Dad. The word melted him on the inside. Oh, he knew she wasn’t telling the story right; Ares and Than would have called him Reaver. But Limos had made the switch, and he knew she wasn’t going back.
That was even cooler than the Radiant thing.
“I never wanted to leave you,” he said, leaving it at that. He gestured to Harvester. “Harvester has something for you.”
Limos loved presents, and behind the lingering sorrow in her eyes, a spark lit. “What is it?”
Harvester held out her hand. “Come here.”
Thousands of years of distrust sat heavily in the space between them, and Limos hesitated. Reaver didn’t blame her for that, and when she shot him a questioning glance, he nodded, hoping this would be the first step toward a fresh start.
Warily, Limos lay her palm in Harvester’s. Reaver took Limos’s other hand and summoned his power.
Worry etched deep lines in Arik’s face as he moved behind Limos and gripped her shoulders protectively. “What’s going on?”
“Shh.” Harvester produced a cloudy marble and very gently pressed it against Limos’s abdomen. “Close your eyes.”
A low-pitched hum filled the room, and Reaver’s energy flowed in a hot stream into Limos, where it twined with Harvester’s into a massive, undulating ribbon of power. The life Harvester had been carrying in the little marble settled inside Limos’s womb, and under Harvester’s hand, Limos’s belly began to swell.
Harvester smiled, her genuine delight in returning Limos and Arik’s child to them radiating in an angelic aura all around her. It was just as he remembered her so long ago, and his heart tripped all over itself.
As if she knew he was watching, she cut him a glance that was nothing like he remembered from Verrine. No, the wicked gleam in Harvester’s eyes promised the exact opposite of angelic, and he flushed hot. He couldn’t wait to get her alone. Couldn’t wait to start making up for five thousand years apart.
Limos gasped as Harvester cut off her power and stepped back. “Do you want to know if it’s a girl or a boy?”
Arik, looking poleaxed, stared at Limos, who was staring at her belly. “What just happened?”
“Your baby didn’t die when Lorelia punished Limos,” Harvester explained. “She stole it as part of a plan to destroy Lucifer. Only a Watcher could replace it, and only with a very powerful angel’s help. So… you have your baby back—oof !”
Harvester broke off as Limos tackled her in a huge hug. “Thank you, thank you… oh my god, thank you!” Limos hit Reaver next, throwing herself into his arms and squeezing the breath out of him. Arik got the final embrace, knocking him off his feet so the two of them tumbled onto the couch in a tangle of limbs, laughter, and kisses.
“I think it’s time for us to go,” Harvester murmured.
“Hell, no!” Limos popped up, but she didn’t release Arik. “We’ll call my brothers and all our friends and have a big f**king party.”
“Maybe,” Reaver suggested, as he turned to Harvester and took her hand, “we could make it a mating ceremony, too.”
Harvester inhaled sharply. “I… ah…”
Ah, damn. Reaver might be a gazillion years old, but he hadn’t learned a thing about females in all that time, had he?
“Wait,” he blurted. “Don’t say anything. Hear me out.” He sucked in a bracing breath and went for it. “I remember me. And you. I remember us.” Closing his eyes, he took himself back in time, to a place where he and Verrine had shared their first kiss. “I wanted you, but I wasn’t ready for you. I was young, impulsive. Full of piss and vinegar and way too much power.” Metatron had been right to seal his abilities. Reaver had been irresponsible and indestructible, and eventually, he’d have become corrupted by his own arrogance.
He opened his eyes and caught Limos and Arik trying to make a silent getaway. “No,” he said. “Stay. You should hear this, too.”
Arik looked like he wanted to get the hell out of there, like he’d walked in on something intimate he shouldn’t see or hear, but Limos perked up.
“I remember being with Lilith and how stupid I felt later when I learned she was a succubus. My pride wouldn’t let me let it go.” He took Harvester’s hand. “I neglected you and our friendship for decades. While you were out scouring the globe for my children, I was too self-absorbed to notice how busy you were.” His heart pounded as the worst time of his life rolled through his head in a wave of fresh images. “Heaven was abuzz about these three men and a woman who were marshaling armies of humans together to destroy demons. It was the biggest thing to happen since Satan’s rebellion. When I learned that those four people were my children and that you knew all along…”
“I know.” Her nails dug into his palms. “You don’t have to say anything more.”
“I do,” he insisted. “I do and you know it.” He blew out a breath, ready to spill the rest, even if it cost him the female he loved. “I hated you. I hated you more than I hated Lilith.”
But even though he’d been out of his mind with rage, the thought of killing her hadn’t occurred to him. On some level, he’d still wanted her, even if he’d also wanted to hurt her the way she’d hurt him.
“So I told you I’d forgiven you, and I seduced you.” Crushing pain compressed his chest, the weight of a lifetime of shame.
Heavenly sunlight shone down into Verrine’s frilly, open-air bedroom, warming Yenrieth’s back as he panted through an orgasm he’d tried to hold back. Verrine had screamed or moaned through at least three, which had been the plan. His cl**ax had not been in the plan, and his anger scorched his throat with every breath.
The instant it was over, he rolled off her, leaving her in a messy sprawl on her bed. He dressed while she watched him with drowsy eyes. When she sat up and discovered the blood on the sheets, she scrambled to hide it, and her embarrassment.
“What’s the matter?” he asked. “Ashamed?”
“No.” She wrapped a blanket around her na**d body. “Of course not.”
Ice filled the hole she’d drilled in his heart with her lies. “You should be.”
She blinked, her emerald eyes shifting from drowsy to confused. “W-what?”
“Virginity isn’t something to be given over lightly.”
“You think I did this lightly?” She tugged the blanket more securely around her, as if the cold in his body was radiating outward. Maybe it was. “I’ve wanted you for decades. I saved myself for you.”
“You shouldn’t have.” He leaned in close, taking pleasure in how quickly she paled. “I despise you.” Snarling, he ripped the blanket away and left her exposed and vulnerable, the way she’d left him when she’d admitted to knowing about his children. “You took my sons and daughter away from me, so I took something from you.”
Her mouth worked silently. “I—I… Yenrieth, we’ve been over this. I thought you understood. I did it for you.”
“You did it for me? You kept my children away from me for decades to what? To help me?” His voice was at a low roar now, and all around him, the building trembled. “They grew up without me! Limos was raised in hell, Reseph was raised by a wench who is undeserving of raising a puppy, let alone a child, and Ares was beaten until he lost all compassion. Because of you.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks as she grabbed for him, but he stepped aside, unable to bear her touch. Just looking at her was hard enough. “Please… you have to understand—”
“Understand?” he bellowed. “Understand this, Verrine. I’ve f**ked demons who were less disgusting than you.”
The memory knocked Reaver back a step, made him wobble, and Harvester caught him. She’d always caught him. He’d just been too much of an a**hole to realize it.
“I’m sorry, Verrine,” he whispered. He knew it was Harvester in front of him and not the innocent young angel she used to be. But he’d never apologized to that trusting angel. And after what he’d just remembered, he knew no apology would be enough. “I’m so sorry. You didn’t deserve that. Yenrieth was a dick. I was a dick. I don’t deserve you, and if you can’t accept my apology, I understand. But I’ll never stop trying to make it up to you.”
“I forgive you.” Harvester’s voice cracked. “And I should have told you about your children.”
“No.” He shook his head. “No, you were right not to. We can play the what-if game for a century, but what it comes down to is that we can’t know what would have happened if you had. But I can almost guarantee that it wouldn’t have been anything good. You did what you thought was right, and that’s all that matters. You were right. I was wrong. So very wrong.”
“So,” she said, in a voice that was as shaky as his emotions, “you’re saying you remember everything, and you’re still sorry, and you still want to have a mating ceremony?”
With all his heart. “If you’ll have me. Someday when you’re ready. If you’re ready. I’ll always be here for you. I’ll wait as long as it takes.” He locked his eyes with hers. “You were always the one.”
For several agonizing moments, Harvester said nothing, and Reaver began to sweat. He might be one of the most powerful beings in existence, but all the power in the universe wouldn’t make Harvester budge if she didn’t want to do something. Like mate him.
Finally, Harvester lifted her chin in that muley way that drove him mad. “I’m not getting mated in any absurd formal angel ceremony.”
He suppressed a smile. “I’m fine with that.”
She sniffed. “And I won’t wear a ridiculous gown.”
“Agreed.” She’d be about as comfortable in a gown as a nun would be in a brothel.