Her Viking Wolves(12)
FJ is like their father. He would rather die than break an oath.
And for that reason alone does Olafr speak the words.
As soon as he does, he knows the great tunnel of which his father did speak must have appeared beyond his gaze. For does his brother step away from his fallen body then and repeat his vow over their Brother Bond, “I will find a way to bring us together again.”
Olafr opens his own mind to say words back. So much easier than trying to speak with his clumsy human tongue. But too soon is he sucked into the black tunnel of time and sent hurtling toward the mate the gods have fated for him to meet.
5
A knock sounds on my door at 12:00 PM on the dot. Just as it has every day since I arrived. I close my laptop and climb out of bed. Time to pay my hotel bill.
“Hey, Uncle Ford,” I say when I open the door. “Are we going outside to have another one of our chats?”
“Yep,” answers the big beefy wolf whose stature leaves no doubt in anybody’s mind as to why King Tikaani came all the way to Detroit to scout him thirty-five years ago.
“Got your coat from downstairs,” he says, holding up my Aiden Pearce leather trench that I’d left hanging on the coat rack in the foyer. Not that anyone appreciates my gamer fashion sense here. There’s just not a whole lot of video game appreciation in the Alaska kingdom house. The Alaska princesses grew up with one dinky TV in their family, and they’ve never had so much as an Atari. Same goes for their alpha king husbands: Grady’s deaf, Mag grew up in a caravan without electricity, and according to Rafe, he was too busy with football and then running his kingdom to bother much with video games. That means the only people who game in the house are my seven-year-old triplet nephews. And though their mother, my cousin Alisha, was fine with letting them re-enact Viking sword fights with the Wii version of Viking Shifters, I have a feeling I’d be hearing about it if I tried to introduce them Watch Dogs.
And I’ve already gotten an earfull from my history professor cousin during Christmas dinner for including dragons in the game. According to her, dragons were firmly in the realm of myth and she did not appreciate all of the questions she’d been getting from her students in her “actual history” wolf classes since the game had come out.#p#分页标题#e#
But hey, Viking Shifters keeps her bored triplets busy while she mothers her newly toddling twins, so no complaints, right? In fact as I walk through the family room with Wilford, Alisha calls out, “Thanks for bringing the console and games with you, Tee. You’re a lifesaver!”
“No problem,” I answer, liking how my cousin perceives me flying all the way to Alaska with four different gaming systems in my checked luggage as benevolent and not just flat out weird. A she-wolf could get used to all this acceptance.
I slide a look over Uncle Ford’s back, wishing everybody was as happy about my surprise visit. I could do without these daily conversations he’s been forcing on me.
But other than that, Alaska has been a real nice place to hide out. There’s no TV in my room. In fact, there’s only the one in the family room downstairs. But the Wi-Fi signal is strong and my room is super cozy with cedar walls and a big comfy bed. All the peace and quiet has given me plenty of time to work on the concept presentation for Ninja Shifters. All in all, my visit has been like a workcation.
Except Aunt Wilma keeps asking me about my future plans, before intoning, “Your father isn’t going to put up with this mess for long. You know that, right?”
Yes, I do know that. But now I follow Uncle Ford to the pier, fully prepared to go through the pantomime of acting like my head’s full of unicorns and rainbows.
Most days, our conversation on the pier involves both of us staring at our feet and saying something like this:
Ford: You ready to go home now?
Me: Nope. Just finishing up a project.
Ford: Your dad keeps calling your aunt. Telling her to send you home.
Me: Mmm-hmmm. I better get back to work.
Mumble, mumble, and so on and so forth.
By the time we get to the pier on New Year’s Eve, it almost feels like a tradition.
So I’m shocked as shit when Uncle Ford opens with, “You need to leave.”
I blink, a little surprised he wants me out so bad, especially when Aunt Wilma hasn’t made any moves to kick me out. I’m so surprised, I tell him the truth. “I can’t leave yet.”
Uncle Ford shakes his head, “Look, I don’t know what went down between you and your dad. But I grew up with him. We…” He cuts off and seems to reset. “He ain’t just going to let you stay here.”