5
Alisha’s big mistake, she would realize later, was waiting until the end of the semester before she went to Wolf Springs herself.
She should have gone right after Professor Henley cancelled his own trip at the last minute, without any explanation as to why he suddenly couldn’t make it to Alaska for a meeting he’d been more than excited about just a few days prior. But she’d had classes to teach and papers to grade, so she’d waited until the end of the semester to make her investigative trip to Wolf Springs.
Unfortunately, by that time, Rafe Nightwolf had finally returned and accepted the alpha king title, which he’d gotten almost a year early ostensibly because his father was ready to retire, but more so, in Alisha’s opinion, because he was a spoiled brat and his overly indulgent parents wanted to give him some kind of consolation prize for losing his fiancée to a time-traveling Viking.
In any case, not many of Wolf Springs’ denizens had been willing talk to her about what had really happened to Chloe Adams. Not even Professor Henley, who sheepishly told her through his slightly cracked office door that he was only a few years away from retirement and couldn’t risk the wrath of the new alpha king.
And that was how Alisha found out Rafe was not only back in Colorado, but also officially the state alpha. Then later, when townsperson after townsperson told her in hushed tones that he or she couldn’t talk about Chloe Adams, she realized Professor Henley wasn’t just being paranoid where Rafe was concerned. From what she could tell, “King Rafe” not only knew she was in town, but had also issued some kind of state-wide edict not to talk with her about what had happened to Chloe.
However, Alisha knew not everyone would be as susceptible to Rafe’s manipulations, and luckily, she’d packed her Broncos sweatshirt.
“Uncle Dale!” she shouted when Rafe's father opened the door to the two-story contemporary log and stucco residence. It had once served as a guest house to the main kingdom house and now served as the retired king's residence. But if Dale missed the nearly thirteen thousand square foot stone mansion he used to call home, he was hiding it well. The rangy former king looked well rested and more than happy with his decision to retire.
He scooped her up into his arms for a long hug. “Lil’ Alisha! Oh man, is it good to see you. Erylace is going to be damn mad she missed you!” he said, referring to Rafe’s mother. “But she’s down in New Mexico visiting her pack.”
“Oh, I’m sad I missed her, too,” Alisha said, meaning it. Whatever issues she had with Rafe and her parents right now, she still loved Dale and Erylace like a real uncle and aunt, and she would loved to have seen the sweet Latina wolf who had given Rafe both his eyes and his coloring. And as Dale showed her to the living room, Alisha couldn’t help but notice how much the Cheyenne wolf looked like Rafe, except with way more grizzle, and without the light brown pretty, which made Rafe look more like a Disney prince than a wolf one.
After some small talk about the Broncos chances for the next year’s playoffs, Dale slapped his hands on his knees and said, “Well, I know your foolish dad raised you to be a Seahawks fan, so I reckon the real reason you showed up on my doorstep was to talk with me about Chloe Adams.”
Alisha leaned forward to make her pitch to the only person in town Rafe couldn’t boss around. “I know everybody else wants to cast her as the villain in this story, but she was my friend and a good person, better than most wolves I know. She deserves more than to be remembered as some dirty scandal Rafe’s forbidden anyone to talk about.”
The king shook his head. “I told my son shutting everybody up probably wasn’t the best way to handle you, but I guess he still hasn’t learned his lesson. He didn’t listen to me about Chloe either.”
Alisha came forward even more in her seat. “Just tell me what happened. Please.”
The king considered her request for a few moments, then said, “Fine, I’ll tell you what I know, but it’s not much.”
That was how Alisha came to hear the extraordinary tale of how her friend was claimed by a Viking king. For Alisha, who had grown up in a kingdom town whose time portal gate had only flashed twice within her lifetime, and both times with she-wolves who hadn't traveled more than a couple of decades outside of their time period, the story was nothing less than fascinating.
“Unbelievable,” she said after the king finished his tale.
Dale tipped his head to the side with a thoughtful frown. “Not really. You young folks think you got this relationship stuff all figured out these days. You want to meet cute and fall in love with your best friend. Total load of crap! Up until the sixties, both the Eskimos and the Cheyenne believed everyone had a fated mate. And one reason there was so much cross-pollination among the Northern tribes was because young people didn't just hook up with the first wolf who struck their fancy. They either waited for their fated mate, or they let their parents pick one for them. Nowadays, you young pups run around wild with no thought to compatibility or alliance.”
She could hear the bitterness in his voice. “You think that’s what Rafe did when he proposed to Chloe? Just went with the first wolf who struck his fancy?”
Dale raised his narrow shoulders up and down. “I think if he’d listened to me, he wouldn’t be in the position he is now.”
She didn’t understand. Dale was acting like Rafe’s life had been wrecked when Chloe left him for another wolf when in reality, “Rafe’s only twenty-five. He still has plenty of time to meet a nice she-wolf and have cubs.”
Now Dale leaned forward, his previous affability disappearing. “Rafe’s my only son, my only child. I don’t want a nice she-wolf for him, I want the right she-wolf.”
He nodded at her, and Alisha had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. Yes, she got that Dale thought Rafe and her mating would magically tick off all the checkmarks on his retired king bucket list: give him a grand pup to carry on his line, and ensure his continued alliance with Alaska. But he also needed to understand Rafe and she weren’t chess pieces that could be paired together because it was the most convenient move for the men playing this insufferable game.
Rafe might be willing to fall in line, but Alisha was her own person, and she refused to be mated for life to a wolf who not only didn’t respect she-wolves enough to allow Alisha to get the full story about what happened to her friend, but also seemed to think he was entitled to cast Chloe in the role of jezebel betrayer.
“Uncle Dale, please understand I’m not trying to disrespect you or Rafe by finding out what happened to Chloe. If she really did go back in time, like you said she did, she could be an important missing link in our history. I can’t just leave the question of what happened to her unanswered. I wouldn’t be who I am if I was able to do that. And if Rafe and I were even halfway compatible, he’d understand that.”
This was the closest Alisha had ever dared to come to outright defying her Uncle Dale. He might be affable enough to anyone who claimed to be a fellow Broncos fan, but at the end of the day, he was still an alpha, one who, like most alphas, expected his will to be served without question (yet another reason she didn’t wish to be married to one).
She held her breath to see how he would react, but something she’d said must have gotten through to him, because the next words out of his mouth brought her nothing but joy.
“You know, that house Chloe was living in belongs to Rafe,” he said. “And as far as I know, my son still hasn’t cleared it out.”
“HELL, DAD, I THOUGHT YOU were supposed to be on my side,” Rafe said after his father let him know he’d sent Alisha to Chloe’s old house, the one Rafe had bought for her back when they were still engaged.
“I am, Son,” Dale answered, dropping into one of the slick, leather guest chairs Rafe had bought when he remodeled the kingdom house’s large office. “Liked the brown reception chairs I used to have in here a lot better. A wolf could lean back in one of those chairs. Have a nice palaver.”
That was exactly why he’d gotten rid of them. His father basically ran his o
ffice like country club, gossiping with the other men in the village over whiskey and cigars all day, like they were re-enacting Mad Men. But if Rafe wanted to keep and grow their state’s interest, he didn’t have time to palaver all day.
“Dad, can you go back to the part where you sent Alisha to Chloe’s house even though I expressly forbade anyone to help her with that insane project?”
Dale shrugged like disobeying an alpha’s edict was no big deal, and Rafe began to understand why quite a few new kings gifted their fathers with long retirement trips to far flung places rather than put up with their interference during the first months on the throne.
“She’s got a bee in her bonnet over Chloe’s disappearance and she’s not going to let it go until she feels like she’s gotten all the answers she can get.” Dale cracked his knuckles and wiggled his eyebrows at Rafe. “That she-wolf of yours is one hell of a spark plug. Passionate, smart, brave, and as one of my football buddies from Park Hill used say, ‘built like a brick shi—‘”
“Dad.” Rafe really didn’t need to hear his father’s thoughts on his future wife’s body.
“Not trying to be inappropriate,” Dale said, raising his hands. “Love her like a daughter. Just saying I can see why you like her.”
Rafe rubbed a hand over his tired eyes. “Yes, I do like her, but writing a book about my ex-fiancée isn’t an activity I can condone for my future queen.”
His father exhaled. “She still hasn’t gotten it through her head she belongs to you. Back in my day, a princess knew her place. Your mother’s father told her I was her future mate, and she came up here to me, no questions asked. But these young ones will run a future mate through the ringer.”
Rafe silently agreed with his father. If he’d set his sights on Alisha even twenty years ago, she’d be pledged to him right now. But as it was, Alisha had Council law on her side. After a series of early 21st century reforms, she-wolf princesses could no longer be compelled into mating with someone of their father’s choosing, but most she-wolves still had good enough breeding to do as they were told. The fact that Alisha did not made Rafe’s human blood boil and his wolf clamor to claim her.
As if reading his mind, Dale said, “Also, you didn’t do yourself any favors by going wolf on her,” Dale pointed out. “Tikaani says you shook that lil’ gal up but good.”
Rafe picked up his phone to text Grady, the town’s new sheriff, to meet him over at Chloe’s house. “Only you would call Alisha a ‘poor little thing,’” he said to his father as he thumb punched in his message. “She came out of the womb with teeth.”
“I know she did!” Dale said, slapping his knee with a laugh. “Wilma was probably scared to breast feed her!”
However, Rafe didn’t laugh along with his father. His face darkened. “I don’t like that I lost control, that I went wolf on her. I didn’t… she provoked me and Janelle’s heat came on so fast… I didn’t mean to scare her.”
“I know, Son.”
“But that doesn’t mean I’m going to sit back while Alisha rummages through Chloe’s house.” Rafe stood up and headed for the door. “I’m putting an end to this right now.”
“Wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Dale said as Rafe passed by his chair. “If you let her look her fill, she probably won’t turn up anything, but if you go over there, she’ll think you’re trying to keep something from her.”
But his dad might as well have been talking to thin air. Rafe was already out the door.
ALISHA WAS SURPRISED to find Rafe had kept Chloe’s place exactly the same despite what had happened between them. From what she could see, nothing had been touched since Chloe’s second departure. Nothing, including the desktop from which she’d written her Black Mountain Woman blog.
“Yes!” Alisha whispered, racing over to the desk sitting in the far corner of the wood-paneled living room. Every historian has a little archeologist inside of her, and this perfectly preserved site was a dream come true.
Alisha pulled a USB drive out of her purse and downloaded all the desktop’s files onto it before opening up a video that, according to the computer’s hard drive, had been uploaded to Chloe’s computer the day before her first disappearance. Chloe blinked onto the monitor screen with a man sitting behind her on the bathroom counter. Alisha leaned forward. Was this the Viking wolf? He wore only a towel wrapped around his waist, but he was freaking huge. Well over six feet and built like a truck.
After a happy greeting to her audience, Chloe introduced him as “Fenris.”
Since Fenrir was the wolf god that the Norse wolves used to pray to before the majority of them converted to Christianity, this had to be Chloe’s mate, and he looked nothing like the clean-cut Rafe. His tousled red hair fell in long waves over his broad shoulders and he was sporting some serious beard action.
His eyes stayed on Chloe throughout her entire explanation about testing out an old-fashioned straight blade she’d found at the flea market on her special guest. She threw him an affectionate smile when she said, “special guest,” which confused Chloe, because the tape was uploaded less than twelve hours before her friend was caught attempting to leave town without the Viking by Wolf Springs’ newly retired sheriff. But in this video, the two came off as rather chummy, even though only Chloe talked the entire time she was scraping his beard off.
However, Chloe stopped talking to the audience mid-sentence when the last of the shaving cream came off and she saw the Viking’s naked face for the very first time. Alisha could easily see why Chloe had been struck speechless. The Viking had been hiding a movie star-level handsome face under that rough beard.
Chloe smiled up at the Viking, but then averted her face when he tried to kiss her. He rubbed his nose against the side of her face, and suddenly she laughed. At first Alisha was confused, but then she figured they must have been communicating through mental telepathy.
Fascinating, because most likely the Viking spoke Old Norse, so this was probably the only way the two could communicate, with the telepathy acting as a translator when they shared their thoughts—thoughts that were obviously taking a sexy turn. The Viking pulled her hands up and laid them on his chest before kissing her once, then twice, then he was slipping his hands underneath her robe…
They eventually paused, coming to what looked like telepathically relayed mutual agreement, and moved out of frame. But the camera was still trained on the bathroom’s mirror, so Alisha could see they had decided to run a bath for the Viking. One Chloe would be joining him for. Her friend went out of the camera’s frame and then came back into it, laughing and naked as she lowered herself into the bath behind him.
Alisha watched Chloe wash the Viking’s hair, which seemed to give him a great deal of pleasure. The Viking smiled over his shoulder at his new mate with approval in his eyes before flipping over to cover Chloe’s body with his own. They began kissing again, and this time they didn’t stop… and that was when Alisha began to feel more like a voyeur than a historian.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Alisha inwardly cursed, and she quickly pocketed the USB drive, before swiveling her chair around to face Rafe.
He was standing with a muscle-bound blond guy, who she assumed must be the new town sheriff/beta since he was wearing a brown uniform. But even in uniform with a gun holstered to his side, he didn’t come off anywhere near as intimidating as Rafe, who looked like he was ready to strangle her
Behind her, the sound of Chloe’s pleasure-filled screams erupted from the desktop. And kept on going. Seriously, Chloe sounded like a porn star, she was screaming so loud.
“So…” Alisha said. “How about them Broncos?”
6
“What are you doing here?” Rafe asked after his future wife pushed pause on the video of his ex-fiancée having sex with another wolf.
“Well,” Alisha answered carefully. “I just happened to be passing by, and the door was unlocked.”
“You just happened to be passing by?” he rep
eated.
He could almost see her making the decision not to tell him about his father’s part in this before she said, “Yes, the new year’s right around the corner, so I’m getting a head start on all my resolutions. Eat better, exercise more, you know. So I decided to take a walk through the residential part of town and this house still looked so cute and quaint from the outside, I wondered who might be renting it now that Chloe’s gone. But then no one was here when I knocked on the door, so I decided to take a little peek around—“
Unable to stand this obviously made up a story any longer, he said, “My father told me he sent you here.”
Alisha let out a huge sigh of relief. “Good, I didn’t know how much longer I could keep that going. Why didn’t you open with that?” she asked with an accusatory look.
“Because I wanted to see if you would lie.” He gave her a sharp look of his own. “You did. I expected better of a princess.”
“Well, I consider myself an academic first, and an academic never reveals her sources—at least not until it’s time to write the bibliography.” She chuckled at her own joke. “A little educational humor for you—free of charge.”
Rafe stared at her, clearly not amused. “So let me get this straight. You came into my kingdom town. Asked my pack a bunch of intrusive questions about my life. Let yourself into my house. And now you’re making jokes about lying straight to my face?”
Alisha sighed, as if he were a pesky nuisance instead of the Alpha King of Colorado. “Look Rafe, I get you’re all hurt or whatever about Chloe. That must have been a really huge blow to your ego. I understand, seriously I do. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to just put away my research. I mean my specialty is American she-wolves, and Chloe is a black shifter who went back in time to the Viking Age. Who knows how she’s influenced wolf culture? She could be the reason the Norse Vikings stopped praying to the Fenrir wolf and converted to Christianity. She could have—”
Wolf and Prejudice (The Alaska Princesses Trilogy, Book 2) Page 5
