Dana Bell: Howl for Me

“Grimm’s access to the apples has been cut off, but I’m pretty sure Frigg is using them to control other people now.” Jeff winced. “Human-type people.”

Fenris focused on the one thing that really mattered. “Vali is your ally?”

Jeff snorted. “Vali is my uncle .”

Fenris eyed the plane’s airlock. How much would it hurt if he jumped out of the plane? Vali was supposed to kill him during Ragnarrok. How could Jeff be allies with Fenris’s eventual murderer?

“I think that’s it, right?”

Jamie nodded. “Pretty much. Nik appeared and saved Travis and Uncle Val from jail and took a liking to the detective working the murder case.”

“Nik?” Fenris wasn’t sure he wanted to hear much more. His head was beginning to hurt as it was.

“Sorry. You’d know him as Heimdall.”

Fen nearly swallowed his tongue.

“To us, he’s Niklas DeWitt, scary-ass attorney-at-law.” Jeff patted his hand in comfort. “Don’t worry. It took me a while to get it all straight.”

Jamie nodded and began ticking names off on her fingers. “Travis is Tyr.”

“Logan is Loki.”

“Kir is Baldur.”

The twins went back and forth, naming the gods and the human names they all lived under.

“Vali is Val.”

“Magnus and Morgan are Magni and Modi, the sons of Thor and the Jotun Járnsaxa, meant to carry Mjölnir after Dad dies at Ragnarrok.” Jamie winced.

“Not something I want to think too hard about.”

“Adam Grey, Jordan’s dad, is Frey.”

“Fred Grimm, our Dad, is Thor. Our mom, Jeanne, is human.”

“And Odin is Oliver Grimm, fuckhead extraordinaire.” Jeff rubbed his forehead. “Now I’m getting a headache.” He stared at Fenris. “Up until a little while ago I knew none of this. Then my loving grandfather lost his goddamn mind and tried to kill my twin, and all of it came out. The gods, the plots and the evil. All of it. And what happened to you and your siblings isn’t the worst of it, is it?”

Fenris shook his head. “No. It was not. There are those who might say we were lucky.” He rubbed the gray material of his pants that Jamie had called

“sweats” and thought of the brothers he’d never have a chance to know. “We lived.”

Two Months Later…

Jeff stared down at the no-longer-filthy, absolutely hunkalicious man currently sleeping in his bed and frowned. He still wasn’t sure when he’d signed up to be doggy daycare, but there he was. Fenris. The ultimate pissed-off werewolf, son of Loki and the Jotun Angrboda, killer of gods and small fuzzy animals, had his hand curled under his cheek like a child. His long, dark hair was freshly washed, just a hint of his father’s red shining through the thick, dark locks. He had the most beautiful eyes Jeff could ever remember seeing, a true golden brown that shimmered when the light hit them just so. He had a body that had Jeff panting for a taste. He was wide-eyed with wonder one minute and severely over-protective the next, constantly placing himself between Jeff and Travis as if he thought Travis would go all rabid on Jeff’s ass at any moment.

And his laugh made Jeff smile, so full of joy it was even more beautiful than the man’s face. Watching him master the Wii and televisions and microwave ovens had been an adventure, especially when Fen forgot to take the spoon out of the soup he was reheating. He was everything Jeff had ever daydreamed about tangled up in green cotton sheets.

How the hell did someone like Fen wind up sleeping in Jeffrey Grimm’s bed?

Jeff was still having trouble processing it. He had fucking Fenris sleeping in his bed, all curled up like… Well, like a dog. He stifled a chuckle, not wanting to wake his new house pet up. He reached over and pulled up the comforter, covering the naked man’s tempting backside, front side and everything in between. He resisted the urge to run his fingers through that dark hair, knowing it would only lead to Bad Things.

His last Bad Thing had left him with a sore butt and a two-thousand-dollar casino debt in Atlantic City. He was so done with Bad Things.

Jeff backed slowly out of the bedroom and headed straight for the liquor cabinet. If this situation didn’t require a stiff one he didn’t know what did. He reached down into the mini fridge and pulled out a bottle of Krogstad Aquavit, a taste he’d acquired on his twenty-first birthday when his father had taken him out and bought him his first drink. He poured himself a shot of the strong, star anise-flavored liquor and threw it back. The burn as it slid down his throat was just what he needed to end a really long day.

Logan, Kir and Jordan were gone, presumably visiting Hel, and didn’t that just freak him the hell out. He smothered a chuckle at his unintentional pun, unwilling to wake Fenris. Morgan and Magnus had left before Jeff, Travis and Jamie and still hadn’t returned. They’d warned him that the trip over the Bifrost Bridge could take a while, especially since they had to hide from Grimm, but he hadn’t expected it to take almost two freakin’ months.

So here he was, with Fenris in his bed. Every night he said good-night and curled up on the sofa. And every night, Fenris picked him up, carried him to bed and curled around him as if Jeff were his favorite squeaky toy.

The situation between Fen and Travis was simple now. Fenris growled when he saw Travis. Travis kept Jamie away from Fenris. And Jeff and Jamie got to meet in the corridor outside their condos. He was coming to hate that gold-patterned carpet. At least the neighbors didn’t complain when he and Jamie set up an impromptu bowling alley at two in the morning.

Teaching Fenris was turning out to be a full-time job. At least Fenris was adapting to things like speaking and toilet paper and when not to chew on the furniture.

Okay, so they were still working on that last one, but he’d gotten a lot better about it in the last two weeks. Squirt bottles worked wonders.

He almost jumped out of his skin when the phone rang. He ran to grab it before the sound could wake up Fenris. “Hello?”

There was a pause before a hesitant voice replied. “Jeff?”

Jeff damn near hung up the phone. “What do you want?”

“Is that any way to speak to your father?”

“Am I speaking to Fred Grimm or Thor?”

Fred Grimm sighed. “Jeff.”

Only his father could make him feel guilty even when he knew he was right, and that pissed him off. “Beat anyone up lately?”

“Stop it. I want to talk to you.”

“Oh. Is that all?”

“Don’t you hang up the phone, young man!”

“Why should I listen to you? Do you know what’s been happening to us? Do you even care?” Jeff was hissing into the phone, too angry not to show it but unwilling to wake Fen up.

“I know.”

Jeff paused. The agony in his father’s voice… “About Jamie.”

“Yes.”

“So why haven’t you visited?”

“Can I? Can I really? Or will your sister’s lovers kill me on sight?”

“We needed you, Dad. Jamie needed you.”

“If I could have I would have been there.”

“How much juice have you had recently?”

His father growled. “None since Jamie.” In the distance thunder sounded.

Kir might be the God of Spring, and thus spring storms, but Thor was the God of Thunder and therefore violent weather. Jeff bet if his father wished it there’d be a damn tsunami in the Delaware River. “Adam feels the same way. Your grandfather has a lot to answer for.”

Jeff shuddered and wrapped his arms around himself. “I don’t think I can talk to you. Not yet.” Not until Jamie forgave their father.

Fred sighed, the sound weary and defeated. “Then there’s no use in calling your sisters, is there?”