by R. E. Butler
“A few hours. It’s our party after all.”
“If we must, but the sooner I can get you naked, the better.”
She laughed while he kissed her again and then led her to the head table. Guests filled the tables in the large room. Jenna and Logan sat at the center of a long table. On her side of the table sat her parents and Kari and her parents. On Logan’s side sat Raynir and his parents, and Judge Aldaar.
Before the meal was served, Jenna’s father stood up and toasted the new couple, welcoming Logan to the family. She and Logan kissed while the crowd cheered.
The meal was served, and then the band switched from pleasant background music to dance music.
“I don’t really dance, sweetheart,” Logan protested as she tugged on his hand.
“It’s tradition,” she grinned. “Besides, we can’t leave until we’ve danced a few dances, so suck it up.”
He made a face and she thought he would protest, but instead he let out a sigh and followed her to the center of the dance floor where Kari and Raynir were already dancing. Twirling metal chandeliers bounced candlelight around the room. Logan pulled her in close and laid his mouth against her ear.
“You’re all mine, sweetheart?”
She nodded, her hands grasping the waist of his trousers as they moved together to the pounding music. He may not have cared much for dancing, but he could move with the best of them. In spite of the many layers of the gown, she could feel his body pressing against hers, rubbing in all the right spots.
He held her close with his big hand splayed across her back. His other hand lay against her neck. He tapped his fingers lightly against her pulse to the time of the music. She stared up at him, lost in the depths of his eyes and drowning in heady lust.
“We can go now,” she panted, her heart racing at the thought of getting him alone and naked.
“I’m having a good time,” he mused, twirling her in a circle lazily.
Her mouth fell open and she stopped moving. “Are you serious?”
He chuckled. “Of course not! It’s about damn time.”
Thank goodness.
They said goodbye to friends and family and took the carriage with the navy blue horses back to her home.
Logan lifted her from the carriage and carried her up the steps to her parents’ home. “Are you parents going to be a while?”
“We’ve got all night. They’re going to stay with my father’s sister for the night. We’ll see them at breakfast before we start moving my things to your home.”
The growl that emanated from his chest tickled her side where she rested against him as he strode through the house and straight up to her bedroom.
Setting her on the bed, he cupped her face with both hands and said, “I love you, mate of mine.”
“I love you, too, Logan.”
* * * * *
“This is the last box,” Jenna’s father said as he stepped through the portal in the garden behind her new home with Logan and handed it off to her mate.
“Now I can finally have my own sewing room,” her mother said.
“Sewing room?” her father asked in surprise. “I thought we were going to turn it into a library?”
She laughed as her parents argued playfully about what her former bedroom was going to become. She didn’t care what they did with it. She had no intention of living there again, because she’d found her home with her mate.
She invited her parents to stay for lunch, and after the meal was finished and her mother had helped her with the dishes, they offered to stay and help her unpack.
“Thanks, but you did enough helping us get everything here. I’m so excited to have my clothes and all my beauty products.” She looked at the boxes containing her lotions, shampoos, and oils, and the materials to make more. She was grateful to have her own things.
Her parents kissed her goodbye, and she and Logan promised to visit for dinner in two weeks. When they were through the portal and she closed it, she sat down with a sigh and looked at the garden. The plants were blooming quickly, and she knew that her little sprite friend was helping.
She didn’t see Darlie, but knew she was around. “Thank you for helping my plants grow. I’m looking forward to using the flowers and herbs to make my own beauty products.”
Darlie peeked out from a dark pink rose. “I like the way you smell now. What you used before was harsh and manly. Not at all how a fae should smell.”
Logan snorted from the porch. “I don’t stink.”
Darlie huffed at him. “You do, too, brute.”
Jenna hid her laugh behind a cough. “You smell amazing to me, Logan.”
He grunted. “That’s all that matters, then.”
Darlie stuck her tongue out as Logan turned to go into the house and Jenna just shook her head.
Chapter 12
Jenna snuggled closer to Logan late Tuesday afternoon. He’d lost track of how often they’d made love since they got home on Sunday. The days had raced by. His first night back at work had come upon him all too fast. It seemed like he went from spending Sunday and Monday in bed with her to having to actually leave the house for work in the blink of an eye.
The relationship between them was different now. Stronger. It wasn’t that he hadn’t felt mated to her before they joined in the fae ceremony on Saturday; it was that things felt more permanent now. His pack had accepted her easily, and they were like family to him, but Jenna’s parents were actual family, and they had opened their arms to him far more easily than he’d ever imagined. Since his grandmother had died, he hadn’t had anyone accept him, flaws and all, the way that Jenna and her family did. It was humbling. And cool as hell.
“Penny for your thoughts.” She tilted her face up and smiled.
He picked up her left hand, which was rubbing lightly over his chest, and said, “I was just thinking that I’m glad that you’re my mate.” He kissed the tips of her fingers and then her palm. “And I want to marry you and give you my last name.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “Then we’re completely bonded together in every imaginable way. By human, wolf, and fae standards.”
“I would love that.”
“Jenna Anderson has a nice ring to it, huh?”
She rolled her eyes in thought and then grinned. “It really does.”
He knew without looking at the clock that he needed to shower and go to work, but the last thing he wanted to do was leave. While he debated calling in sick, Jenna slipped from the bed. Pausing at the door to the bathroom, she peeked over her shoulder at him, her eyes half-lidded and her teeth nibbling her bottom lip.
“I’ll wash your back, if you wash mine.”
He leapt out of bed without a second thought and she shrieked in laughter and darted into the bathroom, where they eventually got around to washing each other’s backs.
* * * * *
“I don’t like leaving you,” Logan said in a gruff tone, shoving his wallet into his back pocket and tugging a shirt over his head. His wolf was snarling in his mind not to leave his mate alone in the house. It hadn’t helped that the patrol at Jasper’s pack member’s house hadn’t seen anyone since Friday night. Which meant that either it wasn’t used as a permanent residence, or Jasper’s pack had discovered someone was watching the house and had just stayed away.
“You have to work,” she pointed out, leading the way from the bedroom into the front room.
“I know,” he bit out, sounding harsher than he meant to.
He sat down on the couch to tug on his boots and she knelt in front of him, placing her small, delicate hands on his knees. Sometimes she looked at him and he was certain that she could see right through him. Like now, he felt like she was looking right into the very center of his being.
“You’re worried about me being here alone?”
He nodded. Worried was one word for it.
One side of her mouth lifted in a smile and she teased, “So when you get fired for not showing up for work after a few night
s, then we’ll do what? Live in a tent in the woods and you’ll hunt for our dinner? I know I appear low-maintenance, but I do like some niceties, like running water and air conditioning.”
He smirked. “It’s my wolf. He’s trying to claw through my skin to get to you.”
She shook her head and narrowed her eyes. “I don’t believe that for a second. Your wolf is a sweetheart.”
He could picture his wolf preening and grinning like an idiot at her compliment.
“Fine. I don’t want to leave. We should still be on our honeymoon.”
She straightened and then sat down in his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck and laying her head on his shoulder. “You said in the shower that we could take a vacation when the weather gets a little nicer and count it as our honeymoon, after we get married by human standards.”
He didn’t know what to say to that.
“How many honeymoons do you need, anyway?” she continued, her head cocked to the side, brows lifted in question.
She was teasing him and doing a good job of distracting him from the uneasy feeling that had settled in his gut.
“Alright, woman, I’m going.” He pulled his phone from his pocket and called Jason. After a brief conversation he put the phone back in his pocket.
“Thought you were leaving?” she asked.
“I will in about ten minutes, when Douglas gets here.”
“Who’s Douglas?”
“An older wolf in the pack. He’s going to stay outside and watch the house.”
Her brow arched. “Is that really necessary?”
“Yes.”
She tilted her head to the side and looked at him silently for several moments. A smile touched the corner of her mouth. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
Less than ten minutes later, there was a knock at the front door, and Logan put Jenna on the couch and answered it. He introduced Jenna to Douglas, made sure that he understood the situation and what to look for, and shut the door. Turning back to Jenna, he said, “Douglas will be walking around, but just ignore him. If he thinks anything looks suspicious, he’ll call the police and me. You’re not to open the door for anyone, baby. Not even him. Lock the door after me and keep your cell with you at all times.”
The only time they’d left the house after they returned from her realm was to go out and buy a cell for her so she could get in contact with him at work if she needed him. It wasn’t that Allen wasn’t a safe town, because it was. But something was worrying him and his wolf.
He pulled her against him for a long, deep kiss. She sagged against him with a breathy sigh when their lips parted. “Wow. Maybe you should skip tonight.”
It was his turn to laugh. “You just keep that kiss in mind while I’m gone, and I’ll be sure to repeat it in the morning when you wake up.”
She followed him to the door leading to the garage. “You can wake me up when you get home tonight.”
Pecking her cheek, he said, “I’ll do that.”
She watched him at the door until he pulled out of the garage and pressed the remote to close it. He waited until it was down before he backed out onto the street and drove off. He chastised himself for the apprehensive feelings coursing through him, chalking it up to not wanting to be away from his mate. His mated friends had all mentioned feeling the same way and wanting to spend every second with their women. And he and Jenna shared a blood bond, which was stronger than a regular truemate bond. So that was most likely why he felt the need to turn around and go home. Right?
Tuesdays were the slowest days at Jake’s, so he worked the door by himself. He didn’t actually stand at the door like Toby did on Fridays and Saturdays to card people before they came in, he sat just inside the door on a stool where he could check IDs and keep an eye on things inside.
He checked in with Peter, who was wiping the bar down with a cloth. “How are things going with you and Jenna? Does she like living in Allen?”
He nodded, leaning against the bar. “She’s getting used to things. Her parents used to bring her to our realm for vacations, so she’s familiar with a lot of things but she’s still surprised by what she sees. Last week I took her to a drive-in and she flipped out over how big the screen was and that the sound came through my speakers.”
When she’d been so delighted over a box of candy he bought for her, he went back to the snack stand and bought her one of everything. It had been fun for him to watch her try them, finally deciding on chocolate-covered raisins and sour gummy candies as her two favorites.
“She’s a sweetie. Everyone in the pack is looking forward to getting to know her,” Peter said.
“Jenna is definitely excited about May’s full moon so she can feel like herself when she talks to others.”
Someone came up to order a drink and Logan excused himself and went to sit on the stool by the door. After an hour, Ben and his friends came in.
“How’s Jenna?” Ben asked, running a hand through his dark hair.
Logan said, “Good, thanks for asking.”
Drake looked around the bar and sighed. “Man, there are never any women here.”
Since there were five women in the bar at the moment, Logan didn’t know what Drake meant. Luka said, “He means there aren’t any new women in here.”
“Small town,” Logan shrugged. There weren’t that many single female wolves their age in the pack, which was mostly male. It was one of the hardships of belonging to a small pack. If a wolf wanted to find his truemate, he would have to leave the pack and search for her, unless he was lucky enough to find her within his own pack. Jason and Cades were fortunate because they had grown up together in the same town and were truemates. It wasn’t normal by any stretch. Many wolves gave up searching for their truemate and settled with a mate from their own pack. After knowing what it felt like to have his truemate with him, Logan couldn’t imagine giving up his amazing connection to Jenna.
Paul said, “It’s a shame the dance was a bust. It’s not a bad idea, you know, getting single wolves from other packs together.”
Ben nodded. “Too bad there aren’t any other packs around here.”
“It doesn’t matter what your mate turns out to be. If she’s wolf, then that’s great, but don’t discount humans or other shifters and supernatural beings. The important thing is that you find the female that’s right for you. Everything else is just details,” Logan pointed out.
They nodded, offered to bring him a drink, and then headed off to find a booth. Logan vividly remembered the times when he was young and hanging out in bars. There wasn’t anything wrong with it in small doses, but he’d gone overboard with his enthusiasm for it, until it became part of his identity. He didn’t think that would happen to Drake, Paul, Ben, and Luka. They weren’t following in Logan’s footsteps.
Another hour passed with only a few humans coming into the bar. Although he was occasionally distracted with conversation, he couldn’t shake the worry that was still riding him about Jenna. Pulling his cell out, he stepped away from the door and called her cell.
When she didn’t answer, he left a message.
“Jenna? I thought we talked about you keeping the phone with you. Call me when you get this.”
At first he was frustrated, thinking she had just left her phone somewhere. She wasn’t used to carrying one, after all. But as the minutes ticked by, and he called her repeatedly and got no answer, the knot of worry in his gut began to grow. What if she was hurt? What if something had happened to her?
After trying her number a few more times, he decided that he was going to run home and make sure she was okay. If she was okay and had just forgotten the phone, then he was going to read her the riot act and make her swear to keep it with her all the time. If she wasn’t …
Just as he stood to tell Peter he was heading home for a break, the door was opened by two human males and a big bug flew in.
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.