It doesn’t help that when he finally speaks, his voice is perfectly calm. “You must wonder why I wanted to speak with you. I will answer your unspoken question now.”
“Okay,” I mumble, feeling like I’m back in Detroit. Standing in my rooms, waiting for my dad to get done berating me for being nothing close to the perfect biker princess, so I can get back to my videogames.
“There are two things I need to speak with you about,” he tells the top of my head. “The first being your livelihood…your work, as it is called. I worry about the time you dedicate to it. Though I understand you have a strong attachment to the moving picture games you have created for children, I would have you give me your word you shall limit your work activities to the daylight hours from this day forward.”
My eyes widen on his shoulder. Is this dude serious? Did he just call my video game empire “moving picture games?” For children?!
So many Detroit answers flash through my head. So many.
But proving I’m still not that much better at standing up for myself than I was when I ran away from home to get out of marrying the Prince of North Dakota, I only manage to say, “Ah, no. I don’t think so.”
“I make this request for your own well-being, Varra.”
And I just stand there, not quite knowing what to do with all the Detroit answers raging around in my head. Brilliant cuss outs that would be delivered perfectly if I were sassy like Tu, or well-spoken like Janelle, or academic like Alisha. But I’m not any of those things, so I stand there, squirming in my inability to deal with real life interactions—especially where time-traveling Viking werewolves with mortal dragon shifter enemies are involved.
So there we are. FJ waiting for me to say something other than awkward silence until he finally ends our stand off with a heavy sigh. “I will tell you this story, Varra. Many winters ago did my mother say something similar to my father during preparations for our great harvest festival. He did ask her to cease her female’s work and come back to their bed to rest. She insisted she could not.”
His voice shadows with the memory. “Naught half a moon tide later did her second heat come upon her. Her lack of sleep made their heating…very difficult. And though my brother and I share true bond, I would not have it be the same for you.”
Okay, well…I feel my Detroit wolf backing down a little, leaving my nerdy human to deal with the strange and conflicting emotions warring inside me.
On the one hand, it’s still none of his damn business how I choose to run my life, especially with the Ninja Shifters release date less than a year away.#p#分页标题#e#
On the other hand, this conversation just entered Lifetime movie of the week territory. Because it sure as hell sounds like FJ is telling me his mother ended up with a wolf-bound son because she didn’t get enough sleep. It’s dubious deductive reasoning at best, given how little we actually know about Wolf-Bound Syndrome. Nonetheless, there’s no denying having a wolf-bound child is one of the most traumatizing things that can happen to a wolf family.
Which is why I try to use my best facsimile of a sympathetic tone when I say, “FJ, you seriously don’t have to worry about that with me.”
Then before FJ can argue any further with me on a subject, I ask him, “Okay, what’s the other thing you wanted to talk about?”
More silence as if he’s trying to decide whether to let me get away with this subject change. But eventually he answers, “Janelle’s visit to your room. I believe you are planning to leave this place with her when she and her family return home.”
If I weren’t already standing still, I would have tripped over my feet, because that’s exactly what I’m planning. Janelle offered and I accepted, falling all over her in grateful relief. But how…?
He must see the confusion written plainly on my face because he says, “My brother has been Ever the Wolf and I have been Ever the Man for a very long time. We have ways of talking that do not require speaking aloud.”
“Okay,” I say, more than a little creeped out that not only was Olafr eavesdropping, but he somehow found a way to relay my private conversation back to his brother through their magical mind link. Or whatever.
Then FJ crosses his hands behind his back and informs me, “I respect Janelle’s fenrir and would not wish to kill him so we may fulfill our mate claim. But understand this, Varra, if you accept Janelle’s invitation, this will we be forced to do.”
My mouth falls open, my enraged mind nearly unable to process the words that just came out of his mouth. And the next thing I know, I’m looking at him. Actually looking straight at him as I ask, “Now you’re threatening my cousin’s husband?!”