The Wolf's Mate Book 6: Logan & Jenna (22 page)

No, wait.  That wasn’t a bug.  It was Darlie!

“Logan!  Come to the house!  Jenna’s being attacked!”  The sprite
shouted in his face, buzzing a few inches away from his nose.

Logan didn’t wait for details.  He raced through the bar,
calling over his shoulder to Peter that he had to get home to help Jenna.  He
climbed into his truck and threw it into gear, his tires spraying gravel as he
peeled out.

Dialing Jason as he raced through town, ignoring lights and
stop signs, he said simply, “Jenna’s in trouble at the house,” and hung up.

Nothing mattered except
getting to Jenna.  If so much as a hair on her head had been touched, there
would be hell to pay.

Chapter 13

Jenna heard Logan’s truck
pull away from the house and she smiled as she shut the door.  He was so
protective of her.  She’d once considered her father to be over-protective, but
he had nothing on Logan.  Although she would have loved for him to stay home
with her, it wasn’t reasonable.  He had a job and responsibilities, and she
would be supremely selfish if she asked him to drop everything to spend time
with her.  She wasn’t a child, after all, she was a grown woman.  She looked at
the front door, knowing that Douglas was outside watching over her at Logan’s
request, and smiled.

She managed to get some
things unpacked that they’d brought home from the Fae Realm.  Logan had been
more interested in spending time in bed than in helping her put her things
away.  She didn’t particularly want to put clothes away, so she decided to put
it off for another day in favor of looking at her boxes of soap and shampoo-making
supplies.  Although she had enough lotion, soap, and shampoo to last her a few
weeks, she just simply enjoyed working with her hands.  And thanks to Darlie’s
help, the rosemary in the garden was big enough that Jenna could use some of it
to make soap.

The boxes containing her
supplies and mixing equipment were sitting in a corner of the kitchen.  She
hadn’t known where to put them, and she needed a place to spread out.  The
kitchen counter would work, but she couldn’t take up half the kitchen making
soap.  The second bedroom didn’t have anything in it that she could use for a
work space without asking Logan to buy her a few folding tables.

She stepped onto the back
patio and looked out over the backyard.  The sun was setting and the sky was a
mixture of oranges and yellows.  Watching the sun set from Logan’s patio was
one of her favorite things to do here in the Mortal Realm.  Well, outside of
spending time in Logan’s arms. 
That
was hands-down her favorite
activity.

“Is the brute gone?” Darlie
asked, startling Jenna from her musings on Logan’s muscular arms and the
tattoos that beckoned her touch.

“His name is Logan, Darlie,”
Jenna said with a smile.  “And yes, he’s at work.”

Darlie sniffed.  “I know what
the brute’s name is.”

Jenna chuckled and looked
over the yard.  The shed caught her eye.  She began to walk to it, explaining
to Darlie that she was looking for a place to make soap.  Darlie approved,
especially when Jenna promised to give her sprite-sized slivers so she could
wash with them.

The shed was made from rough
wood planks with black shingles and had one small window.  Sunlight had faded
the paint, and the door creaked as she twisted the handle and pulled it open. 
It didn’t have electricity, and with the sun setting it was hard to see
inside.  But she could see that the counter was covered with tools and small
equipment, gardening implements were hung from the wall, and the floor was
filthy.

As if on cue, Darlie sneezed,
making her body jerk in the air.  Jenna said, “It needs some cleaning, huh?”

Darlie hummed in agreement.

She knew she’d seen a battery-powered
lantern in the garage.  “I’ll be back in a few minutes,” Jenna promised, and
headed back into the house.  Douglas came around the corner and she said, “I’m
going to work in the shed for a bit.”

He nodded.  “I heard you
outside and just thought I’d check.  Have fun.”

“I will.”  He continued
walking around the house, leaving her alone.  She walked into the house and
back to the bedroom, where she changed into a pair of comfortable pants and a
long-sleeved shirt that she didn’t mind getting dirty.  It was warm out, but as
the sun was setting it would grow cooler.  She tossed her clothes into the
hamper and twisted her hair into a long braid to keep it out of the way.

Logan’s garage was very well
organized.  Metal shelving ran down both walls, filled with boxes, tools, paint
cans, and things she didn’t recognize, like colorful stretchy cords with hooks
on the ends.  After searching the shelves, she found two lanterns on a middle
shelf behind a canvas bag with a picture of a tent on it.

One of the lanterns worked
and the other didn’t, so she left the one behind and took the working one outside. 
With the lantern glowing brightly in the small shed, she could see well enough
to work and began by clearing the long counter and shelf underneath.

“The brute is messy, isn’t
he?”  Darlie asked, perching on the top of a hoe hanging from the wall.

Jenna didn’t think he was
messy so much as he just didn’t have a knack for gardening and hadn’t given any
thought to the shed.  The garage was proof that he could be neat if he wanted
to be. Jenna just shook her head at Darlie and went back into the house to
bring the boxes out, stopping to look for a pair of scissors in the kitchen to
cut the tape open from the boxes.  When she couldn’t locate scissors, she
pulled a knife from the block on the counter.

By the time she had unloaded
the boxes and set up her supplies, the sun had set completely and the moon had
risen.  She wondered how Logan was doing at work and decided to call him.  She
reached into her front pocket and realized that she had left the phone in the
pocket of her pants that were in the laundry basket in the bathroom.

Knowing Logan, he’d probably
called her just to see if she had the phone on her, and wouldn’t be happy that
she hadn’t answered.  Smiling to herself, she walked out of the shed and
towards the house, with Darlie flying next to her.

“That’s weird,” Jenna said,
her steps slowing.  “I left the house lights on, didn’t I?”

She glanced at Darlie, who
shrugged.  The house was completely dark.  The only light came from the shed
behind her where the lantern still burned brightly.  She took a few more steps,
and something tickled at the back of her mind as the hairs on her neck rose.

“Douglas?” she called.  Only
silence answered her.  Wolves had exceptional hearing.  Even if he was at the
front of the house, he would have heard her.

A creak from inside the house
made her hold her breath and stop moving.  Her first thought was that it was
Logan, come home to check on her.  But she knew that he would never turn off
the lights and sneak around.  And Douglas wouldn’t come into the house,
either.  She saw a flash of something through the open back door.  With her
heart pounding in her ears, she began to back away from the house.

A shadow passed through the
door and a figure wearing black stood on the patio.  As her eyes adjusted to
the moonlight, she saw a face she had hoped to never see again:  Jasper.

He didn’t speak, he simply
growled.  Two more dark figures appeared behind him, adding their growls to the
previously quiet night.  She knew running to the front of the house and trying
to make it to a neighbor’s house was a long shot.  The neighbors were too far
apart and Jasper and his men were werewolves and would be much faster than
her.  The woods were out, too.  That was a wolf’s natural territory.

“Darlie,” Jenna hissed, “go
find Logan.”

Darlie sped away, her wings
buzzing furiously, and Jenna turned and raced to the shed, hoping to find a way
to hold them off until Logan could get there.  She heard the wolves coming,
their growls growing louder.  When she was through the shed door, she pulled it
shut.  There was no lock on the inside.

Keeping her hand on the
handle, she looked for something to wedge the door shut.  Spying a thick-handled
hoe, she grabbed it, feeding it through the handle.  It was long enough that it
braced the entire door.  She wasn’t foolish enough to believe that would keep
them out permanently, but she certainly hoped it would buy her some time.  Grabbing
the knife from the counter, she crouched down against the door, gripping the
handle with one hand and pulling hard, bracing her feet against the door jam.

Where was Douglas?

Something hit against the
door hard.  Her body jerked with the force.

“Come out and I won’t hurt
you.  If you make me break through this door to get you, you’re not going to
like what happens.”

Logan, Logan, Logan
, she chanted in her mind. She didn’t know if he could
even feel her fear through their connection, but she was willing to try
anything.

“My bodyguard will be right
back, he’s patrolling around the house now.”

Jasper chuckled.  “The dart I
used on you worked equally well on the wolf.  He didn’t even have a chance to
call for help before he was out.”

Poor Douglas!
  Her mind reeled.  “My mate is on his way home.  You
better leave before he gets here.”  She tried to make her voice calm and tamp
down the fear rising in her, but she could hear the trembling in her words.

“Liar, liar,” Jasper tutted. 
“He’s still at work and won’t be home for a while.  Think we haven’t been
paying attention?”

Something hit the door again
and the hoe rattled, shifting slightly.  She grabbed it and pulled it back into
place.

“How did you find me?”  Maybe
distracting them would keep them busy enough until Darlie could find Logan. 
Assuming the sprite actually
could
.

Logan, Logan, Logan
.

“Your old boyfriend was a
wealth of information once I threatened to break his wings.  He did some kind
of spell that showed us where you were at the bar.  And then I broke his wings
anyway.  Once I knew your mate worked at the bar, it was easy enough to track
him, and you, here.”

So Maximus had doubly
betrayed her.  Not that she was surprised.  He was the kind of slimy toad that
would do anything to save his own hide.

The door was hit again, and
she heard a crack this time, as if the wood had been split.  She didn’t know
what they were hitting it with, but she imagined it was one of the wolves
knocking his shoulder into it.  She was sure that Logan was strong enough to
break through the door, and while Jasper and his wolves weren’t as muscular as
Logan, wolves were generally stronger by nature.

Another loud hit, followed by
a cracking sound, reverberated through the little shed.  Jenna’s arm ached from
where it gripped the handle.  There was another blow to the door.  And
another.  And another.  Tears streamed down her face as she prayed that Logan
would come for her.  Clutching the knife tightly, she braced herself for
another hit.

The window shattered.  A
chunk of wood from the nearby woodpile had been thrown through.  She screamed
as it smashed through the small window and bounced on the table, knocking over
the lantern and sending her supplies skidding around.  The lantern crashed onto
the floor and the light went out.  When the lantern was extinguished, the hits
against the door increased and something else crashed through the window.  With
the moonlight through the window, she could see that someone had thrown another
piece of wood into the shed.

Two more blows against the
door and another log through the window had Jenna fighting terror on two
fronts.  If she moved from the door she would become a target for the logs
being tossed randomly through.  If she stayed by the door, eventually they’d
get through. She was trapped, and her only defense was a steak knife.

There was a moment of
silence.  Jenna could hear her heart pounding.  Then she heard running
footsteps and something heavy hit the door.  It cracked loudly and wood
splinters showered down on her as the door began to give way.  She had no
choice but to scramble away from the door or risk being flattened when whoever
was throwing themselves against it made it through.  The hoe angled slightly,
no longer completely bracing the door, and slid free with the next blow.

Jenna scrambled to the end of
the shed, just feet away from the door, as it broke apart.  Jasper stepped
through.  Her eyes had adjusted enough to the moonlight for her to be able to
see him.  She could see his two men just outside the shed, but they didn’t come
inside.

“Now,” Jasper growled, “I
told you that if you made me come in here, you wouldn’t like what would
happen.”

Jenna straightened slowly. 
Her shoulder bumped into a shovel leaning against the wall.

“I won’t commit crimes for
you.”  She wrapped her free hand around the handle of the shovel.

“I don’t want you to do
anything but die, bitch.  After we make good use of your body.”