Lacey's Luhpynes [Beyond the Veil 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) by Honor James Page A

felt like it were going to explode. “You don’t want children. Do you want me?” she whispered, the hurt and uncertainty clear in her tone. “Because one day I truly do want children. I want to be able to have a family, have babies. I really do.”
    “Of course I want you, Lacey,” he said quietly. Taking her hand in his he tugged her toward the living room. Sitting in a chair, he pulled her into his lap. “I just never wanted to father children and I never will. I know that hurts you, Lace. Don’t say it doesn’t because I can scent it on you. But I will gladly be there with you and Zhubin as you have your babies. I may never be fully comfortable with a label of dad, but if that’s what it takes to have you in my life then I’ll live.”
    “I want you to be happy, Ansell,” Lacey told him honestly, and with a sigh, moved from him. “I think that, I don’t know what to think.” She didn’t want to force anything on him but it was very clear that he didn’t want to be a father. He didn’t want that type of family and that’s just what she wanted. As much as it hurt her she said, “I need time to think. If you will excuse me, please?” she whispered and stepped outside of the living room and headed off. She needed time. Time alone. She needed to think. A great deal. “I’m not saying no, I just…” She turned around and looked at Ansell once more. “So you don’t want to be father to my children, but I’m asking you. Point blank, how would you feel if a child of mine called you daddy?”
    “It would surprise me since I wasn’t their father,” he said. “But that would be yours and their choice. I won’t lie, Lacey. It will likely freak me the hell out. I may even hyperventilate and require a paper bag. But it’s not the end of the world. When they are older they will be told the full truth, that’s all I ask.”
    “So you wouldn’t want to be the children’s father, even if only by name?” she asked softly. “I’m trying to get this all straight here in my mind. I want to get this all straight. Why wouldn’t you want a child to call you father when you would be their father, if not from genetics then by your tie to me?”
    He shoved a hand through his hair. “I don’t know how to explain this so it makes sense, Lacey. All I know is that I refuse to support a lie of any kind. I wouldn’t be their father and being called such just feels wrong to me. While I would be there to help raise them, protect them and guide them I wouldn’t be their father. So why would they call me that?”
    “So what would they call you instead?” Lacey asked softly. “I want to know. I’m trying very hard to understand everything. So, what would you have children of mine call you? Knowing that we will be sharing the same bed every night?”
    “My name,” he said with a frown. “What else would they call me, Lacey?”
    A throat clearing in the hall behind her made them aware of Zhubin. “I think the point she’s trying to make here is that, while you may not have given them life, you will be raising them, Ansell. Teaching them, helping them and protecting them. That is all that a father does. It’s what my father did for you.”
    “And never once did I call him father even when he requested it. I love him and will always be grateful to him but we are not blood. It is a form of a lie and one not even I could perpetrate for a child.”
    “But how would you be able to tell a small child that’s looking up at you as if you hung the moon and stars that you weren’t his or her daddy if they lifted their hands to you and asked for daddy to pick them up? Ansell, you are an amazing man, you really are, and I want you to share that amazing self with any children that we might have.”
    “I wouldn’t correct a young child, Lacey,” he said through his teeth, clearly frustrated. “I said when they were old enough, the misconception would need to be cleared up. I’d never do anything to harm a