Hunter felt the tension in his body as he listened to her words. He remembered but hadn’t thought about it recently. His silver eyes met with his sister's sapphire eyes as he waited for her to continue.
“Did you know that Chasen and Brody have something similar?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Brody almost used his once, when we were fighting against a previous dragon king. The dragon kings are remarkably strong. Anyway, things were bad and he almost used it then. Luckily, Lee showed up right before and took care of everything. But that got me thinking.” Reiya looked at Hunter with a sad smile. “If Brody would have done that … I would have felt horrible. Do I want to be alive because of something like that? Isn’t the point to live and fight as much as possible?”
Hunter smiled and nodded his head. “I agree. Just because we have this strength doesn’t mean we should use it.”
“Unless we’re the last ones standing and there’s no hope, I don’t think we should consider it.”
“I agree. We have to think about everyone else in both situations. And destroying the enemies by killing ourselves … that isn’t a future any of them would want.” Hunter wrapped his arms around Reiya and hugged her.
“Are you happy?” he whispered.
“I am. I’d only be happier if we could see each other more.” Reiya pulled back and smiled at her brother warmly.
“I agree. No more going months without seeing each other. It’s far too long. We might have different responsibilities and orders of business, but at the end of the day, we’re family, and we need to make the time to see each other. Hey, even the dragons may need the werewolves' help every now and then.”
“Our family must really be about unity. Look at all the different species we’re uniting.”
“We’ll continue to remain united in the future as well. And make sure we pass it along to future generations.”
“After the demon war, though.” Reiya giggled as Hunter laughed.
“Of course, if I get Freja pregnant, I have an excuse to keep her out of the war.” Hunter’s eyes flickered with devilish humor.
“Don’t go giving Lee ideas now.” Reiya laughed as she opened the door for them to head out.
Brody and Chasen were standing there with their arms crossed.
“Leaving us out again?” Chasen asked with accusing eyes.
“Never.” Hunter walked up to him and patted his back. “We’re making sure we’ll always have the chance to include you guys.”
“You going to tell us what’s going on then?” Brody asked, staring at Reiya.
“I’ll explain everything to you on the ride back. We have a lot of reading ahead of us.”
“I take it that means it’s about time to go, then.” Brody said with a sad smile. “Well, I better get a snack before the road, then.”
“Don’t worry, Brody. We plan to visit each other more often. At least once a month.” Hunter bumped his shoulder into Reiya’s. “Besides, we have some new babies arriving soon that we need to prepare for.”
Chasen reached over and wrapped his arm around Reiya as Brody did the same to Hunter. The bond between the four of them was strong. No matter how much time had passed, nothing had changed between them.
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
It was sad to see his brother and sister leave again, but they would be seeing one another again soon. Hunter walked back into the pack house with Freja by his side. He rubbed her shoulder and she leaned into his chest.
“I need to speak with you about something,” Hunter said quietly. He then turned to Chasen and Jin. “Let’s head up to my room for a bit. I have something important I need to tell you all.”
“Yeah, you do. You aren’t leaving me out of whatever’s going on,” Chasen said in a grumbling voice. He could sense the tense atmosphere when the three of them woke up. Reiya was always horrible at keeping secrets, but the other two were showing signs of secrecy as well. He and Brody were apprehensive, wondering what else must have happened.
Hunter pulled Freja onto his lap on his couch, and Chasen sat down, with Jin sitting on him. They were all looking at Hunter curiously, waiting for him to explain what was going on.
“We were unsure what we wanted to do with the information we were given. At first, we weren’t going to say anything, but I realized it was unfair. I would want to know. I wouldn’t want secrets kept from me.” Hunter rubbed his hand along Freja’s side. They deserved to know what to expect, so they wouldn’tbe in shock when the time came. There wouldn’t be time to talk about it then. He was certain, now more than ever, that it was better to tell them.
Hunter carefully went over all the details with them, including the part about Kali and Freja. He made sure he mentioned that it didn’t change anything anyway. He told them that Reiya had planned to go through with it no matter what, and as the only one who could go with her, he would be by her side to protect her.
