Free Wolf's Holiday by Rebecca Royce Page B

really there.
    “Do I look like her? My parents always talk about how they named me after her because she was such a strong wolf.”
    Gee shook his head. “She didn’t have red hair. Your sister, Magnolia—she looks like Elizabeth, but you have her spirit. I knew it when you were born. You looked me right in the eye the same way she used to.”
    Betty smiled. “What else was she like?”
    “Well, she and Patrick used to fight as hard as they loved. He would do something to make her mad, and she would rail at him not caring who they were in front of.” Gee tapped his fingers on the bar. “One time, at Winter Solstice, the pack had gotten back from a run. Everyone had piled together to warm up, the way they always do. And I don’t know what Patrick said, but Elizabeth she jumped over the bar, grabbed some of the best whiskey, and poured it over his head before she tore his shirt off his body.” Gee shook his head. “The next day Patrick came in and paid for the bottle.”
    Wow. Betty had done a lot of dramatic things in her life, only she’d never thought of publicly pour alcohol over Drew’s head. Even when he’d come from being missing she’d not told him off in front of others. Her grandmother was…spirited.
    “And you have no idea what they were fighting about?”
    Gee rocked back on his feet. “Not the particular details. I know it had to do with your grandfather, Stan.”
    Stan, Betty remembered. Before he’d died in a raid—or maybe it had been a war, the details of the skirmish and his death were sketchy in her mind—he used to bounce her on his leg. He always smelled of peppermint and cigars. He had a deep, throaty laugh.
    “I haven’t thought about him in years. He was a nice man.”
    “That night, your grandmother was convinced your grandfather had turned him into some kind of hooligan. Patrick had given him permission to skip the run. The old Alpha, one of Drew’s ancestors—actually, the shortest Alpha on record, think he only lasted two years before his brother killed him—was easy-peasy about the rules. Patrick didn’t think Elizabeth should have cared so much, considering the Alpha didn’t.”
    Betty shuddered. Two years. She tried not to think of Drew being assassinated. Mangum’s cronies had been mostly dealt with, although a few remained, always trying to get over onto pack land. Other than them, she couldn’t imagine anyone actually wanting to hurt Drew.
    Although, when the pack got stronger, he’d be at more risk. A fully functioning pack was far more desirable. Betty shook her head. She couldn’t fix the problems of the world. She’d mated a male who was Alpha. Living with the ramifications was one of her jobs.
    “Funny to think they worried about my grandfather. He was such an upright person. A dominant. Ran the lumber business. Serenaded his mate every year on their anniversary, even after she died.”
    “Listen, I’m not expert. I have a daughter, as you know.”
    Gee so rarely spoke of Amelia. She was always around, yet so infrequently did she join them for celebrations. Betty had always wondered if she was extremely shy. The slim girl never reciprocated Betty’s overtures of friendship. Not when Magnum was alive and not since Drew’s return. Eventually, Betty had given up.
    “How is she?”
    “Oh, fine.” Gee shook his head. “Listen, raising children is tricky business. It’s like mixing drinks. Overall you can add the same booze to the same simple syrup a million times. It makes the same combination. Except for the one time it doesn’t. One ingredient goes sour and, boom, you’ve got a gross concoction. You don’t even know how it happened—you always store things at the right temperature, buy them fresh. Just, one day, it’s bad. That day, your great-grandmother, she was afraid your great-grandfather had left the ingredients out to sour.”
    Betty put her head in her hands. She’d love to talk more openly, only she didn’t want every wolf in the