Her Viking Wolves(41)

“Not threatening,” FJ answers, his voice as cold as mine is hot. “I tell you simply what will come to pass if you try to leave this place with Janelle.”

I drop my gaze again and blink hard at his shoulder. Stop. Blink again. Then ask, quite seriously, “Are you out of your damn mind or just completely incapable of understanding the words coming out of my mouth?”

Then I do something I’ve never done in my entire life. I actually stand up for myself, yelling at him, “I’m…not…mating…you…or…your…brother! It…will…never...ever…happen! Let…it…go. This is my life. My body. And I’m telling you, there is no way I’m ever going to share either of those with you.”

He flinches again. But this time he doesn’t look confused. Something dark flashes across his face, something angry and dangerous and…very sexual.

My heart seizes up with fear and something less definable, causing me to take a step back, afraid for the first time of the brother who’s not bound by his wolf.





20





Their she-wolf is beautiful. Even more so today in the soft-looking breeches that hug her lovely thighs and the sweater whose neckline gifts him with a tantalizing of peek of the prizes he will hold in his mouth come her first heat.

Their she-wolf is intelligent. Respected by her family and lauded for her achievements, according to Alisha’s three sons.

However, their she-wolf is also an idiot.#p#分页标题#e#

For several moments FJ can do little more than stare at the she-wolf standing across from him, insisting she will never share her body or life with her fated mates, the rules of the time gates be damned.

By Odin, it is all he can do to restrain himself from throwing her down into this snowy meadow and showing her exactly how his claim will be met at the time of their heat night—

She takes a sudden step back from him. Once again looking the rabbit, prepared to flee.

And he curses inwardly. He must have let his wolf surface. Must have let her see the effect her words have on him. And this after his brother agreed it should be FJ who handles her—she obviously being in need of a more delicate touch after what passed between her and Olafr outside the village’s place of healing.

Feeling little better than his brother, FJ forces his wolf back down and wills his voice once again steady as he explains to her, “The gods—the many and the One—have worked together to bring us to you, Varra. So we may save our people from the serpents. So we might enjoy a fruitful union   and ensure the next Fenris. But you would deny this. Why?”

Having seen how little she cared to hear his answers to her questions, now does he reply in the same manner to her before she can speak.

“Because, like my mother and Aunt Alisha, you do not understand truly the meaning of fated mate. You think me a wolf, and you think I do not understand the ways of my mother’s people. You accuse me as my mother accused my father of not understanding her mind.

“But you are wrong. I am the child of such a union  . I understand your mind. Perhaps even more than my father even now understands my mother. Because I know their story. My father did come for my mother. She did deny him, as you do now deny us. Aunt Alisha’s fenrir, Rafe, did come to our land to claim her. She, too, did deny him, as you do deny us. They did deny their fate as you now deny yours…because all of you have little understanding of how powerful the mate bond is…and that a fated mate cannot be denied.”

She opens her mouth to speak, but FJ plows on. “She-wolves are sheltered until they go into first heat so they might be protected from the ways of males. But males roam free, laying with as many human women as they wish.”

FJ thinks of how, just a few days earlier, he had treasured this freedom, denying his right to a wife well past the time of most fenrirs so he might continue to be with many females of his own choosing. But now he sees the truth of why he never took a wife.

He knew this she-wolf, who was also well past her mating years, did wait for him and his brother. Thus he feels compelled to explain his newfound understanding to her.

“The many gods and the one God did make it this way so the male wolf understands the difference between the human women he has lain with, and the she-wolf who will hold his heart until the day he dies. I understand that now. However, I understand also that you, having grown up under your father’s roof knowing no other wolf, do not.”

He finishes his explanation with a respectful bow of his head.

“Now may you talk, Varra.”

She does not answer him right away. In fact, she simply continues to stare at his shoulder. But her rabbit fear scent is gone now, replaced by anger, wafting off her in great waves.