Fensa’s headache swelled, and tears filled her eyes. Not because of the pain, but because of what she was beginning to realize had happened.
Her grandmother had gone back to Viking Era Norway. But Fensa…well, she’d once more been the victim of her delusions. An episode so severe, so big, she’d honestly thought she’d been transported to Ice Age North America for the past four years. It had felt so real, so very real, but it wasn’t. Of course, it wasn’t. A dragon? The love of a lifetime? A happy family? These were all things schizophrenics like her didn’t get to have.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “Tell my mom I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I wish I could control these episodes, but I can’t.”
“Tell her yourself. Your family went back to the Arizona kingdom house, but I promised I’d call as soon as you woke.”
Another knot of pain pulsed inside her head and Fensa’s eyes dropped like lead curtains, desperately wanting to close. As if her body still had important work to do and needed her to go back to sleep to do it.
But Fensa fought against the tug of exhaustion to ask, “How long have I been out?”
“Almost three days,” Rafes—President Nightwolf—answered brusquely, as if this wasn’t information she needed to know. “Now, before your family arrives, tell me everything you know about Damianos Drákon.”
“Wait…who?” she asked, shaken to hear him say something that sounded a lot like “drakkon” so soon after waking from her delusion.
“Damianos Drákon. The businessman who’s been buying up dead kingdom towns, and appears to have designs on our gate system. But perhaps you know him as Anos, since that’s what his friends call him. Look, I need you to tell me everything you know about him, right now.”
Fensa’s head pulsed again. And for some reason, a word suddenly appeared in her mind. Enemy. As in Rafes was somehow not to be trusted. No, he wasn’t her enemy, per se. But he was the enemy of a cause she cared passionately about. It was right on the tip of her tongue…
“I don’t know…” she began but had to stop because another sickening wave of pain pulsed through her head, blurring the world so badly she was forced to close her eyes.
Papa Olafr…Mama…Ola…Father…FJ…grad school…Xenon…Eos…twins… Koko…Viking Shifters video game…happy family…theoretical physics…Myrna… Grandpa…Big Daddy…
Words that were both nonsensical, yet somehow familiar, flooded her brain as the headache mercifully subsided. And when she opened her eyes once more, she found Rafes standing over her bed with a frown on his otherwise young presidential face.
“Look, I’m not the enemy,” he said, as if he’d pulled the word out of her mind. “I know you and your family like to think I am, but I’m only trying to do what’s best for us. What’s best for our kind—not just your family. Now you’ve obviously been in contact with Damianos Drákon, or one of his cohorts, so I need to know everything you know before this gets ugly. How many of them are there? Is he the one you had relations with? Did he tell you anything about their plans?”
“I don’t understand these questions. Or why you’re asking them…”
“Don’t play with me, Fensa. Obviously, you understand. How did you think this would play out when you returned? Did you think your royal status would protect you when we found out you were in league with that asshole this whole time? Why were you pretending to be one of my mother’s staunchest supporters? Are you one of his minions? I know for a fact he has them planted throughout our community. Are you the reason Anos Drákon knows so much about the gates?”
“Information? What information? I don’t understand what you mean about the gate.”
“Yeah right. Fensa Greenwolf, the foremost authority on gate physics, doesn’t understand. Sure…”
He leaned low. “You think this is a game, Fensa. You think you can act dumb, and use your position as the future Queen of Michigan to play me and everyone else in our family for fools. But I am the fucking president of North America. I can put you in a cell for the rest of your life, so your poor fathers never see you again. You think I won’t do it? Then say you don’t understand to me one more time!”
Fensa stared at her cousin in shock. He’d never been what she’d call nice…not like his brother, Nago. But he’d also never been like this. Intense. Scary. And he’d certainly never threatened her before. The last time she’d seen him, he’d barely been able to look her in the eyes. Maybe because she reminded him too much of his brother, Knud—
“What the hell is going on here?!”
As if called forth by memory, Knud Nightwolf, one of Rafes’s triplet brothers, stormed into the room with a medical tablet under his arm. He wore a white doctor’s coat, and he was glaring at Rafes like he was the scum of the earth rather than a beloved sibling.
Oh no. Oh, God. This is bad. Rafes was right. She must have had a complete psychotic break. Because Knud was dead. He’d committed suicide in a room just down the hall over a year ago, less than five years after finishing his stint with a special wolf division of the human Marines. So how could he be here? In her room, wearing a doctor’s coat?
Fensa cast her eyes away from Knud, carefully ignoring the walking and talking delusion lest Rafes start asking even more questions she couldn’t answer about her psychotic breakdown. But when she tried to return to the conversation with Rafes, she found him arguing with the brother she’d thought was a delusion.
“What the hell do you think is going on here?” Rafes responded to Knud. “I’m questioning Fensa about Drákon.”
“You have got to be fucking kidding me. Did you even contact her parents? Or Ola?”
Wait…WHAT?!?! Did he just say “parents” and “Ola”?!
Before Fensa could open her mouth to ask, another pulsing headache hit her. Mama…Papa Olafr…Father FJ or Dad…we have three parents now, a voice inside her head told her. But where’s Ola? She should be here.
Meanwhile Rafes looked away from Knud with reluctant guilt written across his face. “I was planning to text her parents as soon as I finished questioning her. And you’re the one who told Ola to get some sleep in the on-call room.”
“Because that was the only way she would get any sleep. And I promised to wake her as soon as Fensa regained consciousness.”
Yes, she’d heard that right. They were talking about Ola! Ola, her biggest delusion. No, not a delusion, the small voice insisted. Real! Real! She’s real, and she’s your best friend! She should be here!
“Fine, then wake her up!” Rafes commanded Knud with a dismissive sweep of his hand.
“And leave our cousin here with you? I don’t think so. What kind of bastard grills a woman who just woke up from an emergency C-section anyway?”
“You’re acting like she’s a fragile flower when she’s obviously some kind of sleeper agent!”
“She’s obviously nothing but our cousin, man! Our family member who’s just given birth, and needs some time to recover before getting the second degree from you, or anyone else.”
Already got a second degree, and I’m working on my third as we speak, thank you! the voice said inside her head.
“Fenny!” another voice shouted outside her head.
Rafes cursed, but that was the last Fensa saw of him before a huge woman with huge hair and huge eyes and huge…well, everything filled up her vision. The next thing Fensa knew, she was being crushed into the tightest hug she’d ever received. Not reverent at all, but so full of love, she could almost feel it rolling off the other woman’s body like a yellow flame.
It was Ola! Her Ola! The one from her delusions. Oh, God, how bad had she lost her mind out in the Arizona desert? But no, the new voice kept insisting. Real! Real! Real!
“Are you real?” she whispered, remembering the test Xenon had suggested as a way to differentiate between what was real, and what was purely delusional.
Ola jerked back from the hug as if Fensa’s words had burned her. “Of course, I’m real, Fenny.”
She gl
ared over her shoulder. “What the hell did you say to her?” she asked Rafes.
“Nothing! I just asked her a few questions, questions she’s pretending to be too dazed and confused to answer.”
“I’m not pretending,” Fensa said just as Ola said, “She’s not pretending.”
“Fuck, and now they’re back in twin-wolf stereo. Good job, Rafes. Because that shit wasn’t irritating enough when we were kids.”
“Hey!” Ola said, taking offense on behalf of them both. “I’m sorry my sister and I agree about most things, and don’t argue all the time like you and your idiot brothers. It’s not our fault we love each other and don’t have our heads up our asses.”
Rafes steepled his hands, then tapped them against his nose as if praying for patience, before saying, “Ola, you think you’re safe because you’re my cousin…”
“And the future Queen of North Dakota,” Ola reminded him.
“But you really don’t understand how close I am to ordering a hit after what you pulled in North Dakota, and now this,” Rafes finished as if Ola hadn’t interjected.
“Okay, that’s it!” Knud yelled. “I’m kicking you both out of here. Look at her! You’re obviously upsetting my patient.”
“Your patient only because our lovely fucking president abused all his powers to get you assigned to her case!” Ola pointed out. “Don’t act like you’re not working for him, Pretend Doctor.”
“Ola, I’ve about had it with this Pretend Doctor bullshit,” Knud said, glaring. “I don’t work for my brother anymore, and for your information, I’m an actual medical professional.”
“Oh, is that something they taught you to say at the human school you snuck off to, instead of going to one of our med programs like a legitimate shifter doctor?”
Before he could answer, Ola turned back to Fensa to say, “So yeah, like crazy-ass Knud is a doctor now. For kids! He oversaw your delivery. And did I tell you Rafes tried to black box my time gate like a week after you disappeared? And, oh my God, you’ll never guess who came through the North Dakota gate before he could—”
“EVERYBODY OUT!!!!” Knud roared before she could finish. “She. Just. Woke. Up. From. A. Major. Operation. What part of that do you two fucking animals not understand? She hasn’t even seen her newborns yet. If you do not get out, I swear I will kick both your asses out of here myself.”
And there was the Knud she remembered. The wild kid who turned every argument into a fist fight and more often than not got sent to his room before Thanksgiving dinner was done. Doctor’s coat or not, he was still “the other crazy cousin” she recalled.
Except he was alive. How was he alive?
Before she could open her mouth to ask all the questions she had, the rest of what he’d said dropped down on her like an anvil.
“Wait, did you say newborns?!?!”
38
Gina Goodwolf watched as the super-hot Dr. Nightwolf kicked the super-hot President Nightwolf out of the clinic—even though they were super-hot brothers! From what she’d read when he was running, President Nightwolf was the oldest of triplets. The “Miracle Triplets” they’d been called, when their mother first returned from the Viking Era with not one, but three four-year-olds who turned out to have been sired by the then King of Colorado. But in that moment, as Dr. Nightwolf shoved the president toward the door, they looked more like opponents than brothers.
“Get out!” he yelled at his much more clean-cut brother. “Get out, and stay out!”
President Nightwolf whipped around, and he didn’t look nearly as composed as he usually did on TV as he snarled, “I don’t see or hear from you in over two years—not until you need my help. I give it to you. And this is how you repay me?!”
“The way I figure it, the help you gave me was you repaying me for years of doing your dirty work.”
That statement brought President Nightwolf up short. And his eyes slid to Gina, who, like the other nurse on duty at the clinic, didn’t even make a pretense of not hanging onto every word of their argument.
Dr. Nightwolf followed his brother’s eyes to the nurse’s desk and smirked. “So you want to talk some more about who owes who in front of your constituents, Mr. President? Or would you rather get the hell out of here?”
President Nightwolf threw another glance toward the nurse’s station. And it looked to Gina like the smooth politico was seriously considering calling his brother’s bluff.
But in the end, he drew back his shoulders and straightened his tie, which probably cost more than what Gina made here in a week. Possibly a month. (And she wouldn’t even try to guess how much his well-tailored three-piece suit had set him back).
“Fine, I’ll go,” President Nightwolf said, peering down his nose at his slightly shorter brother. “I can always pay our cousin a visit when she’s out of the hospital. And believe me, I will.”
Dr. Nightwolf answered with a stare so dead-eyed, Gina had to wonder exactly what kind of “dirty work” he’d done for the president before he became a doctor. Why did she have the feeling blood with a whole lot of death on top had been involved?
“Real Indian,” as her dad used to call it when lamenting what the Native Wolf Tribes were like before the European wolves came to their lands.
From what she understood, the triplets were a quarter Latino, a quarter black, a quarter Inuit, and a quarter Native American. Not technically Native, but “Real Indian” was the term that sprang to mind as she watched Dr. Nightwolf stare down the most powerful wolf in North America.
In the end, President Nightwolf looked away first. But he called out, “You two stay here!” to the two guards flanking the door to the clinic’s nursery.
Typically, newborns were kept in the same room as their mother whenever possible. But in this case, the mom had been brought in unconscious and had stayed that way for nearly three days after the delivery. Dr. Nightwolf had been called in as soon as the Arizona Alpha King and the Wyoming Princess brought the unconscious mother through the door. And after arriving here in record time, he’d delivered the babies himself, refusing help from Gina or the other nurse.
After the delivery, President Nightwolf showed up with two guys she’d assumed were his personal security detail. Right up until they kicked the nurses and the town doctor out of the clinic, less than an hour after Dr. Nightwolf kicked them out of the O.R.
And when they’d finally been allowed to return the next morning, the nursery was on lock down. Blindfolds pulled closed, with a guard on each side of the door. Gina was dying to peek inside the room, but only family was allowed in the nursery. And so far, only the twin sister and her mother, the Queen of Michigan, had gone in to visit. Sadly, even with her wolf hearing at full strain, Gina had only managed to pick up, “not yet” and “give them some time” as the twin sister walked the new grandma out. Which might have explained why the Kings of Michigan hadn’t yet visited their grandkids. Maybe…
In any case, she could only wonder what would happen if either of their kingdom town’s two pregnant she-wolves decided to give birth earlier than expected. Why did she have the feeling they’d be transported to the nearest clinic in Nevada before they were ever allowed to give birth on the same premises as the precious future Queen of Michigan.
The whole situation pissed her off. That these royals could come into their town clinic and take over everything like they were the boss of them.
For that reason alone, it felt good to watch Dr. Nightwolf stand up to his brother. Even if, he was technically royalty himself.
But President Nightwolf didn’t exactly go quietly.
First, he came over to the nurse’s station and said, “Thank you for your continued discretion. I expect a call if anything else I should know about arises. No matter what Dr. Nightwolf tells you. In this matter, my authority supersedes his. Do you understand?” he asked Gina and the other nurse, Nell. As if they, like the guards, were under his command.
“Yes, sir,” Nell answered for them both. The tot
al opposite of Real Indian.
God, I don’t like that wolf, Gina thought to herself as she watched him leave. Sure, she’d voted for him. Because he’d sounded intelligent, plus he was freaking hot. She remembered joking to her friends that she wouldn’t mind having a handsome quarter Indian to look at for the next four years, rather than another one of those ancient wolves who headed up the North American Lupine Council for all the decades Gina had been alive.
But that had been before he’d announced the Black Box project. Also, before he’d stormed into her clinic, tossing orders around like he owned the place.
For that reason, and for the money that had been regularly deposited in her bank ever since the “representative of an interested party” had visited her a few years ago, she didn’t feel so bad about what she did next.
As soon as President Nightwolf was gone, and Dr. Nightwolf returned to the she-wolf’s room, and the guards seemed to be looking elsewhere—though who could tell with those damned reflective glasses of theirs?—she covertly pulled out the old-fashioned burner phone she’d been given, just in case she ever needed to send a message to her contact. Just in case, as it turned out, was now….
39
Fensa had a lot of explaining to do. Not just to her people, but also to herself.
However, the latter began to fall into place as soon as she stood up with Ola’s assistance and looked in the mirror.
There she found a fresh-faced woman, who looked neither like the wiry weather-beaten cavewoman she’d become, nor the oversized schizophrenic who’d accidentally landed herself in the Pleistocene Era. No, this woman looked more like Ola than like the helpless girl Fensa remembered. She was Detroit-thick, as her Great-Aunt Wilma liked to call her side of the family, with curves for days.
NAGO, His Mississippi Queen: 50 Loving States, Mississippi (The Brothers Nightwolf Trilogy, Book 1) Page 41
