The Sacrifice by Mia McKimmy

tap down his emotions,
which warred between anger and betrayal. “Why would you do this? Why would you
keep her from me?”
    Analae
looked up at him, tears magnifying her eyes. “I didn ’ t
do this to hurt you, Oz. I did it to protect her .”
    “Why? Do you think I would harm my own
child?”
    “ I don’ t think you ’ d harm her intentionally .” Analae ’ s
voice rose an octave and held a hint of defiance. “I wanted a child, and you
had no qualms letting me know how you felt about having a family.”
    “You have never heard me say I did not want a child, Analae. Never!” Oz took a deep
breath. His voice had risen just below a shout.
    Analae
swiped tears from her eyes with the back of her hand. “How many times did you
say nothing meant more to you than being a Protector, and the promise you made
the king before he died. You promised to take care of his family. You never
wanted one of your own. So, do
not come here and judge me
for the hardest decision I ’ ve ever made.”
    Her
voice quivered. “My…my heart
broke every time I looked into our daughter ’ s eyes and told her
another lie about how her father lived and died. But, I had to. I would rather
my heart break than hers. Her longing for a father she had never known was only
a fraction of the pain she would feel when she lost the father she loved more
than life itself.”
    Oz ’ s
breath caught in his throat. The day Analae left, she said she could never be
happy mated to a Protector. It was the only reason he had never looked for her.
Now, after all these years, he finally understood the real reason she ’ d
left. It was her fear that Riana would lose her father, the same way Analae had
lost her own. It wasn ’ t because she was unhappy with him.
    When Analae was young, feeders had
killed her father. Oz had known how deeply she loved and admired him. It was
the reason Analae had become a doctor for the race, because her father had been
one.
    His
resolve weakened as tears flowed down her beautiful face. “Analae,” he said
quietly. “Look at me. There are a few problems with this picture. First, you
have blurred the lines between me dying and leaving my daughter, and your
father dying and leaving you. I know what his death did to you, and for that I ’ m
sorry. If I could change any of it to prevent your pain, I would. But as far as
I know, I ’ m not dead, nor am I dying.”
    “Well
that ’ s only a matter of time,” she blurted.
    Oz
shook his head. “Secondly, as for my promise to the king when he died…well…that
was my fault. If I had guarded him as I should, he would still be alive. I ’ ll
never forgive myself for that mistake.”
    “It
wasn ’ t your fault,” she whispered. “No one could have
saved him.”
    “In
my mind it was. So yes, I will spend the rest of my life trying to honor
the dying wish of my best friend and king. As for being a Protector, that has
been for his honor also. I had known him my whole life. He was the most
compassionate man I ’ d ever met, and it would kill him to know what his
son has done to our people and the humans on this planet.”
    Oz
moved across the room, placed his hands on her shoulders, and looked into her
eyes. “None of that had anything to do with my ability to be a father or my right to know my daughter. I should have told you long ago I wanted a child.
That ’ s the reason you ’ re coming back to the
compound with me, and together, we will tell Riana the truth. The reason I ’ ve
never been a part of her life.”
    Oz ’ s
heart wrenched in his chest as she released a sob. He pulled her into his arms
and held her close. Then he remembered how right it felt, and why the pain of
losing her had never stopped.
    “This
doesn ’ t mean I forgive you,” he whispered into the
softness of her hair.
    “I know,” she whimpered into his
chest.

 

Chapter 7
     
    Riana
stood in the living room by the door and yelled, “Elle, come on. If we don ’ t
get to the lobby before our