Brandon looked Miles over with a critical eye, from head to toe, and Dakota felt her heart clenching in her chest. Finally, he nodded approvingly, and Dakota started breathing again. “This man is strong and brave and he was ready to die for you. I couldn’t ask for anything more in your mate. I’d be proud to have him as a son-in-wolf.”
“Hey!” a loud female voice bellowed at them, and Anthea trotted over. She was naked too. Her face was bruised, and she had bleeding wounds on her arms and torso that were slowly sealing themselves up.
“You did good out there,” she said, nodding approvingly at Dakota. She flicked a glanced at Brandon.
“So that’s your father?”
Dakota glanced at her father and felt a flood of relief and gratitude. In a way, her father had been dead to her for a long time now, and seeing him like this was like bringing him back to life. “Yes, he is.”
Anthea nodded “Not bad. Least annoying guy I ever met.”
To Dakota’s shock, her father’s cheeks colored and he avoided her gaze and muttered, “Thanks.”
Anthea shrugged. “It’s nothing.” But was there actually a small smile playing on her lips? Was Antheasmiling?
Dakota glanced at Miles. “You see it, right?” she whispered.
“I see it, but then again I’ve just taken some hard blows to the head. I might be hallucinating.”
Brandon ignored them both, scanning the woods around them with a shrewd, calculating glance. “You know what I see when I look around here?”
Dakota looked around. “Lots of dead people?”
“That too, but I see possibility. You know, with the humans hemming us in, I’ve developed things just about as far as I can in our territory. But here…the possibilities are endless.”
“You mean…you’d move up here?” Dakota said hopefully.
He met her gaze. “This part of the territory would be perfect to set up a logging company, and it’s close enough to visit but not so close that your mate and I would clash when our energy got too much for each other. Would you want me to? After the way I’ve been the past few years?”
“I want you back,” Dakota said, tears in her eyes. “I want you near me so that when I have cubs, you can visit them.”
Her father nodded, and as he did, his gaze strayed to Anthea again. Dakota had a feeling that maybe she wasn’t the only reason her dad was looking at moving his pack up here, and that was all right. Her father needed to start living again. She wanted him to be as happy with a mate as she was with Miles.
SIX MONTHS LATER…
Saturday morning, on the Fenris Pack lands…
“Miles, please,” Dakota said with affectionate exasperation. “I am expecting. I’m not crippled. I can carry a pail of milk.”
“Not on my watch,” he said, snatching it away from her. “Oh, by the way, your dad is here.” He walked with her to their newly expanded cabin, with a nursery addition built on the west side.
Her father and Anthea were sitting on a wooden bench on the front porch. They were holding hands, and they both bore claiming marks on their necks. Her father had two – the old one from her mother, and the new one from Anthea right next to it.
Naomi and Baldwin were leaning against the wall. Mary was sitting on Baldwin’s shoulders, and Naomi was braiding flowers into Sailor’s hair. Sarah was sitting cross-legged on the floor and pretending to ignore them all, listening to the new iPod she’d gotten for Christmas.
“Grampa Brandon, you know what I love about having a grampa like you?” John was saying as Dakota and Miles walked up. He stared up at Brandon with huge, wide eyes. “I love how you taught us how to fish, and how you—”
“Stop,” Brandon snorted. “Boy, let me tell you something. Never bullshit a bullshitter.”
“Dad!” Dakota gasped, scandalized. Miles was cracking up, and she glowered at him. “Why are you laughing?”
“Because it’s funny?” He winked at her and carried the milk into the house.
“You do know that Miss Anthea tells me everything, right? Of course you do. Well, Miss Anthea tells me that you did not hand in your math homework yesterday,” Brandon continued. “Now, you were talking about how you want to work for my company when you grow up.”
John nodded vigorously. “I want to build houses. I already know how. Daddy Baldwin and me made a little log cabin for Mary’s birthday last week.” He held his hands six inches apart. “Well, a twig cabin.”
It had been decided that the kids would live with Naomi and Baldwin, partly, as Sarah had informed Dakota, to lessen the chances of food poisoning. But they lived right next door to Dakota and Miles, and visited every day. They frequently brought baked goods from Naomi’s new bakery.
