Kukunniwi Woods

Proving he had a hell of a lot more reserve than his mate, Knud’s father, Rafe Sr waited until Jandro, Tu, Grady, Qim, and L-heart went into the Founder’s Cabin before joining the group.

“Hello, Knud,” Rafe Sr. said, studying him with a disappointed look Knud remembered well from his teenage years.

And hey, wouldn’t you know it, it still made him feel guilty as hell! Knud had to put effort into not shifting from foot to foot like a shame-faced teenager who’d just been brought home by the police after managing to get into yet another bar fight at his parents’ swanky ski resort.

“Hey, Dad,” Knud answered, reminding himself he’d done nothing wrong. Had, in fact, done what was best for all of them.

Another disappointed flicker, but eventually his father offered him a stiff hand. Knud took it, and they shook solemnly. The total opposite of how his mom had handled things.

But his older triplet, Rafes, wasn’t nearly as reserved. “Is that seriously all you’re going to say, Dad? ‘Hello?’ We haven’t heard from him in the last five years…and you act like it’s no big deal when we finally see him again?”

Before either of their parents could respond, Rafes rounded on Knud. “You have some nerve coming back here without telling your family—you know, the people who raised you and put up with your bullshit for years?—that you were meeting with Uncle Grady and Qim,” he said in the angry, judgmental tone Knud remembered better than well. “What the hell were you thinking swearing Uncle Grady and Qim to secrecy AND bringing a human here on a full moon nigh—!?”

“Are you going to marry her?” Alisha demanded, neatly cutting her indignant oldest son off just as he was getting started. “Because I really, really need you to marry her.”

“Mom, are you kidding me with this?!” Rafes asked, turning on her with an incredulous look. “You were just crying inconsolably a few minutes ago!”

“If you marry that woman I will forgive everything, no questions asked,” Alisha continued as if Rafes hadn’t said a word. “The last five years, all the fighting, the underage drinking, those girls you insisted on sneaking into our home…everything.”

“I’m pretty sure she means that,” Rafe Sr. said to Knud with a knowing half-grin. “Might be your only way back in, son.”

“I can’t believe this—” Rafes cut himself off with a curse. And Knud smirked because unlike their father, his brother Rafesson still hadn’t acclimated to the fact that the Ataneq sisters were, as Aunt Tu put it, “straight representing for Alaska cray.”

“He can’t marry her, Mom,” Rafes said, visibly forcing himself to keep his voice level. “She’s a human. A very famous human.”

“Okay, can someone please tell me why she’s so famous?” Knud asked, feeling pretty sure this was important information he needed to have for this conversation.

Alisha blinked at him, then shook her head. “He’s kidding,” she assured her husband and oldest son, both of whom were staring at Knud like he might be the stupidest man in the world. “He has to be kidding.”

“He’s not, Mom,” Rafes bit out. “Remember, we all saw his report card growing up.”

“Oh, not all intellect is accurately measured by grades and tests and report cards. Plus, who knows what he might have achieved if he’d bothered to put in some real effort,” Alisha insisted, defending Knud like she always did and always had to his older triplet.

“Come on, Mom. This is Knud we’re talking about here. He’s obviously only interested in what’s between that human’s legs.”

“Hey, man! Don’t try to act like you know me,” Knud countered. Yeah, Rafes might have had a valid point a few months earlier. But not now…and not when it came to L-heart. He really cared about this particular human. To the point that his wolf had been spinning since she walked out his door last Friday. “You don’t know me now.”

“You’re right, Knud. We don’t know what kind of changes you’ve undergone in the last five years,” Alisha agreed, before glaring at Rafes. “People change—as I discovered when my oldest son made it his life’s mission to block wolves from using the time gates. Never mind that he spent the first four years of his life—his formative years—in Viking Era Norway. And it’s because of his time with the Vikings that he began to develop resilience and the leadership skills necessary to become the President of the North American wolves. Imagine what he would have missed out on if I’d never had access to the time gates in the first place!”

“Not this again,” Rafes raised his eyes to the sky. “I’m using the black boxes to lock down the time gates for the good of our race! And you act as if our time with the Vikings was some sort of extended four-year vacation when what really happened is you abused the time gate system with devastating repercussions—”

Rafes suddenly stopped, probably because he knew from experience how conversations with academics rapidly wormholed into other topics if you didn’t stay vigilant. Knud himself could recall several times when what should have been a short conversation—like what to buy Dad for his birthday—turned into him listening to a long-winded diatribe about “the relatively new religion” of consumerism.

Rafes reset and said, “People don’t change that much, Mom.”

“Given your relatively young age, I respectfully disagree. And in any case, your brother and the human woman are most definitely dating! I can smell her scent all over him.”

Rafes sighed in obvious frustration. “Pardon my language—which by the way, I learned from you—but fucking a human and dating a human aren’t nearly the same thing.”

A beat of silence passed. Then Alisha turned pleading eyes to Knud and said, “Your brother is right. Look sweetie, I know you value your sexual freedom but you have got to marry this one. Please, do it for me! We’ll call it a ‘five-years worth of missed Mother’s Days’ make-up gift.”

“Mom! He doesn’t even know who she is,” Rafes pointed out, sounding more like the parent in this conversation than his mother. “And what part of ‘she’s human’ are you not understanding?”

“I don’t care about any of that,” Alisha said. “Nago has a child on the way with his Mississippi Queen, and now you’ve got Myrna.”

“Wait, wait…time out,” Knud glanced from Rafes to his mom with his own incredulous look. “Nago already sealed the deal with that Mississippi she-wolf? And Myrna, Hot Valkyrie Babysitter, is your fated mate? Like she came through a time gate, the very things you are trying to shut down, for you?”

“Don’t call her that,” Rafes bit out. As their mother eagerly jumped in with, “Knud! You should have been there. I was protesting the black box installation at the North Dakota gate when there was a flash and out popped Myrna! It was glorious! And it obviously means an end to Rafes’ black box project.”

Knud could tell his brother was on the verge of completely losing his shit, as Rafes answered, “It obviously means nothing of the sort, Mom. And Myrna is beside the point!”

“Is she?” Knud asked his older triplet . “Because unless I’m getting this wrong, you just got a hot Viking princess delivered to you through the very time gate system you’ve been trying to shut down for years, but here you are throwing shade on my relationship.”

“What relationship?!?!” Rafes yelled back. “You don’t even know her name!”

“Boys…!” their father said as if they were still teenagers as opposed to a pediatric surgeon and the President of the North American wolves.

“No, Dad. Mom’s trying to act like Knud’s changed…but look at him! He hasn’t learned anything. He’s still a total fuck-up. How can you not see that?”

“A total fuck-up,” Knud repeated, his voice low and dangerous. “You didn’t seem to think I was a fuck up when I was running the black ops that earned you your presidency.”

“You’re right,” Rafes spat back, his face little more than a snarl. “You were useful to me for about five whole seconds and then you went and fucked that up, too!”

Knud could have calmly explained that by leaving black ops he’d actually unfucked his life. Made something of himself. That despite the bad grades he’d earned in school, he’d managed to become a doctor. A surgeon, in fact. As opposed to his brother’s personal attack dog.

He could have said all of that.

But he didn’t.

Because the anger showed up, red, all-consuming, vicious and dumb. And before reason even had a chance to open its mouth, Knud shot out a hand and grabbed his brother by the throat.