The Sentinels [m]y love is a lifetaker

Dutch was quiet after this, contemplating all that she'd said. He supposed he had a duty to be available for his son. At the same time — he felt that Katmai had left Round Valley almost explicitly to get away from him, and the stifling grief he carried with him.

Perhaps it would be best to put that distance back between them.

"There is an island just off the coast," he said to her, eventually. "Not too far northeast of here. I have seen it from a distance only — but it is where the Cortens once lived. Cousins of mine. I have always wanted to go."

He laid his head down on his paws, watching her still. One day soon, he would look at her and see the swell of her pregnant belly, and all the world would be as it should be.

"We should go," he told her. "We should have our family there."