Page 90 of The Hero Within
A part of her wished she could just float away.
"What were you and Lincoln talking about?" he asked, as she drank.
She almost spilt water all over herself. "What?"
He repacked his flask as if it suddenly held all his attention. "He seemed to have a lot to say."
"He was just... explaining a few things about warg life."
Dark eyes flickered up.
"About Arik trying to rein in his dominant side, and you and Arik being on a par on the hierarchy, and how that's causing problems here."
Johnny scowled. "It's not going to be a problem. Arik knows the terrain, so he can lead. It makes sense."
She eyed him. "And you're okay with that?"
He shot her a frustrated look. "It's only going to be a few days. Then life goes back to normal. No more Arik. No more Confederacy. No more—"
Me.
He didn't say it.
"What do you plan to do once this is all over?" she asked softly, screwing the lid back on her flask.
"Plan?"
"When we get our cure?"
Eden watched him search for the answer, her heart clenching a little when she saw he didn't have one. It was the first time she'd thought of where she'd found him, and what he'd been doing at the time. Bounty hunting. Buried in a bar. Alone.
"I don't know," he said finally. "Thought I could linger in Shadow Rock for a bit, but I can't see myself settling in under Arik. Continue hunting monsters, I guess."
She felt breathless. "Does it make you happy?"
No.She saw it in his eyes. Saw the weight of debt and guilt.
"It's the only thing I'm good at," he replied, as he stood and slung his arms back through the straps of his pack. "And it's not like I have a variety of options."
"That's not true. I've seen you with CJ. He said you've been helping him sort through some of his emotions about his transformation, and how to deal with keeping his inner warg under check. You're good with him." The second she said the words, she realized it was true. Johnny had a teacher's soul.
All along she'd been thinking of him as the dangerous man who helped tear her life apart, but was that merely a response to what he'd become under Bartholomew Cane?
Who would he have been if Cane hadn't swept into his life?
She barely knew what Cane had done to him, but she could guess enough.
Her lungs unlocked, and Eden released the breath she'd been holding, as her mind put those crucial puzzle pieces together. Johnny wasn't a killer, not at heart. No, he was ridiculously patient, a man with a surprisingly nurturing side he hadn't been able to put to use.
A lone wolf hungering for a pack.
"There could be a place for you at Haven," she said slowly. "Luc Wade made a home for himself there with Riley, and Adam's begun repairing a house from the damage the reivers did to it a few years ago. A couple of humans live there, but it's rapidly becoming a home for those wargs who can keep their humanity."
"You think there's a place for me at Haven?" Incredulousness underscored his expression. "You think your brother would ever let me live beside him?"
"Yes, I think he would. Adam said he'd forgiven you for what happened after Rust City. And.... Maybe you could help him deal with his warg side? He's always rejected it. Always hated it."
But what if there was a chance Johnny could help Adam come to complete terms with who he now was?
