Page 85 of Lost Girl

"He built it," she adds, snapping my head toward her in disbelief.

"No, he didn't."

"He did." She nods. “By himself, too.”

"Peter Pan built this house?" I know shejustsaid that butthere’s no way.

Tinksley laughs at the unconvinced squeak of my tone, nodding by way of response.

"Wow. The Peter I knew wouldneversay he did such a thing."

Never in a million years. Peter wasn’t handy, at least the Peter I knew wasn’t.

It was all a lie.

"Do you want a tour?" she queries, sprinkling goosepimples across my skin.

I shake my head. "I don't know that I could handle a whole tour, honestly. I just want to forget him..."

"Trust me, I know the feeling. I wish I could set this damned thing on fire."

I want to laugh at her tone, but what lies beneath that playful lilt lances right through me. My chest aches for the both of us.

"How could one man do so much damage?" I murmur.

"Because he was never supposed to exist.”

Thathits me.

He really wasn’t supposed to exist; the product of a one night stand.

"I really am sorry, Wendy,” she whispers after a beat. “I can't explain to you what it's like for me to—"

"It's over now, Tinksley.” I set a hand on her shoulder. “Revisiting it, holding onto it only makes us relive it, and I think we're both just trying to move on, right? For as much as I didn't want to understand you, I think I always did. Could never truly blame you for what was happening when it's Peter who's at the center of it all.”

Once again, I’m met with that soft expression, the corners of her mouth tilting upwards. "You're inspiring, you know that?"

Me? Inspiring? My brow arches curiously.

"You've been through so much here and just look at you." She motions up and down the length of me, forcing me to take a look at myself.

When I glance back up at her, I have only one explanation. "I think I have Tavi to thank for that."

* * *

I wasn’t gone very long,but when I arrive at Soren's, I find Tavi pacing the bedroom. The moment he sees me walk through the door, he's on me, sighing in relief as he pushes me onto the bed and settles himself between my legs, caging me in beneath him. "Jesus Christ, I thought she'd taken you again."

"No,” I laugh softly, combing the longer strands of his hair out of his face. “She kept her word."

"I was worried. Started imagining every worst case scenario possible.”

My heart doubles in size at his confession, quirking the corners of my mouth. "I can tell."

"I didn't go after you because of Soren, just so you know." He drops his forehead to my own. “He was insistent you had it under control and that I should let you handle it.” His tone. He doesn’t sound happy about it, like it took everything in him not to come find me.

Seems impossible, but my heart swells all the more. It never ceases to amaze me how a man like Tavi, the strapping, valiant Alpha, can be so tender, too. "I'll have to thank him."

"What exactly did she want?" He’s suspicious, obviously, but if I know him the way I think I do, he’s about to be more dubious than anything else after my reply.

---