“I cannot, Grandfather. My wolf would not accept it. If I sent her away, it would be the death of her because she wouldn’t have my protection, and it would be the death of me because my wolf would go mad.”
And my heart would break without her.
“You interfered with the Iron Claw’s plans! If you’d let them take her, everything would have been fine!”
“For who?” Daphne said indignantly.
“You are inconsequential,” my grandfather scoffed. “The only thing that matters is the pack.”
If anyone else had spoken to her like that…
“I respect you. I love you. But I will take on the mantle of alpha soon, and I must do what is best for the pack.” I took a deep breath. “Daphne?”
“Yes. Right here.” But she took a step to the side and my hand fell away from her arm. I didn’t blame her for being angry and confused.
“Go find Ryan. My grandfather is going to need some healing strength to get back to his cabin. You know where his quarters are?”
“Roughly, yes.” She shot a narrow-eyed look at my grandfather and stalked out of the room.
This left me alone with my grandfather again. “You’re going to doom yourself. You’re going to doom the White Fang. You’re going to doom those I love, those I’ve sworn to protect,” he growled.
“I want you to enjoy what time you have left, Grandfather. You need to trust me to make the right choices. It’s hard, I know. My father. My Uncle. Their mates you both loved as daughters. But I am strong, and I am capable, and I know what I’m doing here.” I softened my voice. “That’s all thanks to you. You’ve raised me well. The White Fang will be safe for decades to come.”
He remained silent, his eyes blazing with anger at my defiance.
“I’m going to get Ryan to tend to you. Then he’s going to help you back to your cabin. As much as I want you to stay near me, if seeing me with Daphne is going to bring you this much pain, I’d rather you be far, far away from here, Grandfather.”
“Alpha,” Ryan said, rushing into the room, Daphne behind him. “Sir! Let me heal you.”
“I’m fine,” Grandfather snapped back.Ryan put his hand on my grandfather’s arm and closed his eyes.
Moments passed, dragging by. Ryan was drawing energy from the entire pack and channeling it into my grandfather.
And it seemed to be working better than ever. My grandfather’s color seemed even better now. He stood up and glared at me. Then he stalked over and slapped me on the face so hard I rocked back on my heels.
“Traitor!” he snapped.
Daphne gasped.
“Sir,” I said. And I was happy. I was relieved. This was more strength than I’d seen in him in months. Maybe…maybe he was on the mend?
“I’ll be by in the morning to give him an energy transfer,” I said.
“I’ll take nothing from you!” my grandfather barked at me.
I bowed my head. “As you wish.” I would give him the illusion of control, at least. Some little shred of dignity.
Daphne and I stood side by side as they left, the door closing behind them.
My mate then turned to me with sadness in her eyes. “What was that about?”
I turned away and made my way to the bed. “It’s not important. It’s for me to worry about.”
“If it’s making your grandfather nearly kill himself to come here and try to prevent it, I’m pretty sure it’s important, Killian.” She crossed her arms. “He said you were going to moon bite me. What is that exactly?”
“You don’t have to burden yourself with worry, Daphne, so don’t.”
Her eyes drifted to the ceiling as she tried to figure it out on her own. “If you bite me, do I turn into a werewolf? I thought I already was one? Why would you need to bite me then?”
