Her Viking Wolves(114)

“Nah, not the whole time,” he answers. “I’ve been taking showers, eating, you know.”

I incline my head at him, my brain piling up with new questions, most of which begin with why?

But before I can ask any of them, he again asks, “Where you headed?”

“Downstairs,” I answer carefully.

“To eat some more?” he asks, sounding hopeful.

I shake my head, still wondering exactly why he’s here.

“No, I’m calling a family meeting with Dad and Clyde to talk about the future of the Detroit pack.”

Uncle Ford nods and squares his shoulders. “Okay, let’s go.”

“You don’t have to come with me,” I tell him. “It’s probably going to get a little ugly. You know Dad.”

“Yeah, I do.” Uncle Ford’s lips thin. “That’s why I’m coming with you.”





50





“WHAT?!?!” Dad yells when I’m done telling him about my plans.

He, Clyde, Uncle Ford, Evelyn, Yancey, and I are gathered around the oval table in the informal dining room where I’ve decided to hold this meeting. An assortment of fruit and other breakfast foods sit on the table, pretty as one of the still life paintings hanging on the surrounding walls. We’d almost look like a normal family enjoying breakfast together…if not for my dad glowering at me from the other end of the table…

…and the fact that Uncle Ford and I are the only ones not currently dressed in leather.

…and if Dad’s elbow wasn’t crooked over his sawed off, like he’s planning to whip it out any minute now.

See, this right here is why I don’t come down to breakfast like a normal person. Why I’ve spent most of my life upstairs. I glance at the table in front of me and think about how easy it would be to forget this whole mess and go work on making our Gamer Challenge feature tablet-ready.

But I don’t do that. I don’t cower in the face of my father’s anger. Or slink back to my bedroom, hoping he’ll forget I’m up there.

Instead, I hold his gaze from where I sit and say, “You heard me, Dad.”

Keeping my voice just as steady as I imagine FJ would if he were in my position, I repeat myself.

“I’m taking over as the Detroit pack’s alpha in FJ’s stead. That means no more wedding rituals of any kind without the bride’s consent. And no more brandings, period. From now on, if someone wants to show they belong to our pack, they can get a tattoo just like me. And as long as we’re on the subject of things that will be changing around here…”
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I turn my eyes away from my father and address the other four wolves at the table. “I’ve decided our pack will also be co-sponsoring an initiative with the Kingdom of Oklahoma.”

I think about the long call I had with my cousin Tu, the outrageous queen of Oklahoma. As outspoken as she is now, she suffered for a very long time because her first son didn’t survive childbirth.

“Tu and I have both lost people we love because the doctors in our communities are so behind the times when it comes to childbirth. So we’ve decided to put more she-wolves through medical school so eventually every state pack can have an on-call OB/GYN. It’s time we started investing more into making sure our she-wolves and their young survive childbirth.”

Uncle Ford, who lost both his Inuit wife and mother to childbirth, nods in support of this idea.

But Dad comes all the way out of his seat.

“Nobody’s going to support that!” he sneers with a rough shake of his head. “Every Dark Wolf in this pack is going to turn on you if you try to do any of this shit you’re talking about.”

My eyes flicker up to the angry wolf at the other end of the table. And I take a deep breath.

“Luckily, I don’t need their support. I’m the Detroit Alpha now and FJ left me with a multi-billion dollar endowment. That means this pack is no longer dependent on the Dark Wolves or their shady businesses.”

I come to my own feet at my end of the table as I inform him, “I don’t need anybody’s approval for anything I do, Dad. Yours or your fucked up crew. In fact, you can keep the Dark Wolf gang. Stay on as its president if you want, because I don’t want the title. From now on, I’m the alpha of Michigan and that title is going to stay totally separate from what Dark Wolf has going on.”

“But you’re a female!” Dad practically spits back at me. “A female can’t be an alpha.”

“Funny you should say that,” I answer, tipping my head to the side. “Because I had a seriously illuminating conference call with Janelle and Alisha a couple days ago. And according to them, nowhere in our laws does it say a female can’t be an alpha. Everyone just assumes it’s against the law because a she-wolf has never taken over a pack for fear of being challenged for the throne.”