The Wolf You Feed Arc (27 page)

Why don’t you just, keep your nose out of it!
Rune wasn’t in the mood for his brother’s holier-than-thou attitude.

Tore sighed and picked up Kjell’s report card. His grades were always better than Rune’s, but then he didn’t have to try. He was more academic.
 

Rune was surprised to see more B’s than A’s. Was that a C in Math?
Your grades don’t seem that hot, smart ass!

Kjell shot him a well-timed middle finger when Tore looked down at the grade sheet. “Kjell, this isn’t what I expected, either.”
 

Kjell shrugged. “They’re better than Rune’s.”
 

Tore swept his hand through his hair, his patience waning. “That’s not the point. They’re not good by your standard. I’ve told you before, I don’t do comparisons. You need to get them up next year if you want to get into college.”

Now it was Rune’s turn to smirk.
Yeah, Kjell, you can say goodbye to following Cassie to ASU.
That had the desired effect. It wiped the stupid grin off Kjell’s face.

Tore placed both cards on the desk and pinched the bridge of his nose. Finally, pushing their itemized lists of failures to the side, he told them to sit.

Huh, this didn’t seem good. Rune could feel a lecture coming on.

“I had another phone call from the principal today.”

Damn it, those teachers sure have loose jaws, Rune thought.

“This is the third time they’ve had to deal with your crap boys.”

They both hung their heads and tried to adopt remorseful expressions. Rune sighed. He bet the teacher didn’t mention that it was Kjell who’d started it. Tore surprised him by turning to his brother.

“What the hell were you playing at, Kjell? I expect better of the both of you, but my understanding is you were the ringleader in this instance. What was up with you this time?”

Kjell threw Rune a glare. He’d been banking on his brother taking the rap. “God, Dad! You know what he’s like. He’s always pulling that alpha-male crap. I just got fed up of listening to his macho bull.”

“That’ll do, Kjell. He’s your brother, show him more respect.”
 

“Yeah, bro, show me more respect.” Rune was enjoying this.

Kjell stood up, his fists balled.
Okay, bring it on brother. You wanna do this now?
 

Rune got to his feet. He had a couple of inches on Kjell plus thirty pounds. If Kjell wanted to rumble, he was ready for it. Tore moved like lightning and stood between them.
 

He placed a hand on both their chests and pushed them away from each other. “That’s enough. Both of you sit down. Now.” They hesitated, each waiting for the other to back down. Rune smirked as Kjell buckled first. He sat, hiding the big fat grin on his face, from Tore.
 

“Stop that, Rune!” Tore muttered.
 

The guy had eyes in the back of his head! He looked tired and Rune suddenly felt like such an idiot.

“Okay, save your explanations, we’re getting nowhere. Right tomorrow, Kjell, you are with Liam. You can work on his accounts and then he wants you to update the brochures for the Lodge. Rune, you’re with me. I have a big hunting party to take out. You need to be up and dressed by six. You can checkout the guns to the clients and then join me. We’ll take two jeeps.” He pushed their reports into his desk draw. “Maybe that will keep you two occupied and give you time to cool down. Sunday, we’re going on a little father and sons bonding trip.”

Kjell sighed and rolled his eyes. Rune began to protest but Tore wasn’t having it.

“Look, I know you guys are pumped full of hormones, but this has to stop. One of you is going to do some serious damage to the other one of these days. I understand, I really do. It’s bad enough having normal teen anxieties running through you, but you have to learn to deal with the wolf ones as well, guys. Starting Sunday, we’re gonna step things up a bit. Now you’re off school for the summer, we’ll have more time to address some of your issues, okay?” Neither Kjell nor Rune said anything. “Right, well, why don’t you find something to do, as far away from each other as possible. Go concentrate on some of your other urges.” They looked at him, not understanding his meaning. “You’ve both got girlfriends haven’t you?” he said.

Rune sniggered. “I dunno! Kjell, who’s Cassie with this week, you, or that quarterback on the school team?” Kjell was back in his face and his brother was seething.
 

God, couldn’t the guy take a joke? Everyone knew that Cassie played him for a fool. Kjell was too caught up in the Romeo and Juliet stuff. He needed to open his eyes.

Tore was back between them, pushing Kjell away. “Rune, that’s out of order. Kjell, get out of here, go see Cassie.” Kjell stormed out. “Rune, you can entertain yourself. You’re not going anywhere until you can be more considerate of your brother’s feelings.”
 

“But he was the one who…”

“Oh quit whining and get to your room”

Rune stormed off. It wasn’t fair! Kjell got to go out and get himself some and he got his hand for company!

***

The next morning didn’t fare any better. At five a.m. Rune and Kjell had a stupid fight over the bathroom. Now, Rune was sitting in the kitchen, and his dad was cleaning him up. Tore was grumbling. He had no idea how his parents coped, raising seven boys.

“For eleven years they had to deal with battles, inflated egos, and macho bullshit. No wonder they both went grey!” he said.

Tore dabbed at a cut above Rune’s eye, and Rune winced.
 

He didn’t need a lecture now, thanks! Couldn’t his dad see his pride was hurt enough?
 

Tore applied a Band-Aid to his eyebrow. “I think this needs stitching.”
 

Rune grunted. If Kjell had left a scar, he’d get him back.
 

“Your animosity toward each other is getting out of hand,” Tore sighed.

Rune shrugged it off. “We’ll get over it,” he mumbled before apologizing.

He tried to make peace with his dad. Rune couldn’t bear to think he was even more of a burden to Tore. The guy had been doing him one hell of a favor for years. Rune wasn’t Tore’s son. He’d always been honest with Rune about that. Still, he always treated him and Kjell the same. He admired Tore doing that, but he harbored insecurities.

Rune could remember his mom and Tore spoke about her often. But now that his body was beginning to change, he found himself looking in the mirror and wondering whose image he bore. It was obvious he wasn’t Tore’s, and he didn’t see much of Nea in himself either. Does he have a pic of his mother, how does he know he doesn’t look like her? He was a baby when she left him?)

What niggled him most was the fact that his Mom had chosen some other guy over him. Tore had tried to reassure Rune over the years that she didn’t have that choice, but that didn’t quell his self-doubts.

He was also irked that Nea never told him who his real father was. During all the years she’d been back at the commune, she had never once written to him. You’d think now he was about to go through transition, she’d have been in touch.
 

Tore said he didn’t know for sure who Rune’s father was but Rune knew he had his suspicions. Rune needed to know who he looked like and wanted more than anything to find out why his biological dad hadn’t claimed him.

The rest of the day went better as he hunted with Tore and the guests from the Lodge. Rune avoided his brother until Sunday morning when, true to his word, Tore took them hunting. It was his attempt to improve what he called their ‘appalling attitudes and lack of respect for each other.’

***

The day was long but it had been a lot of fun. Tore tried to teach the boys how to work together as a pack. Even though they hadn’t landed a kill, they’d learned a lot. As they walked back to the Lodge after their last run for the day, Tore was lagging behind. He gave the boys space, hoping they would bond.
 

Rune took the opportunity to rile his brother. He was sure the rabbit escaped because of Kjell. It started as gentle banter back and forth. Rune listed his brother’s failings and Kjell countered with his thoughts on Rune’s. But then Kjell took it too far and threw in a low blow. “Bet you get your poor hunting skills from your father,” he said, laughing.

Kjell thought it was hilarious, but Rune didn’t see the joke. Besides it was Kjell who had messed up. The argument heated up quickly and before either knew what they were doing, they thought wolf and shifted.

Rune, who was bigger, completed the shift first getting the edge on Kjell. He leaped at his brother, gripping him around the scruff, wrestling him to the ground before Kjell had time to react.

Take that back,
Rune growled but Kjell wasn’t taking anything back. Kjell threw out a few more comments about Rune’s parentage, and Rune snapped his jaws in Kjell’s smug face.

At first, Tore stood back and watched.
 

Was he waiting to see which of them was the alpha? Rune was pretty sure he knew the answer.
 

Most dogfights were about posturing and bravado more than real fighting. Rune tried to maintain the upper hand by ramping up the intimidation. Despite pinning Kjell to the ground, he held back with the physical stuff. He knew enough about controlling his wolf to understand force should be the last resort. He also had enough control over his anger to know he could do serious damage to Kjell.
 

As Kjell was about to yield, a smug satisfaction washed over Rune.Yeah, he knew he was more dominant!
 

Kjell scrambled free.
 

Wondering how his brother had slipped out from beneath him, Rune was distracted and didn’t anticipate Kjell’s counter attack. He rammed into Rune. His impact sending Rune flying across the dirt, paws scrabbling in mid-air as his huge body twisted and turned in all directions. Rune managed to gain control of his limbs and scrambled to his feet. He swung to face Kjell, baring his teeth. Kjell flew at him again. All thoughts of force as a last resort, slipped away. His wolf’s blood roiled and his anger triggered his instincts.

Tore realized the fight was getting out of hand and shifted. Rune was too far-gone to heed the warning from his father’s transition. Unperturbed, he pounced on Kjell. His fangs bared, claws scraping and ripping at Kjell’s flesh, he threw his entire two hundred pounds on top of him. If intimidation didn’t do it, Rune would try brute strength after all.
 

He didn’t see Tore coming until his father rammed him, sending Rune spinning through the air, head over tail. Shift and step back! Tore yelled at Kjell, putting himself between the two boys. Kjell obeyed.

Back down, Rune, it’s over! Tore slid his lips back over his fangs. He pulled himself to his full height and bristled out his fur, making his body as large as possible. He took one more step towards his son. Rune was still opting to fight instead of backing down. Tore growled low in his throat and thrust his body forwards. The lunge surprised Rune and he flinched.
 

Tore sensed Rune’s uncertainty and pounced on him, pushing him to the ground, thrusting his jaw in his son’s face. Rune came to his senses and flopped to the ground. Lying still, he flattened his ears against his head and pulled his tale between his legs.

Tore drove his point home. He towered over Rune for several minutes. Eventually he took a couple of steps back. As soon as he backed off, Rune shifted and scuttled out of the way. He joined Kjell and sat sulking. Tore shifted and glowered at the both of them, his arms folded across his chest, his eyes black with anger. The brothers sat like bookends, turned away from each other with mirror-image petulant expressions on their faces. Tore found it hard not to laugh. That did nothing to improve Rune’s mood, as he sat naked in the dirt.

“You look like a couple of bad tempered toddlers,” Tore muttered. “What was that all about?” He tried to sound stern but his eyes betrayed him. Amusement twinkled in them, his anger forgotten as he watched the boys now united in their sulking.

Neither of them answered. Rune looked away, embarrassed as Tore assessed the damage they’d done to each other. They both had a few minor scratches but nothing serious. Luckily the only things damaged beyond repair was their clothing.
 

Tore sighed, looking at the shredded fabric. “Kachina will have a fit. This is the third set of clothes you’ve destroyed this week.” He picked up a remnant of a t-shirt, it was hard to tell who it belonged to, they’d both been wearing black. “So neither of you have anything to say about this?” He was weary, resigned to getting no explanation. The boys shook their heads.

“Fine,” he said, “in that case you can explain to Kachina how your clothes got torn to shreds!”

They protested as one but Tore wasn’t listening. He was already marching back towards the Lodge. They ran after him, neither of them wanted to face their step-mom. It would be worse than facing off in a dogfight. It wasn’t that she’d yell and scream at them. No. She would understand, and that would make Rune and Kjell feel like such heels.

But Tore wasn’t having any of it. “I’m fed up of moody teenagers!” he growled. “You’re always blaming everything on anyone but yourselves.”