Heron Lake Plateau i would swim the deepest, sharkiest oceans to be with you.

He listened attentively as she detailed her thoughts one by one and found that he agreed with each of them on some level. He didn't share the same hatred of the plateau that Finley and Eljay and others did, but she raised some good points about the landscape. In general, Elwood felt pretty neutral about the territory itself; Fin's opinions were important to him, though, and he thought that they were perfectly valid, especially when she mentioned Bat's recent demise. There was danger everywhere, truthfully, but once something like this happened, it was hard to look around and feel any amount of safety.

Her last reason brought a bittersweet smile to his lips. Finley and Elwood had grown up just like their children; they were no longer as overprotective as they had been with Eljay, and they were both okay with letting their sons and daughters make decisions for themselves. It was good, but part of him still hated to see it happen. Secretly, he wanted to keep all of his children close by for eternity; of course, he knew that couldn't be the case. However, Wildfire's pack provided the perfect opportunity for Tegan, Clover, and the others to experience a taste of independence with their parents just a short hike away.

"I love you," he said, which might have seemed out of the blue, but he really felt it was an appropriate response to what she had said. "And I agree with all of that. You have a lot of good points," he added.