"I'm adopted," I said brokenly, barely able to force the words past the emotion choking my throat.

Loki pulled me onto his lap and into his arms, holding me gently as he kissed my forehead. "Yes, love. They aren't your genetic relatives."

Nausea churned in my belly and the burning heat intensified behind my eyes. Who was I? Did I know anymore?

A sob escaped, even as I tried to bite it back. My family wasn't even my family? Unable to hold them at bay, tears filled my eyes, overflowing down my cheeks to soak my shirt. I burrowed my head into Loki's chest, and his arms tightened around me, his hands stroking my hair and down my spine. The sorrow in my heart was a pulsing, gaping hole. I don't belong anywhere now, not as a scientist... nowhere. My birth family didn't want me. They didn't want me. They threw me away. A tremor of pain shuddered through me. Why?

Was this why my sister acted like she hated me sometimes? Had I just missed all the clues? Where did I come from? Who were my parents? How did I end up here?

"Sweetheart, don't do this to yourself." Loki tipped my chin up with a finger so our eyes met. "Don't think about your birth parents, and why they gave you up. Think about the positive. You need to remember your mom and dad chose you to be part of their family. They wanted you and chose you. There is so much more to the making of a family. It's all the little things, all the shared experiences, care, and love over the years."

Looking up into his brilliant green eyes, that yes, I had desperately missed even when I didn't want to admit it, I nodded. "I know you are right. It hurts though, Loki. God, it hurts. In thirty-five years, they couldn't find a time to tell me?" I swiped my fingers over my eyes to clear my watery vision.

His mouth twisted with a wry half smile. "I know, darling. Mine didn't tell me in the hundreds of years they could have. It was an accident I found out I'd been Frigga's sister's child, not her own."

I reached a hand up to cup his cheek, and he turned to place a gentle kiss on my palm, the contact tingling up my arm. He really did understand. It made the pain ease, calming me. I closed my eyes and relaxed into him, listening to his heartbeat as he slowly rocked the swing back and forth.

My voice was quiet when I finally broke the peaceful silence. "I like your mom. She's pretty great."

Loki smiled, eyes lighting up. "You met my mother? Yeah, she is, isn't she. Just remember that families don't have to mean blood. Some families are just chance genetic relations, other are choices about who we choose to include. Don't underestimate the importance of being chosen to be part of a family. Don't throw that away, or dismiss it. It took me time to deal with the news myself. I didn't react very well when I first found out I was adopted. But to be honest, Frigga is everything I would have ever asked for in a mother."

"Do you think my mom knows who my birth parents are?" I couldn't help but wonder.

"I don't know, but we'll ask her when she wakes from the effects of the mead. You said Aos Sí?"

"That's what the healer on Asgard told me."

"I'd like to hear that story, as well as how you met my mother, but something you need to understand about the Tuatha De Danann is they are notorious for stealing Midgardian babies and replacing them with Sidhe babies or changelings. Odin put a stop to that a couple millennia ago when the Sidhe were kicked out of Midgard by the forces of Asgard, due to their abuses of mortals. But that doesn't mean they don't still sneak into Midgard. Your mother may not be aware she isn't your birth mother. Don't judge her too harshly."

"I never thought of that," I murmured.

Loki kissed my palm again, holding my hand to his face. I found my fingers tracing over his soft lips. He nipped one fingertip with his teeth, and I couldn't help but smile, despite my distress. That playful side of him could never be repressed for long.

"I missed you," I told him, as I opened the mental connection between us for the first time in months, the warmth of it flooding through me, filling me with his presence.

He gave me a wicked smirk. "I know."

A laugh bubbled out of me, surprising me. "I'm not your Princess Leia."

His smile widened. "No, you're my goddess. My soulmate."

With the bond open between us, I sensed his joy, acceptance, and even... more I wasn't quite ready to label. I wondered if he felt my confusion and uncertainty all mixed in with the desire I couldn't hide.

Loki tilted his head down to lightly brush my lips with his before he pulled back, our eyes connecting.

Holding my gaze, I couldn't look away.

Slowly lowering his head again, another feather-light kiss just caressed my lips.

My eyes closing as I sank into the tenderness of it and he kissed both sides of my mouth, before running his tongue lightly over my bottom lip.

Reaching my hand up into his silky hair, I scraped my nails along his scalp, smiling into his light kisses as he moaned. Such a quiet sound, but with deep emotion to it. It gave me incredible satisfaction to know how much I affected him, that this intense attraction was not one-sided.

More insistence in his kisses now, and at the slight tug of his teeth on my lower lip, I opened to him, his tongue sweeping in.

Possession and dominance coloured his still tender touch, seeking my surrender. Breathless from his kisses, I tipped my head, giving him my neck as he kissed his way down to my pulse, delicately biting.

"Gods, Loki." I moaned. Despite our time apart, there was no shortage of desire between us. If anything, it was hotter, burning brighter.

His hand rose to my throat, stroking, squeezing slightly as he looked down at me with half-lidded eyes.

"We are going to have a discussion, you and I, about you running off and leaving me with no word for more than four long months." His voice was a quiet, low growl.

Loki's hand squeezed in warning when I opened my mouth to speak.

"No, not now... this is neither the time nor the place," he warned. "We are going to need privacy. I expect a lot of screaming, moaning, and begging." His eyes glittered with dark promise, and I couldn't deny the shiver of heat it sent through my body.

Of course, I wasn't going to make it easy for him. Despite my position cradled against his chest, his hand at my throat, I raised an eyebrow in mock disdain. I knew he felt how his words made my pulse race in anticipation, but still, I gave him a half smile.

"We'll see." Keeping eye contact with him, I slowly removed his hand from my throat and pushed away from his chest, getting up from the swing.

Turning, I took a few steps towards the front door of the house, a little extra sway in my hips.

"I hear them stirring inside. You coming?" I asked, still with a little grin on my face.

"Not yet, darling, but you can be sure you'll feel when I am," Loki growled as he caught up with me, hand sliding over my ass before moving up to the small of my back.

I laughed. I really did love teasing him.

Like the English gentleman he purported to be, he opened the door for me. As we went through, I caught the flash of black out of the corner of my eye. His black locks lost their length and shifted to auburn, while his skin took on a more tanned complexion and his face filled out from razor-edged sharpness. That little dent in his chin returned. Black leather pants, knee-high boots, green and black tunic, and long black leather coat were replaced by dress shoes, fitted grey slacks, white dress shirt with the first couple buttons undone, grey suit jacket, and mid-length cashmere overcoat. He really was a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Seriously, he was ridiculously sexy in both forms. I had to resist the impulse to drag him back out the door to kiss him some more. Part of me was filled with a driving need to get answers from those inside the house, while being nervous about what I would find. Yet, this battled for supremacy with the intense surge of lust for Loki that had too long been denied. I'd missed his touch so keenly.

Torn, I hesitated. He gave me a knowing smirk. Despite the desire he was letting me sense through the bond, his eyes were serious, waiting for me to decide.

The need for answers, for resolution to unanswered questions, won as I focused on the sounds of my family inside of the house. At the same time, I suddenly realized I was underdressed in my sandals, jeans, and light-weight scoop-necked blouse that had been appropriate for Egypt's warm climate. It would look weird to my family to show up wearing this, when it was a typical, cool winter day in the temperate rainforest climate of coastal British Columbia.

"Would you please change my clothes to something more weather appropriate?" I asked, as we stood just inside the doorway.

"Of course, darling. Your wish is my command," he teased, with a glint in his now pale blue eyes. With the bond open between us, he'd caught my conflicted emotions. I wasn't hiding my desire for him, even if I wasn't acting on it right that moment.

In a rolling flash of black, my sandals shifted to knee-high leather boots overtop of my jean-clad legs, and a gorgeously soft, calf-length, royal blue cashmere coat wrapped itself over my body. Loki certainly had style and taste when it came to clothes—I had to give him that.

"My favourite colours. Thank you. Ready to meet my family?"

"Absolutely. Can't wait."