Dana Bell - Howl for Me

A knock on the door interrupted Fen’s quiet joy. “It’s me, Kir. I want to make sure Jeff’s healed up.”

Fen was pleased with the sleepy, satisfied smile on his mate’s face. The man was worn out, and Fen couldn’t be happier. “We’ll be out shortly.” But just in case, Fen covered them with the blankets.

“Hmph.” Fen could hear the humor in Kir’s voice. The blond god walked into the room, uncaring about their nudity, and studied Jeff intently. A huge smile graced his lips as he took in Jeff’s faded scars. “I’m glad to see it worked.”

“He’ll have the scars, but these, besides my mark, are the only ones he will ever bear.” A fact that just about killed Fenris. The knowledge that his mate would bear the marks of his torture at Odin’s hand for the rest of eternity nearly ruined the happy mood he’d been in just moments before.

The only scar Jeff should have was Fen’s mating mark.

“Shh.” Jeff’s hand patted Fen’s hip. “Snarly.” He snuggled deeper into the covers like a young pup, already mostly asleep.

Jordan poked her head through the bedroom door. “Jeff. Vincente’s on the phone. He wants to come over for pasta.”

Jeff smacked his lips and smiled. “Yum.”

“Oh yeah. He’s out. Good luck waking him back up.” She grinned and left the room, followed by a smiling Kir.

Fen pulled himself from beneath the covers, careful not to wake Jeff. The man needed his sleep, and Fen would see to it that he got it. Jeff barely stirred.

He dressed quickly and headed to the living room. All three Tate-Saeter’s were there, talking quietly about Jeff’s healed injuries.

Logan smirked and waggled his brows. “Wore him out, did we?”

Fen noted how careful his father was to keep his voice low and was grateful for it. “Yes.”

There was no way his father could help but notice the pure contentment in his response. Nothing could take Jeff from him now. Logan nodded and headed for the front door. “Be careful. I strengthened the wards while you two were consummating your marriage, but that doesn’t mean Grimm can’t find a hole in them somewhere.”

“Have Magnus and Morgan returned?” The brothers would be horrified to find out what had happened to their family during their absence.

“Not yet. We’re hoping they get here soon, before Jeanne goes ballistic and hunts Grimm down with a bowie knife and a bandana.”

Fen was not going to ask. He was not . “A bandana?” Shit. He’d asked.

Logan grinned. “Ask your mate about Sylvester Stallone some time. Rambo is must-see TV for any red-blooded American male.”

“What do we do about the Old Man?” Fen stared into his father’s eyes. “He scarred my mate.”

Logan blew out a breath, all humor leaving his face to be replaced by grim determination. “We find him and kill his ass.”

Fen frowned, confused. “How will that hurt him? Has his ass done anything wrong?”

Logan’s expression blanked just before he burst into laughter worthy of Kir.

He barely breathed as he doubled over.

“What the hell?” Jordan stared at Logan as if he’d grown a second head.

“What did you do to him?”

“I asked him why we wanted to kill the Old Man’s ass. Surely the beast has no say in what Odin does.” It was probably as much of an innocent as Sleipnir, Fen’s half brother and Odin’s eight-legged steed. The last time he’d seen his brother the beast had cast him one sorrowful glance before taking Odin away into the night sky.

He had no idea how long ago that had been, nor did he want to. He only knew he’d recognized that look. For all his brother seemed to be free, he was just as imprisoned as Fenris.

Her lips twitched. “Oh. American Idioms 101. When we say we want to kill someone’s ass, we mean we want to kill them.”

He shook his head. “Why didn’t he say so?”

“He did, you just didn’t understand it.” She patted his shoulder. “You’ll get it eventually. Jeff will help.”

He stared toward the bedroom door and smiled. “Yes. I know he will.”

Jeff, delicate and fragile looking, snored so loudly the door rattled. Fen grinned. Next to him, Jordan bit her lip to keep from laughing out loud. Gods, his mate made him happy .

“So.” Jeanne Grimm had papers strewn all over his dining room table, and he couldn’t be more pleased. Jeff stared down at the charts and diagrams she’d whipped up while he’d been sleeping and grinned. She pointed to a spot on her timeline. “Heimdall blows his horn.” She moved to the next item. “Odin speaks to a decapitated head.” Her finger moved along, ticking off the things listed in the prophecy. “Yggdrasil, the World Tree, trembles.”

“Earthquake?” Jordan popped yet another piece of pizza in her mouth. For a woman who professed to hate olives she was eating a metric ton of them recently. And was that pineapple on her pizza as well?

“Good thinking.” Jeanne nodded approvingly. “Some Ettin is loosed. Any ideas?”

No one said anything. Then again, the majority of those in the know were currently in Kir and Logan’s condo holding their own war council. The Grimm family had been relegated to Jeff’s place, not that he was complaining.

He bet they came up with stuff much sooner than the Norse gods did.

Sometimes all it took was a fresh perspective on an old problem, and who better to help them with that than Jeanne Grimm? The woman would make a five-star general look like a scatterbrained dork.

“Note to self, look that up later.” Jeanne scribbled something down on a Post-It note and attached it to her timeline. “Okay. Next, the Aesir are at council .”

She tapped her pen on the table. “Scratch that one off, ’cause I’m pretty sure it’s happened more than once and will happen again.”

“During an earthquake, while the Old Man talks to a decapitated head?”

Jordan sighed in bliss as another bite of olive and pineapple pizza disappeared into her face.

“How can you eat that?” Jeff shuddered in revulsion. “There’s no meat on it.”

Everyone stopped and stared at him. He shrugged. “What?”

Jeanne turned her attention back to the papers on the table. “Dwarves groan.” She grimaced. “I’m pretty sure they do that every time they see Leprechaun Returns: 3D .”

Jordan choked on an olive. Jamie helped by smacking her back so hard she fell off the sofa.

Jeanne shook her head. “Children. Settle down.” Jordan got back on the sofa, but not before giving Jamie a death glare. “Hrymyr sails from the east during a flood.”

Again, blank stares met her questioning look. “No clue, Mom.” Jeff got up and snagged his own piece of extra pepperoni. “Add another Post-It.”

She did. “ The monstrous Beast twists in mighty wrath . Jörmungandr? Or someone else?”

Jordan frowned down at her pizza. “Dad said Jör wasn’t the serpent.”

Jeff stared at his sister. “He did? Then who was the serpent?”

She stared right back. “Odin?”

Jeanne sighed and tapped her pen again. “Okay. So part of this could refer to

Jörmungandr, part of it could not. The Snake beats the waves sounds like him.”

“Yeah, it does, since he was banished to the sea.” Jeff took his seat next to Jamie and watched their mother pace.

“ The Eagle is screaming .”

“That’s because they haven’t won the Super Bowl in forever.” Jamie flinched when Jordan popped her one on the back of the head.

“ The gold-neb tears corpses, Naglfar is loosed .” Jeanne rubbed her eyes wearily.

“Screw this. Bring me a laptop.”

Jeff hopped up to do his mother’s bidding. He soon had her set up at the table, some of the papers set aside carefully so as not to disturb their order.