9. Bjorn
Bjorn
Gran had always had interesting taste, Bjorn mused as they approached the colorful cottage Gran lived in.
Bjorn rapped on the door and then quickly unlocked it himself without waiting for a response.
“Gran?” he called, sticking his head through the doorway.
“It’s Bjorn. I came to see how you’re doing. ”
A crepey voice drifted from a room off to the right of the entryway. “Bjorn? Oh, heavens! Come in!” There was the sound of rustling bedding, and then a low curse. “Damn blankets. Why am I wrapped up like a sausage, anyway?”
Dennis looked like he was trying not to laugh at how put-out she sounded as he followed Bjorn deeper into the house. He paused when they started to cross a living room and put a hand on Bjorn’s arm to stop him. “Should I wait here?” he asked urgently.
Bjorn blinked at him. “Why?”
“Well, she doesn’t know me. Maybe she doesn’t want a stranger walking into her bedroom.”
No! Bjorn needed his mate with him when he saw the only person who loved him possibly dying. “You’re my mate. She’s going to want to meet you right away.”
Dennis looked like he wanted to protest the use of mate again, but eventually he swallowed it down and just said, “Okay.”
Bjorn poked his head into the main bedroom. “Hi, Gran! Oh, hello, Healer. Sorry, Gran, I didn’t realize you had company. Do you want us to wait outside?”
“Absolutely not!” Gran exclaimed. “Come in, come in. And who’s ‘we’? Did you bring a friend?”
Bjorn grabbed Dennis’s arm and nearly yanked him into the room with him. “This is Dennis,” he announced proudly. “We’re mates. Dennis, this is my Gran, Ginevra, and the den healer, Fiona.”
Gran was a wispy-looking woman in her eighties, her hair a steely gray and cat-eye glasses perched on her nose.
Her companion was a huskier, sturdily-built woman Bjorn knew was in her sixties, her face creased deeply but her smile bright.
Both women’s eyes widened at his words, and Gran began struggling in her blankets again, trying to sit up straighter.
“Oh, goddess,” she exclaimed, “you found your mate? Fi, help me up!”
The healer was a little slower to move, but eventually leaned over and untucked the blanket enough to free Gran.
“Good evening,” she said in an alto voice, nodding to both men.
“I was just checking in on Ginny, but I’ll leave her to you for now.
Don’t hesitate to call me if I’m needed, however.
” She stood. “It’s nice to see you again, Bjorn,” she added, giving him a little bow of her head before exiting the room.
“You too, Healer,” he said respectfully, watching as she closed the door behind her.
Then he turned to his grandmother and began fussing busily, tucking the blankets the healer had loosened back around her and then turning to pour her a glass of water from a pitcher on the nightstand.
“Gran, how are you feeling? Alpha wouldn’t tell me exactly what’s wrong, just that you were sick.
I was afraid it was really bad, but you look…
not that bad?” he finished dubiously, scanning her slight form.
“Pfft,” Gran scoffed. “I’m fine. It’s just a touch of the flu that went to my lungs.
I’ll be fit as a fiddle in a day or two.
” As if to disprove her words, however, immediately after saying that, she started coughing, a deep, barking sound.
It took a few seconds to die down and then a few more for her to regain her breath as she rested a hand on her chest in a pained manner. “Goodness.”
“Gran!” Bjorn fluttered around her, looking helplessly between her and Dennis. “What do I do?” he asked Dennis pleadingly.
Dennis shrugged, looking blank. “Nobody invites me over to nurse them when they’re sick. What did the healer say you need to do, ma’am?”
A final, lighter cough, and then she scowled. “Oh, that old busybody.”
“She’s Gran’s best friend,” Bjorn informed Dennis out of the side of his mouth.
Gran turned her scowl on Bjorn. “She won’t be for much longer if she doesn’t let me out of bed soon.
She said I have to stay here for at least three more days.
Three days!” she exclaimed, sounding grievously offended.
“Does she have any idea what else I could get done in three days?! Especially now that my baby is home for a visit.” She paused, then narrowed her eyes.
“It’s just a visit, right? Not that I don’t love you, my darling, but your parents… ”
“It’s just a visit,” Bjorn confirmed quickly. “Though Mom and Papa have already started lobbying.”
Gran scoffed and waved a hand. “Don’t listen to a word they say. My son and his wife are so caught up in their own malarkey that they can’t see what’s right in front of them when it comes to you. And now!” she added excitedly. “Now, you have a mate!”
“Well, it’s not exactly -” Dennis began, but before he could finish his protest, Bjorn felt the shift buzz through him with no warning.
He barely caught himself with his front paws on the bed before his weight collapsed on top of his ailing grandmother.
He dropped to all fours on the floor with a huff of annoyance.
This was getting really tiresome. Meanwhile, his grandmother was staring open-mouthed from him to Dennis and then back.
“What…” she said weakly, eyes wide, and then seemed to realize what was going on. “You’re not claimed?” she squeaked. “Why the hell not?”
Bjorn grunted and pointed his snout meaningfully at Dennis, who frowned at being put on the spot but gamely tried to answer the concerned-looking woman.
“Well, see, we live very different lives, and I like organization and order, and Bjorn is sort of…chaotic?” he finished.
It sounded like he didn’t even believe himself, and Bjorn dared to hope that maybe his mate was coming around.
Gran directed a swat at Bjorn’s hindquarters. “Bjorn! What kind of impression have you given this poor man? Did you even take the time to explain mating to him, or did you just turn into a bear and start licking him?”
He gave her a resentful glare, though the furry brows somewhat blunted the effect. He knew how to introduce himself to his mate, thank you very much! And there had been no licking, much to his disappointment.
Dennis, for his part, just snorted a laugh and muttered, “Close enough.”
“My Bjorn,” Gran said, her voice strong with surety now as she looked at Dennis, “is going to be so good for you, I promise. Even if he’s a little…well, yes,” she allowed, eyeing her grandson, “chaotic. But he’s as dependable as the day is long when it comes to people or things he cares about!”
“Ma’am,” Dennis tried to interject, and Bjorn simply couldn’t stand to hear him explain yet again how he didn’t want Bjorn.
Bjorn stepped on Dennis’s foot with a sharp-clawed paw, hoping to cut off his protest. “Ouch!” Dennis yelped, though Bjorn’s claws hadn’t penetrated the leather of his shoe. “What the hell, Bjorn?”
Bjorn grunted disapprovingly and Ginevra laughed.
“Oh, I can already see that this relationship is going to be fun to watch. Maybe being stuck in bed for three days won’t be so bad if this is the show I get!
” She paused to cough up some phlegm with an outsized hacking noise.
Politely, Dennis handed her a tissue from the box next to the bed.
She spat into it and wadded it up, then tossed it into a bedside trash can.
“Bjorn, baby,” she said, patting the bed next to her, “climb up here and give me a cuddle. Dennis, feel free to snuggle in on his other side.”
Dennis immediately backed away, looking like she’d just offered him a heaping plate of the plague. “Oh, no, ma’am. I’m fine.”
She cackled. “But bears give the best cuddles!” she exclaimed as Bjorn carefully maneuvered his large body onto the bed beside her.
"And don't worry, Fi says I'm not infectious anymore, so I can cuddle all I want.
" When Dennis just shook his head, she sighed.
“Your loss. How long do you usually stay like this?” she asked Bjorn, stroking his ears.
Dennis shrugged and answered for him. “Could be five minutes; could be an hour. It seems to be mostly random. Getting here was a bit of an adventure.”
“Oh, do tell!” She patted the edge of the bed. “If you won’t snuggle up, at least take a seat and tell me about your trip while we wait for Bjorn to be able to speak.”
Dennis gave her a suspicious look. Had Bjorn been able to talk, he would have told his mate that he was right to be suspicious; Gran was a meddler par extraordinaire.
Unfortunately, he was stuck as a bear and Dennis was on his own.
Finally, Dennis sat gingerly on the edge of the bed.
“Well, we were both accidentally booked at the same cabin in rural Pennsylvania, and then when we met, Bjorn’s shifting went out of control, so when they called him about your being sick, he wasn’t sure how he could get here.
I offered to drive, because he obviously couldn’t fly like, well…
” He gestured at the bear. “This. And he couldn’t drive, in case he shifted unexpectedly.
So I drove; we’ve been on the road for two days. ”
Gran winced and patted Bjorn again. “I’m sorry, baby. I did tell Fi to not call you, that it would just worry you, but I guess she -”
Dennis shook his head, interrupting her apology. “It wasn’t the healer; it was the alpha. He basically demanded Bjorn come back to see you. Not that he wasn’t happy to do it when he heard you were sick,” he added quickly, apparently not wanting to make Bjorn look reluctant.
That earned him a sigh from the woman and a huff from Bjorn.
“Pushy man,” Gran complained, then coughed again.
“He’s been wanting to get you back here for ages; I think your father has been in his ear a little too much.
” She glared at Bjorn. “Don’t do what they say, my boy. I know you’re happy where you are.”