“Christmas is six months away!” her father roared.
“That may be, but I already got your present.” She made a show of pausing as though she were considering it. “Then again, maybe I’ll just give it to Uncle Arne. He’d like it a lot too.”
“The hell you will!”
“Then, you shouldn’t try to kill the man I love.”
Her father glared at her. “Fine,” he relented. “I won’t decapitate him or remove any limbs.”
“No body part removal. None,” Astra insisted. “He should have every finger, toe, ear, everything.”
“I said I wouldn’t,” her father roared again.
“Fine,” Astra said, sounding just like him only quieter.
She looked back at Rune. “Be careful with him, too. He’s not as young as he used to be.”
“I heard that, you ungrateful brat!”
“I meant for you to!” she called back before she gave Rune another firm kiss. He smirked because it was clear that Astra was going to speak her mind, regardless of how much she loved the person she was speaking to. “But it is okay if you kick his ass a little.”
“That’s it! I’m disowning you. Your sisters will be grateful for what they have when I’m gone, and you’ll be left crying.”
“Love you, Dad,” Astra called back, releasing Rune’s hands.
Her father harrumphed but didn’t reply.
Rune turned away from Astra, her mother, sisters, and Claudia. He faced Arvid in nothing but his pants and shoes. “What are the rules?”
“There are no rules,” Arvid growled in reply.
Devorah sighed and lifted her voice. “No biting, no weapons, and it ends in five minutes or whoever yields or is unable to continue first.”
Rune looked to Arvid for confirmation and the man gave him a grudging nod.
“Ready?” Devorah called out.
Rune dropped into a loose fighting stance. Arvid shifted his feet and clenched his fist.
“FIGHT!” the sisters yelled in unison; Astra included.
Arvid rushed him, moving faster than any man his size and age should have been able to move. As he closed in, he lifted a hand to strike. Rune glided to the side, evading the strike, and gave the man a shove on his shoulder blade.
Arvid’s weight and momentum carried him past, and he stumbled five or six feet before he regained his balance. He whirled back toward Rune, a maniacal gleam sparking in his eyes.
Shit. Now, he was in trouble.
Arvid gave a roar and moved again, this time faster. Rune didn’t have time to evade again. Instead, his body went flying through the air as Arvid threw him across the backyard. He managed to twist and land on his feet, but his heels dug two furrows in the grass as he slid backward across the yard.
The Viking was right there, within reach. Rune didn’t want to strike the man, but it appeared there was no other choice.
When Arvid swung at him again, he ducked and came up with an uppercut. He pulled it just a bit so he wouldn’t break the Viking’s jaw but thought there was enough power behind it to ring his bell.
He was wrong.
The man shook off the hit within a blink and caught him with a lightning-fast jab that he never saw coming.
Rune’s head snapped back, and he tasted the hot, metallic tang of blood on his tongue.
