“If you do not bring me the sword,” the Fae said, “the Shifter you’ve claimed as your lover could die.”

“So you say.” Interesting choice of words, the Shifter you’ve claimed as your lover. Andrea claiming Sean, not the other way around. “Why should I believe you? You’re Fae. Fae created Shifters, Shifters freed themselves from Fae, and now Fae hate Shifters. Tell me, why on earth should I believe that giving you the Sword of the Guardian would be a smart thing to do?”

His gray eyes went fierce. “Because I am Fionn Cillian, and what kind of honor would I have to lie to my own daughter? My own men would flay me alive, and I would deserve it.”

The words came with such force that Andrea almost believed him. She folded her arms. “Sorry, never heard of you.”

“This place has made you ignorant, including ignorant of what you are.”

“You’re not answering the questions. All right, we have your name; now, let’s continue. Why do you keep saying you are my father, and why do you really want the sword?”

“I say I am your father because I am. Your mother was Dina Stewart, a wolf Shifter I met one night, in the wild, when the moon was full. The way between Faerie and this world had weakened, and I saw her in a clearing in dark woods. She had just shifted from her wolf, rising tall and naked in the moonlight. She was the most beautiful creature I’d ever beheld.” His voice softened as he spoke, his gaze going remote.

Andrea swallowed. “I barely remember my mother.”

“You look like her, Andrea. She had the same dark hair, the same gray eyes, the same stubborn tilt of the chin.” Fionn’s arrogance left him as he looked directly at Andrea. “When you stand there defying me, you sound just like her too.”

She wanted to believe him. Andrea wanted to be with someone who’d known her mother, who could share memories of her, as she did with her stepfather. She needed that so much that she wondered whether this Fae had sensed her need and was playing on her emotions.

“Why are you here?” Andrea asked in a hard voice.

“I am Fionn Cillian, head of the Cillian clan, warriors of Faerie.”

“You said that already.”

His look turned sharp. “You demand explanations, and now I am explaining. My clan is the chosen of the emperor. We are his guards, his fighters, his military advisors. It is said that whoever protects the emperor controls the realm of Faerie.”

“And your clan protects him?” Andrea’s brows rose. “And you’re the head of the clan? Are you saying that you control the realm of Faerie?”

“I do.” It was a quiet statement, flat and without boasting.

“No wonder you’re so full of yourself,” Andrea said. “But if you’re this bad-ass warrior-protector for the emperor, when did you have time to meet and have an affair with my mother?”

“It happened when we were at war. Battles raged all across Faerie, clans fighting clans for control of the empire. I found myself cut off and alone in a wild place but discovered a way to the human world. The gate opened, and I startled a she-wolf who’d come to the woods for solitude. She wasn’t exactly glad to see me, but I stood before her, transfixed. I fell in love with her on the spot.”

“Except that Fae despise Shifters. We were bred to be your fighters, and you consider us no better than animals.”

Fionn gave her a derisive look. “Shifters were bred well before my time, and the Shifter-Fae war happened before I was born. I’m not that old. I’d never seen a Shifter before. She was my first.”

“So you saw each other, and it was instant love?” Andrea couldn’t keep the skepticism from her voice.

“Not on her part. I had to beg her to pull me through the gate to save my life. She did that—pitying the wreck that was me, I suppose—then I had to follow her about for a long time before she’d even let me near her. And then ...” Fionn swept his hand in front of him, palm up. “What we had was beautiful. And now, at last, I can see what came of our love.”

Andrea cocked her head to study him, but her heart was hammering. “I believe that you were probably good at persistence, plus you’re not bad looking, for a past-it Fae. But I’m not a complete idiot. Any Fae could pop out here on this ley line and pull a Darth Vader on me.”

“Pull a what?”

“Andrea, I am your father. It’s not as though your name is on my birth certificate or we can do a paternity test.” Andrea paused. “Although, to be fair, he really was Luke’s father.”

Fionn looked puzzled—as puzzled as an impossibly tall warrior in chain mail could look. “I do not understand these words. Your world is confusing to me.”

“As yours is to me. How do you even speak English?”

“I knew a little from academic studies on Earth languages, which are required curriculum. Your mother taught me much more. I studied on my own after that, so that when I saw you again, I could communicate well with you.”

“When you saw me? Not if?”

“I always planned to find you when I could. I have been watching you, waiting until it was safe.”

Andrea’s anger boiled out of her. “Watching me? What the hell? If you really were my father, and really were watching me, why didn’t you burst in and stop all the bad things that happened to me? Where were you when the pack leaders wanted my stepfather to strangle me at birth? How about when my mother died? Or when I was shunned for most of my life? How about when Jared tried to force a mate-claim, with the entire Shiftertown to back him up? And when Jared went on to stalk me and terrorize me? Tell me, Daddy Dearest, where the hell were you then?”

“Hiding you. Keeping you from my enemies.”

Andrea’s words faltered. “What?”

“Daughter, when the Fae wage war, it’s brutal and ruthless. I am the head of my clan. If the leader of my rivals knew I’d fallen in love with a Shifter, that I’d sired a child on her, your life and hers wouldn’t have been worth a breath. The other leader wanted to win at any price, and you would have been part of that price. He slaughtered half my men, almost all of my Fae family. Dina died here in this harsh world from illness when she tried to have a Shifter child, and I didn’t dare go to her for fear my rival would find you. You were all I had left. When I say I watched you in secret, I mean I kept it secret from everyone. Which means it had to be a secret even from you.”