Howl for Me

Sweetheart? So, the female was Tyr’s mate?

“C’mon, vixen. Time to blow this Popsicle stand.” Jeff reached for the female, and Fen pushed him back. If the female belonged to Tyr she wasn’t to be trusted.

He felt a blow to the back of his head and turned, stunned, to stare at his mate.

Jeff shook his finger at him, all hints of his earlier fear gone. Fen’s warrior had returned. “Bad dog.”

Fen blinked. He couldn’t remember the last time someone had done something like that. None had dared.

Not even Odin.

Jeff held out his hand to the female. “Let’s go, sis.”

Their hands met, and Fen watched, helpless, as the female led his mate out into the sunshine, hand in hand.

“They’re twins. You’ll get used to it.”

He turned to Tyr, tempted to attack him then and there.

“Your father sent us. He went to visit your sister with Kir and Jeff’s half sister, Jordan.” Tyr grinned. “Logan and Kir are both married to her.”

“Jeg hater deg. ”

The grin faded from Tyr’s lips. “I know you hate me, and you have good reason to. Maybe once you know everything, you’ll hate me a little less, but I can’t hope for your forgiveness. Just know, none of us were in our right minds when we did this.” Tyr waved toward the cave. “If I could go back and make sure none of this happened I would. Even if I lost Jamie over it.”

Fen couldn’t believe him. Believing in Tyr’s love had been what put him in the cave in the first place.

Tyr nodded as if he understood. “Let’s go. They’re waiting for us.”

Fen nodded, but kept Tyr in front of him at all times. He wouldn’t give his back to the man ever again.

Jeff watched the werewolf walk, half his attention on Travis and half on the ground, and was glad Tyr was keeping Jamie away from him. He didn’t think Fenris would differentiate between Travis’s fiancee and Jeff’s twin. He’d just see Tyr’s woman.

He ought to have realized how pissed off Fenris would still be at Travis. He should have tried to convince Tyr that some of the others should have handled this, like Uncle Val. Maybe.

Then again, if Fen decided Jamie was some sort of threat there was no one he’d rather have defending her than the God of Justice. When Jamie had been in the hospital, beaten and brutalized, Travis had stayed by her side. The expression on his face had said it all. The man might be a god, but he worshipped the ground Jamie walked on.

He’d never been frightened of Travis. Not once had he felt any discomfort around the man he’d known since he was sixteen. But when someone mentioned Oliver Grimm in front of Travis, his expression filled with the need for Grimm’s blood. Jeff never wanted that expression turned on him, ever. Jeff figured Fen was the first step in Travis’s plan to get it. According to the old Norse prophecy of Ragnarrok, Fenris was supposed to kill Jeff’s grandfather, something Jeff couldn’t be happier about.

“What is that?” Fenris spoke clear, if highly accented, English, his Ws sounding very much like Vs. Logan must have been preparing his son for his eventual freedom by teaching him English as well as modern Norwegian. He wondered what other languages he’d taught his son.

Jeff looked toward where Fenris was pointing and shrugged. “Helicopter.”

Fenris looked at him as if he’d just said “jalapeno anal lube”.

“What? We couldn’t land the plane here. Too rocky.” Jeff strode confidently toward the helicopter and tried not to show how much it scared the bejesus out of him. He hated flying in the loud, rocky thing. Might as well put blender blades on eggshells and see if they flew. But Travis had been right, as usual. Anything other than the helicopter might have given Grimm a chance to catch up to them.

It could go where planes couldn’t, no matter how terrifying they were.

He climbed into the helicopter, somehow not surprised when Fenris chose to curl his very stinky body as close as possible to Jeff. Jamie sat up front with Travis, who flew the chopper with an astonishing degree of professionalism.

Apparently he’d flown one in ’Nam and had kept his pilot’s license up ever since.

Jeff shoved a headset over Fenris’s ears. “Someone needs a bath and some clothes pronto,” Jeff yelled into his headset’s microphone.

Fenris jumped and turned his head, no doubt wondering where the other Jeff was who’d spoken in his ear.

Jeff grinned. This was going to be fun.

“We can’t afford to stop off at a hotel. We’ll just have to throw something on him at the airport and get him out of here.” Travis flew closer to the water than Jeff felt comfortable with. If he opened the door he was afraid his jeans would get soaked in the spray.

“Do you want to fly home with that smell next to you?” Jamie asked her fiance tartly.

“He’s not going to be in the cockpit, is he?”

Jamie smacked Travis’s arm.

Fenris watched the whole thing with wide, fascinated eyes. Jeff wondered if anyone had dared lay a hand on Tyr back when he’d been all I’m-A-God-Don’t-Fuck-With-Me.

Fenris scowled. “Jeg er beklager jeg duft darlige, men du prover a v?re bundet i en hule for et par arhundrer og se hva du duft som. ”

Travis choked on a laugh.

Jamie scowled back, her eyes narrowing. “Travis? What did he just say?”

Travis chuckled. “‘I’m sorry I smell bad, but you try being chained in a cave for a few centuries and see what you smell like.’”

Jamie looked like she was biting back her own laugh. “Point taken.” She turned back around. “There’s the airport.”

“I want you two to fill him in as much as you can on the way back to Philadelphia. I’m sure he’ll have questions but I’m hoping most of them can wait until after we reunite him with his father.”

Jeff felt Fenris clasp his hand. “How?”

“How what?”

“How did you free me?”

Jeff grinned. “Chinese finger trap.”

Fenris’s head tilted, much like a dog’s.

“It’s a child’s toy that traps your index fingers.” Jeff picked up Fen’s hands and showed him, placing them tip to tip. “The more you tug, the stronger it gets.”

Fenris nodded as if he understood, but Jeff wasn’t so sure about that.

“But when you push your fingers together and gently twist, you can pull your fingers free.” He pulled Fenris’s fingers apart. “You just have to be careful not to tug or it tightens right back up again. It’s a test of cunning, not strength.”

Fenris was staring at him with those huge, dark eyes as if Jeff was some sort of god rather than a private detective who enjoyed children’s games. “Tusen takk.”

“Thank you,” Travis translated.

“You’re welcome.” Jeff tried to drop Fenris’s hands, but the wolf held fast.

The heated smile on his face as he lifted Jeff’s hands to his lips would have made him shiver, except Fenris chose that moment to lick Jeff’s knuckles rather than kiss them.

“Ugh. Dog drool.”

Jamie giggled, the heartless bitch, and before he knew it they were at the airport. Travis landed the helicopter and handed Jeff his button-down shirt, leaving him in a plain white tee. “Make him put this on. Jamie and I will run in and get him some pants, then head to the plane. You have the passports ready?”

Jeff nodded. Logan and Travis had both “magic’d” their passports so Rina couldn’t fuck with them and stick them in Norway indefinitely, there to be picked off at his grandfather’s leisure.

“What size…? Never mind.” Jamie eyeballed the naked man. “I’ll guess.”