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“Thanks. It was built by my grandfather himself, using his bare hands. Of course, I’ve made some updates.”
I nodded, impressed. There was something to be said about a solid bloodline and a good family relationship that went back generations.
“What did you want to talk to me about?” Braxton asked, dropping himself into one of his large couches.
“Josephine Rosenberg,” I said.
Braxton frowned, but he didn’t look like he had no idea who I was talking about.
“What about dear Josie?”
“I’m involved with her great niece,” I said. “Danna Rosenberg has no power, she’s a human for all intents and purposes, but her daughter…mydaughter, I should say, has so much power, none of us understand what’s happening. She’s only turning six.”
Braxton raised his eyebrows and whistled through his teeth.
“Your daughter, huh? Carrying on the alpha bloodline?”
I didn’t know how to respond to that. I hadn’t thought about what it would mean for Emmie that she was the daughter of an alpha. I just knew that I had to keep my distance so that I wouldn’t ruin her, one way or another.
“She’s already showing signs of a shift, and her coming of age is still a long time away,” I said, sticking to the topic. That was safer.
“That sounds like Josie’s bloodline, all right. She was like an advisor to my family. She understood magic, but she didn’t have much of her own, and she didn’t have a dragon like her magic suggested she should.”
I nodded, listening to what Braxton had to say.
“I told her to get an angel to bring forth her dragon, but she refused.”
“What?” I asked. “Since when are angels a thing? They haven’t been on earth for centuries.”
“There’s one,” Braxton said. “You know that.”
Right. Colter, the alpha in New York, was mated to an angel. She wasn’t free game, though, and assuming it was that simple was arrogant.
“She had enough magic to do it,” Braxton said with a shrug. “I don’t know why she refused. She still served me well until she died, but I would have liked her to come into her own.”
That wasn’t something I’d heard of before, but angelscoulddo that. I’d told Circe that, too.
“What is it that you want from me?” Braxton asked, pulling me out of my train of thought. “You’re not planning to take care of your own?”
My beast growled inside of me. Iwantedto take care of her. Hell, I wanted that more than anything. To have Danna and Emmie with me, to raise my daughter, teach her how to use her magic… my heart constricted when I thought about it, and the idea that I couldn’t have that ripped me apart.
“I’m asking for an alliance of sorts,” I powered. “Danna and her daughter live here and will continue to live here after I take care of… business. I need to know that she will be taken care of.”
Braxton frowned. “You’re going to ask another male to look after your child?”
Fuck! Why was he making it so damn hard for me? Of course I wanted to look after them. If I didn’t have this damn curse, that was exactly what I would have done. I just couldn’t let either of them get hurt. If I did something to hurt either of them, I wouldneverforgive myself.
I couldn’t tell anyone about the curse, about my real reasons. Any alpha who knew of my weakness could take me out. My curse was my secret, my burden to bear.
“They live here, not in Vegas, so it’s not my jurisdiction.” It sounded like a weak excuse, but I had nothing else.
“Yeah, I know,” Braxton said, nodding. “She moved here just before she had that baby. If I’d known the child was yours…”
I blinked at Braxton. The Portland alpha seemed to know everything about everything in his town, even the humans. “One thing I’m serious about is looking after my own,” he said. “I’ll take care of her, put someone on duty to look in on the girl, and get her involved in the right groups to give her guidance if you’re not going to man up and do it.”
I bristled when he said that. A growl escaped my lips.
Braxton raised his eyebrows. “That’s not the reaction of an alpha who doesn’t want to take care of his family.”
