She sat back on his thigh and held her hand up. “Um… see, I told them all the time. I said my daddy would come. And he would take me home. I said that… I had the biggest daddy of any daddy. Of all daddies.” She played with her ear. “And they said. They said I didn’t have no daddy. That you would never come for me ’cause you don’t exist.” She held her arm up to show him a bruise where someone had pinched her. “They said I was lying. But I didn’t lie. I said you would come. And you did! And my daddy’s the biggest of all!” She looked over at Fain then back at Hauk several times. “Okay, almost biggest.”

He cradled her against his chest. “I can’t wait to put you in your mother’s arms. But be warned. She might never let you go.”

“That okay. Kalea don’t mind. I’m just glad my daddy finally came like I knew you would.”

Fain reached out and placed his hand on Hauk’s forearm. “You have a beautiful daughter, Dancer.”

Kalea gasped. “You a dancer, Daddy?”

Laughing, Hauk shook his head. “Afraid not. But…” He turned her around in his lap to see Nykyrian and pointed to him. “Uncle Nyk is married to your Aunt Kiara. And she is a very, very famous dancer.”

“Really? Could she show me how?”

“Absolutely,” Nykyrian said. “She loves to teach little girls how to dance. She has her own dance school.”

Wide-eyed, she tilted her head back to look up at Hauk. “I can go dance school?”

“Lee-lee, you can have anything you want.”

“Anything?” she repeated in disbelief.

“Anything.”

“Can I touch your hair, Daddy?”

“Of course.”

Biting her lip, she stood up. Hauk expected her to touch his braids. Instead, she raked her fingers through his goatee and mustache. Then she placed her hand against her own face. “Can I have one those?”

He laughed. “I can’t do that, Lee-lee. They don’t grow on girls.”

“Oh.” She pulled his lip up so that she could see his fangs. “Why are your teeth long? Do they hurt?”

“No. They’re just like yours, only bigger. I’m an Andarion and we have longer teeth than humans.”

“Will my teeth grow long?”

“No.”

“Oh… Will my eyes glow red?”

“No, sweetie. You have beautiful eyes just like your mother’s. They’re human.”

She pressed her hand against his. “Will I grow big like you, Daddy?”

“Probably not. But I don’t know for sure.”

When she opened her mouth to ask more, he looked over to Nykyrian. “How long do they do this?”

“Do what? Ask questions?”

“Yeah.”

They all burst into laughter. Shahara patted him on the shoulder. “Sweetie, your days of having an uninterrupted conversation are over.”

“What’s ‘conversation’ mean, Daddy?”

Sighing, he pressed his head against hers and laughed, too.