“No,” my grandfather interrupted. “Take my mouthy wife and leave. I need to speak to my grandson alone.”
“Not before you take my damn energy.” While Ryan’s talents let him draw little bits of latent energy from the pack as a whole, something as direct as a touch from a willing volunteer was far more potent. “Don’t be a stubborn ass, Grandpa.”
“Don’t you try to give orders to your alpha,” he spat. Despite his failing physical health, his spirit was as strong as it ever was. “You wouldn’t dare speak to me like this before I got sick.”
I shrugged, drew up a sleeve of the sweater and took a seat on the edge of the bed. “I’ll do what you say if you use your own energy to get up and kick my ass.”
The pain of resignation caught up with him. “You little bastard...” Profanity tinged with love. It was a very Grandpa thing.
Ryan grimaced, not wanting to get between the two alphas having an argument. The hierarchy was strong, and he was nowhere near the top of it.
“Do not leave. Do the transfer, Ryan.”
“Leave, I said,” Grandpa spat, not wanting what he saw as pity. “This is an order from your alpha.”
He had grown weak enough that I could simply command him to submit to me and silence him for that matter, but I refused to do it to him. Doing so would be a blow to his ego that he would never recover from.
I was forever grateful for my grandfather and all he had done. Even after my parents died, he stayed strong. He never wavered, even when the grief must have torn him apart inside. He led and ruled the pack as a tough but fair leader, which can’t be taken for granted in the shifter world.
But there were limits to everything. “If you don’t let Ryan do the transfer, I’ll see myself out. I need my grandfather, not a petulant toddler who keeps his mouth shut when he needs to take his medicine.”
I felt for Ryan too, dealing with this curmudgeon, who was still alive only because of his best efforts.
“The nerve of you, Killian. The nerve.”
“Dear, get a hold of yourself,” my grandmother called out, calm as she ever was. She was well used to him getting like this, having had decades of experience enduring it. “The faster you get this done with, the faster you can deal with the things that you claim are so important to you.”
Grandfather muttered back something profane under his breath.
The two of them were not fated mates. They had come together in an old-fashioned arranged marriage, hoping to strengthen political ties and keep an alliance going strong. But they had one another’s respect. And with that respect, they had forged a successful marriage. I believed there had been a natural love between them that grew, but both were too bashful and stubborn to ever admit it.
“Do it. Get it over with,” Grandpa said. “And do it before I change my mind.”
“Yes, sir,” Ryan said. His hands started to glow as he reached one of them out to my arm and the other out to my grandfather’s back. It was a slight, colorless light at first, but it soon glowed an eerie red.
The red light pulsed through Ryan’s arms. It flowed into Grandfather, the intensity of the color fading as it left Ryan’s hand.
The vibrancy returned to Grandfather almost immediately. When I came in, he looked strained, but now he had some color in his face and his breathing was easier.
“You’ve done well, Ryan,” Grandfather said. “Now get the hell out before I kick your ass.”
Ryan nodded. “I’ll be back tomorrow. Do what you can to take care of yourself till then, Alpha.”
And he hurried out of the room.
Grandma sat in her corner, knitting away, ever the quiet listener. She’d absorb every bit of it, only dispensing her own wisdom if asked.
Or if someone said something stupid enough that she couldn’t be quiet any longer.
“Now we need to talk,” he growled. He sat upright and swung his legs over the edge of his bed so he could glare at me eye to eye. “What nonsense have you been getting up to?”
“Lots of things. I’m the alpha heir and that comes with a lot of responsibilities.”
“Don’t bullshit a bullshitter, boy. I’ve heard the talk of the town. You rejected Aurora and selected another mate.”
I nodded solemnly. “I did, yes.”
“How dare you?” His eyes blazed with anger.
