Osei stalked the length of the front porch like a caged tiger ready to pounce.
Calm down, you're getting everyone nervous.'
Malaki told him.

Easier said than done.
Harris was still in the wind, Nicholae was up in his room in a friggin Coma the entire week.
He could be dead for all they knew. And Valentina wouldn't even leave his side to eat or anything.
Osei was also fully aware how his situation would make him look to the Tchkovskys when they came calling.

'We need to double the patrol. Prepare for an attack. And not from only the damn vamps.'
He barked orders at the fighting males and females.
Den mothers were to take their young to the caves where they'd babysit with a few other warriors/hunters. Osei would soon join their ranks, he wouldn't leave his wolves to fight alone, it was against everything he believed in.

'Fauna will take care of the Tchkovskys.'
Even Cayden didn't wholly believe that statement himself.

Osei's gut told him that something dangerous was coming his way and after all these years he'd be a fool not to trust it.
'I trust her, it's the damn driver I don't like.' Cayden could agree with that because he felt the same way.
'What the hell does she want now!' Osei said gruffly before seeing the actual Jeep belonging to Georgina.

'You all have a lot of explaining to do and I want to hear it from the top.'
She looked scary with her wild mane of brown hair and green eyes.

'Shit happens. The end.' Osei grumbled.

'You want to say that a little louder.'

'No Ma G.' Cayden stepped between the two of them.
'Move Cayden.'

'Yes Ma'am.'

'Ma G. You're here.' Valentina stepped out unsure of what to make of the situation.
Georgina acknowledged her with a quick nod.

'Lets lay it all on the table, do you want to go at it alone? So I'll dust of my black clothes and get ready for another damn funeral.'

'Yes! Leave!' He roared.

Her face turned a thousand shades of red.
The most magnificent and terrifying thing happened next.
Georgina shifted into a great eagle, ten feet tall.
'Oh shit.' Was the last thing Osei heard Cayden utter before he was whisked away by Georgina.

'We are going to straighten things out and you're going to learn some respect.'
She screeched in his mind.
She dropped him on a steep side of her hill and so the landing was just as rocky as the lift off.

He pulled a transformation mid tumble and found his footing on all fours.
He growled ready to take on the bird brain.
But she was no longer a bird.
She landed as a mighty gorilla.
She was something terrifying pounding her chest and roaring.
And she didn't miss a beat charging directly at him.
Her fists were heavy and must have a weighed tons each.
Osei barely had time to recover his wits after each blow. The other problem was she never remained one creature for long.
Next minute she was trampling him over as a rhino and then an elephant.
She didn't let him think or react.
Damn, he wouldn't wish her on any of his worst enemies.
Thank goodness he managed to land a blow or two, his ego could let him have that at least.
Osei twisted around clawing to get her off his back.
The mountain lion snarled at him and he growled right back.
Elephant,Gorilla, Rhino,Lion,Hippo, Osei was having his butt handed to him by an entire zoo.

'Stop this madness. I didn't bring you here to kill you. But I will continue to beat you black and blue until you're too broken to move.'

She returned to her human form upon landing.
Osei quickly averted his gaze, he did not need the image of his grandmother in her birthday suit burned into his retinas.

'I wear an illusion charm, so you can't see me naked.' She stated clearly.
'I'm not asking you to trust me. I see now that is like asking you to... I don't know.' That's right, she didn't know him.
'But I need to protect you. Because whether you like it or not, you are a part of the Lynch clan and therefore you are my blood. My baby. And I protect my cubs.'

'Oh really. Like how you protected my father?'

'You don't know what happened yet you make these assumptions. He tried to kill his father.'

Osei was a little surprised by that. His father? That sounded nothing like what his mother had described to him at his bedside.
If his father tried to kill the old fart it had to be for a good reason.
'Why?' He asked curious about what transpired- what Cornelius had done.

'We don't know. Till this day no one knows why.'

Not really the answer he was expecting.
'I'm sure you have your guesses.'

'Something to do with a human woman. Your grandfather didn't want Aaron going back to her. He had so much to offer the clan, his pack. But something was already off about Aaron when he came to us that day. I could see it in his eyes. It wasn't my son.'
'He was so close to killing Cornelius. God only knows what would have happened if I hadn't walked into the room.'

'And that had him disowned?'
With no investigations into the cause.

'No. There were a string of other crimes with his name not far behind them.'

They could all be lies. This version of his father sounded nothing like in the stories. His mother always sang his praises every night at bed time before she was brutalized. Not a single bad word.
'Did you bother to look for him?'
The truth would have come out if they even tried.

'Your grandfather wouldn't allow it. And nobody knew where he was. It was as if he dropped off the face of the earth. And then we received news of his death.'

'You should have tried a little harder.'
This probably wasn't fair to blame her for the way his mother's life and his had turned out but it felt good. Had she looked a little harder, she'd have found them isolated from family and in danger. Had she looked harder her son, his father would still me alive and just maybe his mother would be alive.

'That's what I want to do now! Try harder with you.' She cried.

'Oh so I'm your little project? Because you feel guilty or sorry or whatever!'

'Would you stop acting like a child?' She spat at him.

'Excuse me while I indulge my childish tendencies since I grew up so damn early. I skipped a few stages when I had to break my back to protect the rest of my family from the people that killed my parents.'

Georgina sighed, tiredly moving to sit on a smooth rock.
'I'm not trying to get rid of my guilt. I just want to build a relationship with a grandson I never got to know. One who reminds me so much of the son I couldn't save. Is it so wrong for me to want a second chance with you. To simply protect and live you as I did your father?'
Osei hated it when women cried and it especially felt worse coming from his grandmother and knowing his stubborn ass was the cause.

'I don't need a protector.'
He spoke halfheartedly.

'Then let me be your grandmother.' She stood coming towards him.
'Let me be the mother you lost, okay? I have so much love in here for you that bursting to pour out. I love you despite of all your damn flaws.'

She was now nose to nose with him, he saw the pain and love shinning in her soft green eyes.
Osei nervously shifted his weight about averting his eyes, the genuine emotion directed at him was overwhelming.
'Nicholae is in a coma. But I have nothing to do with it.'
'Directly.' He added on second thought.

'I don't want and explanation. What I want is a hug. Now.'
But when Osei hesitated, she went to him and wrapped her arms around his stiff fury neck.
Osei didn't push her away like his body screamed at him to. It had nothing to do with her personally it was just how he was. Again he did not give in to his urge, he allowed her to hug him because she'd made him a promise, a promise to begin a new chapter.

'He told me everything.' Georgina announced to the worried crowd once they returned to the den.

'I'm guessing she wiped the floor with you?' Cayden laughed.

'Shut up.' Osei said back in his human form and clothed.

'I like to think I know Sonya.' Georgina veered to conversation to the matter at hand and her reason for being there.
'She already has her spies set up shop. Someone told her Nicholae is here. She doesn't want to start an uproar to keep the peace. But she's conniving and once she gets the dirt she needs she'll involve the dragons. And then there's no going back. Dragon fire will do a lot of damage and their dungeons will hold you forever.'

'Screwed, that's what we are.' Cayden sighed.

'The only way we can end this before it begins is with Nicholae.'

'Can't we tell the truth this was the work of demons!' Valentina asked.

'Demons don't belong in the realm. They haven't been for centuries. No one will believe that.'
Georgina looked at them, their words still unbelievable to her. The thought of demons in the valley.

'Well then, I guess Harris must have been a special breed of rat.' Osei said.

'Do you have the receipts.'

Osei stared blankly at Georgina's choice of words.

'She means proof.' Cayden clarified.

'No. Only our word.'

'So her great grandson was possessed by a demon who then tried to commit suicide. Sonya wouldn't believe that.'
And it also sounded as though she didn't.

Great. Who wants to wake him up? Loki sarcastically inputted.

'Now that I know most of what's going on, I can handle your father and grandfather.'

'Look Lady Lynch one family as a time...'
Georgina cleared her throat and glared at Osei with daggers for eyes.
'G... grandmother?' He tried again, speaking the words as if he was testing a foreign language.

'You can call me Ma G.' She grinned from ear to ear.

He'll think about it. And maybe one day he'll tell her the entire truth. Just not now.
Georgina hugged Cayden and Valentina. Also stepped back,
'We already did that.' He awkwardly spoke.
She walked around his subtle objection. She lingered a little while longer and have him a big kiss on his cheek further embarrassing Osei.
'You better miss me.'

He was a little embarrassed at the show of affection but he'd let it slide.

'Alright everyone show's over.'
Osei growled, sending the group of spectators to their daily duties.

So what happened?
Lupé asked him looking just as disrespectful as his older brothers and his sister who were also anxious to hear details they'd have to pull out of Osei.

'Nothing.'

Cayden laughed.
'Didn't you know Ma G could shift into every which creature? Well except the 'mythical' ones on the island of the fairies.'
Osei glared at Cayden who had forgotten to mention this to him.

'As a matter of fact dearest cousin, no. No, I didn't know. And you didn't feel... I don't know... maybe inclined to tell me your grandmother had such an ability?'

Cayden looked trapped between trying not to laugh and looking dismayed.
'I thought you knew.'

'No, I didn't.'

Would that have changed anything?

No. Loki and Osei answered in unison to Malaki's question.
'No Mal, it wouldn't have. I'd have still been stupid and gotten my ass handed to me by every mammal in the encyclopedia.'

That had all of them including Osei having a hearty laugh.

Cayden did try to warn you though.

'Thank you.' Cayden affectionately patted Liza's neck.
He did.
Oh, yeah. You're right.
The others chimes in.

'Who's side are you on Liza?'
'The side of the truth.'

Yeah right. Truth must be Cayden's middle name. Lupé joked.
Liza stomped her brother's fore paw unapologetically.

It was a joke. Lupé yelped in pain.
A joke that had Osei thinking too.

Alright fam, to our stations It was as usual Malaki who sent everyone away to their usual business.
'He's right. To your battle stations.'
The others left and Loki stayed behind. Osei decided this was their chance to talk.
'Look Loki...' Osei started.

I know. I hate it too, And I forgive you.
Osei laughed.
'You're an ass.'

I know I get that from you.

'Go. Mal's waiting.'

I've got things I've been dying to tell you.

Osei grinned from ear to ear like a school boy.
Suddenly he felt another weight off his shoulders and a sense that he'd made the right decision.
And he could ignore the fact that it was a hell of a lot more painful but he'd deal with it.

He scrubbed his scruffy face with both hands then made his way to Jeffery's tent. His wandering gaze located Danielle staring endlessly into the distance on the porch. When she graciously turned her head the sun rays lit up her eyes in the perfect moment and the breeze carried her scent to him.

This was going to be the greatest test of his life.