Page 6 of Fangs for the Memories
“She is a she-wolf of tremendous breeding, a good family. She will bear you many pups.” Mother plows on.
“I don’t care.”
“You will meet her. She is the youngest daughter of Belá Roka. I don’t want you ending up with something disgusting dragged in from the street.”
I grit my teeth at the mention of the second werewolf family from Budapest.
“How…” I run my hand through my hair, tugging at it. “No, it doesn’t matter how you arranged this. I won’t meet her, Mother. I’m not giving the Roka family the satisfaction.”
“You will meet her. Be at the Géllert in an hour.” She hangs up on me.
The one person in the whole of Hungary who can dare to order me around is my mother.
I shouldn’t go. I have a shipment to track down and a cousin who fancies himself as the next head of this family to deal with. But I know I will turn up because my mother has told me to.
I hate myself for it. I do not want the Roka thinking they have any influence over me, and this meeting will be held up by them as a potential closer tie.
My business will suffer for it. I will suffer for it. I curse under my breath at my mother’s obsession about my mating.
“So, a meeting with Belá Roka…”
“I swear you have ears as good as a vampire, you old fossil,” I snap.
Viktor moves out of the shadows. He watches, that’s what gargoyles do. It also makes him some of the best security a werewolf mafia boss can get.
“An old fossil who keeps your hide intact,” Viktor says, taking the stogie from me and puffing until his stone face is nearly obscured. “Don’t you forget it.”
I chuckle. Viktor has saved me from myself more times than I can count. But he and his organization are paid well for their services.
Doesn’t stop me from trusting him. I’ve known the old gargoyle forever. He and his kind have been providing protection for my family for as long as I can remember.
“You shouldn’t go,” he says finally.
“No, I shouldn’t.” The last thing I need is a lesser pack attempting some sort of power grab, not when we’ve finally come to an uneasy truce with the last remaining vampire clan, the Király.
“I’m thinking of adding the Géllert to my portfolio anyway,” I say, shuffling the endless papers on my desk. “This is as good an opportunity as any to look it over.”
“I’ll come with you.” Viktor shifts his considerable huge bulk into the light shed by one of the tall windows of my office.
I am a big alpha wolf, but next to this gargoyle, I may as well be a pup.
“Can I stop you?”
“No one has died under my care, and you’re not going to be the first, no matter how indestructible you think you are,” he rumbles.
“Guess you’re coming with me.” I shrug, turning my phone onto silent and dropping it into my pocket.
Today is not shaping up to be a good day.
Grace
“Look, Mum.” I hold the phone away from my ear as she shrieks down it. “I need some time to myself. I need to be on my own right now.”
More shrieking follows, most of it incomprehensible. Most of it about her because it’s always about her.
“No, I am not going to speak tohim,” I say firmly as I finally catch a sentence which makes sense. “He cheated on me, he humiliated me, and he is dead to me.”
The noise on the other end of the phone increases.
