For the Heart of the Warmaker by T. S. Joyce

Author:T. S. Joyce [Joyce, T. S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wicked Willow Press
Published: 2018-01-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

“I’m just saying,” Damien murmured, staring at his vial of nearly-microscopic gold flakes. “I might skip college to be a gold miner.”

“A heart attack,” Thomas groused. “That’s what you’re trying to do to me. Give me a heart attack.”

“I’m probably rich,” Damien continued, but his poker face was slipping and his smile was peeking through.

Karis giggled and shook her head. “Maybe I don’t want to have kids after all,” she teased.

Colt snorted from his place by the fire. “With that attitude, we’re gonna have fourteen cubs. Kids. Fourteen kids.” He frowned at the fire, and Trig looked like he wanted to kick Colt’s boot. He’d been slipping up all night.

Karis scooted closer to him and rested her cheek on his shoulder to soothe him. Colt leaned back against the log behind him, draped his arm across her back, and rubbed his thumb along her shoulder. It was a silent thank you. He was really good with those.

“I wanted fourteen kids once,” Leonora said as she scraped the last of her hearty stew off her metal camp plate and onto the spoon.

“Yeah? And what happened to that plan?” Trig asked.

“I had Damien, and he traumatized me into being fine with one.”

“Ha!” Colt bellowed.

Everyone was laughing at that one, and Damien only shrugged his shoulders. “I won. No competition. And what she really meant was I was so awesome she knew she couldn’t have a better kid than me. Why mess with perfection?”

Leonora rolled her eyes, and Karis leaned back onto Colt’s arm, relaxing against the log behind them. Her stomach was full and happy, and the fire was keeping everyone nice and warm. They’d sat here for an hour just eating and talking. Life was good right now. No worries.

Sure, she still felt the edge of that storm. That instinct never left her, but that was the life she led. What mattered was their ability to appreciate the moments of peace in between the chaos. Those were the important ones that made a life great, but if a person never learned to appreciate them, they wouldn’t even know their existence was special. That’s what her step-dad had taught her when he first Turned her. He’d mentally prepared her for a shifter life. Colt hadn’t been so lucky with his dad and was self-taught on everything, but she had a feeling he was going to figure out a way to appreciate the peaceful moments someday, too. Right now, he had to be the Warmaker, but someday, she hoped he could find the Peacemaker in him again.

“What time is it?” Leanora asked to no one in particular.

Trig squinted up at the moon and murmured, “Looks like it’s about half past ten.”

“Whoa!” Damien exclaimed. “You can tell the time from the moon?”

Colt snorted. “That, and I just saw him check his phone a minute ago.”

Trig lashed his leg out and kicked Colt’s boot from his place on Colt’s other side. But when Trig did, he dislodged Ava, who had been resting her cheek on his knee as she stared into the fire.

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