Chapter Six #2
“Right. About that. Let’s get that settled right now.
” Grandma reached into her purse and got her reading glasses, then pulled out her phone and made a call.
“Yes, we are near the pillar with the blue roses and icicles. Give us five minutes to finish dinner and join us for dessert.” She hung up, put the glasses and phone away, and smiled.
“Your new clan leader is here for dinner, so the formalities will be done by the time we have coffee.”
Amy blinked. “Wait. They are here? You have a clan head ready here?”
“Of course.”
Emmers sighed. “Grandma has a bit of pull with the other clans.”
Grandma finished her main and set her utensils down. “I have a lot of pull with the other clans. That is why Cookie has been able to run around out and about playing agent here in Redbird.”
Amy blinked. “His job is serious, and he balances out his team. He’s the shifter representative.”
“And you, what do you do?”
“I keep track of where all the morons put the evidence and make sure that all the tags are in the right box.”
Emmers grinned. His own plate was empty, as was Amy’s.
The servers cleared things out, and then the dessert menu was presented, and Grandma smiled and looked at them both. She beckoned the server, pointed at a number of selections, and then smiled and said, “And coffee and iced coffee for four. We are expecting a fourth.”
The server smiled, “Yes, ma’am.”
She nodded, and he left them.
A stately man, who looked to be close to sixty, in a dark blue suit with a white shirt, arrived and bowed toward Grandma. “Lady Frostclaw, it is an honour to see you in the city.”
“Oh, you will be seeing me more often if this works out.” Grandma grinned. “Now, have a seat, Normic. This is my grandson Emmers and the lady in question, Amhoran Balleran, banished daughter of the Icehorn clan.”
Normic smiled. “Why banished?”
“I stayed human too long. I gained my skills after the recent wave.”
Grandma was working on her phone. “Here you go. This is the photo set that I promised you.”
Normic’s phone pinged, and he pulled it out of the inner pocket of his jacket. He opened the message and started flicking through them. “These are all you?”
“Yes, sir. What is your clan?”
Normic mumbled, “Frostfire. Oh, you will make an excellent daughter of our house. And a fox. How cute! We would be delighted to offer you membership in our clan as my husband’s and my adopted daughter.
It means meetings at least once a quarter.
When we have formal events here in the city, we will expect you to make an appearance with or without the bear.
” He didn’t look up. “I am sending this to Keel. He’s very keen on the idea of getting a powerful daughter with minimal effort. ”
She blinked. “Just like that?”
“Just like that. Keel is using the office here to print the documentation that Lady Frostclaw has sent us and use that to fill out our own. You will have a clan and be able to walk the northern territories again the moment that they are ratified. So, by dessert.”
Grandma smiled as the coffee arrived.
The server tensed when he saw Normic, and he carefully set the cups just so.
Normic looked up and smiled. “You two have a connection?”
Emmers smiled. “I would certainly like to pursue one.”
Amy said weakly, “My lack of clan causing an issue later was my main concern.”
“Grandma works fast.”
Normic chuckled. “If you end up formalizing things, I would ask that you have the ceremony here. Keel loves weddings, and having our adopted daughter get married here would make him so happy.”
“Just like that? I mean, you are going to take me on just like that?” Amy looked at him with concern.
Normic put his hand out, and she put her fingers against his.
He smiled. “Keel and I are unable to have children, and our busy occupations make us ineligible for adoption. Finding frost-based surrogates is impossible, so you are our daughter now. Any children you have will be our grandchildren and spoiled silly.” He smiled.
“I am an arctic wolf, and he is a snowy owl. We will get you new clan identification and send you for photos. Oh, and we can get family photos done as well. Where do you work?”
“I am in admin at the XIA.”
“Was there much secondary education?”
“No, just enough to qualify. I was on my own, so it took a bit of effort to keep my head above water.”
Normic nodded. “If you want to continue in any field, feel free to do so. We will foot the bill.”
“Um, thank you?”
The desserts arrived, and several of them were set between Emmers and Amy. Grandma chuckled. “Those are for sharing. You might want to be quick, Vixen. Cookie likes sweets.”
Amy picked up her dessert spoon and stabbed the crème br?lée. The crack of sugar was hers.
Normic laughed and sipped at his coffee.
After making sure that Grandma had her own dessert, Amy played a tasting game with Emmers. She found that if she sighed and shivered, he stopped eating and stared, which gave her the chance to get a few more bites before he snapped out of it.
They went through the crème br?lée, a chocolate cake, and a series of cheesecakes that were in pretty rounds on the plate. When she was done, she leaned back and drank the hot coffee before switching to the iced.
A man was standing next to Normic, and his eyes were hopeful. He had a sheaf of paperwork in his hands. Her ears twitched, and he grinned. “That is very right.”
“Mr. Keel?”
“Keel, or Dad, or Father, but if you have kids, I am putting dibs on Pop-pop.”
Amy felt Emmers staring at her, and her face got hot. “Keel for now. Thank you for welcoming me.”
“When Lady Frostclaw first asked us, we wanted to know if we were her last choice, but she said we were her first. We are located here, have a strong desire for family, and your birth mother hates us, so we are all together there then.” Keel grinned.
“We can’t give you your old family back, but with us, you can help us get a new one, and we will do the same for you.
If you didn’t have a suitor already, we could have a line twenty men deep in about three hours. ”
Emmers growled, and Amy growled back at him. He blinked and leaned his head back in surprise.
“Don’t fuck with my new family, Emmers. I can and will flip you to your back and then ask Keel about the first of twenty.”
He blinked in shock. “Yes, ma’am.”
Grandma was grinning. “Vixen, sign the paperwork, and then I have to ask Normic a question.”
A server brought Keel a chair, and he sat next to her. They went over all the documentation required to register for a new clan. Frostfire was right up her alley.
She looked at the schedule of public appearances and blinked. “Oh, this is a lot.”
Keel chuckled. “We will ease up next year, but for this year, we want you firmly entrenched in our community.”
She glanced at Emmers. “Are you sure about this?”
He grinned. “If I am off, I am yours.”
Amy said softly to Keel, “He works nights.”
“Ah. Well, you can be on your own for most of these.”
She nodded and kept slogging through the paperwork, reading it as she went.
She surrendered her claim to her previous clan and gave all details about her name, address, phone number, and occupation.
She had to list her friends, neighbours, and work associates.
Casual associates were on there as well.
She filled all of the information out, including Emmers’ number and his association as a tentative romantic interest. His clan was also listed.
When she listed her birthday and preferred cake flavour, she began to understand that they wanted to understand her, and they wanted it fast.
“So, I am going to get some of this info on you two, right?” She glanced at Keel.
He grinned. “We don’t need anything and have a few restaurants, so we get what we want.”
“Flowers?”
Keel paused. “That would definitely be appreciated.”
She nodded. “Thanks.”
She signed the final page and exhaled as she returned his pen.
Normic had been talking softly to Grandma and Emmers. He smiled and absently signed the lines where clan leader authorization was necessary.
Keel was vibrating with excitement.
When the final page was signed, she got hugged from the side. She chuckled. “It’s a girl.”
Keel was making happy trills of sound, and she remembered that he was an owl.
Normic walked up behind her, pried Keel off, and hugged her as well. “Welcome to the family, daughter.”
“Thanks... uh... Normic?”
He laughed and kissed her temple before setting her down.
Grandma looked at Normic. “Now, clan leader, I have a few things to discuss with you. The first is that my grandson wants to court your daughter. Her call has been answered.”
Normic grinned and looked at Emmers. “You wish to court Amhoran?”
“Yes, clan leader. I do.”
“What will happen if I deny you?”
“I will make myself very agreeable to her and try to win her the old-fashioned way.”
Keel chuckled. “So, seduction then?”
“I would begin with courtship and move to seduction when appropriate.”
Amy snorted.
All gazes turned to her.
She sipped her coffee. “What? I can still outrun him. Portals are great.”
Normic smiled. “I did read that. When did you learn to do portals?”
“After I was banished but before the wave. I had access to minor mage magic from a grandmother.”
Keel said softly, “A shifter with usable magic is rare.”
“I wasn’t a shifter, I wasn’t a mage, and then the wave knocked me on my butt, and I was both and a bit more.”
Normic nodded. “We look forward to you being yourself at at least one of our family gatherings. Do you have a seamstress who can work with your differing shapes?”
“I do. Vaia.”
Keel nodded. “I hear she’s very good.”
“She is.”
Emmers was waiting, and Normic grinned. “Yes, you may court Amhoran, daughter of this house.”
Emmers exhaled softly in relief. His grandmother snickered. “He gets a hard-on watching her drink coffee. He had better start the courtship soon. Thank you for your agreement.”