Page 21 of Eternal

“I don’t understand.”

“I met him at the deserted building in Lemonville Springs when I moved there, to get away from my own past. He said that you were better off thinking he was dead. It was safer for you. Some crazy gut feeling tells me that telling you that he’s alive is dangerous, for both of you. I know there’s a degree of politics involved and… Farren, the last time I saw your dad he told me to tell you he loved you. He told me that when I see you, I was to tell you he loves you.”

“Who are you exactly?”

Her temples throbbed and threatened to burst her head in two.

“Your father injected me with a serum that… that turned me into an omega. He said it was his last bit, and I think he knew that when he did that when he injected me, I would automatically be able to find you. Farren, he was right somehow.” Gracen leaned forward and took both of Farren’s hands in hers.

Tears dripped down Farren’s face. She appreciated the comforting warmth of Gracen’s hands on her chilled ones.

“He’s alive?”

“He was the last time we spoke. And I have a feeling he’s still alive.” She smiled again, her own eyes sparkling with tears.

Farren nodded then frowned. Her ice-cold hands started to heat up. Drastically. It was almost as if Gracen’s hands had turned into a cradle of fire. What was happening to her?

“Farren, are you all right?”

“No… I…” She snatched her hands away from Gracen’s and brought her knuckles to her face. Her hands were still as hot as coals.

“I have to go. My flight. I’m so sorry. But please, will you call me if you need anything. If I can help with anything. Anything at all.”

Shaking her head to ward off the strange feeling in her extremities, Farren nodded.

“Thank you, Gracen. For coming all this way to tell me about my dad. Thank you.”

Gracen bit her lip. She looked as if she were going to hug Farren, but stopped. Maybe because she remembered the abrupt way in which Farren had pulled her hands away.

Gracen nodded one more time than left.

Releasing a breath that seemed to be strangling her since the moment Gracen mentioned her father, Farren give up and allowed herself to hyperventilate.

Her father was still alive. If he was alive seven weeks ago then surely he was still alive now. He hadn’t forgotten her. He had injected Gracen with a serum only so she could pass on a message to his daughter. He loved her.

A thirst that seemed unquenchable settled in her throat. She picked up her glass, eager for the coolness of the drink it contained. But the instant she wrapped her fingers around it, the crystal melted into a puddle on the table.

She sprang up from the chair, horrified that she was able to do that. But it was the question of how she possessed that capability, that made her shiver with apprehension.

She knew the change she had undergone when she had transcended into the role of an omega. But this was different. This made her feel… dangerous and uncaring.

Oh, God.

What else could be happening to her? Had Gracen given her something? She immediately squashed that thought. If Gracen had given her anything nefarious, she had done so unknowingly.

Panicked and worried, Farren started to pace the terracotta tiles on the floor of the porch. A rising feeling of rage filled her. She couldn’t understand where it was coming from and why.

Her breaths coming out in long hard pants, she dropped her hands onto the cast-iron table for support and told herself to calm down. To count to ten. To breathe. But nothing helped.

She needed help. She needed her alphas.

Dad.

“Dad,” she whispered. And suddenly with zero doubt, she knew her father was here. Close. She could smell him. Feel him.

Chapter Nine

As if she were having an out of body experience, her real self now levitating in the air over the body that had a mind of its own, Farren watched herself stalk into the house, turning her head this way and that way until she found the source of the scent that was her father.

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