Page 90 of Simon

Goddess, had he succumbed to some sort of Wood fever?

“I think you might be sick.” I patted his shoulder. “Let me get some tea for you or something.”

I turned my back and walked toward the entrance of the tent as Father stopped laughing. “Wait, wait, come back.” He waved his hand over. “I know my skin is different. Everything is different, but for good reason.”

I eyed him warily and came closer to him. He waved me closer, and I sat on my knees next to him. “You were out for days. Everyone was so worried. They came and found me and—”

Father huffed and grabbed both of my hands in his. “Lucy, everything is fine.” He patted my hand. “Everything is more than fine.”

That’s what people say when they become sick with a disease, then the next day they are dead or dying. I’d witnessed it myself, and so had Father.

I opened my mouth to argue, and he cut me off again. “I have a mate, Lucy!”

My jaw dropped, leaving me speechless.

He got a mate… at his age? Well, he didn’t look his age anymore. He looked as young as me.

“I… I… what?” I asked breathlessly. “You have a mate? Where is she?”

Father chuckled and let go of my hands. He stood up, showing off his old man pants of tan and yellow plaid that he always loved.

When I saw his back, beautiful designs completely covered it.

“Are you sick? Did you sell your soul to Hades?!” My mind was reeling with a different hypothesis of what could make his body look like that.

Father laughed again, a full belly laugh I hadn’t heard since I was a child. He kneeled next to me and brushed his thumb over my cheek.

“This is how my mate marked me. This is his signature, his hand over my heart, and the brand of his coven on my back.”

My brain shut off. Not because he was mated to a guy, but because a coven could mean two things.

Vampire or warlock. Vampires bit and drank their mate's blood to complete the mate bond, so that only left the former.

I think I was more surprised with this than I was with Simon being my mate. My dad was mated!

“Well, where is he?” I demanded. “He left you alone, asleep for days!”

Father shook his head and stood up. “He visits me in the night. There is still hatred for their kind. My mate is very private. We have been seeing each other since I began my travels here.”

That wasn’t very long ago, a little over a week.

“You guys sealed the deal after only a week and a half?” I blurted. “You didn’t calculate anything, just went in blind and mated with him? He could be evil!”

Father’s brows narrowed. “And that is why he is private. A lot of warlocks have had poor reputations here since the war. Witches seem to get leniency. Rune visited me in the evenings, every single one. We stayed up all night, and I would work little during the day. When Sugha sent a message that you had found your mate, I knew you would be in excellent hands after experiencing this bond everyone raves about.”

My shoulders slumped. What the hell just happened?

“And you are official now?” I waved my hand up and down his torso. It wasn’t flabby, overweight, or even old and wrinkly. He was a lean, buff guy now. “The bonding made you into this?”

Father nodded. “Yes, it appears so. I used to look like this before you, you know.” He winked. “I woke up a few hours agoand wrote down my findings for future reference. It’s normal here to change, to become younger and healthier. I checked through the text just to be sure, but what I went through is completely normal. Rune even said I would change, though I hardly believed it.” Father sighed dreamily.

“I will live like an immortal. Until fatally wounded or poisoned. You die when your mate dies because a soul cannot live without the other.” Father picked up his notebook and began to write.

“They said you slept for days.”

Father picked up his pencil in thought. “Yes, I was out for a few days after I was bonded. Again, completely normal. It takes time for his supernatural genetics to latch onto my DNA. It is to make me more like him, so our bodies are more compatible. Humans are the perfect specimens; we are a blank canvas. I will soon gain his power as well. Learn to wield it, use it just like him.”

Mind. Blown.

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