Page 16 of Dancing Moonbeam

“Exactly how old are you?” Jaytee stood.

“I’m 1,217 years old,” Raidh replied.

Jaytee’s jaw dropped, then he chuckled. “I thought being 235 was old. I feel like a pup now. Babe, you don’t look a day over 800.”

Raidh grinned. “At least I don’t look like a wolf man with all that hair on my face. Your entire family is one big furball.”

Jaytee stroked his thick beard. “You don’t like it?”

Honestly, Raidh had never been with anyone who had facial hair, and he now wondered what it would feel like against his skin when they finally kissed. “I didn’t say I didn’t like it. Can I get back to what I was telling you, or do want to continue discussing hairy beasts?”

Jaytee bounced his eyebrows. “You’re blushing, Moonbeam. Wondering what my beard will feel like stroking your delicate body?” He smirked. “Your blush just got deeper. Go on, tell me about your father. I’ll behave.”

“I see Damon isn’t the only horndog in your family.”

Wrong thing to say. Jaytee’s blue eyes caught fire as he gave a low growl. “He should consider himself lucky I didn’t rip his tongue out for the way he flirted with you.”

“Anyway…” Raidh cleared his throat then told his mate about how he’d refused to embrace dark magic and attend the annual dick-measuring contest. “I just couldn’t go through another two-week prep with my father.” He explained why. “So, I decided to take a permanent vacation.”

Raidh frowned. “I still have no idea why that spell didn’t take me to Brazil.”

“How do you know spells if you never learned magic?”

“I just said I refused to embrace magic. Galamir forced the lessons on me,” Raidh replied.

“Okay.” Jaytee held up a hand. “I get your old man is a pretentious jackass with a huge helping of FOPO and complete disdain for his own kid, but what do you have to warn Elvine about?” He frowned. “What happened in the crypt?”

“FOPO?”

“Fear of other people’s opinion,” Jaytee clarified.

“But wouldn’t that be FOOPO?”

His mate gave him a look that said he was concentrating on the wrong thing. Raidh sighed. “When you cast a concealment spell, for a brief moment, the person or people you’re hiding from can see you.”

“That’s why you needed someplace unidentifiable,” Jaytee said.

“Yes.” Raidh nodded.

“And you saw your old man.”

Again, Raidh nodded. “He also spoke to me, through his thoughts.” Raidh wrung his hands as he began to pace again. “He said that he would find and eliminate me, wipe me from history.”

“Are you serious?” Jaytee’s voice rumbled with anger. “Just because you refuse to embrace dark magic?”

“It’s not just that,” Raidh replied bitterly. “My father’s favoritism toward my mother and sister has always made me feel like an outcast in my own family, like I’m nothing in his eyes.”

It was a painful truth that had fueled much of his rebellious behavior.

From a young age, Raidh had known Galamir’s expectations for him were unreasonable and self-serving. His father had wanted him to be the greatest wielder of dark magic. He’d forced Raidh to work night and day to perfect his incantations and spells.

But those grandiose expectations only pushed Raidh away and created a deep rift between them. Any bond they could have had was now broken beyond repair.

What was so wrong with Raidh that his father couldn’t simply love and accept him for who he was, not what he could be molded into? He would never be good enough for Galamir.

“Damn, Moonbeam.”

Raidh sucked in a quick breath when Jaytee wrapped his burly arms around him. Tears prickled at the corners of his eyes at just how overwhelmed he felt.

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