, at least. I am not starving. I do not live in fear or poverty. I guess the idea of dragons and their culture is still alien to me, but I got lucky. I was bought by someone who thinks for themselves."

"Are you being truthful with me, Tavi?"

"Very." I tilted my head. "I was afraid at first, Papa. Wouldn't anyone be who was sent off into a foreign land where the people keep brood slaves and might be hostile?"

Papa's eyes welled up. "You looked so small and scared when you left. My heart broke, baby. I broke. I didn't know what to do."

He began to silently weep.

My papa had been the prisoner of a society almost as much as I was regarding what was expected of him. I knew it had been hard for him to give up his only child. I'd felt that from him, but by then I'd already closed off emotionally to the pack and the world around me.

Alluresh had woken me up again.

"Papa, I'm all right. I am. No thanks at all to our pack. My mate is wealthy. He gives me everything I could ever want, and he loves me. I know it might seem too quick to say that, but it's true. It's been quite a summer."

He swiped at the tears on his face. "Please be telling me the truth. I only wanted the best for you, son. Always. And then when you were designated and there was nothing I could do…." His voice trailed off.

"I know that now, Papa. I resented you and the pack, shut myself away. But I got lucky during the worst time of my life."

More tears.

"Papa, I am having a child. And he'll be raised well."

"You're pregnant? Already? Oh dear." He looked worried again.

"I'm happy, okay? Believe it."

"I—I don't know what to say. A grandchild? I know I'll never meet him, but if you're happy, I'm happy."

We talked some more, but I didn't share all the details of my mate and my feelings. Maybe later, I would. In the meantime, I decided I could, in good conscience, help my papa. Alluresh had given me my own online account. It wasn't simply credit. I had access to real funds.

When I hung up, I transferred a life-changing amount to Papa's online money app. He had it for receiving funds from side jobs he did when he had the time.

It was a lot, but nothing Alluresh or I would ever miss.

Immediately, he called me back. Several times. But I let it go to voicemail.

Later, when I told Alluresh, he approved of my decision. "He's your father. He created the man who stands before me as my beloved mate." He added, "You are a free man, Tavi. Don't forget. Just because you live in a country not friendly to the one you come from does not mean you'll never see your papa again."

My eyes widened and began to burn. I hadn't thought it all the way through. He was right.

Alluresh reached out and stroked my cheek. "When you're ready, of course. You can visit him, or he can come visit here."

I burst into tears. I hadn't realized all the held-back emotions I'd had just talking to my papa after four months.

Alluresh held me to his chest, his hands stroking my back. "It's okay, baby. I've got you now."