Page 52 of Their Princess

My lips twitched as I fought a smirk against the outrage of Dhun’s that we might think his daughter wasn’t cuter than he’d been. He was a silly and proud dad and I loved that about him.

“Are you certain of this?” I asked once more.

Dhun immediately nodded. “Kora is very excited about her assignment and ability to learn from you all.”

It would be nice for Elrith to have a friend at his side, someone who could protect him and support him at school where we wouldn’t be able to go.

“We thank you for providing a guard for Elrith,” I said and dipped my head.

Dhun stood and scowled at me. “Do not bow your head to me, Princess. I may be pack leader, but you far outrank me. Now, I will add that I plan to visit her once a month. Even though we can communicate mentally –”

“Nothing mental can change the comfort of physically being with a loved one and holding them in your arms,” I said and smiled. “I also love knowing I’ll get to see you frequently despite your new role. I feared you might be too busy for us now.”

Dhun smiled softly and said, “I am always one summon away for you, Princess.” One of the hellhounds yipped, drawing Dhun’s attention. He nodded at them before turning back to us. “I must go, pressing matters to attend to, but I will be in contact soon.” He pulled me into a hug and exhaled loudly. “I will see you soon.”

I patted his back and said, “See you soon, friend.”

He shifted into hellhound form, licked the side of Kora’s face, and trotted away, his pack following him.

Kora whined softly once.

Elrith set a hand on her head between her ears and said, “It’s okay, he’ll be back to see you soon. Why don’t we go play?”

Kora yipped and jumped around.

Elrith giggled and ran into the house, Kora on his heels.

“Not the first guard I’d thought to assign him, but reminds me of you,” Trey said.

I looked up at him with a frown. “Of me?”

“Mason assigned himself as your guard when we were kids, so this is sort of like that,” he replied and smiled down at me. “Elrith gets a hellhound while you had a raven.”

“He’s not wrong,” Mason mumbled and wrapped his arms around my waist from behind, pressing a kiss to the side of my head. “And I’ll be your guard until one of us dies.”

“No one’s dying,” I snapped, and gripped one of the arms wrapped around me.

He rubbed his head against mine and said, “Easy, Lily.”

Sighing, I rested my head against his shoulder. “Sorry.”

Even though I knew I was safer here, my instincts were still on edge from all of the previous instances of trauma in the other world.

“Let’s go inside and make sure the kids aren’t destroying everything,” Kayden said and pulled me away from Mason to tuck me beneath his arm as we walked inside. “We’ll have to figure out what Kora likes to eat and?—”

I’d been looking up at him, but when he stopped talking, mouth hung open as he stared ahead, I turned in that direction as well.

Elrith sat on the floor cross-legged, building something out of blocks and across from him sat an adorable little girl, about his age, with blonde hair that had blonde quills mixed among the strands.

“Looks like she gained powers from her father after he gained his new mantle,” Trey commented.

“Guess we’ll be registering two children into school here, not just one,” Mason said and squatted down next to the two. “Hello, Kora. Can you tell us if there are certain foods you like and ones you don’t like?”

“Meat! I like meat!” she shouted in a high-pitched voice with a huge smile on her face.

“What about what you don’t like?” Mason asked again.

“Vegetables! No vegetables!”

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