He leaned back. "The queen started looking for families to adopt him. There was a list a mile long of couples who wanted to add him to their family. I would sleep in the nursery every night and tell him all the wonderful things his new family would do for him. One
day the queen asked me who I thought should receive the baby." He smiled softly. "I told her that he had to go to one of the few families that had a boy because he needed a brother to watch over him."
Izzy felt her heart melt into a puddle in her chest. "That is so sweet. So, who adopted him?"
He grinned down at her. "The queen. She looked at me and said it's a good thing I am adopting both of you, you can be his brother."
Izzy's hands flew to her mouth as tears filled her eyes. "You got to stay with him!"
He nodded. "The queen saw how much I cared for him and knew that no one would adopt me, so she decided the best course of action was to keep us together. She was the best mother two boys could ever dream of having."
"Why wouldn't anyone want you? You're a hero!"
He looked surprised. "You really believe that, don't you?"
"Duh!"
"You don't think that I carry tainted blood?" He pointed to his warm brown eyes. "Hardly any of the fae are born with dark eyes, rumors about me were swirling long before my family's treachery. I carry some serious marks against me. Are you that sure I am not a bad seed destined to be evil?"
She gave him a flat look before busting out laughing. "You? Evil?" she kept laughing.
"You seem so very sure I'm not."
"You may be a lot of things, but evil certainly isn't one of them. You are one thousand percent marshmallow fluff." Izzy knew without a shadow of a doubt that the man who held her so carefully could never be evil. The little boy who would go against his family to save a baby could never be tainted. Maybe Fate knew what they were doing after all because he was quickly becoming everything she had ever looked for in a husband.
"Fluff, huh?"
"Yup," she paused. "Wait, is that why people will treat me differently because they think you're evil?" He nodded. "I need Meryn to show me how she electrocutes people because the first asshole to talk bad about you, is going down."
He blinked down at her. "I understand Aiden a bit more now. From an outside perspective that must sound horribly violent, but as you are defending me, I think that has to be the sexiest thing I have ever heard."
"You think I'm sexy?"
"Absolutely."
"Is it just because we're mates? Have you been brainwashed to like me?"
He rubbed their noses together. "No, being mates is not like being brainwashed. It's more like feeling as if you're a complex jagged crystal. You go through life thinking that it's a smart way to be. You have sharp edges that help protect you, but it's a lonely existence. Then one day you find another crystal whose serrated edges align perfectly with yours. You experience this odd feeling of coming home, and you're fascinated to discover all the tiny ways you fit together."
Izzy felt tears fill her eyes. "We fit?"
He leaned down and pressed their foreheads together. "I think we're perfect for one another. You need a bit of stability and I need to be shaken up. I've lived my entire life trying to please everyone out of guilt. I think I've lost of bits of myself in the process."
"Maybe you didn't lose yourself, maybe Fate or whoever gave me your pieces for safe keeping."
"If I weren't already half in love with you, that alone would do it."
"How can you be half in love with me? We just met."
He sat back. "Yes, but I've been dreaming of you for weeks."
Izzy thought back to her recent dreams, how she hated waking because in her dreams she felt someone standing behind her, watching over her, and protecting her. "It was you!" she said excitedly, turning so that she now knelt between his legs. "I never saw your face, but I knew that no matter what was going on, you'd protect me."
Oron nodded. "I have a lifetime of experience looking after a little brother, I feel confident I can pull you out of your scrapes."
"Did you see the dream about the cracked car windshield?" He nodded. "The shaved dog?" He snorted then bobbed his head. "My attempt at creating a baking sheet sized cookie?" He frowned. "That was the first fire right."
She gave him a sour look. "My 'first' fire was when I was like three."