Her Viking Wolves(38)

Another grim nod. “Yes, I understand, Aunt Alisha, and I would meet with your fenrir as soon as he knows his Council’s mind.”

FJ sounds so authoritative that only his old world accent keeps me from believing he didn’t go to a top tier B-school like Rafe.

I listen to him thank and then dismiss Matt and Alisha, telling them to report back to him as soon as they find out anything further, “No matter the hour.”

Both Alisha and Matt agree, and that pretty much brings the somewhat surreal meeting to an end.

“Seriously, I should go, too…” I say after they’re gone.

It’s not like I’d be much help with their dragon problem. And at this point I’m totally holding myself back from asking him to put on a green screen suit and re-enact the fight so I can motion capture it for Viking Shifters 2. I mean DRAGONS! I can still barely wrap my mind around that.#p#分页标题#e#

But FJ isn’t interested in me leaving. “No, Varra, I would have you sit,” he says, nodding toward the couch I abandoned when I got too excited about his dragon story.

“Please,” he adds when I hesitate. “I have been told of your nighttime work, and judging from your strange, ill-considered speech you seem…hag-ridden in the way of warriors who have gone without sleep for too long. It troubles me to see you standing when you should be at rest.”

Although I have no clue what “hag-ridden” means, I’m really tempted to do as he says. He’s right about me not having slept much the last few nights. I’m fairly sure all the Mountain Dew and Red Bull in my system is the only thing keeping me awake right now, and if I sit down without a computer screen in front of my face, I’ll end up slumped over as soon as my butt hits the chair.

However, at the best of times, I have trouble maintaining eye contact. This is clearly not the best of times, and it’s so much harder to avoid eye contact with someone when you’re seated directly across from them.

I eye the sofa nervously, and as if reading my worries, FJ says, “Shall we, as my mother says when she wishes to move her body without any purpose but to be in the open, ‘take a walk?’”

“Yes! Let’s take a walk!” I agree, grabbing on to that lifeline with my eyes glued to the expensive Berber carpet at my feet. “I was planning to go into town to get some more Mountain Dew and Red Bull, anyway.” Plus, it is so much easier to avoid eye contact when you’re walking side by side.

So down the stairs and into the family room we go. I’m greeted by a now familiar scene: Rafesson and Knud playing Viking Shifters, while their cute dumpling of a brother, Nago, waits for his turn. Janelle’s daughters are also in a far corner of the room. Curled up together in a wing-back chair looking like the black version of Little Women as the oldest, Sarah, reads Harry Potter out loud to her little sister, Koko.

The boys don’t look up from their game, but they somehow all manage to pet Olafr as he walks through the room. The girls, however, actually get out of their seat to bend down and scratch him behind the ears as they coo and trill in that way young girls do with animals. Unlike the boys, they’ve heard about but have not been allowed access to Olafr’s huge wolf. Nonetheless they react to his oversized wolf like the cutest Disney character ever has just entered the room.

Apparently, Olafr doesn’t scare the children of this house nearly as much as he does the adults.

After they’re all done with their gushing, Koko climbs back into the chair. However Sarah lingers for a moment longer, speaking directly to FJ.

“Is it time for our lesson?” She clutches the open book to her chest like a small shield and it’s pretty clear she doesn’t want her story time cut short just yet.

“No, Princess,” FJ responds with an understanding smile. “But I look forward to our time together later this day, mayhap when you have finished with your book.” He reaches behind the chair to open the French doors that lead to the back of the house.

“Okay!” Sarah says. She scoots back into the chair next to her sister and opens the book. “Where were we? Oh, that’s right. ‘Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry written on it in green icing…’”

Olafr walks over to the chair and settles in just below the girls’ dangling feet with a deep sigh, like he’s been waiting to be read to from a good book all day.

“Olafr’s not coming with us?” I ask as I walk out the doors past FJ.

“No, he is your protector and I am your fenrir. He prefers to leave most discussions to me. It is how things have always been between us.”#p#分页标题#e#