“Family?” I whispered, the word slipping out in disbelief.
“A new territory for me. But you carry my—our children,” he said evenly, then corrected himself mid-thought.“And I want what’s best for them. If their physiology is anything like mine, they’ll be… different. It’s the one thing Fenrir and I agree on. We’ll do anything to protect them.”
Interesting, Bouda purred.We could use him.
At what cost?I snapped back at her.
The moment the thought formed, I realised how desperate I was—to hear my grandparents bicker, to talk to my mother about my babies, to feel my father’s bearlike hug again.
“What do you mean by different?” I asked, my voice flat.
He glanced past me toward the ocean, but his jaw tightened.
“My body was a little stronger. Faster. My eyesight sharper,” he said.“As a child, I didn’t know my own strength—and it never ended well. For them.”
My belly churned at the thought of my children being different. Prejudice wasn’t new to me—but not in this context.
How would I cope with my children being both a minority and powerful?
Would you rather our pups be weak?Bouda asked.
We don’t know what they’ll be. They’re wolf and hyena, I mused.
Exactly. Two powerful forces.
I realised he was waiting for me to speak.
“I’ll need time to think,” I said.“What are your terms? I don’t want you hitting me with your bullshit once I’ve made a decision.”
I glared at him.
“Marriage. And a normal relationship.”
I waited for the punchline.
It never came.
“Uh-huh,” I said.“And what exactly is normal to you?”
I folded my arms across my chest.
My question seemed to genuinely confuse him.
I turned and walked away.
“It seems we both have some thinking to do,” I called over my shoulder as I followed the curve of the coast.
Thankfully, he didn’t follow me.
I needed the space—to absorb the bombshell he’d just dropped.
???
The cons list was lengthier than the pros. It was complicated—there was Blaidd, Fenrir, me, and the babies. Different characteristics, concerns, and a multitude of competing factors.
I tapped my pencil against the pad.
At the top of my pros list sat a single word: family.
