Blood & Wine

42 | Fynley

My grandmother was a strong woman—a woman who had shot my dad twice. Once for my mother, once for me. She had been the one to beg us to stay, saying she'd find a way to keep us safe. She was an Alpha through-and-through, and I wondered if it was her I inherited my Alpha gene from and not my dad.

It was also her that promised every capable werewolf, and herself, to the cause. They hadn't hesitated to agree with her—but, first, about forty of them crowded into the living room and kitchen to hear us speak.

My grandmother slid two plates piled high with food toward me—three ham and cheese sandwiches a piece, French fries, and three thick slices of chocolate cake. Dasher tried to thank her, but she waved him off, eager to hear the tale I had for her. "I heard a good bit of what you two said to each other, but I didn't quite understand it," she told me, sitting down at the table. She had a cup of tea in her mug, but she took out a flask of whiskey and poured half the contents into the rest of it.

"It's pretty long," I answered, eating some fries. Looking at the sandwiches, I was reminded of Eden, and how she had appeared with Cuban sandwiches just because they were on my mind. When she had other things to do. Also, how she threatened to skin the fur from my hide. The thought made me smile.

"Make it short."

Dasher ate his food, looking between me and her as if he wasn't sure what to do with either of us.

"Well," I started off, pausing my eating, "this is my cousin, Dasher. My father was one of three triplets. Dasher's father is evil, has been hidden, and he's considered the Leader of the Rogues, and he wants to kidnap Dasher and keep him so that he could manipulate Dasher into becoming the type of Leader he wants him to be—but Dasher has only been a werewolf for about four months now, and he's also a witch. He's a part of a Coven that belongs to my Mate, and his cousin."

My grandmother blinked.

Dasher decided to pick up. "I was raised by a werewolf who was not my father, but I thought he was. My mom decided to keep that a secret, but four months ago, my entire family, including my fiancée, was brutally murdered by Rogue werewolves trying to get to me. I killed one of them and Changed a week later, under the protection of my cousin, Eden, who is a Coven Mother at twenty-four. She's also Fynley's Mate."

"Then," I added after chewing my fry, "we found out that one of the triplets would be lost to evil and one would be lost to their child. The other triplet, a girl, was murdered when she was seven by Dasher's father. Now that my dad wants to kill me, it's safe to assume, I'm the one that has to kill him. So, right now, my Mate is back in Magus trying to gather together witches, while I try to gather werewolves to help the hundreds of werewolves marching in on us in a day or two."

"Oh, and Eden's grandmother wants to kill her—she's the Queen Mother of the Witches. Eden has to battle her, while Fynley battles his dad, and I battle my dad, and everybody else battles everybody else," Dasher added. His eyebrows furrowed. "I think that's it?"

Nope, not quite. "Oh, and we're kind of stuck in this situation because I killed an entire Coven last year to break the Blood Bonds that kept my pack in shackles. Eden's mom, who was a part of that Coven, put a spell on me as a child so that no one could force me into a blood bond me. She was the one bonded to Mom. I didn't know that until later, though. Anyway, killing the Coven brought Eden to Magus, and I was very mean to her because I didn't want to face my dad and put her or the woman Intended for me in danger of his wrath. We had a very rocky start to our relationship."

"So I came in," Dasher said proudly. "I needed a werewolf to help me through the Change, and Eden and Calla, my soulmate in a platonic way, couldn't help me. They taught me how to be a witch and protect myself, and, sometime during that, her and Fynley became friends. Enemies to allies to friends, and now they're Mated."