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“No,” Dad answered. “It’s just the two of us this morning. Jaymes went out on a boat at dawn to do some fishing.”
“Well, I’m sure we can fill him in later.”
Dad nodded but wasn’t really paying attention. His focus was completely on the menu. Dad had a real dragon’s appetite, and if it weren’t for his dragon metabolism, he would be in a serious health crisis. The man ate butter like it was going out of style. Dad slathered a thick layer of butter onto a fresh roll and polished it off in a single bite. “The food here is so damn good. I’d come back for that alone.” He grabbed a handful of rolls and dumped them onto his plate, eyeing the butter.
Grey wasn’t in the mood for small talk, so he decided to get right down to business, which was, after all, the point of their meeting. His dad didn’t do family time unless Mom insisted. “Dad, I booked us a yoga class in the morning. Mandatory for all dragons. I think we could all benefit from some deep breathing and meditation.”
“What kind of bullshit is that?” Dad shook his head with a dry chuckle. “No one is gonna want to do that, Greyson. This trip has been hard enough already. We can’t be doing that yoga bullshit.”
“Not if the CEO reacts like that, no. But I was talking to a witch I met here, and she suggested that yoga might help Richard and Jorge to stop fighting. There’s something about the deep breathing and stretching that is supposed to help.”
His father looked at him like he was seeing him for the first time. “You were talking to someone about our business?”
“Well, no. I was just venting my frustration at how they’re behaving. She saw the fight. It’s not like I’m sharing company secrets. The entire paranormal world knows our company is in danger now because the fighting has been so public. This should help.”
“Ah.” Dad’s back straightened. “So this suggestion is actually you showing an interest in the company.”
“Not just the company, Dad. The thunder. This affects all areas of our lives, inandout of work. It’s this big drain on our resources and on our time. We shouldn’t be here trying to get grown men to behave. We should be with our families or our clients. Don’t get me wrong. Time away from the office as a team is a good idea, but this has felt more like a hostage situation than a holiday.” He stopped himself before he went too far and insulted his father. That wouldn’t help him at all.
“Quite the tone,” Dad commented, tearing into another roll.
“I’m angry that this has gone on this long,” Grey slipped out before he could catch himself.
“Look at that. At least one of my sons has teeth. Good to know. Where was this attitude before? Really would have been useful in some of the situations I’ve been in lately.”
Greyson clenched his jaw.That’s because you need to retire already!He didn’t know if he had the thought or if it was his dragon. Either way, it was true. Dad was no longer the right person to head up the company. His resolve to keep things civil during the meeting flew away. He was just way too angry to hold back. “Maybe if we were given a chance to speak out without you tearing into us in front of a boardroom full of our peers, we would be more willing to share our ideas.”
“Well, well. The young dragon is interested in the company for a day, and just like that, everything I do is wrong. You know what, Greyson? I don’t think you’re who I envision as the leader of the company or the thunder. Not if these snarky things you’ve got going on right now are any indication. To be CEO, you need …” Dad continued to rattle off a list of qualities a CEO and alpha should have. It was a good enough list.
The irony was Dad didn’t even realize he was describing his polar opposite. Dad knew what a CEO should do, but somehow, he never could quite get it right in action. Grey believed he could put things right.
Before meeting Kaia, he would never have admitted this to himself. Even having the thought in the privacy of his own head was too risky. Not anymore, though. Now, Greyson thought that life was too short to let bad things continue to happen just because it was uncomfortable to challenge it. His time with Kaia had shown him just how precious time was ... even if he had more of it ahead of him than the common man.
Kaia had asked him if he wanted to be the CEO, and Grey had the answer now.
“You know what, Dad, I’ll see you at yoga. I’m not going to sit here and take this verbal dressing down again. I know what it takes to make a business and a thunder run. I can feel the right thing to do here.” He pressed a hand to his chest. “You’re fucking up a lot lately, Dad. I’m sorry, but it’s true. You are. We’re doing the yoga because I believe it will help.”
Grey stood and made his way out of the restaurant without looking back. Never ... not once in his entire adult life ... had he talked back to his father, boss, and alpha like that. If Dad wanted to punish him by giving him hundreds of hours of grunt work, he could. He could do it because he had done it before when Grey was a teenager onmultipleoccasions.
Once, Greyson had taken the initiative to plan a food drive before Thanksgiving. He had set up a whole bunch of volunteers with the local fire and police station, a couple of high schools, and the community association. He had used the family name and logo to get the word around.
Dad grounded him for six months.
Did it matter that his food drive had tripled the food bank’s annual intake? Nope. Did it matter that his principal was so impressed that a wing of his high school was named Verlice Hall?
Dad punished him. “You can’t use the Verlice name like that without asking for permission. Do you hear me? You wear that name because I allow it.”
Remembering that terrible day ... the day he learned that his father would never believe in him ... always made Greyson angry. He walked along one of the paths, hoping to burn off some of his energy. He felt like a teenager all over again, reprimanded for trying to do a good thing. The right thing.
Why was his father so blind to that?
He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t notice that Portia was walking beside him. “Greyson, hello,” Portia smiled when he blinked at her in shock.
“Sorry, what was that?”
“You’re just the dragon I was looking for,” Portia explained. “I wanted to confirm that Damian will be ready for your yoga class tomorrow morning at ten.”
“Great, Portia. Thanks so much.”
