Page 24 of Kendrick

Maybe Jonas was better placed than Kendrick to predict what would happen with the Kudlaks. He was a Krsnik, and he’d been born into this life. He was decades older than Kendrick, and he’d been surviving almost entirely on his own for most of them. He’d seen much more than Kendrick could ever dream of, and Kendrick wanted to think he was right.

“Let’s focus on the now, all right?” Jonas asked. “It’s no use to obsess over what will happen with the Kudlaks. It’s especially no use to wonder what will happen to you and your brother. Whatever happens happens, and in the meantime, we’d better live life to the fullest. I want to believe that we’ll defeat the Kudlaks and that everyone I care about will be alive when we do, but I know there’s a strong chance that I’ll lose someone. If that happens, I want to be able to say that I made the most out of the time I had with them.”

Maybe that was the way to go about this. There was nothing Kendrick could do to stop the future from happening. If the Kudlaks wanted to attack the village, they would. If one of them could hurt or even kill Kendrick during a hunt, they wouldn’t hesitate. Kendrick would always try his best to come home and defend the village and the people he loved, but there were no guarantees.

The only thing they could do was to move forward, protect the village and their people as best as they could, and hope. Havingmore people living in the village would make it stronger, and even though Kendrick didn’t want his brother to be anywhere near a Kudlak, he’d make sure to teach Ryan how to defend himself. If anything ever happened, Ryan would need it.

Kendrick couldn’t live with the obsession of the Kudlaks. He’d seen what it could do, and he didn’t want that for himself. Being a hunter was an important job, and he’d continue doing it, but once he was home, he’d focus on his personal life and the people he loved. He didn’t want to live for the hunt. He wanted to be a hunter to protect people and to be able to live a peaceful life once they were defeated.

He was sure that between his brother and his mate, he’d be able to do that like his friends had done. Boyd had retired, and while Chris was still a hunter, he’d obviously changed. Clay and Rowan didn’t live for the hunt anymore, either. Instead, they lived for each other.

“Everything will be all right,” Jonas promised.

Kendrick believed him.

Chapter Five

Jonas could see Kendrick becoming more nervous the closer they got to the town where his brother and his father lived. There was nothing he could do to help, unfortunately, so he did his best to distract his mate, talking about everything and anything he could think of.

Most of the things he told Kendrick were stories about the time he’d spent living with Caroline and Alexis. He wasn’t sure Kendrick was listening, but that was okay. He didn’t need his mate to listen, just to breathe and know they’d make it through this.

Eventually they entered a small town. Jonas stared out the window, wondering if this was the place where Kendrick had grown up. He tried to imagine a younger Kendrick walking down the sidewalk or maybe sitting at the diner, eating a burger. It was hard, mostly because he couldn’t imagine Kendrick as a kid.

“Do you think your father has pictures of you when you were a child?” he asked.

Kendrick frowned. “Why would you want to know that?”

“Because I’d like to see them if he does.”

“I don’t think so. My mother might have some, but I doubt it. I certainly don’t have anything.”

That was sad. “I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry about.”

“Maybe not, but I know how it feels. I know where I come from, but sometimes, it’s almost like I just popped up from out of nowhere. I have nothing to remind me of my family and the time we spent together. There are only the memories, but after so many years, it’s sometimes hard to remember.”

Kendrick reached for Jonas. Jonas took his hand and linked their fingers together, squeezing.

“You don’t have anything left from your family?” Kendrick asked in a soft voice.

“Unfortunately, no. My village was destroyed. Me and a few other kids managed to escape, but we couldn’t exactly go back to get our stuff. Even if we’d been able to, the Kudlaks set the village on fire.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry about,” Jonas said, giving Kendrick his words back.

Thankfully, it made Kendrick smile. “Fine. Let’s agree we won’t apologize for things we had nothing to do with.”

“I’m on board with that.”

Kendrick had to take his hand away to continue driving safely. Jonas missed it. He distracted himself by looking out the window again and noticed that they were in a residential area now. If he had to guess, they were getting closer. “Are we almost there?”

“Another few minutes, and we’ll be at the house. Can you call Ryan?”

Jonas picked up Kendrick’s phone and unlocked it by raising it close to Kendrick’s face. He quickly found Ryan’s number and called, putting him on speaker.

“Where are you?” Ryan asked when he answered. His tone sounded urgent.

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