“Aye. Some of it. Eimear needs a break.”
“Yes. I guess trying to fit into our world as a human is a lot more taxing than I expected it would be for her. She has an opportunity to do some forensic accounting in California for the next few months, a one-off for her company.”
“So, she’s going to leave you?”
“No. She doesn’t want that, but it’s a good opportunity. I’m thinking that I’ll go with her, take care of the baby while she works, and just treat it like an extended family vacation.”
“You do realize you are the Alpha of a Bear Clan and the head of a mafia family? You can’t just skip out for three months.”
“I can if I leave it in the hands of someone I trust,” he said, eyebrows raised as if it were more a question than a statement.
“You mean me?” Olcan replied, not sure how he felt about that idea.
“You’re next in line. It’s not forever, just while I’m gone.”
“And what if I like it and want to keep it? What then?”
“I guess we’d fight to the death,” Fergus smiled.
“You’d not last five minutes. You wouldn’t.”
“Aye. You keep believing that little brother.”
“I will,” Olcan said.
His attention was fully on Fergus now. He’d figure out what was up with the stranger next door later. It paid to be nosy in their line of work, but it could wait while he and Fergus discussed this other matter. It was a big decision to be made.
Since they’d arrived from Dublin in their youth, they’d grown into the fiercest Irish mafia faction in Boston. It was partly due to growing their numbers here and expanding their reach, but it had more to do with that fact that they had an advantage other mafia families didn’t have—they were bear shifters with a special gift of memory manipulation. Both served them quite well.
“Well, I guess we could toss it out and see how the rest of the clan feels about it,” Olcan told him.
“I’m not bothered with how the others feel about it. The Boston Bears is our clan and I may be Alpha, but it belongs to the four of us. You, Me, Niall, Ronan. We are interchangeable, as far as I’m concerned. It might be different in the old country, but we’re not in Ireland anymore. We make what we want of our clan.”
“And what about Niall and Ronan? How are they going to feel about it?”
Their little brothers were old enough to accept the role, but he wasn’t sure if they were ready for that kind of responsibility just yet. Still, he couldn’t help but think they’d want to be asked. It wasn’t his call to make, though. Even though Fergus seemed intent on having it over him, he was still Alpha currently.
“They’ll understand. You’re older and next in line.”
“Am I? You’ve a son now.”
“Well, Domhnall can hardly run a clan in his nappies, can he?” Fergus laughed.
“I think he’d give it a hard go, the little bugger,” Olcan scoffed.
Fergus laughed too. It was no secret that his son was hardly two years old and already as headstrong and independent as his mother, father, or any uncle you wanted to compare him to. Their father, Cathal, would have been proud to have him as a grandson had he lived to see him.
“Aye,” Fergus finally said. “He definitely would.”
“I’ll give it a go if that’s what you want. Just let me know what you decide.”
“I’ve already decided. It’s about what you decide. Just know that I will likely do this even if you don’t accept. I’d prefer to give Ronan a few more years before giving him this much responsibility, but Niall is old enough to manage things short term if I need to tap him instead.
Fergus nodded and stood up to go. Like their father, he was a man of few words. He talked when he needed to, acted when he needed to, and looked the other way if he should. He’d done a respectable job with the small clan they’d amassed since arriving in Boston, taking in strays, and making a family of them. They could stand more numbers, but thanks to their ability to shift, they rarely lost any of the men they had. He walked Fergus to the door and saw him out, noting the dark-haired beauty had managed to put away the dog and was now down on her knees in the yard.
He felt a tug of desire as he watched her working in the front flower bed, pulling weeds from the look of it. It was really hard to tell with her back turned. There was a strong urge to go over there now, but he didn’t want to look like too much of an ass. He’d see what he could find out first about her and then decide if he needed to pay her a visit to assess the situation firsthand, though watching her on her hands and knees wasn’t doing anything to convince him to wait. He was about to be Alpha of his clan, at least for the time being. He couldn’t afford to let his dick lead him around.