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“Still, you could get…”
He stopped abruptly. “We aren’t having this conversation again. My soulmate died and I’m not looking for a replacement. I just want to live the rest of my days in peace and protect you.”
“I can protect myself.”
“You’re still a pup.”
“I’m old enough to graduate from your hunter academy this year.”
“Don’t remind me of that.”
“You know that I plan to leave and discover the worlds on my own. You’ll get lonely here.”
He shrugged. “I have plenty of pups to train and order around.”
Grace giggled. “Pups. Your eldest student is forty.”
“Still pups.”
“Then I’m a child,” she protested.
Her grandfather lowered his head and grinned again. “The average lifespan of a werewolf is five hundred years. By werewolf standards, I’m in my prime. By human standards, I’m no more than thirty years old. To humans, you might look like a young adult, but you still have a lot to learn from life until I stop treating you like a child.”
She rolled her eyes before squinting. “I’m finishing college and I’m old enough to get married since you were my age when you married my grandma.”
He frowned. “Are you dating?”
Grace felt her cheeks warm up. “Of course not.”
He grinned, the small wrinkles becoming more apparent around his eyes. “Then, I’m not worried.”
“I’ll have to date eventually,” she reminded him.
He nodded. “True. But that doesn’t seem to be a priority to you.”
Her mouth hung open as she tried to find the words to explain why she didn’t have a boyfriend, but nothing came to her mind.
Grace sighed deeply and shrugged. It was pointless to argue with her grandfather. She was the only direct family he had left, and he would protect her fearlessly and treat her like a child if that suited his plans.
Her grandfather leaned closer as he whispered, “Whoever is lucky to conquer your heart will always have a place in this house. You can’t let what happened to your parents stop you from looking for love.”
Grace’s throat felt dry as the memory of her parents’ death at the hand of rogue vampires popped in her mind. Her grandfather raised her once her parents were gone. There was no one else in the world she loved more. Making her grandfather proud was her top priority. Dating and living reckless could wait.
Not that she ever wanted to live reckless. Being raised inside an academy that followed a million rules might have helped to form her character, but she never liked to rebel or go against the rules.
“It’s been several years since they’re gone. You have to remember them with love not pain.”
Grace blinked as her grandfather’s words reached her mind and woke her up from her torpor.
Forcing a smile, she nodded. “I know.”
“And you can’t blame yourself. No one could tell your dad or mom what to do with their lives. It was their choice to be together.”
Her voice shook as she fought the sadness. “I-I know.”
Vincent Delacroix patted her head. “I still have paperwork to finish. Go to your bedroom and get some rest. We’ll have busy days ahead of us.”
Giving her grandfather a kiss, she climbed the stairs but, suddenly, halted when she heard a hysterical scream followed with cursing.
