Another Half

Azul Springs

June 2012

Blade started to laugh, but she settled down and sat back down when she realized that the poor guy in front of her was utterly confused by her reaction to a simple grilled salmon dinner.

“Is something wrong?” Rex asked, looking uncomfortable. “Do you want me to order something else? I can order a pizza or tacos, or whatever else you want.”

She felt his anxiety through the bond, and it made her feel bad for making their first meal together awkward. He was trying so hard.

“Oh, no,” she said enthusiastically. Blade grabbed the folded white cloth napkin, shook it loose, and put it on her lap. “This is actually the best dish for our first meal together.”

Rex looked even more perplexed.

“This was the last meal I prepared for that shit—for Nick,” she said, grinning, “before I laced his wine with something to knock him out and left him kissing the salmon on his plate.”

Rex grinned back, and for the life of her, Blade couldn’t believe how beautiful he looked.

“I’m sure he deserved it.”

“Of course,” she said with a sigh, looking down at the dinnerware. It was a deep blue with a fancy gold edge. Even the cutlery was gold in color, and she wondered if it was made from real gold or if it was just painted. “Actually, he deserved far worse, but I did not want the pack to chase Andy and me across the country.”

“He’s still alive, then?”

She nodded and then looked up at him when she felt a strong ping of anxiety and jealousy from her mate.

“What is it?”

“Andy?”

Blade stopped smiling. “Did you—is Andy okay?”

Rex nodded. “Crystal took them all with Rachel to Saxe Oaks to spend time with Rachel’s parents.”

“Oh! That’s great. Crys is always so thoughtful.” She paused waiting for him to ask the question that was eating at him. “Go on. Ask.”

Rex cleared his throat. “So do you drink wine?”

“Yes! I would love some wine.”

“A Pinot Noir?”

“With grilled salmon?” She looked at him and raised her hands high into the air in appreciation. “Finally! Someone who knows how to pair wine!”

Rex looked amused as he went to the bar and came back with a bottle of wine and two stemmed glasses.

“I better know about liquors and wines,” he called out from behind the bar. “I own a damn distillery.”

Blade laughed. “What is that like? Owning a distillery? Is it really yours?”

Rex came back, uncorked the bottle, and poured the wine. They ate as he spoke about his businesses and how they were his but so was the responsibility of using all his assets to take care of the Essa family and the pack. His family’s progress, prosperity, and perpetuity were in his hands.

“My great-grandfather designed it so that only a brother of the current alpha can run the distillery as the CEO. Just like the pack passes from father to son, the distillery always passes from uncle to nephew. It ensures that the company stays within the alpha’s family.”

“How did you get both?”

Rex shrugged. “I have no living brothers. I’m the first since my great-grandfather to have both. But when the time comes, I will pass on the distillery to whichever one of our sons, except the eldest, is the most prepared and capable.”

Blade sipped her wine. “What if the most capable of our children happens to be our daughter?”

He shook his head. “I don’t think a woman could be CEO of a distillery.”

“If you believe that then so will she and her brothers.”

“Listen, running a distillery is hard,” Rex said spearing a piece of salmon and putting it into his mouth.

“So is becoming a pack’s Training Master,” she said, raising her glass of wine, “and yet here we are. And I’ve done it twice.” She winked at him.

“About that, are you going to resign now that you’re Luna?”

“Nope!”

It was false that alphas could do whatever they wanted without damaging the pack they ruled. Alphas had rules that kept their packs stable. Rules and laws gave pack members a sense of stability and comfort in the consistency and predictability they offered. One such rule was that an alpha could not, for instance, take another male’s mate as their own. Additionally, Alphas couldn’t take away or force someone to resign from a position they had fairly earned. Thus, Rex had no power over Blade’s decision to stay as Training Master, much to her relief and satisfaction.

They ate in comfortable silence for several minutes. Blade could feel Rex mulling something over, something that was vexing him, and he was having a hard time reconciling it. She enjoyed watching him from across the small table wrestle with whatever was on his mind.

“Fine,” he finally said with a smile. “If our daughter is the more capable of our children, I will pass on the distillery to her. But her shit mate gets nothing out of it, no special privileges, no special positions, nothing. He’s just the mate of the CEO, just as if he were a male CEO’s mate. Our daughter also has to follow the rule of passing it to a son of her oldest brother.”

“You mean to a son or daughter of her oldest brother,” Blade said with a smile. Rex was going to be a good father, even if he was already emasculating their daughter’s mate. “I’m sure our future daughter and all our female descendants will appreciate your fairness.”

They ate in silence for a while again.

“Well?” He sat up and put down his fork. The expectation was evident in his voice.

“I’m still not giving up my being Training Master, Rex. I worked too hard for that.”

“But I just made a concession!”

He was too cute when he pouted.

“And congratulations are in order, but I would hope you made that concession as a future father who loves his daughter as much as his sons and as a businessman who wants to leave his company in the most competent hands possible. Whoever you choose to leave the distillery to, male or female, has nothing to do with me and my own work.”

“You can’t be Luna and Training Master at the same time!”

“Well, Mister Alpha of four packs and CEO of a distillery, sit back and enjoy as you watch me.”

“What about when you get pregnant?”

“I’ve already thought about that,” she said, using her fork to attack her mashed potatoes. “I will set aside a few assistants for accelerated advanced training to help me when I’m too far along. I’m thinking of asking an omega called Raul, he’s strong but teachable. And, if his loss didn’t destroy his ego, I’ll ask Hammer when he finally gets out of the hospital.”

She snickered at the thought of Hammer in a hospital bed. Uncle Danny always said it was a badge of achievement to send your opponents to the infirmary, but it was a damn trophy to send them to the hospital.

“You sent Hammer to the hospital?” Rex said with awe.

Blade was pleased to feel her mate’s pride over her abilities. Nick had been embarrassed that his mate could beat up anyone in the pack, which was something he could never do.

She pointed at Rex with her fork. “Start placing your bets because I’ll make sure our daughter will be just as capable, if not more so, than our sons.”

Rex’s triumphant grin discomfited her.

“Just remember that this could mean that we won't stop having pups until we have a daughter, and a girl hasn't been born to an Essa Alpha for at least five generations.”

Blade widened her eyes, and Rex started laughing.

Shit.