To my surprise, Jay glanced over at Garrak, who was in the middle of a muttered conversation with Brakor. “D’malksaid we would have a better life here. I believe him.”
Chief.
Even young Jay looked to Garrak to lead us.
Well, after the way he’d looked out for us all these years, the way he’d saved so many of our brothers—Korrad and Brakor had been among those trapped by that landslide on that horrible day—it was no wonder we all still thought of him asD’malk.
And if Garrak thought moving here to Eastshore was best for us, then we believed him.
I squeezed the boy’s shoulder. “You’re right,” I whispered, and he glanced at me just briefly, his gaze solemn and trusting. And I vowed that I’d do everything I could to ensure Jay never regretted this move.
“Hey, Sylvik,” Brakor’s feet suddenly hit the ground. “They do the Solstice Circle around here?”
I glanced at Garrak, but he shrugged. “None of ourpeople celebrated the solstice, but Brakor says it was a major ceremony before they crossed over.”
Korrad was nodding. “You hangvakkaltberries in the trees, if you can’t find any naturally occurring, and everyone in the clan stands beneath them to receive a blessing.”
“Health. Vitality,” his brother grunted.
“Since the berries are present in the winter, it symbolizes life overcoming death, new beginnings at the darkest part of the year.Et cetera,” Korrad added with a shrug.
Jay had squeezed up next to his father’s armchair. “I don’t remember it.”
“Yeah, well, we haven’t done it since we crossed over,T’man,” his father reminded him, settling his arm around the boy’s waist. “Before you were born.”
Brakor was finishing off his beer. “Would be a good place to start it up again.” He gestured toward the back of the house with the bottle. “Lots of wildness out there. We could even do the Hunt after.”
His brother scoffed. “None of us have Mates.”
“No.” Did Brakor look more bitter than usual at that reminder? “But Aswan does. Akhmim. Tarkhan. Abydos.” The males who’d left Colorado ahead of us. “Others.”
I finally raised my finger to interrupt. “What’sthe Hunt?”
It was Garrak who answered. “Oh, we hadthat. Mated males chase their females through the snow.”
“Gets your blood pumping,” Korrad explained. “The females run, the males chase.”
“And if the males can pin their Mates beneath thevakkalt—” Brakor glanced at his nephew and bit down on the words, but he raised a brow at me, likely hoping he didn’t need to finish his sentence.
“New life,et cetera,” Korrad repeated dryly.
And I realized my heart was beating faster than usual, as myKteerhummed in my chest.
Hunt Mate catch claim taste kiss hunt!
It wasn’t until I heard the creaking of metal that I realized I was gripping my tablet hard enough to damage the thing, and I forced myself to exhale, to bury myKteer’sincessant demands. I was stronger than it, after all.
Butfuck me, I liked the sound of this Solstice Hunt.
I liked the thought ofBrookein the Solstice Hunt.
The talk—planning—had continued to swirl around me, and now I forced my attention back to where it belonged. Away from the thought of Brooke pinned beneath me in the snow as the full moon shone overhead.
It doesn’t snow on Eastshore Isle.
Honestly, I don’t think myKteercared about?—
“Think you could make it happen, Sylvik?” Korrad’s question broke through my obsessing. “If Sakkara doesn’t already have something planned.”
