TIARA
I wake suddenly from a nightmare in which FJ and Olafr are fruitlessly searching the Alaska mountains for me, calling out my name with despairing voices…only to find I’m now inside another nightmare. Except this one is happening for real on a plane.
The flight, according to the cheerful voice overhead, has landed and we are now taxiing toward a terminal gate at the Detroit Metropolitan airport. After that the line to deplane moves quickly. Too quickly. Even though I purposely flew economy the whole way. One last stupid and uncomfortable way to defy my father, who prefers everyone in his crew fly first-class because “flossing is a habit” as he likes to explain to the few bold enough to ask. This was meant to be my last act of defiance before I give in to his plans for me entirely. Like using all your weapons when you’re only a quarter of the way through a level, because you’re down to your last man.
But the joke’s on me, because the plane clears out in what feels like record time. And despite not sending anyone my flight details, I find my father, Yancey, and my brother, Clyde, waiting for me at baggage claim. But I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Dad has always had a way of finding things out. Just ask any of the dead prospects who’ve tried to go behind his back.
No words are exchanged when I come to a stop in front of the small group. Just an angry sniff from my father, followed by a confused sniff from my brother. Yancey remains a true beta though, tough as the leather Dark Wolf vest he wears over his long-sleeved tee. If he can scent the changes in me, he doesn’t give any indication of it, and his face remains the same dead-eyed mask he always wears.
I have no idea how much advanced warning Uncle Ford gave Dad when he called to tell him I was on my way. But it doesn’t matter. They know for sure I’m pregnant now. My nose isn’t that great, but even I can smell the shift in hormones. The seed now growing inside me, strong and true.
However, there are humans everywhere, so no one makes a scene. My brother grabs my luggage and, like silent actors in a kabuki play, we head out to Yancey’s black Cadillac Escalade.
Not until we’re in the car, safely behind closed doors, does my father turn from the front passenger seat to demand, “How many people know about this?”
“Only the Alaska kingdom house,” I answer, my voice dull. “It happened during the full moon.”
My father nods, as if doing some kind of mental calculation. “Good. We can control that. I’ll talk to Wilma.”
I start to look at my brother, but my father says, “Don’t look at him when you’re talking to me, girl.”
So instead, I fold my arms and look out the window, giving him nothing. The backseat equivalent of locking myself in my room.
But this time he refuses to let me retreat. “I can’t believe you did this!” he all but growls between clenched teeth a few moments later. “And after skipping out on your engagement party—do you know how much that party cost me?”
“You mean the party you threw to celebrate my engagement to my brother’s lover?” I ask, my voice filled with stale candy. “Would you like me to pay you back? Because if you want, I can do that.”
My father turns all the way around in his seat, and out of the corner of one eye, I can see my twin staring at me, his mouth hanging open. I know why. Neither of them are at all used to me standing up for myself.
Dad recovers first, glaring at me even harder as he says. “No, Tiara. I ain’t going to make you pay me back. We gonna forget about all that. Tell everybody you ran off, Kyle went to get you. He put the hammer down, and ya’ll ended up getting heated out there in Alaska. Evelyn and me already started making arrangements for the wedding. What you got to say about that?’
I have so many things to say about that. But I keep my mouth clamped shut, because I know anything I say might lead my psychopath of a father straight to FJ and Olafr.
Dad smiles in that asshole way of his into my answering silence. “Nothing. Good, that’s what I thought. We’ll tell Evelyn to start preparing you for the wedding as soon as we get home. I’ll text message the Dakota Royals now.”
Again I say nothing. But when my father’s head lowers to his phone, I look over at my brother. He’s staring back at me, looking like he desperately wants to say something. But I shake my head at him to stay quiet.
He’s still my brother. Still my best friend, even if I kind of hated him for a second after finding out his part in the set-up with Kyle.
I grab his hand and squeeze before he can say anything that will get him in any more trouble than he probably already is. Let him know I’m still his sister, no matter what happens in this car. Let him know I have his back.
But I let go right before Dad looks back up from his texting.
“So you’ll do it?” he asks with a suspicious expression. “You’ll marry the Dakota Prince and raise this pup you carrying as his? No more running off to Alaska?”
I nod, but agreeing to this causes my stomach to burn with pain. Like I’m one of the characters in Ninja Shifters who takes a knife to the gut, committing seppuku after losing a level. It feels like I’m betraying FJ and Olafr in the worst way possible, even though I’m doing this for them. To keep them alive until they get what they need to return home and save their village.
“Good, I’m glad we understand each other,” Dad says with a big grin, like we’ve just struck an important deal. “Now all I need is a name.”
A name. He’s only asking for one. My heart rallies a little bit, knowing Uncle Ford must not have told him everything if he doesn’t know I’m now mated to not one, but two wolves.
“No,” I answer my father, training my eyes on his seat back. “No name.”
My second act of defiance since getting into the car, and my father looks confused, like his daughter’s been replaced with a pod monster.
“You expect me to let this boy live? After he claimed what wasn’t his to claim?”
My father has no idea how much I belong to FJ and Olafr. That our mate bond was preordained by whatever or whoever created the system of portal gates long ago. No idea.
So I just refold my arms. “If you want me to marry Kyle without any mess, those are my terms. You can take them or leave them.”
That last line is a bunch of junk code for real. Because the truth is, I don’t know what I’ll do if my father decides to call my bluff. He could just call in a favor with Aunt Wilma. Those two might have their differences, but I know without a doubt Aunt Wilma would do anything to make sure what happened to her mange niece in Alaska stays buried in Alaska. Maybe even have Uncle Ford remove FJ and Olafr, two wolves she’s not bonded to by any kind of family tie.
Lucky for me, Dad actually seems to be considering my offer. “If I let this boy go, you’ll do everything I say?” he asks me.
I nod, hating myself almost as much as the situation I’ve put myself in.
“And how about him? Am I going to have to worry about one of them Alaska wolves showing up to the wedding and asking for the Speak Now Ritual?”
Wow, I think, somewhat amazed. Uncle Ford really didn’t tell him a damn thing. Just the bare minimum. It’s enough to make me rethink my original assumption about him being my dad’s total minion.
“No,” I promise, thinking of Uncle Ford’s plan to keep FJ and Olafr caged until Alisha can figure out how to help them with the dragons. “You won’t have to worry about him coming here.”
My dad gives me a long, hard look, but then says. “All right, I guess it’s a deal.”
But he turns to face forward in his seat with a hmphh, like a king denied his hunting prize. I can tell he doesn’t love this spine his previously meek daughter has suddenly grown.
“Get Tikaani on the phone,” he tells Yancey. “We’ve got to set this story up right—”
He’s interrupted by the electronic beep of an incoming call.
Yancey glances down at the number, then back to my father. “It’s Grif.”
Grif, the orphan Dark Wolf thug Yancey has been training to take over as my brother’s beta. Sons usually inherit the beta position just like kings. But Yancey had never gotten around to settling down with a mate. No surprise there. He barely speaks and he always looks like he’s setting up to punch somebody. Not many women who’d want to put up with that for a lifetime.
“Pop quiz,” Yancey says in his usual barebones way.
And Dad nods.
“See what he needs. We’re done here.”
How my dad got all of that from Yancey’s two words—I have no idea. But I am happier than probably anyone else in this car to change the subject.
Yancey pushes a button on the steering wheel. “Yeah?”
“You cool?” comes Grif’s gruff voice through the car’s speakerphone.
“Kind of hot. But with cool people,” Yancey answers. “What you got?”
“Old weird dude just called here talking crazy. Talking about you and the Prez have to get up to the Upper right fucking now—his words, not mine.”
I sit forward.
“Granddad? Granddad wants us to come up to the old kingdom house?”
Granddad is currently living out his retirement in the old kingdom house on the Upper Peninsula. But once in a while he calls the Detroit kingdom house and starts throwing around orders like he’s still the alpha.
Grif, being new, wouldn’t know about that.
“Yeah, maybe it was him. Like I said, he sounded old…and kind of crazy, but like he was in charge.”
Up front, Yancey and Dad exchange a look. Yeah, that’s him all right, they seem to silently say.
“Did he say what he wants?” my Dad asks, his voice tight with irritation. Granddad is the only wolf on Earth who can truly get under my dad’s skin—at least without a Mossberg ending the conversation.
“Yeah, he did. And that’s why I thought he was a crazy. He said the time portal went off, but that can’t be right because that ain’t ever happened before, right?”
Silence drops like a bomb in the car.
Oh, hell no! I say to myself, somehow already knowing exactly who’s come through Michigan’s formerly long dormant time gate. Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I think.
Or at least I thought I said that to myself. But then I notice everybody in the car is staring at me. My dad. My brother. Yancey, through the rearview. I’m fairly sure even Grif is staring at me via the Cadillac’s touch-screen phone.
“Tiara,” Dad says, his tone murderous. “What you know about this?!”
END OF PART 1