Her Viking Wolves(52)

A pause. Olafr can sense her sitting perfectly still on the other side of the door, but the smell of her need continues to fill the room like the iron rattles his pack drums against the ground to herald the coming of a full moon.

“So…you’re not actually wolf-bound then?” she asks, her voice small inside his head.

“No, Varra, I am not,” he answers. “Nor am I litthyggiandi.”

And then his brother whispers over their brother bond, “Keep speaking with her. She finds it soothing. I will await her on the bed.”

Olafr can feel his older brother’s need to mate with their female as if it is his own need. And even more alarming, he can sense his brother’s wolf—a beast that has been kept mute by his brother for many years, growling to get out. “But I do not know how to use convincing words like you.”

“My wolf is too consumed with her heat to let me speak convincing words without action,” his brother answers him. And indeed he sounds much like their father, when he says, “This mess did you make. This mess must you mend.”

He then ends any further discussion by moving away from the door and to the bed, leaving Olafr to sort out their mate’s confusion.

Olafr pushes more words into her mind. “Would I have spoken with you sooner, Varra, but your tears cut my heart and I did not want to frighten you with my mind words. I thought to let my brother, who knows our mother’s tongue better than I, speak for us. But your confusion became too great and truthfully, I had no desire for you to think me litthyggiandi.”#p#分页标题#e#

Swallowing down his anger at himself, Olafr admits, “I feel deep shame for my claim of you, Varra. Be assured my brother will take better care when he next claims you.”

Another long pause.

Then their she-wolf says, “Okay, I am so confused. If you’re not wolf-bound, why the hell did you stay a wolf all this time? Alisha said she’d never even seen you in your human form until you came here.”

Olafr notices she has chosen to ignore his words about her mating his brother.

“’Tis a long story, Varra, and I can smell you are still in great need.” He keeps his voice soft and soothing, as he’s heard his mother doing when speaking with a skittish pup. “I would not have you suffer more than you have. Please come out.”

Her sobs have stopped but Olafr hears her give a small sniff.

“You still want to share me with FJ? Even after he nearly beat you up?”

Olafr glances back at his brother who is now seated naked on the bed with closed eyes. Still as a wooden figure, but with hands clawed into the sheet. Even if Olafr did could not sense his emotional state over their brother bond, he would know how terribly his brother suffered for want of their female. That he was bringing all of his mind powers to bear in order to keep from dragging her out of the closet.

And for this reason does Olafr turn back to the storage cupboard and place a hand on the slatted door. Trying again, though he fears himself ill-armed for this job.

“By rights my brother should have killed me. It shows how strong our brother bond is that he used his fists on me instead of his sword. Had it been my brother here in my stead…had I entered your chamber to bear witness to him mistreating you as I have done, he would have felt the hot iron of my sword in his belly and the sting of my blade upon his manhood. Even though I do not know as of yet how to take a sword, this is what I would have done to make certain he would never again dishonor another she-wolf as you have been dishonored today.”

This time the pause is much longer. Then she finally says, “Wow, that sorry was really kind of over the top, but um, apology accepted, I guess? Still, I can’t just—”

Her mind breaks off from his suddenly, and Olafr can sense her begin to shake on the other side of the door, her heat becoming too much for her to bear. While on the bed behind him, he can sense FJ battling mightily with his own wolf to stay in control.

This is my fault, all my fault, Olafr thinks to himself, wracked with shame for what has passed between him and their female.

He drops to his knees so he is on the same footing as his mate.

“Varra, you do suffer, as does my brother,” he says through the door. “My wolf cannot allow this. Yet I am loath to pull you from the your refuge after what I have done.”

No response.

With a silent apology to Freya, goddess of love, he opens the door against her spoken wishes…

Only to feel his heart flatten within his chest when he finds their mate curled up into a tight, seated ball.

Olafr reaches for her. “Come, Varra. I will take you to my brother now.”