In fact, my grandfather goes to the coffee table, picks up the phone and says, “Tiara, Wilton, and them just came in. We better go, but thanks for your help, son. I’ll let you know how it all turns out.”
“Hey, Wilt,” comes Uncle Tikaani’s friendly voice on the other side of the line.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay on and consult, Granddad?” Alisha asks. My grandfather must have conferenced her in, too. What the hell is going on?
“No, no I got it,” Granddad answers. “Talk to you soon, Granddaughter.”#p#分页标题#e#
Then he hangs up, facing the room with two Vikings, seven wolves, one sword, and three raised guns.
“Put down them damn guns,” Granddad says to the wolves on my side of the room. “We got a lot of shit to talk about and them Mosses ain’t helping.”
Yancey, who grew up under my grandfather’s rule, immediately lowers his gun. Once an alpha, always an alpha.
Clyde also lowers his gun, but more out of confusion than compliance.
“One of you claimed Tee?” he asks. He’d probably been expecting to find a short little Inuit like Uncle Tikaani, not two huge Vikings.
Dad, however, keeps his gun raised, pointing the sawed off straight at FJ as if he already knows this is the wolf who will serve as my official mate.
“What’s going on here?” he demands. “Better tell me now before I start shooting.”
My heart is near frozen with fear, but FJ shifts his cold gaze to my father. And says nothing.
Which is why I’m surprised when Olafr suddenly springs into action. Out of nowhere, he moves forward like a bull and tackles Yancey.
The twelve-gauge goes flying out of the older wolf’s hand, sliding across the floor and stopping right in front of my feet. With reflexes I wasn’t even aware I possessed, I quickly bend down to grab the weapon and before I know it, I’m pointing it at my dad and brother.
“What are you doing?” my brother demands when he sees my gun trained on them.
“Tiara…” my father intones, sounding so much like my grandfather, it would be funny if I wasn’t holding him at gun point, with Olafr and Yancey furiously wrestling beside me. So yeah, I guess it’s not funny at all.
“Drop the guns!” I say in my very best impression of a woman who means business. I can only hope I sound like a real threat rather than someone who’s only real hands-on experience with guns involves coding them to look and shoot like the real thing in video games.
“Are you insane?” Clyde asks, his expression one of total bafflement. And I can tell it’s not a rhetorical question. He is, in fact, really wondering if I’ve completely gone off the deep end. No one crosses our father like this. At least no one who’s ever lived to tell about it.
“Maybe,” I admit. “But I know you two won’t risk shooting me because I’m carrying the future of our kingdom. So drop the damn guns.”
“I can’t believe this shit…” Clyde says, placing his gun on the ground. “We’re your family, Tee! That’s our mark on your back.”
His voice is filled with outrage. But he cuts his eyes towards our father several times before using a foot to kick the gun across the hardwood floor in my general direction.
At first I’m confused…and then I realize he’s just saved my bacon. If he’d left the gun at his own feet, I probably would have gone over to get it and Dad would have used it as an opportunity to disarm me.
Clyde’s on my side! I realize with a start. I guess our twin bond really is stronger than my father’s dark side.
Then I remember I’m supposed to be Pam Griering the hell out this situation. “You too, Dad. Kick over the gun…”
Beside him, my brother covertly taps two fingers against his thigh.
“Your guns. Both of them!” I correct. “Kick them over here.”
A long, menacing second passes…but in the end Dad puts his twelve-gauge on the floor. Then he pulls a glock out from the chest halter inside his leather jacket and places it on the ground, too.
But unlike my brother, he only kicks the guns halfway between us.#p#分页标题#e#
I falter, not sure what to do now.
I don’t want to invite my dad to halve the distance between us in order to kick over his guns. But I also don’t want to make the trip myself. Both options seem like an invitation to get jumped and disarmed—
FJ’s back suddenly appears in front of me.
“Honored Fenrir Past, I would have you take away all these weapons now.”
I can’t see Dad beyond FJ, but I have no problem imagining the outraged expression on his face whens he says, “Bitch, is you for real? You don’t be giving my dad orders. This is my territory!”