Howl for Me (20 page)

Jeff almost felt sorry for him.

Almost.

Then something happened that had Jeff dropping his popcorn and Jamie dropping the bowl.

The bastard started to
heal.

“No.
No
!” Jeff shifted and raced forward, his wolf bathed in his inner light. He went right for Grimm’s throat, tearing at the jugular, trying to prevent the son of a bitch from healing.

It wasn’t working. Every time Jeff ripped into him another wound closed.

“What the fuck?” Logan’s furious voice was followed by a blast of heat that singed Jeff’s fur and forced him back. “I’m just going to incinerate him. Let’s see him heal from fucking ashes.”

Grimm opened his eyes and chuckled weakly. “It won’t work, Loki. I’ve won.” He laughed, the sound becoming stronger. “I’ve already won!” And Oliver Grimm disappeared before their eyes, swallowed by the shadows of the house.

“Fuck me gently with a chainsaw.” Val stomped through the blood Grimm had left behind. “Neat trick, asshole.”

Fen shifted back to human, pale and shocked. “Why didn’t it work? I’m supposed to kill him.”

Logan was staring at Uncle Val. “Maybe you were closer to the truth than we thought.”

“That Fen
isn’t
the wolf who will kill Odin?” Val sighed wearily. “Shit. I really hate it when I’m right.”

Jeff stared up at his mate and tried not to laugh. Fen hovered over him, arms caging Jeff in his chair, his expression furious, and all Jeff could think of was Fen as a furry. If he laughed in his mate’s face right now he’d be in even more trouble, but he wasn’t sure how much longer he’d be able to hold out.

“You deliberately put yourself in danger.”

“I had good reason.”

Fen’s jaw clenched. His arms trembled. Jeff figured he was holding off a shift. “Grimm could have killed you.”

Jeff nodded.

“Killed. You.” Fen’s eyes closed, the fear and anger mingling in his expression killing some of Jeff’s laughter. “
I can’t lose you.
”

“You won’t.” Jeff reached up and caressed Fen’s jaw. “I knew you’d come.”

“You don’t understand.” Fen opened his eyes, picked him up and carried him to bed. Jeff had never enjoyed being carried before, but Fen somehow managed to do it without making him feel like a total twink. “How do I
make
you understand?” He curled up around Jeff, spooning him close. He buried his nose in Jeff’s curls and breathed deep. He shuddered, and Jeff could sense his mate’s fear slowly draining away.

“Stay.”

The word was whispered so softly Jeff almost couldn’t hear it. So Jeff gave his lover the one thing no one else could. He picked up Fen’s hand and kissed it, hoping it would convey the sentiment he still had trouble saying out loud.

“Forever,
elskede
.”

Epilogue

“We’ve won.” Grimm laughed and spun Rina in his arms. “We won!”

Rina giggled like a young maiden and clutched him for dear life. “No one can defeat the mighty Odin!”

He set her on her feet and kissed her, ravaging her mouth until she was reduced to nothing but moans. “I want inside you.”

Rina nodded eagerly, her hands on the zipper of her pants. Who cared if they were in some disgusting old house whose walls dripped with his blood? He’d won! The wolf had done his best, but Odin was still here.

Still
alive.

And if the wolf couldn’t kill him… Grimm laughed again and thrust into Rina hard and fast, taking and giving in equal measure.

As Grimm reached his climax in the heated embrace of his lover, he’d never felt more in control of his destiny. Gungnir would be his again, as would the Aesir.

Rina was right.
No one
could defeat him.

Morgan stared at the two women currently sitting under Yggdrasil, the World Tree. Both were beautiful in their own way, but they seemed to be missing something.

Oh yeah. Their third.
Where was the Norn of the Future?

“We cannot give you that which you seek, Son of Thor.” Redheaded Urdr didn’t even look up from the root she was examining. The Norns of Fate were responsible for keeping the World Tree healthy, and they took their duties very seriously. “We cannot see the future without Skuld present.”

Magnus cursed, earning a glare from Urdr. “I’m sorry, but why
isn’t she here
?”

Morgan winced at his brother’s cry. His twin’s temper was legendary. For some reason people were more afraid of him than they were of his older brother, but Magnus took
temper tantrum
and turned it into an art form.

Dark-haired Verdandi, Norn of the Present, shrugged, staring sheepishly at her sister. “I have no clue.”

“She is lost to us.” Urdr sighed and patted the root. “We know not where she is.”

Morgan’s brows rose at that. “The Norn of the Present can’t find her sister?”

Verdandi glared at him from under dark hair. “Nope. Her ass would be here if I could. It’s her turn to weed.”

“Why?” he drawled.

Urdr shrugged. “She was lost in the past.”

Magnus turned and glared at Urdr, while Morgan turned his attention to Verdandi.

Verdandi grimaced. “Don’t look at me, I can’t find her either.”

Urdr grumbled at her sister under her breath, but Morgan couldn’t quite make out what she was saying. He was too busy staring at her hair. Her impossibly bright hair that was tinged with…purple?

There is no way that hair color is natural.

“Oh save it.” Vervandi rolled her eyes. “You’d
thee
and
thou
everyone to death if I let you. I almost wish you spoke nothing but ancient Egyptian again.”

Verdandi sniffed disdainfully and turned back to Magnus. “Our sister took off after something, or some
one
, but she wouldn’t tell us what. When she didn’t return we tried to find her but had no luck. We asked Heimdall—”

“But the son of a whore refused to tell us what we wanted to know.” Urdr sighed. “And without Skuld, without the future?”

Magnus and Morgan stared at one another as the awful truth hit them both. The truth echoed between them. “We’re doomed.”

About the Author

Dana Marie Bell wrote her first short story when she was thirteen years old.

She attended the High School for Creative and Performing Arts for creative writing, where freedom of expression was the order of the day. When her parents moved out of the city and placed her in a Catholic high school for her senior year, she tried desperately to get away, but the nuns held fast, and she graduated with honors despite herself.

Dana has lived primarily in the Northeast (Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, to be precise), with a brief stint on the U.S. Virgin Island of St. Croix. She lives with her soul mate and husband Dusty, their two maniacal children, an evil, ice-cream-stealing cat and a bull terrier that thinks it’s a Pekinese.

You can learn more about Dana at
www.danamariebell.com
or contact her at
[email protected].

Look for these titles by Dana Marie Bell

Now Available:

Halle Pumas

The Wallflower

Sweet Dreams

Cat of a Different Color

Steel Beauty

Only In My Dreams

Halle Shifters

Bear Necessities

Poconos Pack

Finding Forgiveness

The Gray Court

Dare to Believe

Noble Blood

Artistic Vision

True Destiny

Very Much Alive

Eye of the Beholder

Howl for Me

Coming Soon:

Heart’s Desire

Shadow of the Wolf

Hecate’s Own

Halle Shifters

Cynful

To forgive is divine…if he can pin his lover down long enough to beg for it.

Finding Forgiveness

© 2011 Dana Marie Bell

Poconos Pack, Book 1

Ben Malone’s role as Marshall attunes him to every nuance of the pack’s wellbeing—which means he’s forced to feel every one of his mate’s hangovers.

It’s the one reason Ben will never claim Dave Maldonado. Being alone is better than being with someone who lives in a bottle.

Dave was destined to be a pack Alpha until his first migraine hit at age fifteen, the day he caught his future mate holding hands with another boy. In the nine agonizing years since, he’s contented himself as Beta, but never learned to live with the pain and confusion of Ben’s rejection.

Dave’s worst attack yet sends him to the hospital—and brings them both face to face with the misunderstanding that’s kept them apart all these years. It’s too late, though. Dave is headed for Gay Pride Week at Disney World with one goal in mind.
Forget Ben Malone
.

Ben’s got a problem with that. Only one man is destined to hold
his
David.

And he’ll give anything, even his last shred of pride, to win forgiveness—and the right to finally claim his mate.

Warning: This book contains explicit sex, graphic language, and male/male love scenes between two top dogs. Who knew Rock Paper Scissors could be such fun?

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Finding Forgiveness: “Did you scent him?”

Dave nodded. What kind of teenage hell was this? Ben was leaving things—nasty, flowery, melty,
bleeding
things—on his back porch and then slinking away like a terrified Scooby-Doo. “The man needs a clue.”

“Then give him one.” Rick picked up the meat, his brows rising in surprise.

“Fresh venison. Straight off the deer.”

Dave wrinkled his nose. “Ew.” He darted back into the house and grabbed his bottle of Mr. Clean. He doused the back porch and grabbed the hose. “I’d move if I were you.”

Rick moved. He knew Dave meant it.

Dave started the hose and rinsed off the blood and disinfectant. “Has he ever heard of ‘I’m sorry’?”

“Rumor has it he’s been trying to say it, but the women have decided he needs to grovel more.”

Dave stopped the flow of water and stared at his Alpha. “What?”

“Yup. They want you to go on vacation and come home, calm, rested and ready to claim your mate. They want Ben to suffer while you’re gone. And they want to have a hand in it so later they can whisper and smirk and look all smug when you two snuggle-bunnies coo at each other.” Rick rolled his eyes. “Hey, I tried to stop them.”

“But stopping Belle and Chela when they’re on a roll is like trying to stop a hurricane with tissue paper.” Dave leaned against the back wall of his cabin and sighed. “They’re more likely to drive him off than drive him closer. Ben hates games.”

Rick held up the bloody slab of meat.

“Don’t ask me. I don’t know what the fuck that’s about.” Dave threw up his hands and got dripped on. He ignored Rick’s chuckles and coiled up the hose. “If he really wants to apologize, why didn’t he knock on the door? Why this stupid-ass shit?”

“Maybe he thinks it’s romantic.”

The two men eyed the blood dripping to the ground from Ben’s latest “present”.

“Nah.”

Rick laughed and threw the meat in the garbage. Dave had no idea how long it had been sitting out in the sun before they found it, but the scent was already beginning to turn sour. “He gave you flowers and candy and venison steaks.

What more does a guy need?”

“How about actually talking to me?”

“How about a fifty-two-inch LCD flat screen with surround sound and a vibrating recliner to sit in while watching Jessica Alba in that skin-tight Fantastic Four outfit?”

Dave blinked. “That’s oddly specific.”

“Thanks. I’m warming Belle up for our anniversary. Think it’ll work?”

“Not if you mention Jessica Alba.” Rick had claimed Belle the previous February; it was now nearly June. She’d been Luna for over a year now, and Dave had a good idea how she’d react to her mate’s obsession with Ms. Alba.

“You’ve got a ways to go before then.”

“I know, but maybe I’ll get one of them for Christmas.” Rick winked, as happy and carefree as Dave ever got to see his best friend. But that carefree expression didn’t last long. “Listen. Whatever Ben’s planning, he’s obviously not ready to claim you yet. Go and enjoy your vacation. The women will torture him, you’ll get some sun, and maybe he’ll have gotten his head out of his ass by then.”

Dave shook his head. “I don’t know. At this point I’m not sure if I want his head on straight or if I should just look for a second mate.”

Rick looked shocked. “Are you serious?”

Dave shrugged. “It would be a fresh start with someone new, someone who doesn’t have the baggage Ben and I do. And besides, bloody chunks of meat aside, can you honestly say Ben wants me?”

Rick opened his mouth to reply, but there was nothing really to be said. All games aside, Dave was pretty sure this was Ben’s way of taking care of his poor, wounded mate. Dave would lay odds it was Ben’s wolf that had pushed him into it too.

Well, if Dave got a second mate, Ben’s wolf could take a flying leap. He’d have someone to take care of him, thank you very much, and Ben could sit alone and miserable in his cabin while Dave boned and got boned every damn night for the rest of his life.

“The week I head to Florida?”

“Yeah?” Rick was giving him a strange look, but Dave couldn’t figure it out.

“It’s Gay Pride Week.”

Love’s compass is never wrong—even when it points in two different directions.

The Given & the Taken

© 2012 L.A. Witt

Tooth & Claw, Book 1

After pleading his case to his wolf clan’s Elders, Levi is granted the right to bond with Ian, his male human lover, on one condition: they must spend one year apart. Then Levi must use only their spiritual connection to find Ian, or the deal is off.

Tracking down his lover is easy for Ian, but Levi isn’t prepared for the changed man he finds.