Howl for Me

by Dana Marie Bell

  No one would touch his mate and live.

  Tyr merely grinned. For some absurd reason the god looked pleased.“Gleipnir is made from the sound of a cat’s footfall, a woman’s beard, the roots of a mountain, the sinews of a bear, the breath of a fish and the spit of a bird.”

  “Ew.” Jeff wiped his hands on his pants. “Bird spit, huh?”

  Tyr laughed, bringing painful memories to the surface, memories when Tyr was his foster-father and all was right with his world. “The dwarves made it so that tugging on it only makes it stronger. Legend has it that Gleipnir will hold Fenris until Ragnarrok, when he’ll be freed to devour…” Tyr suddenly looked uncomfortable.

  “It’s all right. I might carry his blood, but he’s not my family. Not anymore.” The strength of a warrior flowed through Jeff’s voice. “How can we break him free?”

  Tyr shrugged. “Hothead’s been trying for centuries. Did he give you a clue?”

  Jeff shook his head. He turned back to Fen, and Fen saw that his eyes were the most beautiful shade of hazel. Fen bet they changed color with the man’s mood. Right now, the brown was predominant, his mate thinking hard over a puzzle that had stymied even the Trickster God himself.

  “Wait. It gets stronger when you tug?”

  Jeff exchanged a glance with the female who’d spoken. “It’s worth a shot.”

  “Don’t pull the sword until you’re sure he won’t hurt you. Logan didn’t say what his temperament was like.”

  Fen snarled. He’d never hurt his mate. Never.

  He stopped mid-snarl. Tyr had spoken to his father? Since when? The two hated one another.

  “Shh.” A strong hand stroked his head and Fen leaned into it, tamed instantly by Jeff’s touch. Jeff’s fingers stroked near where the blade exited his jaw. “I’m going to get this thing out of you. Don’t bite me, ’kay?” Jeff lifted his hand and shook it out. “Blech. Dog drool.”

  Fen wouldn’t bite. Not yet. It wasn’t time. He’d bite when he claimed Jeff, not before.

  He wanted to howl his agony when Jeff ripped the sword from his jaws, but he held still, only the shudder of his body and a single whine betraying his pain. Jeff threw the sword away from him and stroked Fen’s head once more.

  Fen’s quick healing took over, closing over the wounds, leaving behind not a trace of pain. Even if Gleipnir never came off Fen would be forever grateful that the sword, at least, had been removed.

  “Holy shit.”

  He stared over at Tyr, who was watching Jeff way too closely for Fen’s comfort.

  “What?” Jeff’s attention was now on the bindings, his clever fingers stroking over them once more.

  “Logan told me neither Kir nor he were ever able to move the sword.”

  Of course not. They weren’t his mate.

  “Maybe it needed to be someone of Grimm’s blood?”

  Fen shook his head. No, Kir was of Grimm’s blood, and he hadn’t been able to budge it.

  “Nope. Kir is Grimm’s son, remember?”

  “True.” Fen felt something move on his leg. “Ah. I think I’ve got it.”

  The fetters were gone. Gleipnir lay in a pile at his feet.

  He was free.

  Fen stood for the first time in centuries on all four legs and let loose his song. Fenrisùlfr was free!

  His legs shaky, he placed himself between Tyr and Jeff, rubbing himself up against the delicious man who’d declared himself Fen’s by both word and deed. Never again would Fen be alone, left in darkness and anguish.

  He was free.

  Tyr went to take a step toward Jeff, but Fenris growled. Blood still dripped from his jaws, the last of the wounds still bleeding sluggishly.

  Tyr pushed the female behind him, his eyes wide. “Could you repeat exactly what you said to him? I didn’t quite catch it.”

  Jeff tried to move around Fenris to get back to Tyr and the female. Fenris responded by backing into him, pushing him farther into the cave and away from Tyr. Despite his weakness it wasn’t that difficult; he came up to Jeff’s chest.

  Jeff pushed against his rear, but Fen refused to move. “Jeg er din forlovede, behage spiser ikke meg. Og spiser ikke Tyr, den ville ergre din ny moder.”

  “I thought you spoke some Norwegian.” Tyr was grinning. He, at least, seemed to know what Fen’s mate had said.

  “Bits and pieces only.” His mate was scowling now. “What did my dickhead brother-in-law teach me to say?”

  “Roughly? ‘I’m your mate, please don’t eat me. And don’t eat Tyr, it will piss off your new mother.’”

  Fen could hear his mate’s teeth grind together. Hadn’t he known what the words would mean? “Remind me to thank him when I get home.” The resigned tone of voice would have worried Fen if his mate’s hand hadn’t moved to stroke his head again. “Wait, mother?” Jeff laughed, and Fen was enchanted. The man threw his whole being into it, his head back and his mouth wide. Fen bet he did everything else the same exact way. “Never mind. I won’t have to do a thing.”

  Fen couldn’t help himself. He reached up on his hind legs and licked his mate’s cheek, his joy making Fen happy. Jeff lifted his shirt to wipe his cheek off, making Fen even happier. He shifted to his human form and petted his mate’s washboard stomach, the lean muscles rippling under his palm. “Meget pen.”

  Jeff pulled his shirt back down and blinked, obviously startled to see him as human. “Travis? What did he just say?”

  “That you’re very pretty.”

  Fen stood and gripped Jeff’s hand in his. He stared into his mate’s eyes, watching them change from brown to emerald green. “Mine. ”

  Jeff gulped. “Um. Right.” He turned to Tyr. “We need to go now?”

  His warrior mate had turned into an unsure, frightened man. Fen was even more determined to protect him. “Go. Yes.” Fen tugged Jeff toward the cave entrance, keeping him away from Tyr. “No stay.” He’d have to get used to speaking again. It had been so long since he’d given voice that forming words, no matter the tongue, felt wrong somehow, his voice far too gravelly, almost like his wolf’s growl.

  Tyr nodded. “You’re right. Grimm will be here soon.” He held up his left hand and the stump of his right. “We’ll go first, so you know we mean no harm, Fen.”

  Fen growled. Tyr had lost the right to call him that centuries ago.

  The female stepped out from behind Tyr. Her scent was similar to his mate’s. “There’s a lot happening you don’t know, but Tyr isn’t your enemy. He never really was.”

  Fen kept the low growl going. The female was deranged if she believed that.

  “Not now, Jamie. Once we’re on the plane, we’ll fill him in.”

  “On everything.” Jamie was glaring at Tyr.

  Tyr nodded. “Of course, sweetheart.”

  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 lit
tle 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 fiancée 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 “jalapeño 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 fiancé 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 dårlige, men du prøver å være bundet i en hule for et par århundrer 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.”

  Travis grabbed hold of her arm and practically dragged her out of the helicopter. He turned and pointed his finger at Jeff and Fenris. “Stay put, you two.”

  Jeff saluted. “Aye aye, boss man.”

  Travis rolled his eyes and closed the door.

  Fenris licked his fingers again.

  “Stop that!” Jeff yanked on his fingers again, and this time Fenris let them go.

  “Ja kjære.”

  Jeff leaned in close, scowling, trying somehow to gain the upper hand. “In English.”

  Fenris grinned, his fangs showing, his eyes glittering with dominance. “Yes, dear.”

  It took everything Jeff had in him not to back down, but fuck if some overgrown Pomeranian was going to make Jeffrey Grimm cower. “I’m not your dear.”

  The amusement on Fenris’s face merely grew. “Du er mitt.”

  From the hot look Fenris cast over him, Jeff was pretty sure he could figure that one out. “I’m not yours, either.”

  Fenris snarled, the sound deep, feral and far from human.

  Jeff snarled back, knowing he sounded more like that overgrown Pomeranian than Fenrisùlfr ever would.

  Fenris’s head flew back in shock before the man collapsed in laughter.

  “It’s not that funny.”

  Fenris hunched over his belly, barely breathing.

  “Seriously. It’s not.”

  Fenris nodded, unable to speak.

  “Don’t make me break out the rolled-up newspaper.” Jeff crossed his arms over his chest and sat back to have himself a good, old-fashioned po
ut.

  “He’s free.” Oliver Grimm, aka Odin, one-time ruler of the Aesir and Vanir, stared, horrified, at the unbroken fetters that had once held the mighty Fenrisùlfr. “Shit. How the hell did those idiots manage that?”

  Rina, her gun pointed toward the mouth of the cave, didn’t even bother to turn around. “I have no idea. He tugged on that damn thing for centuries.” She frowned. “You think Tyr figured out how to undo the bindings?”

  Grimm snarled. Of course. Tyr. Gods be damned Tyr probably had figured it out and freed the werewolf. After all, he was now allied with Loki and Baldur, and Loki had been sobbing into his soup about his hideous brats for centuries. “This is a fucking mess.”

  “I’m still not sure how they managed to elude Hugin and Munin.” Rina bit her lip.

  “Jotun magic. Loki probably gave them something to throw them off the track.” The ravens had led them on a merry chase until Grimm decided to go with his gut rather than his usually reliable ravens. He backed slowly out of the cave, Rina keeping careful pace beside him. “They’ll take him back to their home.”

  “Where we can’t get in.”

  They exchanged a quick glance. Loki had his entire condo complex locked down tighter than a nun’s twat. “Let’s get to Sleipnir. I have a few ideas, but we’ll have to discuss which one to implement.”

  She preened, despite the weapon. Rina loved that he was coming to rely on her more and more, and Grimm was enjoying the perks she continuously gifted him with.

  Who knew taking her off the elixir would make her even more loyal? Hell, even the sex was hotter now that she’d detoxed.

  A soft neigh sounded from just down the beach. “Sleipnir’s waiting, lover.”

  Grimm smiled at the sight of the huge, eight-legged horse. If Loki became an even bigger problem than he was now, Grimm had every intention of using one of his “children” against him.

  And who better than the sweetest, most docile, most harmless of the lot?

  He reached out and stroked Sleipnir’s gray mane. He didn’t want to lose the beast, but he would if it came down to winning or losing this most important battle. “You’ve always been the best horse in the world.”