Page 105 of The Alpha's Cursed Queen

As soon as my shoulders relax, he swoops in and steals a kiss. My eyes widen and I lift my knee, but he has already jumped out of reach and is grinning at me. “Too slow.”

I pick up the closest thing to me, which happens to be an oven mitt, and throw it at him. It smacks him in the face, and I feel irritated because I know he could have avoided it if he wanted to.

“Feel better?” He looks a little too smug.

“God, you’re annoying,” I mutter under my breath.

Thankfully, he doesn’t get to say anything back because Mira’s bedroom door opens. “Mom?”

I put Mira down for a nap earlier. I did have a conversation with her about a special friend of mine who would be visiting, but I had to be very careful about how much information I gave her. She may be smart, but she’s still a child. I don’t want to mess with her emotional state.

“Mom, where is Mary?” She yawns, rubbing her eyes before coming to a stop when she sees Darian. She stares at him and then dashes past him to hide behind me. Considering how friendly a child she is, I find her behavior strange.

“Mira, this is Darian. He came here all the way from California to meet you.”

Mia clutches my clothes and looks up at me. “He’s the one my ice cream fell on.”

Realization dawns on me, and I chuckle. “Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble. He just wants to get to know you.”

“Why?”

“I told you.” I pick her up in my arms and walk around the island to sit her on one of the stools. “We talked about this, remember? I said a friend of mine was coming to see you.”

“But why?” she asks insistently. “I don’t know him. He’s a stranger. Why does he want to see me?”

Something painful throbs within me, and instinct has me looking over my shoulder to where Darian is standing. He’s no longer smiling. Devastation is written all over his face, his eyes anguished. A stranger. He’s a stranger to his own daughter.

The plan was not to introduce him as her father right off the bat, but maybe I’m being overly cautious. My chest aches as he holds in his grief, struggling not to let it show. Sighing, I walk over to Darian, and taking him by the hand, I pull him over to Mira. “Mira, let me introduce you. This is Darian Kassel, my friend and your father.”

Darian looks at me in shock. “I thought we weren’t—”

I hold up my hand to silence him, studying my daughter’s expression and trying to gauge her reaction.

Mira is silent as she looks at Darian. Both he and I stand there, holding our breath. Then she says, “You’re pretty.”

Darian’s hand tightens around mine, and I glance at him when he lets out a teary laugh. “Your mom used to say the same thing.”

“Are you really my dad?” Mira asks cautiously. “I thought I didn’t have one.”

I feel troubled. “I didn’t know you wondered about your father, Mira. Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

She shrugs, gazing at Darian with unveiled fascination. “My friend has a dad, but he lives far away. He comes to see her sometimes. I thought if I waited, my dad would also come to see me.”

My tongue darts out to wet my lips, my stomach twisting at her innocent words. Why didn’t it occur to me that she might already be missing the father she had never met? I always thought she’d bring him up when she began to wonder about him, but—

“Why’d you come only now?” Mira asks, frowning. “I asked Santa in my letter last year, but you didn’t come.”

Darian exchanges a look with me, and I’m about to accept responsibility when he says, “I wanted to come, but Santa didn’t send me the letter in time. I just got it, so I decided to come visit you.”

“Visit?” Mira asks in a dismayed tone. “You’re not staying? Mama?”

When she looks at me, I feel helpless. “I—He lives somewhere else, Mira. He can’t stay with us.”

“But Janet’s dad stays with her and her mom!”

Mira has never been one of those children who is prone to temper tantrums. But as she grows red in the face, tears welling up in her eyes, I realize she’s about to have one.

“Mira.” I try to calm her down, but her eyes glitter with tears.

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