Knud picked it up and waved it at Layla. “Is this a miniature version of Pavlov Rustanov’s jersey or did grandpa already buy Rusty his own hockey team?”
“That is definitely my cousin’s number. Don’t worry!” Layla walked over to the dresser and rubbed her husband’s back soothingly.
But then she admitted, “Though Dad did mention hiring a private coach at the vow renewal ceremony. And the new basement’s large enough to put in a rink.”
“He’s a baby, Layla! He can barely walk. How is he supposed to pick up a hockey stick!” Knud wasn’t trying to yell, but it was kind of hard not to shout when you had the world’s most ridiculous father-in-law. “This is not how you ask anybody to do anything.”
Layla cast her eyes to the side, seeming to give his reservations serious consideration. “You’re right. Papa had no right to surprise us with this extremely generous, highly secure, and luxurious vow renewal gift. It would have been so much better if he had applied to be one of our bodyguards, then knocked somebody out on his first day in order to talk to us…”
Knud rolled his eyes. “You’re never going to let me forget that.”
“Nope,” she assured him with a laugh. “And neither is Papa. So you might as well get comfortable with stunts like this.”
Knud thought about it. Then bargained, “How about a punch at Thanksgiving? Just one itty-bitty punch.”
Layla must have thought he was joking because she only laughed and drew him into her arms. “How about instead of thinking about ways to get back at my father who will never change, we channel all this frustration into something else?” she suggested, pressing a kiss into Knud’s jaw.
“I like the sound of something else,” he admitted, nuzzling his face into her lips. “Plus it’s almost time to put Rustanov down for his nap. What do you think the chances are he’ll be able to sleep in the new bed?”
“Wocket! Wocket!”
Knud and Layla looked up to see their son, jumping up and down on the bed he’d somehow managed to surmount on his own. Disproving everything Knud said earlier about him still being a baby without enough coordination to start taking hockey lessons.
Yeah, this kid was definitely going to get his own hockey team as a college graduation gift.
“It’s looking pretty good,” Layla answered, observing their son with a chuckle, her breath warm against his jaw. “And I’m thinking Level 10 afternoon delight.”
Knud raised his eyebrows. “Level 10?”
His wife was still considered America’s sweetheart, even after the announcement of her marriage to some shady doctor, with a mysterious background. But Knud wondered what people would think if they saw the gleam in her eyes now at the prospect of Level 10 afternoon delight. Wicked and sexy as hell.
“What do you say?” she asked.
He started to answer the same way he did when she proposed to him. With a “Hell yeah!”
But then a blaring siren erupted in his head. “Alert, Alert. You have a hail from President Nightwolf.”
“Papa?” Layla guessed with a sympathetic look when Knud cringed against the siren’s wail.
“No, worse…Rafes.”
He tapped his neck to answer his pushy oldest triplet’s hail. “This had better be good.”
RAFES
Rafes was glad his quick-tempered brother was with his level-headed mate when Knud answered his emergency hail.
Rafes used to be a cold and distant loner himself. But ever since Myrna, his wild red-haired former Viking princess, literally fell into his life via the North Dakota time gate, he’d come to appreciate the love and support of a completely opposite spouse. He and his wife were both sitting in the Wolf House office right now, he in a suit and Myrna in a cut-out spandex leotard. She’d been due at rehearsal for her next wrestling event over an hour ago but had opted to stay after he told her about what Nago had dug up on Ola’s disappearance.
“Family is more important than rehearsal,” she’d insisted. And now she held his hand while Rafes talked to his two younger triplet brothers, Knud and Nago, over an audio-only and heavily encrypted biolink.
Rafes was grateful to have her there. And he squeezed her hand as he told Knud, “With the basketball player boyfriend still insisting he has no idea what happened to her after she left the club, I was afraid the trail had gone cold. But then Nago found something important while he was sweeping Ola’s biosystem files.”
“Wait, you had Nago sweep Ola’s biosystem files?” Knud asked.
Rafes rolled his eyes. Of course his contrarian brother would call him out on that. Knud’s favorite pastime was thinking the worst of Rafes.
“She’s in possession of state secrets, and with her biosystem having gone offline so abruptly, we had no idea if she’d been captured or if she was lying dead in a ditch somewhere. We had to secure North Dakota for either eventuality. I assure you this is standard protocol when royals go missing.”