For now.
I grinned, burying my own deep inside me, just like I used to with the cat, locking it all in a fucking box before calling Riella to come back inside.
It was time for another show down with my in-laws, and this time I would be fucking ready and I would get the answers my family needed.
***
Dinner was a fucking affair that I would have expected for an entire court, not for our party of six.
I glanced at it with mild disgust, never a fan of such finery. To say that Eve had outdone herself was an understatement. The table upon which I wanted to feast on my soulmate was surrounded by cloud chairs that floated above a balcony extending into the cosmos, providing the sweetest, softest mood lighting within this twilight world. Even the stardust was somehow directed to arch around us by an invisible barrier, and encased us in a sparkling curtain that was simply impressive.
None of it compared, however, to my soulmate sitting next to me. Remnant’s not so discreet gaze roamed over my bare skin, and I shifted in my seat beside her. Her wandering emerald eyes were like an exquisite fire—a hot sear that did not burn but whispered promises of sweet seductive pleasure that you could barely hold back from.
Ever since I had kissed her in the tower and left her needing, her looks of longing had only intensified. The urge to snatch her from the delicate cloud she sat upon and devour her the way her eyes were begging me to was so fucking strong my arms strained at holding back.
I leaned into my soulmate, my nostrils flaring as I fell into a cloud of her unique scent of lilies and night, purring huskily, "Eye fucking me isn't going to get us the answers we seek, little umbra, but just say the word and I will whisk you back to our tower where you can do more than just look."
Licking her bottom lip, I watched the blush form across her fine porcelain skin. The fact that she even paused had me to the point of breaking, fuck this dinner shit.
"If you remember correctly, shifter, I didn’t even want to come here tonight but you thought it to be agood idea.” Her eyes sparkled, “Alas, I'll just have to make do with looking," she murmured softly.
A slow smile spread across my face, before I leaned back, lengthening my large frame and stretching my legs in front of me, her roaming gaze setting my body on fire again—pure male satisfaction had me purring in my seat. "Whatever my little soulmate needs, my little soulmate will get."
"Gross. My ears may not be like a shifters but some things I do still hear," Remnant's brother gagged from across the table.
Smirking back, I watched as Kade fell into the dutiful role of uncle. The moment we arrived here had been…tension-filled to put it lightly but Riella’s bright enthusiasm for the vast array of new foods laid out before us was more than enough to set our differences aside—for now. Besides, it seemed Kade was enjoying his new role.
"What is that called?" Riella pointed at the large centerpiece of chocolate cake decorated with mouth watering raspberries that I had been covertly eyeing since we sat down myself. It was the only thing here that I even remotely came close to wanting to eat if it wasn’t going to be my soulmate.
"That is called chocolate cake, it is sweet and slightly bitter, with hints of spice, and the fruit on top is also sweet but tart," Kade explained to her while slicing a small piece to put on her plate.
She looked up at him eagerly. "Do you think I will like it?"
Kade laughed and tapped Riella's nose, smiling wide. "Judging by the way you eat stardust my niece, I think you will like it well enough."
I chuckled silently. Watching my daughter had become my second favorite pastime. The first was so easily denied recently by my soulmate that I had to make do with seconds. I gave the fitted black shorts Remnant wore a longing side glance—knowing she picked them in retaliation for leaving her full of desire in the tower.
Swallowing down a torturous groan, I refocused on Riella, leaning forward, eager to watch her take her first bite of chocolate cake. She had already proven to have a sweet tooth with her most recent stardust addiction, and she was our daughter after all.
Rotating the plate one way then back, she assessed the best attack for this newfound food. Then throwing all hesitancies straight off the very balcony we sat upon, she scooped up the chocolate cake and shoved the entire piece into her mouth.
I grinned. Definitely our daughter.
Her eyes grew wide and her mouth opened with awe, displaying the half eaten piece of cake for everyone. "Can I have another?!"
Kade roared with laughter.
My soulmate laughed alongside him and I relished the sound, fully loving the way my daughter's cheeks puffed widely out to the side when she closed her mouth to voraciously chew and swallow.
Leaning sideways, I mouthed from the corner of my smiling lips to Remnant, "This looks familiar."
"Indeed." Eve replied, materializing from the darkness beside us with a bottle of ambrosia in hand. Stepping between my soulmate and I, she glanced down at me before she poured the pink drink into the fine crystal glasses. "That was exactly how Remnant was at Riella's age, always stuffing her face full of treats." Pouring her daughter’s glass, her eyes softened, “I am thankful you decided to come, my little chickadee. I know it was not easy and that you have many questions,” she glanced at me, “I will do my best to answer them.”
“Thank you, Eve.” I nodded to her and she gave me a small smile back before moving away from us to sit at the head of the table, where a second cloud-chair sat unoccupied.
I could no longer hold back the burning question escaping my lips, staring at my soulmate’s profile. "Is this where your obsession with chocolate comes from then, little umbra. Because, I haven't forgotten, you never did answer me that day in the garden." That moment would stay with me forever, it was the first time she had voluntarily been vulnerable with me, sharing her demons as I shared mine, something we did again today.
Her emerald gaze turned on me, her long dark hair falling over her shoulder as she rested her chin in her hands with her elbows propped on the table, her scrolling tattoos beckoning me.
