Page 73

The Igarashi council of elders?

Those guys could fuck right off.

They wanted me to move to Japan and take over the family and business because, in their words, “a mere woman shouldn’t be in charge of the family legacy.”

And Minori hadn’t even flinched when they said it right in front of her.

I turned to the asshole who’d said it and raised a brow. “You would prefer an American be in charge of the family legacy?”

“You’re not an American,” he denied. “You’re a Japanese citizen. You were born here. Your Japanese is flawless.”

I rolled my eyes, and if that disrespect hadn’t been enough indication he was wrong, I went on to obliterate any hope he’d had to get rid of the oh-so-uppity woman. “I learned Japanese in a classroom, starting in high school. I don’t know a single thing about your family, or their traditions, or what you want your legacy to look like. Minori-san has grown up here, with these expectations already on her. Not only am I not willing to uproot my entire pack to come to Japan and?—”

“We don’t require them,” he interrupted me, and that had been the fucking end.

For a moment, I stood there in the middle of the room, blinking at him. The other empty suits around him fidgeted in place, uncomfortable with my silence but uncertain of what to say to mitigate the damage.

“This is why you’re paying them restitution and not the other way around, Igarashi. This is why they’re going to get even richer expanding into Asia, and you’re not going to be a part of that.” I met his eye, hard, and then looked every member of the elder council in the eye afterward. One old lady had met my eye with a twinkle and a smile on her face, but the rest had seemed cowed by me.

Probably because I was a wolf and that was suddenly scary, because they couldn’t just magic me away.

“You’ve been underestimating wolves your whole lives. Your family did the same before you. You think there’s any chance I’ll leave my pack, myfamily, to lead you, a bunch of people I don’t know? All because you’ve decided that the clever, competent woman who’s already been leading you isn’t good enough? And why? Because she’s a woman? Because she’s not the correct son’s child? Or is it just because in this case, she’s not a creature of myth that none of you believed was real until your actual leader tried to murder me?”

“It is most certainly that one,” the smiling old lady said. “Oh, some of the others as well, and some further reasons beyond that you couldn’t possibly know because as you said, you haven’t been dealing with this your whole life as Minori has. You are wrong about one thing, though. As much as you’re right that you’ll need to spend a lot more time learning about us before you can take your rightful place on the family council, you are most certainly family.”

Next to me, Minori was trying to hide a smile, but she nodded to the woman.

“You see, my grandson,” the woman told me, leaning forward. “You could not be more like your father if you had known him and emulated him as sons tend to do. I seem to recall him giving this council precisely the same speech about treating other magical creatures as lesser, not a month before his murder.”

For a moment, all I could do was blink at her.

Grandson. This woman was... was my father’s mother. Shouldn’t she already be the one in charge of the family?

She sat back, leaning insouciantly in a way that I was pretty sure was the height of disrespect in this room. It certainly would have been in a Japanese boardroom, and while my college studies had focused on that, I suspected Japanese magical families weren’t so different.

“You will come to my home for a meal before you return to San Francisco,” she said, and while it wasn’t worded as a question, she definitely asked it as one.

So I nodded. “I would be honored, Grandmother.”

She beamed at me, nodding. “Now then. Shall we have a vote about extending Minori’s role as interim head of family, or should we make it formal this time?”

They opted for the first, and I could tell Minori wasn’t surprised at all.

“They’re going to keep trying to convince you to come back to Japan,” she told me as she led me out. “It’s not just sexism. I wasn’t the most responsible child, and have argued with some of them in the past for their outdated views.”

“I just told them I think they’re ignorant users,” I pointed out.

She smiled and nodded. “True. But I was doing it as a disrespectful child. You’re doing it from a position of power. They respect you. Even more, they fear you. None of them will ever fear me, even if I could defeat them in a fight.”

And that, honestly, was enough for me. I couldn’t be a part of this all the time. The byzantine infighting and plotting were impossible to wrap my brain around.

“I like my family better,” I told her. “We don’t keep secrets from each other. Everyone knows how everyone feels, all the time. More than that, we take care of each other first. Rivalries always come after the pack.”

She leaned in, and I could see the resemblance between her and my grandmother, in the twinkle in her eye. “Can I tell you a secret?”

I raised a brow at her, but nodded. “Of course.”

“I like your family better too.” She ducked her head and gave a tiny giggle.