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“Hello, my sweet boy,” she murmured.
The older woman was still beautiful with silver strands lacing her otherwise thick, dark hair, now cut into a stylish short do.She slapped his shoulder, harder than one would think a little old lady could manage and hummed approvingly at his appearance.She was thin and lithe, ever graceful, even as she neared ninety-years old.
Rami knew better than to mistake her for a fragile senior citizen.Nana, like him, was a Shifter.A revered Lioness in the Luani Pride.The very same Pride that made up most of the 135thPrecinct where Rami worked as a detective sergeant.
His family tree had been guarding the streets of New York City, catering to the supernatural community, for almost as long as they’d lived in that brownstone.It all started with his great-great-uncle Haris, who’d journeyed from Syria in the late 1890s.
The Lion Shifter soon found a Pride within the new world, but he’d had to fight tooth and nail in a bloody challenge against two older, bigger males, a sort of Lion Shifter rite of passage, in order to join the established group.The Luani Pride welcomed him thereafter with open arms.They even invited him to join their human gang as well, aka the 135thPolice Precinct for the NYPD.
Made sense, really.The supernatural world existed right alongside the human one.They needed the ability to enforce both sets of laws with authority and speed.Wearing a badge and uniform helped them do just that.None of the other cops paid much attention to what went on there.Nor did they question why the 135th’s beat seemed to cover all five boroughs.It simply was what it was.
Members of Rami’s family had served on the force ever since.Some had grown to old age gracefully with mates and cubs, others were taken from them far too soon.His heart grew tight as he took in his aging grandmother.She was all he had left of his immediate family.His father had died fifteen years ago on the job, and Mom had passed soon after.Nana said she died of a broken heart.
Something that affected more mated pairs than the supernatural world cared to admit.Since finding one’s fated mate was so rare, even thinking of the consequences of losing said mate was unacceptable behavior.
Rami didn’t know shit about fated mates.But he sure as hell missed his parents.Still, he had them when it counted.His childhood was filled with great memories of them.They were a unit, the three of them.Solid and strong.With Nana and Pop-pop there to help out.
His grandfather had only passed away a year ago, but he knew his grandmother missed her mate terribly.It was the reason the old woman was always harping on him to find one.A true mate, like she’d had.Like his parents had in each other.
Grrr.
His Lion perked up at the word, but Rami pushed the feline back down.No way.He was not having that discussion again.
“Here you go,” Nana said, and set a plate of eggs and crispy, fried bacon in front of him.
“Thank you, Nana,” he winked and set about eating what had to be a dozen perfectly scrambled eggs and an entire pound of thick-sliced, double-smoked bacon.
Yum.
“So, when are you gonna make me a great-grandmother?”
“Nana,” he mock growled, “I just want to eat.”
“Ha!And who will cook for you when I am gone?”
“Are you kidding?You don’t look a day over twenty-two,” he said, wiping his mouth with one of the thick paper napkins he grabbed out of the mesh holder.
He’d learned not to use his sleeve early in life.Besides, the napkin holder always seemed full in its permanent place atop the ancient oak table.The huge hunk of wood was older than both he and Nana combined.Sturdy enough to feed a table of rowdy young Lions, he had fond memories of sitting there in that kitchen.Those were the days.
The set had eight matching chairs, which were handy when one of his many cousins came to dinner.He knew his grandmother was anxious for him to fill the empty seats with cubs of his own, but what could he say?His beast had not taken a liking to any of the females he’d met at work or Pride gatherings.And he was just too busy to search amongst the other Shifters in the area.
“I got a letter from Cousin Patricia, her daughter Arianna just had another baby,” the sky old Lioness said with just the right inflection in her voice to make him feel guilty.
“Is that what you want, Nana?I should go get some girl pregnant?”
“What?No!I don’t say that!Fresh boy,” she snapped her sharp teeth, “I wonder though if you would know how,” she raised her eyebrows, and he blushed furiously.
Sure, he’d said it to tease her, and for the most part it worked.But ouch.She knew how to hit back.Besides, he would never truly sass the woman.She’d raised him, and he loved her for it.Still, his sex life was none of her business.
“Did you stop at the bakery this morning?”he asked, changing the subject.
She usually brought home goodies for him to take to the other Lions at work.Part of her daily routine of church and shopping.Same as always, she went daily in fact.
“Uh, not yet, Rami,” she said, and the box he thought he’d spied on the counter was somehow gone.Must have imagined it, he thought with a yawn.
“Too bad, I was gonna bring the captain some cornetti.”
“You should go, yourself.Get something nice for the boss and the others before you head in,” she said a little too nonchalantly.
