The Wolf's Mate Book 6: Logan & Jenna (25 page)

“What were the benefits?”

“Of killing him?”  Logan
asked in surprise.

“No, what Yoric was talking
about.”

“Women,” Logan snorted.  “Vik
tried to win the fight at any cost because Yoric promised that any wolf in a
high rank could have his pick of the unmated females.”

“I’m sorry you had to kill
your friend.”  She rubbed her cheek on his shoulder.

“I
was
sorry about it,
for a long time.  Guilt ate at me.  I kept thinking I could have done something
different so that he would have lived.  But hindsight is twenty-twenty,
sweetheart.  And the truth is that I wouldn’t change anything about my past,
because the person I am now, that’s here with you, was made through the hell
that I suffered.  If letting Vik live, or having a happy childhood, or any
other changes would mean I wouldn’t have you in my arms right now, then I
wouldn’t change anything.  Not a damn thing.”

She said, “I wouldn’t change
anything either.”

He held her until she fell
asleep.  He watched out the window as the sky began to lighten with the coming
dawn.  It was the start of a new day.  Last night, he had nearly lost his mate
forever, but fate or luck or whatever you wanted to call it had been on her
side as well as his.  In a short amount of time she had come to be the very
most important thing in his world, and he swore to himself that he would be the
most vigilant, protective mate that a wolf had ever been.  She would know that
she was loved and protected, and some day, when they had cubs, he would protect
them, too.

It was a big job, but he was
just the wolf to do it.

Chapter 15

Jenna peered inside the shed
Wednesday afternoon.  Logan had removed the broken door and purchased materials
to make a new one.  He was working on it in the garage.  Cades and Karly had
been over earlier while Jenna was asleep and cleaned up the mess in the shed. 
The logs that had been tossed through the window had destroyed nearly all of
the ingredients she had laid out and some of her equipment, but it wasn’t a complete
loss.  She would need to replace the things that had been broken and ruined,
but that would be easy enough with one trip to the other realm.

The floor was still wet from
where it had been scrubbed free of blood and the window was missing, but
otherwise the shed appeared as it had the day before.  One of the first things
she had done when she woke that afternoon was find out if Douglas was okay.  He
had recovered quickly at the hospital and was fine now.  She was relieved that
no one else had been hurt.  Then she contacted her parents and told them what
happened.  They were furious.  Her father told her that Maximus was still under
medical care.  The damage to his body from his broken wings was far more
extensive than the healers had originally thought.  It was no longer a question
of how much damage his body had sustained but whether he would ever wake up. 
She had mixed feelings about Maximus.  On one hand, she loathed him with every
fiber of her being for betraying her.  But after Logan’s confession last night
about not changing anything bad in his past because it all led to her, she
realized she felt the same.  The short time she had been held captive and
nearly died, coupled with the terror of the previous night were things she
wouldn’t wish on her worst enemy.  But she wouldn’t change them, either.

She felt him come outside and
she turned and found him watching her from the back patio.  He closed the
distance to her quickly with long strides.  His arms closed around her and she
relaxed, not realizing how tense she felt.

He just held her.  They
didn’t speak because they didn’t have to.  All the important things had been
said the night before.

Jenna heard the sound of
wings buzzing and Darlie joined them.  She hovered in front of them.  “Brute,
I’m calling in the debt you owe me.”

“Ask away, Darlie,” Logan
said, his voice filled with humor.

“I need acorns and twigs.”

Jenna could tell Logan was
confused, so she said, “She’s going to build furniture.  Sprites always use
things found in nature when they’re building their home.”

Logan said, “Then let’s find
you the very best twigs and acorns that we can.”

They left the shed and walked
into the woods.  In no time, Logan’s big hands were filled with acorns, twigs,
leaves, and long grasses to tie the twigs together.  When they had returned to
the house and Logan had deposited the collection near the portal where Darlie
had made her home, he said, “I’m not going into work tonight.”

She opened her mouth to tell
him that she would be fine, but the truth was that she was glad he was staying
home.

“How’d I get so lucky,
Logan?”

“I’m the lucky one, Jenna.”

On Thursday morning, Jenna
and Logan went through the portal and brought back new supplies to replenish
the things that had been ruined.  They stayed long enough to have lunch with
Raynir and Kari, and then headed back through the portal.  Logan helped her
unload the items that she had asked her mom to get for her.

“What’s this?”  He held up a
long wooden trough.

“It’s a soap mold.”

“What’s in the bodywash
that’s in the shower?”

“
Cherb
butter and vanilla.” 
She arranged the jars of extracts by name.

“What is
cherb
butter?”

“A
cherb
is a big
hoofed animal with scales along its back and a big tail with spikes on the
end.  Their milk is really creamy and sweet-tasting.  Did you like the
bodywash?”

His eyes flashed as he
snagged her around the waist and drew her close.  “Very much.”  He dropped his
head to the crux of her neck and inhaled deeply.  Lifting his head, she caught
a flash of amber in his eyes.  “You always smell good to me, though.”

After they finished putting
the supplies away, they walked into the house.  He said, “Reika and her brother
Ben are coming over to give you a cooking lesson.  She said you’d understand.”

At first she was elated, but
then she remembered he was going to work. “Oh, but you won’t be home to taste
what I make.”

“I’ll love whatever it is,
even reheated, I promise.  You’re a great cook, baby.  I don’t think you need
lessons.”

She appreciated his
enthusiasm.  “The food here in the Mortal Realm is so different and varied.  I’m
excited to make something new.”

When the doorbell rang at
four, Logan let in Ben and Reika.  Reika carried a large metal pot with a glass
lid and Ben carried numerous fabric sacks filled with groceries.  They greeted
each other and Ben and Reika headed into the kitchen while Jenna walked Logan
out to his truck in the garage.

Logan pulled her close and
nuzzled under her ear.  “I’ll leave you in their capable hands.”

“When will you be home?”

“About three.  Don’t wait up
for me.  I don’t want you to be tired.”

“You could wake me up, I
wouldn’t mind that.”

A low rumble in his chest
alerted her that his wolf thought that was a good idea.  “I’ll keep that in
mind.”

They kissed once more and she
walked into the kitchen and found Ben and Reika waiting expectantly.  Ben said,
“First things first, we wash our hands.”

One by one they moved to the
sink and washed up, using Jenna’s homemade soap.  Reika lifted the bar and
sniffed at it.  “Holy crow that smells good.  What is it?”

“It’s
carunga
and
lime.”

“It smells like coconut,”
Reika sniffed again, a soft smile playing across her lips.

“I just got the ingredients
to make some more of it. 
Carunga
is naturally anti-bacterial and it
won’t dry your skin out.  Would you like a couple of bars?”

“Really?  I’d love them.  How
much do you want for them?”

“What?  Nothing.  You can
have them because you’re my friend, and you brought your brother over to teach
me how to cook.”

“Okay.  But you have to let
me pay you for them if I get any more, okay?”

“Sure,” Jenna laughed.

Ben declared that it was time
to cook.  The menu was ziti with meat sauce, garlic toast, and a tossed salad. 
She followed his directions carefully, stirring the fresh pasta so it didn’t
stick, browning the meat, and tasting the sauce to make sure the seasonings were
right.  As she and Reika scraped garlic cloves across slices of Italian bread,
Ben said, “I’m really glad that you are okay now, Jenna, and that you and Logan
found each other.  He’s happy now.”

“He wasn’t before?”

Ben shrugged.  “He was
happier here than he was with his old pack, but something was missing from his
life.  Clearly it was you.”

Jenna loved that she made
Logan happy, because he made her happy, too.  After draining the pasta and
mixing it together with the sauce in a casserole dish, Jenna grated mozzarella
cheese over top of it and put it in the oven to melt, along with the toast.

By the time the salad was
finished, the cheese had melted on the pasta and the bread was perfectly
toasted.  Reika opened a bottle of wine that she had brought along, and the
three of them sat down at the kitchen table and ate.

Jenna took a bite of a sauce-and-cheese-covered
noodle and was surprised at how good it was.  “This is great.  Thank you so
much, Ben.”

“You did all the work.  I
think you could work from a cookbook really easily, and once your garden comes
in, there are so many cool things you can do with fresh veggies.”

Reika said, “Logan will love
it, I’m sure.  It’s really sweet that you’re learning to cook things he likes.”

With the leftovers she made a
plate for Logan and put it in the microwave.  It was after ten when they left,
and she yawned and stretched, ready, as Logan would say, to “put a fork in the
evening.”  She made sure the doors were locked and headed back to the bedroom
where she stripped and climbed into bed.  She dozed off, thinking about Logan
waking her up when he got home.

* * * * *

Late Friday afternoon as
Jenna searched in the closet for comfortable shoes, Logan came into the bedroom
and plopped down on the bed.  “You ready, baby?”

“Sure, just a sex.  Oops, I
mean sec.”  She blushed sharply at her word slip, and her cheeks heated further
when Logan laughed loudly.

“I knew you were trouble,
baby.  So the reason you’re taking so long to get ready is because you want to
seduce me again?”

She stood with a pair of
tennis shoes and said, “Me seduce you?  You were the one that woke me up last
night with your clever tongue.”

He grinned broadly and a
happy growl rumbled from his chest.  “If you don’t want me to rip your clothes
off, then we should leave.  I’m about two seconds from throwing you onto the
bed.”

Shaking her head, she stepped
into the shoes and said, “It’s no wonder I have sex on the brain.  You and your
horny wolf wouldn’t let me out of bed all day.  We missed breakfast and lunch.”

“Exactly.  We’re starving so
let’s get something to eat.”

She considered teasing him a
bit, but judging from the occasional flashes of amber in his eyes, he was not
kidding when he said he would rip her clothes off and toss her onto the bed. 
She didn’t want to be late, and her stomach was definitely empty after spending
half the night and all day in bed.

As they drove to Jason and
Cades’, Logan told her that he would take her to get her temporary driver’s
permit once she felt she was ready to take the written test.  She’d started
reading the book he brought home earlier in the week.  It was daunting, but she
knew there was no time limit.  She could renew her permit however many times
she needed to, until she’d learned how to drive at her own pace.  She was
looking forward to Logan teaching her and someday, maybe even having a vehicle
of her own.

When they arrived at Jason
and Cades’ home, he parked his truck between Michael’s SUV and Bo’s truck.  He
came around to open her door and when he shut it, he planted his hands on
either side of her against the truck and trapped her between his straightened
arms.  Leaning forward, he kissed her slowly.  When the kiss broke, she looked
into his eyes and saw they were a mixture of blue and the amber of his wolf. 
“Hi big boy,” she whispered.

Logan’s lip curled into a
snarl.  “Careful, sweetheart, my wolf is getting a big head over all the
attention.”

“You’re not jealous, are
you?”  She raised her brows.

He looked thoughtful.  “I’m
not, but he’s scrambling to break free.”

“Then let’s eat so he can
come out and play.”

Logan sobered.  “Are you
feeling okay?  Be honest with me.”

“I promise I feel good. 
Except for being hungry.”

“I’m a pretty poor excuse for
a mate if I can’t even keep you fed properly.”