Howl for Me

She smiled sweetly again and patted his cheek with a maternal hand.

“You’re a good boy.”

“Will he get extra cookies if he bites Grimm’s dick off?”

She frowned over Fen’s shoulder. “Language, Logan.”

“Yes’m.” Fen could hear the suppressed laughter in his father’s voice.

Jeanne settled on the ottoman where she could easily reach Jeff without jarring him. She took her son’s hand in her own. “Tell me everything.”

Fen carefully settled himself behind Jeff, his mate cradled between his thighs, Jeff’s head resting against his chest. Jeff told her everything that had happened to him, only interrupted by Jordan when she told her mother how Fred had passed away. By the time he was done Jeanne Grimm was pale and shaking with fury. “I take it back. I don’t want just his dick bitten off.”

Logan wisely kept his mouth shut.

“I want him where he can’t hurt anyone ever again.” She glared up at Kir and Logan. “Tell me about the prophecy.”

Logan groaned. It was Travis who stepped forward and quoted the prophecy they all knew and feared:

“High blows Heimdall, the horn is aloft;
Odin communes with Mimir’s head;
Trembles Yggdrasill’s towering Ash;
The old tree wails when the Ettin is loosed.

“What of the Aesir? What of the Elf-folk?
All Jotunheim echoes, the Aesir are at council;
The dwarves are groaning before their stone doors,
Wise in rock-walls; wit ye yet, or what?

“Hrymr sails from the east, the sea floods onward;
The monstrous Beast twists in mighty wrath;
The Snake beats the waves, the Eagle is screaming;
The gold-neb tears corpses, Naglfar is loosed.

“From the east sails the keel; come now Muspell’s folk
Over the sea-waves, and Loki steereth;
There are the warlocks all with the Wolf,
With them is the brother of Byleistr faring.

“Surtr fares from southward with switch-eating flame;
On his sword shimmers the sun of the war-gods;
The rocks are falling, and fiends are reeling,
Heroes tread Hel-way, heaven is cloven.

“Then to the Goddess a second grief cometh,
When Odin fares to fight with the Wolf,
And Beli’s slayer, the bright god, with Surtr;
There must fall Frigg’s beloved.

“Odin’s son goeth to strife with the Wolf,
Vidarr, speeding to meet the slaughter-beast;
The sword in his hand to the heart he thrusteth
Of the fiend’s offspring; avenged is his Father.

“Now goeth Hlodyn’s glorious son
Not in flight from the Serpent, of fear unheeding;
All the earth’s offspring must empty the homesteads,
When furiously smiteth Midgard’s defender.

“The sun shall be darkened, earth sinks in the sea,—
Glide from the heaven the glittering stars;
Smoke-reek rages and reddening fire:
The high heat licks against heaven itself.”

Jeanne blinked. “One of you is going to translate that into English for me, right?”

Jeff laughed, groaning in pain at the same time. “Preaching to the choir, Mom.”

She leaned forward. “Easy, Jeff.” She reached for Jeff’s shirt but pulled her hand away before she could make contact. “I want to see how badly he hurt you.”

Jeff nodded. “Fen?”

Fen carefully lifted Jeff’s shirt, revealing the healing wounds to his mate’s mother. She hissed in anger when she saw them, her hands shaking in her lap.

Her foot began to tap a rapid tattoo on the hardwood floor. “Tell me you hurt him.”

“I hurt him.” Fen lowered Jeff’s shirt, wincing along with his mate when the fabric caught on one of the stitches. “Grimm bled before he got away from me.”

She sat back on the ottoman, but her foot kept tapping. She blew out a breath and frowned, her thoughts turned inward. “Has Heimdall blown his horn yet?”

The room went still. Kir’s brows rose nearly to his hairline. “You know, I have no idea.”

Jeanne eyed her son-in-law. “Call him and find out.”

Logan shook his head. “Can’t. No cell phone service on the Bifrost Bridge.”

He smirked at Kir. “We need to fix that.”

Jeanne shrugged. “How did you use to communicate? Smoke signals?”

“Shank’s mare.” Logan held out his leg and wiggled his foot. “Pretty much what we were trying to do when Heimdall told us to turn around because Grimm had Jeff.”

“So you were on the bridge? Recently?”

Logan sighed. “Yeah. It blew all of our magical protections to get there too.

That’s how Grimm got in and managed to kill Fred and get to Jeff.”

“He thought I was Fen.” Jeff shuddered and Fen stroked his mate’s hair, hoping to soothe him. Jeff turned his head so that his nose was buried against Fen’s neck. “God, you smell good.” Fen understood how close Jeff’s wolf was to the surface as Jeff, despite his injuries, tried to burrow his way further into Fen’s arms. His mate tried to wallow in Fen’s scent, and Fen smiled, stilling him.

Kir handed Jeanne a coffee mug. “How could he mistake you for Fen? No offense but you’re a lot redder.”