Chapter 13
You got this, son.
Nitochi
Iwatched my little female strutting happily behind our mother. They were gone too quickly and I didn’t have any excuses to avoid looking at our fathers.
“Nitochi…” Dasume started with a sigh. “I am not questioning the—”
“Please do not,” Baelor interrupted. “There was no way around it.”
Dasu walked around us to stand at my back, placing his dark hand on my equally dark shoulder. “What matters is that you got her back from whoever tried to take her from you. I trust you dealt with them?”
I grunted. “Yes. The ones who were around are no longer alive.” He arched a brow, waiting. He always knew when there was something more. “Fine. Wendy mentioned another human who might come looking for her. She was scared.”
He nodded, a grave look on his face. “Then we will deal with him too.”
Dasume rolled his eyes, opening the fabric we used to keep the food we prepared safe.
“Let us keep the violent schemes for later, shall we?” Baelor came to stand by my side, grabbing another package for himself.
Probably to have something to do with his hands…
“How are you two feeling about…well, the unexpected change of plans?”
So we were back to talking about the lead dynamic…great.
“It is fine, Dasume,” Baelor said. “Wendy was in danger. If Nitochi had not gone to search for her, she might have been gone before the sun rose.”
Dasume’s white eyes found my black ones. “And how are you feeling about it? It is not like you two planned for this. Are you ready?”
“I am fine. Ready.”
“You better be,” Dasume said. “Now that it is too late to change this…”
“It is enough, Kosae,” Dasu said. “They are not children anymore. Not to forget, Wendy is human. Our ways and the whole family dynamic will not have as much importance. Baelor can very well step in when necessary without it disturbing her. Have faith in them.”
Baelor and I exchanged a look. Dasu rarely stepped in when it came to anything family related. After all, he was not the lead. And yet, when he did, Dasume usually listened.
“Nitochi already claimed the girl, Xantu,” Dasume said. “They obviously did not take the time to think this through.”
“Like we were any different at their age,” Dasu pointed out. “I trust our boys to do the right thing for their new family. For their female. You should too.”
Our fathers stared at each other in charged silence for a moment before Dasume let out a sigh and focused back on carefully laying the food on the serving stones. Dasu squeezed my shoulder.
“You got this, son,” he said in my ear.
A small smile crept up my lips.
Yeah. I did.