Page 4 of Conri

“I have a headache, Cynthia.I don’t know what is going on, but I want nothing to do with it.Howard, our son is here.Let’s go into the dining room where I can have a seat.”Mother usually gavein to her sister and made her do whatever she wanted.But today, with this argument, she had won.But it wouldn’t last long, she knew, and she was going to take what joy she got out of Cynthia being upset with both parents.“Come along now.Bring your young man through, too, Cassidy.We’ll have a lovely meal, then your father can have a word with all of you.”

Yuri was seated next to her.As he pulled her chair out, she watched as Cynthia struggled to get someone to do the same for her.Finally, she got Howie to do it.

“I can tell you why you’re all here if you want to know.”She asked Yuri if it was bad.“Yes.Your father has a tumor on his brain that isn’t operatable.He’s known about it for a week now, and he needs to start on chemotherapy.”Yuri took her hand under the table and squeezed it.“I’m so very sorry, Cass.He’s going to talk to you all about getting settled before he leaves this world.”

“You’re joking?He wants us to get married and have a home life before he—how long does he have?”Yuri told her that he’d been given a year, but he didn’t think he was going to make it that long.

“It’s a good-sized tumor.They did a biopsy on it a week ago.”She didn’t want anything to happen to her dad.Or her mom, for that matter.It wasn’t until Yuri squeezed her hand again that she started paying attention at the table.

The meal was a blur.When someone would ask her something, Yuri would squeeze her hand, and she’d pay attention enough to speak, but then she’d go right back to being upset.It wasn’t until her dad stood up that she put all her focus on him.

“I have an inoperable tumor on my brain.I have less than a year to live.”And just like that, he left them to go to the living room.As soon as Cynthia started wailing that her poor daddy was going to die, she got up and went to the living room with her father.The only other person that came into the room with her was Yuri.She asked him why he’d told them like he had.“I needed to let you know all at one time, and this seemed to be the best possible way.Having your young man here, it gave me strength.I don’t know why, but he did.So, I guess thank you for that.”

“So that’s it?You told us you were going to die in a year and think that what?We’d be all right with that?I have news for you, Buster, I’m not all right with that.We might not have seen eye to eye on a great many things, but you’re still my father, and I’m not going to allow you to die without getting some answers.”He looked at her with tears in his eyes.“Dad, don’t do that.I’m not going to wail at you like Cynthia did, but I’m going to get all slobby with my heart breaking if you cry, too.”

“I’m going to miss you most of all, I think.”She looked in the doorway when he did and was glad that it was empty.“You’ve been…well, Cassidy, you’ve been the one that keeps me laughing and going for all these years.I don’t want to leave you.”

“Oh, Dad, don’t say that.I’m here if you need me.”He told her that he did need her here with him in his final year.“You want me to move back in?Dad, that’s not a good thing.You remember why I was asked to leave.”

“I was a fool for giving into her demands.I want you here with me.I need someone to distract me when I’m having a pity party for myself.Play some chess with me when I’m in need of a little competition.”He reached out for her hand, and she gave it to him.“Please say that you’ll move back in here and keep me company.Please, my child.”

“All right.I’ll do it.”She turned and looked at Yuri.“I’m sorry about all this.I’m glad that you’re here.Would you take me for a ride someplace?Anyplace?”

After telling her dad that she’d be back later, he hugged and kissed her on the cheek.Then, when her mother joined them in the living room, she told her that she was going out and would return later.Nodding once, she asked if Dad had asked her yet.With a nod, she was out the door and in the big truck that all the Valley men had when they were out and about.

She didn’t know how long they’d been driving when she realized they were in front of the Dari Q.Still upset, she wasn’t sure she could eat anything when Yuri said he was getting her a shake.She told him she needed a chocolate malt with chocolate ice cream.He kissed her on the cheek and got out of his truck.She was really hungry all of a sudden and couldn’t wait for him to return.

When he brought her the malt, she sat in his warm truck and drank it.He was waiting on morefood and wondered why he’d not gotten enough to eat at her house.Then she remembered that he was a wolf, and it more than likely wasn’t enough for him, whatever it had been.For the life of her, she couldn’t remember one thing about the meal she’d had with her family.

Getting into the truck, he handed her a foil-wrapped something.Opening it up, she was thrilled that he’d got her a burger, too.The four that he had on his lap made her laugh.It felt good to be around him when he could make her laugh with what she’d gone through at home.

“I’m sorry about tonight.And it would serve me right if you never wanted to see me again.”He finished one of the burgers and looked at her.She told him again how sorry she was.“I should have known it wasn’t going to be good because it never is at our family dinners.”

“I’ve been talking to my mom.”She nodded and shoved the last bite of burger in her mouth, reaching for another one.She didn’t feel bad when he said they were for himself.Then he gave her one of them.“You seem to know a great deal about shifters.So I’m assuming that you know what a mate is?”

“Yes.I used to work with a couple of wolves.I believe they were a part of your pack.Anyway, I also worked with other shifters, and they all have mates or hope they do.Why did you contact your mother?”He ate another burger while she was just getting the foil off her second one.“You’d better go and order some more now so they’ll be ready when you are.”

He told her that was a good idea and got out of the truck, leaving just one of the burgers left behind.When he returned, saying they were going to bring them out to him, he turned and looked at her while he polished off the last of his stash.

“I told my mom how I felt about you.”She asked if she was his mate.“No.I wish you were, but you’re not.However, I do have feelings for you.I have this overwhelming need to protect you like my sister or something along those lines.Mom seems to think that these feelings are here because you are my sister and mate to one of my brothers.I’ll be back.I forgot to order myself a drink.”

She was glad that she’d eaten before he dropped that bombshell on her.Putting the last bite back in the foil, she thought about what he was saying.His brother’s mate.While he didn’t say who, she didn’t know any of them like she did Yuri, and that wasn’t saying a great deal.She barely knew him.When he got back in the truck, she asked him how many brothers he had.

“Five and a sister.But she’s found her mate a long time ago and rarely comes around anymore.”She waited until he finished eating before asking him about his brothers.Honestly, she didn’t know what to ask him.But she did want to know if any of them were pricks like her brother could be.“Nah.Conri is the alpha to our back of about four hundred wolves.Since he’s the alpha, if you’re his mate, you’d be his alpha bitch.Not in a bad way.It’s just what they call her.Then there is Kendrick.He’s a doctor right now.Nice guy if you ask me.Yanick is funny like you are.I’m hoping that you’re mated to him.You’ll enjoy his sense of humor.He’s a cook at one of the restaurants in Columbus.But he doesn’t like it anymore, so he will change to something else soon.Rette and Lamar are twins, but they look nothing alike.Rette is more of Mom’s coloring, and Lamar is darker like Dad was.They’re both artists.Then there is me.I keep us all in money by investing what we have because we’ve been around a long time.”

“How long have you been around?I’m assuming here that you’re a good deal older than you look.”He nodded and asked her if she freaked out.“Not normally, no.You might say I’m sort of jaded about life in general.How old?”

“Conri is the oldest and has been around about four hundred years.I’m the youngest, and I’m still nearly three hundred and fifty years old.”She nodded and felt her belly churn up a bit.“Are you going to be sick?”

“No.I don’t believe so.But that is a lot to take in.”He told her he was sorry.“I’ll be all right.I’m just calculating how much older you guys are than me.I’m only twenty-four.”

~*~

Conri was the last of his brothers to go and see Cassidy.She was working today at the grocery store and seemed to be really busy.She’d looked up at him several times since he came into the store on the ruseto buy bread.Finally, when she was finished with the customer in front of him, she spoke.

“You here to sniff around?As you can see, I’m busy and don’t have time for your crap.Get it over with so that I can go home and be assured that I’m not going to have to bow down before some jerk that only comes in the store for—do you even need that loaf of bread?”He shook his head, too stunned by her anger toward him.“Well, you’d better put it back where you got it from before you leave here.I don’t have time to front and face the store after you’re gone.Get it over with.”

He hadn’t any idea what front and face the store meant, but he turned to take the bread back like she’d told him.Before he was even halfway there, she called him back to get his ‘sniffing’ over with for her.Inhaling deeply, he knew in that moment what he’d been fearing for the last couple of weeks.She was his mate.

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