Chapter 25
FRANKLIN
Isat back as Shirley Sue expertly tended to the tomato plants in front of her. They seemed to be bigger than the others and more laden with fruit. She looked at Ellison and his ragged little plant, and while she didn’t gloat, she definitely gave him a smug expression.
Ellison was young, but he was a serious kid. He’d be the next Alpha, if that was what he wanted, but he had years left without that kind of pressure. Vance would never force any of them into it. Hell, even Shirley Sue would make a great leader, and we’d had matriarch Alphas before.
There were options, and it didn’t matter to me, Vance, or anyone else that they weren’t directly related to the current Alpha.
As if to prove my point, Shirley Sue gestured to some of the branches.
“You have to snip some of these shoots so the plant can concentrate on growing fruit. You want to keep every little branch, but sometimes, you have to snip the bad ones so the plant can help the good ones become strong.”
Yeah, maybe Shirley Sue wouldn’t be a bad Alpha at all.
I looked over at Dawn, and she was smiling happily. We’d started with an afternoon gardening club soon after we’d gotten back from her former pack land, and she enjoyed it. The kids enjoyed it too, though Ellison was glaring a little more than necessary at his plant.
I enjoyed watching her with the cubs. She was so sweet and soft. She taught, gently corrected, and was just genuinely happy being surrounded by these tiny furballs of terror.
It had started with five cubs, but now there were almost fifteen. Some were here for extra outdoor time, others were just enamored by my Omega, and some were here for the snacks, but they all learned something.
“Okay, guys! Time’s up.” There were a few groans around the room. “Next week we’re going to start germinating some seedlings for the farm. Whoever gets the most seedlings to sprout gets a full honey cake to themselves.”
There were whoops of joy because we were nothing if not cliché, and bears loved honey cakes.
They bustled out, and I watched them head toward the mouth of the den. Although guard duty wasn’t really necessary, I liked to sit out here with Dawn and the cubs, just in case. When the last ones were back in the den, I walked over to the love of my life.
I lifted her up and put her on the potting bench. “I think I have a teacher fantasy now, sunrise. I need you to tell me that I’m the cleverest boy you’ve ever seen.”
Her eyes flashed with heat, and she grinned. “Don’t be weird,” she chided, kissing me softly. “But you are a good boy.”
Fuck. New kink unlocked.
The radio on my hip buzzed. “Hey, Franklin, are you still with Dawn?” Talbot’s voice was crackly and made him sound like Darth Vader.
Sighing, I kissed her softly as I pulled my radio from my belt. “Yeah. We just wrapped up dirt school.”
She slapped my chest, but I grinned at her.
“Can you both come to Vance’s office? Alexander’s here.”
My eyes went wide, and Dawn’s mouth slid open. “Alexander Alexander? The convocation member is here? In the den?” she hissed, and I shrugged.
I cleared my throat, because now Talbot’s odd tone made sense. “We’ll be right there.”
Fuck.
I lifted Dawn down from the bench, and she dusted the soil from her pants. She wore an apron, but she had been playing in the dirt with a bunch of kids for the last forty-five minutes. She was so far from clean, it was adorable.
“Do I have time to wash up?” she asked softly as we locked the greenhouse, just so none of the kids got the bright idea to come in and play with shit themselves.
I wanted to tell her yes, but Alexander was a dragon, and a powerful one at that, and he wasn’t the kind of being you kept waiting.
She took my hesitation as a no. Sighing, she rubbed her face with her sleeve, and I didn’t have the heart to tell her she made the dirt smears worse. I leaned down and kissed her, stroking some of it off her cheek. “You look beautiful. Like a goddess.”
Rolling her eyes at me, she continued to scrub at her cheeks. “I’m a mess, but that’s okay. Not like the convocation member didn’t already know that.”
As we strode through the den, any doubt that Alexander had come through here already disappeared. Everyone looked perturbed.
We walked the halls to Vance’s office, and I kept a confident smile on my face as Dawn pushed out some comforting Omega pheromones.
Dawn walked in front of me, and I watched her back.
She’d finally mastered the layout of the den, with its confusing turns that would throw off an intruder, and it meant so much to me that she considered this place home, a place where she was comfortable and safe.
We stopped in front of Vance’s office door, and Dawn rubbed her hands across her pants once more. They were yoga pants that hugged her cute, heart-shaped ass perfectly. Man, I loved that ass.
She gave me an exasperated expression, probably scenting my arousal. “Seriously?”
I shrugged, because honestly, I couldn’t help myself. I winked, wiped my damp palms on my jeans, and pushed the door open.
Everyone inside looked relaxed. Vance and Alexander each held a tumbler of whiskey, and Talbot was perched on the top of Vance’s desk.
It was only the fact that I’d known them both my whole life that I could tell they were on alert, tense but not threatened.
I rested my hand on Dawn’s spine, directing her to sit beside Talbot, only a few feet from Vance.
Pasting on my most affable smile, I walked over and bent my head to Alexander. “Sir.”
He thrust out a hand, and I shook it. “Good to see you, Franklin. As I was saying to your Alpha, apologies for dropping in unannounced.” He looked over at Dawn and bowed his head. “Omega. It’s good to see you looking so well.”
Dawn gave him the bright smile that melted my heart, and I could see the ancient dragon thaw a little under the weight of it. “I’m much happier, thanks to you. I appreciate all your help.”
The dragon’s eyes darkened. “It never should have happened. If anything, I’m indebted to you.
” He looked around at the rest of us, his expression unreadable.
“That’s why I’m here in person.” He cleared his throat, and I thought perhaps he was uncomfortable.
“I’ve recently discovered that I have a grandson. Tex.”
I held back my gasp, but barely. Everyone knew that Alexander’s daughter had disappeared years ago, and his quest to find her was something of a legend.
Dawn smiled brightly at him. “I’m so glad, sir. That’s excellent news.”
“Please, call me Alexander.” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, he is mated to a vampire up in Canada, who has enamored two of vampire kind’s most unhinged killers. Honestly, it’s like he’s making up for lost time in giving me gray hair. You may know of them. Lucius and the executioner.”
This time Talbot whistled. “That’s… rough,” he coughed out.
Alexander released a huffed laugh. “You aren’t kidding, but they seem to love him, and Raine, she protects him like he’s the foundation of her soul.
I think he’s as safe as he could possibly be outside of my own home.
They live in Dark River, which is a colony of vampires who choose not to feed from humans. ”
Vance nodded, though he kept shooting looks at me like I knew where this was going. I didn’t. “I’ve heard of it.”
There was a large shapeshifter colony up there, and I knew some of Leighton’s relatives lived there.
Alexander nodded. “I am getting to the point, I promise. While I was up there… visiting, I was surprised that Lucius had acquired a gift for Raine. You must understand, Lucius is ancient, and he doesn’t understand ethical morality the way most of us do.
He acquired three wolf shifter pups for her, which he’d retrieved from the underground trafficking market in New York—an Alpha, a beta, and an Omega around the age of five. ”
Dawn gasped, and she swayed on her feet. Talbot reached out and grabbed her, holding her tightly against his body. “Is it them? Christopher, Carmen, and Enit?”
Alexander gave her a bittersweet smile. “It is. By a weird stroke of fate, and the whims of a truly psychotic vampire, your cousins are now my great-grandchildren.”