Blood is thicker than treachery
Greater love than even father for child
Giving up, selfless sacrifice, will ensure future victory
He’d been convinced taking that last drive would fulfill many other parts of her predictions to him that night.
Badger being forced to step up.
The only thing Duncan had wondered about as his foot stomped on the accelerator was never knowing what or who Dewi was, much less her grazer.
It’d only taken him 47 years to find out, in the first few sentences spoken to him after all those decades.
By their pack’s only grazer.
The mate of Dewi.
The impossible daughter of his youngest, Chelsea, who’d been murdered years ago during his absence, two and a half decades after he’d tried to die.
Their fourth and youngest child they’d named after that old woman while, at the time, he hadn’t been really thinking about her much. Not directly.
Back in the present, Duncan slowed to a walk as dusk crept through the forest and he neared the Thompson homestead. It was tempting to spend days or weeks here, but he should return to Florida now that Tully was gone.
Dewi needed him.
His pack needed him.
His family needed him.
Louisa, love, how I miss you mightily.
He threw back his head and howled his endless grief to the skies.
CHAPTERTEN
BADGER
Badger wasin the middle of fixing dinner that evening when Dewi walked into the kitchen.
“Any news from Da?” she asked.
Badger nodded. “He’s flying back tomorrow morning. Staying in Knoxville tonight.”
“Did she…” She didn’t finish.
Badger nodded again. “Aye. Early this morning. Before dawn. He didn’t get any sleep last night so he’s gonna be wantin’ a bit o’ sleep before he heads back.”
He felt more than heard Dewi’s weighted sigh as she climbed onto one of the stools in front of the counter. “Is he okay?”
“As well as anyone can be in that situation, I s’pose.”
She slowly nodded, reaching over to play with the pen they used for the grocery list, spinning it in front of her on the counter. He didn’t stop what he was doing, knowing damned well from her tell, one she’d had since she was a kid, that she would speak again when she was ready.
A few minutes later, she did. “You don’t think he’ll…”
She didn’t finish but she didn’t have to.
Badger gentled his tone. “I seriously doubt he will, lass. He loves you and yer brothers fiercely. He feels badly he wasn’t here for all those years. And he’s lookin’ forward to all the new great-grands he’s about to meet. I think it’s safe and I’d be honest with ye if I didn’t think it was.”
