Page 15 of Bear Your Fate

Carrick and I had spent the next thirty-six hours ensuring our family would be safe while we were gone. We’d barely gotten everything in place before we needed to leave to ensure we had enough time to make it to the council meeting since it was one we couldn’t possibly miss. Not when Nixon and Nyssa’s safety was at stake. We’d run ourselves ragged, mostly in opposite directions.

Tempest had quickly agreed to come to Bear Creek and help in any way she could, which included watching over my daughter and grandchildren until I returned. She, Selene—who used a healing spell to quicken her recovery time and then quickly wore herself out helping with the protection spells for everyone—and I focused on all the magical ways we could keep our loved ones safe. Carrick and his sons concentrated on more practical, but equally lethal, methods.

By the time we boarded the plane, I felt confident that nobody would be able to take advantage of our absence. If that had been part of their plan, they were in for a nasty surprise. Quite a few of them actually.

Since Carrick and I had seen so little of each over since Damien’s call, the children hadn’t really had the opportunity to see us together much. As such, they hadn’t noticed any changes in how we interact with each other now that we’d decide to pursue a relationship. The dire situation we’d found ourselves in had necessitated that we wait before we shared the news with them because they didn’t currently have sufficient time to come to terms with what was going on between Carrick and me. Heck, we hadn’t even had the time to figure it all out ourselves.

One thing was certain, I was proud to have him standing next to me while we faced the challenge ahead. He was fierce. Loyal. And determined to destroy anyone who wanted to hurt the family—a goal in which we were united. Our enemies had only brought us even closer together.

About five minutes after the plane lifted into the air, I fell asleep. I woke up to the sound of the landing gear engaging, and I had to shake Carrick awake because he slept through it. “Hey, we’re about to land.”

“Fuck, that went by faster than I thought it would,” he groaned.

His dark hair was messy, his eyes were heavy lidded, and his clothes were rumpled. It made him look like we’d found a more energetic way to pass the time over the past few hours. “Did you pass out as quickly as I did?”

“A few minutes later.”

“Then no wonder it went by so quickly, we both slept through the whole thing.”

He scanned my face with a concerned gaze. “Too bad it wasn’t twice as long.” His thumb gently brushed the skin underneath one of my eyes. “You never got to recover from your original jet lag, and now you’re just going to double up on it. And that doesn’t even take into consideration all the sleep you’ve missed in the past few days.”

“Is that your way of telling me I look horrible?”

“Fuck no,” he growled. “You couldn’t look horrible if you tried.”

“Trust me, I really can.”

“Impossible,” he insisted.

“Maybe to you.”

“Are we really arguing about how gorgeous you are?”

“No.” I thought about it for a moment. “Maybe.” And another. “Okay, yes. I think we are.”

He flashed me a grin. “Just like an old, married couple.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Are you calling me old now?”

“If I was going to call one of us old, it’d be me. Definitely not you, sweetness. I wouldn’t want to ruin my chances at make-up sex.”

“Oh, hush,” I laughed, swatting at his arm.

The wheels touched down and our moment of levity evaporated.

“You ready?”

“Yes.” I nodded, but it was an attempt to try to convince myself that I really was ready when I was actually super nervous. “We never did get the chance to talk about what I should expect at the council meeting.”

Carrick gave me a quick rundown. “Huh,” I snorted. “For all the supposed differences between shifters and witches, that sounds an awful lot like how the Council of Four operates.”

“Really?” he chuckled.

“It sure does.”

“Imagine that.” He pulled me onto his lap and claimed my mouth in a deep kiss. “With as amazing as the only witches I know are, I was expecting your council to be leaps and bounds ahead of ours. There are times when I feel like the rules we still follow are archaic.”

“That’s clearly an issue with both councils,” I sighed. “Or else it wouldn’t be possible for anyone to petition to have infants excluded from our communities.” Because that’s what was at stake here. The petition to the Council of Four had the potential to prevent Nixon and Nyssa from being trained as witches, should we discover they had talents in that arena. The one to the shifter council would stop them from being recognized as members of Carrick’s clan, even if they were bear shifters.

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