Her Viking Wolves(78)
“Get Tikaani on the phone,” he tells Yancey. “We’ve got to set this story up right—”
He’s interrupted by the electronic beep of an incoming call.
Yancey glances down at the number, then back to my father. “It’s Grif.”
#p#分页标题#e#
Grif, the orphan Dark Wolf thug Yancey has been training to take over as my brother’s beta. Sons usually inherit the beta position just like kings. But Yancey had never gotten around to settling down with a mate. No surprise there. He barely speaks and he always looks like he’s setting up to punch somebody. Not many women who’d want to put up with that for a lifetime.
“Pop quiz,” Yancey says in his usual barebones way.
And Dad nods.
“See what he needs. We’re done here.”
How my dad got all of that from Yancey’s two words—I have no idea. But I am happier than probably anyone else in this car to change the subject.
Yancey pushes a button on the steering wheel. “Yeah?”
“You cool?” comes Grif’s gruff voice through the car’s speakerphone.
“Kind of hot. But with cool people,” Yancey answers. “What you got?”
“Old weird dude just called here talking crazy. Talking about you and the Prez have to get up to the Upper right fucking now—his words, not mine.”
I sit forward.
“Granddad? Granddad wants us to come up to the old kingdom house?”
Granddad is currently living out his retirement in the old kingdom house on the Upper Peninsula. But once in a while he calls the Detroit kingdom house and starts throwing around orders like he’s still the alpha.
Grif, being new, wouldn’t know about that.
“Yeah, maybe it was him. Like I said, he sounded old…and kind of crazy, but like he was in charge.”
Up front, Yancey and Dad exchange a look. Yeah, that’s him all right, they seem to silently say.
“Did he say what he wants?” my Dad asks, his voice tight with irritation. Granddad is the only wolf on Earth who can truly get under my dad’s skin—at least without a Mossberg ending the conversation.
“Yeah, he did. And that’s why I thought he was a crazy. He said the time portal went off, but that can’t be right because that ain’t ever happened before, right?”
Silence drops like a bomb in the car.
Oh, hell no! I say to myself, somehow already knowing exactly who’s come through Michigan’s formerly long dormant time gate. Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I think.
Or at least I thought I said that to myself. But then I notice everybody in the car is staring at me. My dad. My brother. Yancey, through the rearview. I’m fairly sure even Grif is staring at me via the Cadillac’s touch-screen phone.
“Tiara,” Dad says, his tone murderous. “What you know about this?!”
END OF PART 1
Part 2 - DETROIT
34
It’s strange the difference a couple of weeks can make, I think to myself early the next morning after a seven hour drive and an overnight stay in a nearby hotel. Two weeks ago I was engaged to another man, Kyle Wolfgood, the alpha prince of North Dakota. Two weeks ago I was completely obsessed with my video game company, She-Wolf Industries…so much so, I could hardly be bothered to attend my own engagement party. Two weeks ago, I was a workaholic videogame designer with zero social skills and negative percent desire to go anywhere without wi-fi. Or Red Bull.
And now here I am, walking up my second mountain in as many weeks beside my twin brother, with my dad and Yancey in front of us. Actually hardcore praying inside my head that this ends with my dad using me as an incubator for my brother and his lover while the loves of my life vanish forever.
Two weeks later, I’d actually rather be at the Detroit kingdom house right now, pledging myself into a miserable marriage than on this mountain with these three wolves.#p#分页标题#e#
We had to abandon our Cadillac Escalade at the bottom of the road and continue on foot toward the old kingdom house via a narrow snow-covered trail. Before our species learned how to seamlessly integrate with humans, we spent a lot of time in isolated villages, close to humans but tucked away to reduce contact between our species. So like many kingdom houses built in the earlier part of the twentieth century, this one is just a short distance from the state’s time gate and well-hidden.
The nearly mile-long hike uphill through dense forest makes it just about impossible to sneak up on the house. Unlike most other kingdom houses that serve as the first line of defense against potential invaders—it has happened from time to time—ours is situated at the very back of a collection of rustic of log cabins, all that’s left of our former kingdom town. If the town were ever invaded, the king and his family would have ample time to get to safety. Leaving the rest of their pack to fight for their lives.