Her Viking Wolves(34)

“Day-umm! This brother got game,” Tu says from her place on the other side of their she-wolf.

This time, their mate does not cast her eyes skyward, but gives her cousin a dangerous glance, sharp as his mother’s cutting dagger.

But soon after that, she drops her eyes back to the ground, giving it great attention as she says, “Look, I know you guys think you have to make this thing happen with me, but I am not like your mom. I don’t cook from scratch. Man, I don’t cook at all! Like, if it requires more than a microwave, it’s not happening. And I have zero survival skills outside of a video game. I’m also a city girl, with no desire to freeze my ass off in some backwoods Viking village. Plus, you’re like some hot Viking rock star warriors and I’m—well, I’m the woman who’s more interested in spending a month designing and programming individual strands of your hair so it looks exactly right when you’re fighting in my videogame. Trust me, this is not going to work.”

FJ gives her speech careful consideration before answering, “I cannot trust your words because I do not understand most of what you say. But I do wonder why you think the gate would bring us together if, as you say, we three are so truly unsuited?”

“Honestly,” she answers, still looking at the ground, “I have no idea. Maybe the portal is broken or something? That would explain why nobody’s come back from the future in a long time, right Alisha?”#p#分页标题#e#

Alisha gives their she-wolf a carefully worded, “Maybe” over her shoulder.

But FJ frowns, once again understanding little of what she says beyond her belief that they should not be together, even though they are fated. And that she thinks there has been a mistake made by the hallowed gates.

“Do you not feel us as we feel you singing in our blood? I have lain with many, but from the moment our eyes met, I had no care for another she-wolf in my bed. Do you still say now that you would have another wolf for yours?”

This time when her eyes fly up, they meet his for so long, he can tell his question has truly surprised her.

And so does he smile down at her and tell her the truth within his heart, “Ah, Varra. You have such beautiful eyes. Verily am I glad to finally behold your true gaze.”

“Whoa!” he hears Tu breathe in the background, as if giving voice to their she-wolf’s stunned look. “So. Much. Game.”

But then comes the sound of children’s voices calling, “FJ! FJ!”

He looks away from the she-wolf to see three young boys spilling into the pre-dawn morning through the back doors of what must be the Alaska kingdom longhouse. They’re older than when FJ saw them last, but still recognizable as Alisha’s same-aged sons, Rafesson, Nago, and Knud—his play cousins who did live the first four summers of their lives in his kingdom’s longhouse.

They collide into him, arms wrapping around his waist, all giving voice to loud questions. “What are you doing here!? I can’t believe it! Did our Fenris send you? Why are you so old now? Do you want to see our phones? Look! Look!”

“Boys, boys! Let him breathe,” Aunt Alisha says, laughing.

But FJ draws them all into his arms for a wide hug, so glad is he to see them once more.

However, when he releases the boys in order to answer their many questions, he sees at once that their mate has used the children’s distraction to slip away. Beyond the house’s strange clear doors, he can spy her scuttling up the stairs, like a thief in the night.

And he wonders if she notices that Olafr follows but a few paces behind her. Or how long it will take her to realize she can run from her mates, but never will she be able to truly hide.





18





“Has anyone fed you yet today?”

Olafr is glad to be free of tongue when their she-wolf sits down at the top of the stairs and sets down a plate from the morning meal below.

“Here you go,” she says, smiling at him.

In truth, his three same-aged cousins have already brought him much to eat earlier in the morn under the watchful eye of their father, Fenrir Rafe. But keeping herself closed in her room, she has no way of knowing this.

So does he bend his head to gustily eat the food she has brought him, feeling honored by her service. And does she give the place on his back where he was run through with silver arrow good pet, saying, “Wow, you’re all healed up! I’m glad.”

“Is she with you?” his brother asks inside of his head.

“Yea, she has come with food and upon my injury checks, ever the thoughtful mate.”

“She did gather only your plate at first meal and then did she use checking your wound as an excuse to disappear back up the stairs. The one called Tu says ‘I make her nervous’—whatever that means. But it is clear she wishes little to be near me.”