Disclaimer: I dont own the Nine Lives of Chloe King.

Hope you enjoy this chapter. I have lots planned for this story and I hope you will allow me to tell it.

Chloe and Alek walked in, their arms around each other, from their day of riding. The laughter they brought with them was always a welcome sound in the large stoic estate. At one point in time it had been the Petrov's winter estate but now it was the Mai headquarters in London. Although many people used the house on a day to day basis, it hadn't ever had the amount of joy that the two lovers had instilled there over the last three years. They stopped just inside the doors as they removed their muddy shoes. Chloe used Alek as a stabilizer while she pulled her riding boots off. "You know that you wouldn't have won our race if you had played fair and not jumped over the river." Alek told her. Chloe laughed and rolled her eyes.

"If you weren't such a scaredy-human you would have jumped the river too!" She countered. Alek straightened, knocking Chloe off balance. She tottered back but Alek's arm snaked around her pulling her towards him. She collapsed in his arms in a giggling heap. Alek laughed too and threw Chloe up over his shoulder and started to walk towards the stairs.

"I'm not a scaredy-human, I just don't like the feeling of landing on the ground with my horse on top of me." He told her.

"That happened once!" She said hitting his backside with her fists as he began to climb the stairs.

"Mistress Chloe," Nattie started. Alek put her down and they both turned to look at the house keeper. "There is a man here to see you." She said motioning behind her in the sitting room. Chloe leaned to the side a little bit to look into the room. The sight before her almost knocked her off her feet. Standing, now, in the sitting room was a man in his early 40's. He had black hair, a thin beard and dark brown eyes. Alek didn't know who it was but Chloe certainly did. She looked as if she'd seen a ghost. Chloe was still not moving she just studied the man in front of her. He looked well enough, he was strong and fit, his clothes were older but still in good condition and he simply just stood there.

"Hello, Chloe." He said. Alek stepped forward and offered his hand to the guest.

"Alek Petrov." He said. The man took his hand and shook it once.

"Jonathan-" He paused looking over Alek's shoulder at Chloe, "King." He finished. Alek now understood Chloe's paralysis as he was overcome with his own.

"King?" Alek asked. The man nodded and let go of his hand. He stepped around Alek and towards Chloe but Chloe backed up. Alek's instincts took over and he placed himself in front of Mr. King and Chloe again.

"Chloe-" He started.

"You're supposed to be dead." She said quietly.

"I never said I was dead." He told her.

"You never said anything, what else were we supposed to think?" She asked.

"I left for your protection." He explained taking another step towards her. Alek stepped back still staying in between them. "I knew what you were, I'd known since I took you out of the Ukraine."

"How did you leaving protect me! You could have stayed and told me what I was, explained to me what was happening. Instead I had to die to find out!" Chloe yelled and then turned to run upstairs. Mr. King tried to follow but Alek stopped him holding on to his arm with a tight grip.

"Not now." Alek said. He walked him backwards to the sitting room and forced him to sit. "You are going to wait here. When I come back, we're going to have a long talk." Alek released his arm and then started to go upstairs. "If you move, I'll know, so don't try it." He warned. Mr. King nodded and sat back on the couch folding his hands in his lap. Alek watched for a minute to make sure he was settled and then went to find Chloe.

She was upstairs in their room pacing back and forth. Her hair flowed behind her and whipped around as she turned on her heel when she ran out of room. "Chlo-" Alek started, reaching a hand out to her. She pushed it away and continued to pace.

"He's supposed to be dead. Everything I've gone through and now he shows up!" She huffed.

"You don't know what the story was."

"He left to protect me! What a load of-" She cut off too frustrated and angry to form full sentences. "Think of how different my life could have been if I had just known about the whole Mai thing, I could have avoided being pushed of Coit Tower, I could have avoided the fiasco with Brian, I would have known-" She was crying now.

"Your life is the way it is for a reason, Chloe. Everyone's is." He told her going over to her. She buried her head in his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Neither of us could be where we are, who we are without what happened." Alek explained.

"No, but maybe we never would have had to leave San Francisco, we could have avoided Zane's attack, all of the purges, not as many people would have died!"

"You don't know that. Maybe if he had stayed more people would have died."

"Why did he come back now? What could he want?" She asked.

"Maybe he came to see his daughter. He hasn't seen you in fifteen years; I bet it's been hard on him too." He said. Chloe shook her head and leaned back against the bed post. "I'm going to go talk to him. I think you should too, but you have to want to." Alek said before turning to leave.

When Alek went downstairs Jonathan was still sitting on the couch but he was talking quietly with Michael. Alek entered the room and sat on the couch across from Mr. King and waited studying the older man. He wasn't sure where to begin, what to say. He knew practically nothing about this man. He knew only that he had adopted Chloe and then left her and her mom when Chloe was little. Jonathan looked up at him and smiled. He shifted in his seat to stop playing with Michael and focus on Alek. Michael looked around at the two men and then stood up. He walked over to Alek and wrapped his arms around his leg.

"Hey, buddy, why don't you go find Nattie." Alek told him. The little blonde child nodded and toddled off.

"He's very handsome and smart, you must be very proud. He looks like both you and Chl- my daughter." He smiled. Alek smiled and shook his head. People made that mistake all the time.

"Michael isn't ours. He's a rescue, my aunt sent him here after his parents were killed." Alek said looking after the boy.

"You see him as you were after your parents died. You were the same age when your parents were killed, you felt like a rescue didn't you? You were adopted into a good family though, as he will, like my daughter. Now you are her protector and I assume her lover. You gave your life to save my daughters in the first slaughter when you were trying to escape; that brought you to five lives if I'm correct."

Alek didn't know what to say. This man knew a lot about him and that bothered him. Alek sat back placing both arms on the back of the couch. He pursed his lips momentarily before speaking. "You know an awful lot about me, I'm afraid I don't know nearly enough about you though. Care to enlighten me on that subject? I'm incredibly curious as to why my girlfriend's father, who has been missing and supposedly dead for fifteen years, suddenly shows up at our house, where nobody knows we are living, with virtually no explanation."

Jonathan smiled and nodded sitting back in his chair. "I've been missing, but that doesn't mean I haven't been keeping up in my daughter's life. I know exactly what has been going on. Who do you think Valentina was flying out to meet with every six weeks?" He asked.

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