Chapter 18: Chapter 18

JASON “You keep staring at my hands,” I say to my beta. “Why?”

Terrence is silent for a few seconds. “I’ve seen those hands choke the last life out of an enemy. I’ve seen your claws eviscerate a dozen enemies.”

“And?”

“Last night I saw from the rode way as you warmed some ex-convict woman’s hands.”

I frown. I lean back in my desk chair and regard him coldly.

“Never mind,” Terrence says. “A minor observation.” He hands me a card.

I don’t open it. “What is it?

“This is the invitation. In two weeks, Lily and Sean Stevens will get officially engaged. Senior Alpha Stevens hopes that you can join."

"Engagement?"

Of course, I understand the intentions of these packs sending this. After all, Jennifer Atkinson, is the eldest daughter of the Atkinson Alpha and before that tragic accident, she had been my fiancee. Now Sean Stevens, the young Alpha of Pack Stevens is marrying Jennifer’s sister, Lily.

“They want to see our attitude,” Terrence says.

Yes. "Then let's go and have a look."

I spend the next few hours evaluating business proposals and contracts.

In the afternoon, Terrence accompanies me to a private medical facility that my pack owns in the city.

Terrence stands outside the ward.

I push open the door and walk in slowly.

The old man in the hospital bed had once dominated the world. He’d built the Reed Pack empire and it was his efforts that grew our pack’s fortunes. But his only son had run away from home for a female.

Many years later, the only two things that would come back to the Reed family were a handful of ashes and a child.

Me.

I look at the old man in the hospital bed. This man, who deserved to be called his grandfather, was dressed in a hospital gown with a needle in the back of his hand. His body was getting weaker and weaker day by day, and he looked thin. Frail.

A physician enters the room. “Dr. Clemson… how is he?”

This doctor is one of our pack’s finest doctors. He’s been on a rotation here at this human facility to ensure the senior Alpha receives the best care.

“Don’t you two start talking about me like I’m not standing right here!”

Clemson smirks. “He’s in good spirits today.”

Grandfather growls.

Clemson grins and walks out of the room. “I’m around if you need any specific information.”

"You're here,” Grandfather tells me.

Stating the obvious a bit.

"Yes, I'm here," I say.

We quietly face each other. This interaction models after many in the course of our lives. The silence is familiar.

After a long while, he says: "I heard from my beta that the Stevens and the Atkinson packs are going to join forces through marriage?" Even during the old man's hospitalization, his beta would still report to him every day.

I’m not surprised.

I’ve been in control as the ruling Alpha for many years now, but this old wolf has never really accepted that he is no longer in charge.

"They're getting engaged in two weeks, and they've already sent us the invitation,” I tell him.

"You're going?"

"Why shouldn't I go?" I reply. “Celebrate their lasting love and all that.”

Grandfather cackles. “That’s more like it.” He nods. “Good, good, you're not like your father."

“I was willing to marry once, to secure a luna and the same pack affiliation that Alpha Stevens is chasing now with Jennifer’s sister.” I glance out the window. “I”m not like…him. You don’t have to worry that I’ll make some emotional decision and get trapped by the love of some female.”

Oddly, I think of Grace for a moment.

But that isn’t love. We barely know each other.

That situation is simply one that… amuses me.

“I’m glad to hear it,” grandfather says. He coughs. “The Stevens Pack likely wants you to condone the marriage so he can assure himself there are no hard feelings for his ex-girlfriend killing Jennifer, your first love.”

I don’t bother to correct him on loving Jennifer. We had…an arrangement. Though I suppose I did love her in my own way.

“I’m more concerned with how their marriage might consolidate their packs and resources, should they merge.”

“They’d still only be half as powerful as we are.”

I shrug.

We wolves cohabit peacefully for the most part, namely because our numbers are not so large and we have to protect our species from the human race. I didn’t particularly care about the Stevens Pack and if Sean Stevens wanted to marry or mate Lily, that was his business. Of course, I’d watch them carefully to make sure they stayed in their place, but other than that…why should I care?

There may have been a time when I was feeling spiteful, but I wasn’t going to embroil my pack in a battle that wouldn’t bring Jennifer back.

“You’re not like your father,” grandfather says quietly.

“No. I am not like him. And neither will I be like him.”

The old Alpha grabs my wrist. "Remember what you have said today, Jason. Do not act like him. If he was willing to listen to me back then, he would not have..."

Given up everything.

The truth lies between us like a carcass.

My father mated a woman who did not return the bond. My father should’ve moved on. Instead he groveled at her feet…until there was nothing left of him.