“You think it’s a good idea.”
Sage sighed as she lifted her purse from her shoulder and set it on the credenza in the narrow hallway leading to a living room area. “I think we need to consider it. Fenrir can tell us if we can trust their intentions. He’d know if they’re asking because they want to be part of our god pack to do good and not just for the status he brings us.”
Because it’d been generations since a god had appeared so prominently within a god pack here. That ceded them power no other god pack currently had. They’d be bloody daft not to use the authority Fenrir provided them to do good by way of the packs within their territory and the ones who had pledged alliances with them.
Besides, Fenrir felt like he was staying. His presence hadn’t gone away and the memory of him never would. The aching, burning weight of the god in his soul was something Jono knew he could carry without damage to himself. The soulbond helped with that, but so did acceptance. And one day, whenever Fenrir went away, Jono would live with the absence of him, too.
Wade crossed his arms over his chest. “What about Patrick?”
Jono rubbed his forehead, staring at the floorboards beneath his feet. The brownstone they were in still had its original interior judging by the stained and worn wood. “He’d want us to do what’s good for the pack while he’s not here.”
“He would,” Sage agreed.
Wade still looked a bit mutinous. “I want a say in whoever we pick to join.”
“Of course. This is a pack decision.”
Sage looked at Jono as she spoke, and he could only nod. “No one joins if we don’t all agree and Fenrir gives the go-ahead.”
Jono had been rather surprised that the god had stuck around after everything. Fenrir was still there in the back of his mind and soul, a presence that made himself known from time to time, but without the sharp need that had colored their interactions over the years. Jono figured killing Ethan had something to do with that.
“I can set up meetings for next week,” Sage said.
Jono winced. “That soon?”
“We need more hands on deck. Emma and Leon have their own pack and PreterWorld to oversee with Marek. I don’t want to keep leaning on them if we can bring in more pack members. Besides—” Her hand drifted down to press against her abdomen over her coat, a hesitant smile curving her lips. “—I’m pregnant, and there’s going to come a point where I can’t be racing all around the city to handle pack problems on my own.”
Jono stared at her for a couple of seconds, mouth open in gobsmacked silence. Wade whooped and elbowed Jono out of the way so he could—gently—wrap Sage up in a hug. “I’m gonna be an uncle!”
Sage patted his arm, beaming at him. “Yes, you are, but you arenotfeeding my child Pop-Tarts.”
“Sure,” Wade said with all the blitheness of someone who had no intention of obeying that request.
Jono finally let out a surprised, wonderous laugh. “You’re pregnant?”
Sage’s smile never left her face. “Two weeks. I know it’s really early to announce, but you’d have smelled the change anyway.”
He realized it wasn’t perfume after all when he’d scented her earlier and could only nod. “I smell it already.”
Jono would have to find some way to give his thanks to Eir for the healing she’d done on Sage. He wasn’t sure how to get in touch with the valkyries directly, but as far as he knew, Thor still had his bar in Chicago. If anyone could call the valkyries for him, it would be the Norse god of thunder.
Wade’s happiness dimmed a little, but he didn’t let go of Sage, keeping one arm slung over her shoulders. “I hope Patrick comes back soon. I don’t want him to miss this.”
None of them did. With Sage’s pregnancy announcement, Jono knew he couldn’t remain stagnant as they worked toward a future they’d fought too hard for to give up. They needed a firmly established pack to keep their territory and to provide stability and support for Sage’s baby.
To do that, they had to put in the work and keep believing that Patrick would return soon. Having a pack was a dream he’d had since first being infected with the werevirus, and Jono wasn’t going to give it up now. Because if there was one thing Jono had learned over the lonely weeks of digging out of the aftermath of worldly change, it was that you held on to the truth in the stories like the history they were—and you never let go.
Legends were the building blocks of this reborn world, and Jono still believed Patrick would come back to him. They all did.
He went to Sage and wrapped her up in a hug, breathing in the changed scent of her, knowing he’d do anything to keep her and her baby safe.
“Tell me who you think will be a good fit for our pack,” Jono murmured.
She patted him on the back, face tucked against his neck, breathing in his scent the way he was with hers. “Of course.”
Wade sidled up close, and Jono freed one arm enough to drag him into the hug, holding on to his growing pack, acutely aware of the arms they were missing.
34
