Chapter 863 Chapter 863
Since leaving, she had spent more time looking out the window than anything else. He drove as they ate, both taking their time because then there was no need for speaking. Uri glanced over at her. She was looking at her hand in her lap. “Are you okay?”
She sighed and then looked at him for a second and then turned to the window again. “I feel better after food.”
“Yeah. I should have got more coffee. I’m going to need it.”
She looked at him. “Are you too tired to drive?”
He shook his head. “No. Just that lull after eating after a flight. I’ll be okay in a few minutes.”
“Yeah. Adrenaline flights are exhausting.”
“Today was eventful.” He grinned. “I can’t believe we landed in a flying helicopter.”
“Right. I thought for sure I was going to get blown away or sucked up by the wind from it. I was totally shocked when I was inside it.”
Uri nodded. “I can’t say I’d do it again.”
“Definitely not.” She shifted in the seat, and he looked to see she was facing him more. “I was shocked by more than landing in it.”
He blew out a breath silently before he spoke. “Yeah. That was unexpected.”
“I mean, I should have realized when I hugged you. I’m not a hugger.”
He wanted to pull over on the side of the road. “Same.”
“What happens now, Uri? Are we supposed to slice our palms and mix our blood to always carry each other's scent? Is that how it goes? I’ve only known maybe six others in my clan with true mates.”
“I don’t think there’s a guidebook that states how it has to go.” He glanced at her and then back to the road. There were too many turns to get distracted. “Do you want to mix our blood?”
She was quiet for longer than his owl was comfortable with. “I don’t know. I mean, not right this second.” She made a sound like a groan. “Our kind aren’t trusting. We’re tense and watchful and now we’re suddenly supposed to hand our soul to someone else? No offense. I didn’t like you the first day, but I don’t not like you now.”
“That’s okay. Until I met the kids, I didn’t know what to make of you.”
“Yeah. I may have been a bit harsh.”
He grinned. “A little here and there.”
She smiled for a second. “Yeah. So, how do others do this? Meet their mates and mark them or whatever they do?”
“I don’t know. It’s not something I spend a lot of time thinking about or talking to others about. I’ve been alone a long time.”
She nodded. “Same. I mean, I had my clan, but I wasn’t all friendly with everyone.” She looked at her hands. “You’re going to be going back out to help the Alliance. I’m going to be with the kids.” She sighed. “I don’t know how this works, Uri.”
“To be honest, hearing you say that makes me feel better because I don’t know either. I never pictured finding my mate, never mind finding her in a helicopter when I was with the teams.”
She looked at him, her eyes filled with amusement. “It makes the story interesting.”
He grinned. “Yeah. Probably one of a kind. I doubt many of our community met on a helicopter.”
“I doubt any of our kind have ever been near a helicopter.”
He nodded. As a rule, the bigger thing in the sky won, so his kind would avoid anything like that.
“I want to help do other missions or whatever they’re called.” She glanced out the window. “But I can’t just abandon the kids, right?”
He thought of when he’d first gone to the new clan. He’d been lost and alone. The only thing that had helped him get through it was Mylene. She had been a young widow at the time and as equally lost and alone as he was. It had been her idea to have him move in with her. She was his only guilt associated with his clan when he was gone so much. He knew he didn’t have to call and ask her because he knew she’d agree. He saw the longing for company and purpose in her eyes every time he was home. “When I was first with my new clan, a young widow took me in.” He looked to see she was giving him her full attention. “I think Mylene would love to watch over eight kids. She always said she and her mate planned to have a dozen, but he died too soon.”
“I don’t want to dump them on anyone.”
He drank the last of his coffee and hoped they came across somewhere to get more soon. Now, he wanted to get Oryn back to those kids sooner. “I don’t think she’d see it that way. She’s lonely and has a very generous heart.”
“She sounds nice. What was it like to grow up with her?”
Uri blew out a breath. “I probably should have been easier to manage back then, but she got through to me eventually.”
“Yeah. A bit of a hellion?”
He sighed. “Not intentionally. I felt abandoned,” he snorted. “As far as I know, I was abandoned and forgotten.” He glanced at her. “Mylene won’t mind at all. Ben and Wyatt will help, and Adam too. You steered them in the right direction since you’ve had them.”
“I tried. It wasn’t easy at first. I know nothing about kids.”
“But it still worked out. They’re all great kids. I’m sure at some point there will be a few minor rebellions, but what you have with them goes deep, and you’ll get through it.” He smiled. “That, and who could look into Emma’s eyes and deny her anything.”
Oryn laughed. “Mmm, she’s going to be a beauty.”
“I think you’ll need to watchdogs when the girls are teens. Park them on the corner of the property to keep any stray boys away.”
She snorted.
He drove in silence for a few minutes, thinking about when the girls were teens. Charlotte, with her black hair and dimples, and Emma’s red hair and freckles, were going to draw the attention of every teenage boy around, and Mila, with her light hair and dark eyes. He scowled at the road. He didn’t want boys coming around them. “I think it’s a good thing that Ben, Wyatt, and Adam are the oldest.”
“I was just thinking, good luck to any boy with those three around.” She laughed. “What about the kids, Uri? I'm in it for the rest of my life now, and I wouldn’t change it…”
He looked at her. “As a kid that was left behind, I think they’re the luckiest children to have you. To have someone that cared enough to not leave them behind.” He nodded. “I don’t know a thing about young kids, but I’m not going to run the other way.”
Her smile was slow. “Okay. That’s good.” She sucked in a breath. “So, what are we doing?”
Glancing to make sure no one was behind them, he pulled over. He couldn’t keep ignoring her to watch the road or forget to watch the road either. When he put it in park, he turned to see the wary look on her face. “I didn’t want to crash us into something.” She relaxed a little. “Look, I have no idea how any other members of our clans found their mates, bonded with their mates, or if they even thought about what next before they were fully mated.” He shrugged. “We’re not them. Both of us haven’t had the easy life, so we’re different and can’t possibly follow any norms in this situation.” She nodded but didn’t say anything. “I have no idea if I’ll be a good role model to eight–” he shook his head. “Eight kids. I’ve never thought about having one, but hey, life doesn’t follow anyone’s plan, right?” He blew out a breath. “What I’m saying is, I think you are an amazingly strong woman with not just a sassy mouth on you, but you have good morals, and if I ever had to list what I’d want in a mate, those would be on it.”
“Even the sassy mouth?” She smirked. “You deserved what I said when I hauled you out of the water.”
He opened his mouth and then nodded. “I did.” He grinned. “Not my brightest moment, but then again, I’d never been shot before, so I wasn’t thinking straight.”
“How am I going to stay back with the kids when you go out for the Alliance, and you do brainless things like that?”
He tilted his head to the side. “Things like going after someone with a rifle when you’re flying back and forth like a target at the fair?”
She glared at him and then snorted. “Yeah. That.”
Uri studied her face as she looked at him. “I think we have a day or so to talk and get to know each other, and then we’ll be with the kids. I’ll call Raymond and ask him for a few day's downtime, and we’ll take that time to see how we feel.”
“But we’re still mates regardless.”
“We are, but if we want to take a week, a month, or even six months to decide when we take it to the next stage, that’s our right.”
She held his look and he could have stared at her for an hour and not had a clue what she was thinking. “Okay. I agree with taking it gradually. We have the kids to consider too. They’re going to be unspun being with a new clan and new home.”
He nodded. “They will be, but I think they’re going to be okay because they’ll still have you.” He tilted his head. “And me. They're going to have both of us, Oryn.”
She huffed out a breath and looked relieved. “Both of us. That’s a lot less scary than the last year.” She shook her head. “I had no idea what I was doing. I just had to keep them safe.”
“And you did.”
She nodded continually for a moment, and then a tear rolled down her cheek. “I did, didn’t I?” She looked at him and left the tear streak on her face. “Okay. I need to sleep. You drive.”
Uri reached over and wiped the wet mark away with his thumb. “You rest.” He turned in the seat and looked out the windshield. Had his life just come full circle? He put it into drive and pulled back out on the road. He’d been lost and forgotten when he was a kid and then he found a woman and several kids that were too.
Oryn reached over and took his hand in hers. He glanced at her to see she had her seat tipped back a bit and her eyes closed. He squeezed her hand and held it gently. He didn’t know how this was going to go, but for the first time in his life, he wasn’t going to be alone in it. That felt like a win to him.