OLAFR
“But…I don’t understand. How are you talking to me like this? I mean, I know how the mate-bond works but…” Her voice trails off, soft with disbelief, but clear as a bell inside Olafr’s head as if it’s been there all along.
Yet his joy upon hearing her is largely overshadowed by her accusation.
“Do you question how you understand my words because we speak a different tongue? Or do you question how I can speak to you because you think me weak of mind?”
“Um, both, actually,” comes her tentative response.
Their female, Olafr realizes and not for the first time, seems to have little skill at forming her thoughts into words that do not offend.
“I am not certain,” he answers, pushing more words into her head. “I do not know much of the ways of humans, but I believe our mate-bond must be a…” he stops, struggling for the words “…bridge between our tongues. When my parents were in conversation, they would oft begin speaking aloud and then switch to the silent talk of mates.”
A pause. Olafr can sense her sitting perfectly still on the other side of the door, but the smell of her need continues to fill the room like the iron rattles his pack drums against the ground to herald the coming of a full moon.
“So…you’re not actually wolf-bound then?” she asks, her voice small inside his head.
“No, Varra, I am not,” he answers. “Nor am I litthyggiandi.”
And then his brother whispers over their brother bond, “Keep speaking with her. She finds it soothing. I will await her on the bed.”
Olafr can feel his older brother’s need to mate with their female as if it is his own need. And even more alarming, he can sense his brother’s wolf—a beast that has been kept mute by his brother for many years, growling to get out. “But I do not know how to use convincing words like you.”
“My wolf is too consumed with her heat to let me speak convincing words without action,” his brother answers him. And indeed he sounds much like their father, when he says, “This mess did you make. This mess must you mend.”
He then ends any further discussion by moving away from the door and to the bed, leaving Olafr to sort out their mate’s confusion.
Olafr pushes more words into her mind. “Would I have spoken with you sooner, Varra, but your tears cut my heart and I did not want to frighten you with my mind words. I thought to let my brother, who knows our mother’s tongue better than I, speak for us. But your confusion became too great and truthfully, I had no desire for you to think me litthyggiandi.”
Swallowing down his anger at himself, Olafr admits, “I feel deep shame for my claim of you, Varra. Be assured my brother will take better care when he next claims you.”
Another long pause.
Then their she-wolf says, “Okay, I am so confused. If you’re not wolf-bound, why the hell did you stay a wolf all this time? Alisha said she’d never even seen you in your human form until you came here.”
Olafr notices she has chosen to ignore his words about her mating his brother.
“’Tis a long story, Varra, and I can smell you are still in great need.” He keeps his voice soft and soothing, as he’s heard his mother doing when speaking with a skittish pup. “I would not have you suffer more than you have. Please come out.”
Her sobs have stopped but Olafr hears her give a small sniff.
“You still want to share me with FJ? Even after he nearly beat you up?”
Olafr glances back at his brother who is now seated naked on the bed with closed eyes. Still as a wooden figure, but with hands clawed into the sheet. Even if Olafr did could not sense his emotional state over their brother bond, he would know how terribly his brother suffered for want of their female. That he was bringing all of his mind powers to bear in order to keep from dragging her out of the closet.
And for this reason does Olafr turn back to the storage cupboard and place a hand on the slatted door. Trying again, though he fears himself ill-armed for this job.
“By rights my brother should have killed me. It shows how strong our brother bond is that he used his fists on me instead of his sword. Had it been my brother here in my stead…had I entered your chamber to bear witness to him mistreating you as I have done, he would have felt the hot iron of my sword in his belly and the sting of my blade upon his manhood. Even though I do not know as of yet how to take a sword, this is what I would have done to make certain he would never again dishonor another she-wolf as you have been dishonored today.”
This time the pause is much longer. Then she finally says, “Wow, that sorry was really kind of over the top, but um, apology accepted, I guess? Still, I can’t just—”
Her mind breaks off from his suddenly, and Olafr can sense her begin to shake on the other side of the door, her heat becoming too much for her to bear. While on the bed behind him, he can sense FJ battling mightily with his own wolf to stay in control.
This is my fault, all my fault, Olafr thinks to himself, wracked with shame for what has passed between him and their female.
He drops to his knees so he is on the same footing as his mate.
“Varra, you do suffer, as does my brother,” he says through the door. “My wolf cannot allow this. Yet I am loath to pull you from the your refuge after what I have done.”
No response.
With a silent apology to Freya, goddess of love, he opens the door against her spoken wishes…
Only to feel his heart flatten within his chest when he finds their mate curled up into a tight, seated ball.
Olafr reaches for her. “Come, Varra. I will take you to my brother now.”
But she pushes away his hands.
Then comes her voice, tight with strain inside his head. “I only want one mate. Not two! One! Just you. I can’t be like my father, just picking up a new mate like the first one didn’t even matter.”
A tormented sound comes from the bed behind him, and Olafr glances back to see his brother is now curled over on the bed, like a wolf before shift. Eyes squeezed closed, and white teeth bared as he battles his wolf for control.
Any other shifter would have pulled her from the closet by now. Thrown her upon the bed and rutted her without care or permission. But FJ is restraining his wolf for their female. Many in their village did whisper of the kill that caused their Fenris to name his son Ever the Man. And some did wonder if one with so little discipline of his wolf should lead the North Wolves. But it is clear to him now how good-fortuned any pack would be to have his brother as their fenrir.
However, this cannot go on. Their female and his brother must mate. For the sake of all.
“Varra, please…” Olafr says, resorting to begging. “You are ours, and we are yours. This is as it should be.”
Yet she shakes her head. Still denying the truth that her body accepted some time ago.
It is more than Olafr can bear. He drops back down to his knees to address her with a rough voice. “Varra, you are hurting yourself and my brother as well.”
“No, no, I can’t.” Her voice is little more than a pained cry inside his head now. “It’s not right. I can’t.”
Now it is Olafr’s turn to be confused. “You speak as if you have a choice.”
“I do have a choice!” she insists, even as another wave of her overripe scent releases into the room.
Then their female takes Olafr by surprise, grabbing him by his large shoulders, and for the first time looking him directly in the eyes.
“I do have a choice. I can get with you again. You’re not wolf-bound and I don’t want two mates. I’ll take you again. Not him. Just you.” Their mate’s voice is fierce with determination and need. It is, in fact, the most strength this she-wolf has shown since their first meeting.
But Olafr quickly removes her hands from his body before his other half can take over again. “You cannot mean that.”
“I do,” she says, frantically grabbing one of his large hands in both of hers. “Please, Olafr, just mate with me again before he can.”
“No, you mistake my meaning.” Olafr swallows back the rising tide of lust her desperate words bring forth. “I know you mean what you say. But the simple truth is, you…we…can not.”
She merely shakes her head, looking stricken and utterly confused.
“Does your land really know so little of the Brothers claim?”
She moans and then grits her teeth, pushing words into his head. “I don’t know anything about any of that. Some humans have been known to take multiple mates, but wolves don’t. Or at least I’ve never heard of this happening before. Tu mentioned it’s popular in shifter romance novels....”
Feeling very much like he should not be the one to explain this to their mate, Olafr tried his best anyway. “The way of the Brothers claim is with every rise of your heat, you mate one brother and then the other. This is why I did unknot from you with such haste. And this be why your heat did return to you again with such haste.”
Olafr nods his head toward FJ. “My brother’s human is not as weak as mine. He struggles mightily with his wolf so as not to take you without your leave. But your heat does render him the same as it renders you. He will remain with this fever until you are joined together.”
At last Olafr can see understanding dawn in their she-wolf’s eyes. Yet she still resists, whispering, “No,” inside his head.
“Yea, Varra, you must make your human understand this now.” Olafr is done with explanations. They have run out of time. He holds their mate’s gaze so she cannot look away. “You have mated me. You are mine.”
And now does he let his voice become firm inside her head as he commands her, male wolf to his she-wolf, “Now must you become his.”