“Your father should be here soon,” Samantha said, although with every passing day that they didn’t hear from Ethan, she had to admit that she was starting to wonder what she was going to do if he didn’t come.
When he didn’t say anything, she frowned as she watched as he ground his jaw and-
“You don’t want to see your father,” she said slowly.
“I don’t know what I’m going to say to him,” he admitted with a sad smile.
“Are you worried that he’s mad?” Samantha asked because Ethan hadn’t sounded mad to her. He’d sounded desperate to see his son.
“No, I know he’s going to be mad. I’ll face him when it’s time, but I’m not worried about that,” he said with a simple shake of his head.
“Then what are you worried about?”
“I don’t think I’m going to fit in this new world,” he admitted quietly.
“It’s overwhelming,” she said, sighing heavily as she wiggled free from the covers so that she could drape herself over Trace, who she’d liked to point out was a hell of a lot more comfortable than the cot.
“That’s an understatement, wife,” he said, reaching up to cup her face as he leaned in and brushed his lips against hers.
“I could teach you how to survive the modern world,” she offered.
“Or we could live off the land,” he suggested with a hopeful smile.
“Please don’t make me kill you,” she said, sighing heavily because she really didn’t want to, but…
“I take it that you don’t want to learn how to make your clothes out of deer hide,” he guessed correctly.
“I take it that you don’t want to live?” she countered, loving the way that his lips twitched with amusement.
“I take it that you want to go inside,” he said only to sigh when she didn’t say anything and added, “and you want me to carry you.”
Nodding solemnly, she said, “It’s like we’re connected.”
Chapter 39
“I wouldn’t go in there if I were you,” Kale said as he watched the Sentinel who’d disappeared a few hours ago head for the front door.
Ignoring him, Nathan opened the front door and walked inside only to turn back around and slam the front door shut behind him with a glare. “I’m going to kill that fucking bastard.”
“I warned you,” Kale said, shifting his attention back to the large bottle of Coke that he’d picked up in town earlier.
He should have grabbed something stronger, but he couldn’t stomach the taste of coffee these days. When coffee first came to Europe, he hadn’t been able to get enough of it. Then again, he’d needed it to keep up with the asshole that he couldn’t wait to see again.
When the rumors started about a leech dragging a little boy across Europe, looking for answers, he’d listened. He’d also asked questions of his own, which led him to search for three years for the leech and when he found him…
He’d hesitated and it had cost him, but then again, he thought, it had cost the Pyte more. If he’d been able to tear the boy’s throat out, Trace never would have ended up in that wall. Now, at least, he had a chance to fix his mistake, Kale thought, as he watched the Sentinel that was going to be a problem as he stormed off towards his truck with another, “Fucking asshole.” Not that Kale could blame him, because if he’d been forced to listen to his sister getting fucked by a Pyte, he would probably want to kill something too.
Then again, since Aine hadn’t lived to see her ninth winter because of him, it wasn’t really something that Kale had to worry about. She’d never had a chance to do any of those things that she’d dreamed of doing, never had a chance to grow up and find her mate so that she could drive him crazy with all those questions that she used to love to badger Kale with, he thought with a sad smile that turned bitter at the reminder of everything that he’d lost because of a moment of weakness that he would do anything, absolutely fucking anything, to take back.
He wouldn’t be making that mistake again.
He’d considered sending the human away to avoid this, but he’d realized pretty quickly that he needed her here to keep the Pyte distracted. As long as the Pyte didn’t try to change her, he could keep her.
For now.
Eventually, Trace would want to change her and that just wasn’t something that Kale would allow.
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