He notices she didn’t mention the true purpose of the black boxes—to keep the time portals out of the claws of a dangerous enemy. Designed to counteract the portal’s energy field, once the black boxes are installed, they’d prevent anyone from coming through the portals in every state and wolf territory in Northern America. Anyone. Including dragons.
He’s also pretty sure at least half the “protestors” participating in his mother’s silly demonstration are her current and former grad students.#p#分页标题#e#
Including the cute blonde who yells above the booing crowd, “But what about Myrna?!?!”
Thanks to recent medical advances spearheaded by Queen Tee and his Aunt Tu—like a skin patch that prevents she-wolves from going into heat until they want to—female wolves are much more likely to attend grad school now than ever before. Unfortunately, that also means his mother’s she-wolf centered history books have become more popular than ever before, which means she has plenty of disciples to go along with her hare-brained schemes. Like protesting the implementation of the project her oldest son has been working on for years.
“Good question,” his mother says, smiling at the blonde with such approval, Rafes has to wonder if she didn’t plant the question herself.
“Unfortunately, despite over twenty years of research on my part and on the parts of many diligent grad students, we’ve never been able to find mention of Myrna in any wolf text. Perhaps this means she found her fated mate and chose to live out her life quietly with him or her. Or perhaps this means she went forward in time, much further than her brothers.”
Only now does his mother acknowledge the camera’s presence. And despite the fact that this speech was recorded the day before, her angry eyes seem to bore into Rafes.
“Sadly for Myrna and any other wolf who tries to use a fated mate spell, the construction of these black boxes will mean any wolf who tries to come through them from now on will be trapped. Hopefully in their own time, but for all we know, they could be stuck somewhere in the time stream. In a kind of purgatory, never able to leave. That’s what my son and his cronies on the Lupine Council have condemned that poor she-wolf to.”
The crowd lets out a collective gasp.
“But that’s cruel!” the blonde says.
Yep, definitely a plant, Rafes thinks to himself. Her reaction is just too perfect. He shouldn’t even let it get to him, but seriously, the last thing he needs today is this video of his own damn mother speaking out against his project. The wolf-net was going to have a field day with this mess. He could just see the headlines now: “President Nightwolf’s Mother Protests Her Own Son.”
Instead of listening to his mother’s response, he wipes the screen and says, “Face Ola.”
His red-haired cousin’s wide, nut-brown face appears between his elled fingers a moment later.
“I assume you’re calling about that wonderful speech your mom gave yesterday at my portal,” she says with a smug smile.
“The portal’s not yours yet,” he reminds her. “You still have a month until you take over as the Dakota queen.”
Not that her lack of alpha status had kept her from interfering with his plans. He knew she had to be the one who’d tipped his mother off about his plan to install the first black box at the North Dakota portal. She’d probably even used Michigan kingdom funds to jet all those protesters to his project site. Hell knows she has more than enough money to do it. Thanks to the numerous ground-breaking programs funded by their state queens, Michigan and Oklahoma—which were both mange states when Rafes was a kid—now boast two of the largest kingdom treasuries on the planet.
“Yeah, and that’s exactly why you pushed up the vote on the Black Box Initiative, wasn’t it?” Ola asks, her pretty face going harsh with anger. “You wanted to make sure I wouldn’t have a vote in what happened at my own portal.”
“Yes, you’re right,” he answers with total frankness. “I didn’t particularly care to leave a project over a decade in the making up to the whim of someone who can’t see past her parents’ mateship to the bigger picture. I knew Kyle would side with me, so yes, I pushed the vote up.”#p#分页标题#e#
“Seriously, cuz, what am I supposed to tell my parents when they find out?” Ola asks, shaking her head. “My dads never gave up hope of finding Aunt Myrna. And now they’re going to have to. Because of you!”
Rafes rubs a hand over his eyes. God, he doesn’t need this. He’s about twenty minutes away from cutting the ribbon on the first North Dakota black box installation, and not one member of his immediate family will be there to support him.