The Wolf's Mate Book 6: Logan & Jenna (4 page)

“Hello, Max,” she said, trying to sound polite but distant,
so she didn’t encourage him to linger.

Stifling an inward groan as he sat down in the seat across
from her, she steeled herself for whatever he was going to say.  It was her party,
and she wouldn’t let him get her down.

“I’ve decided to forgive you, Jen-Jen,” he said.

She blinked, sure that she had misheard him.  “Excuse me?”

A half-smile touched his thin lips.  “I said that I’m going
to forgive you for walking away from me.  I’m ready to get married and I’ve
decided to settle for you.”

Jenna’s mouth dropped open.  Was he serious?  Did he just
try to pass an insult off as a compliment?

She stood from her chair to stare straight down at him. 
“Let’s be clear, Maximus, you horn-toed woll-dragon, I wouldn’t spit on you if
you were on fire, let alone soil my bed by allowing you back in it.  I have
nothing to apologize for; you had sex with two she-fairies while I was on
vacation with my family.  I will never,
never
be with you, so go take
the short road to Hades.”

His light blue eyes widened in surprise.  She cocked her arm
back and threw a punch at his perfect jaw, connecting and sending him reeling
backwards in the chair.  He crashed to the floor with a loud thud that brought
the party to an abrupt halt.

Kari rushed over, looked between Jenna and Maximus as he
struggled to get up from the floor, and shouted, “Let’s hear it for the
birthday girl!”  The crowd erupted in cheers and then jeered Maximus when he
pushed his way through the fairies to leave.  He spun back to glare at Jenna,
leveling a threat.  “You’ll be sorry, you bitch.  I’ll make you pay.”

“Go fuck yourself, you slippery eel,” Kari crowed, and Jenna
laughed, hugging her friend as Maximus disappeared out the door.  The music
began again and Kari looked down at Jenna with a smile.  “I’m glad you slugged
him, Jen.  You deserve so much better.”

“I’ll get it, too.”  Jenna nodded.

“I hope your truemate is worthy of you,” Kari said, and then
pulled Jenna back into the depths of the crowd where they continued to dance
until the night began to wear away and dawn threatened.  The crowd had thinned
considerably by the time Jenna and Kari stepped out onto the sidewalk where the
carriage was waiting to take them home.

“I have a gift for you,” Kari said.

“You’ve already given me so much tonight, Kari.  Your
friendship is present enough.”  Jenna protested.

“Nonsense.  What’s the fun of having money if you can’t
spend it on the people you love?  I had this made for you, in honor of the new
life that you’ll start today.”

Kari pulled a chain from her clutch.  A pendant hung from
the delicate gold chain.  Jenna lifted it in her hand and examined it.  It was
a winged fairy standing next to a wolf, whose muzzle was lifted upwards as if
it were singing to the moon.  The detail was so amazing that it seemed almost
real.

“I love it, thank you so much,” Jenna said sincerely, as
tears pricked at her eyes.

A loud roaring sound burst around them, and Jenna and Kari
covered their ears.  Jenna recognized the sound as an engine from the Mortal
Realm.  They were forbidden in the glen because they caused pollution.  A huge
metal vehicle slammed into the back of the carriage, sending the horses into a
terrified gallop.  Men jumped from the open doors of the vehicle, wearing all
black and holding weapons.

Maximus came into view and stood with the men, who pointed
their weapons towards the terrified fairies and told them to freeze or risk
getting killed.  Jenna’s heart pounded in her chest as she saw the evil look in
Max’s eyes.

“That one, the plain one with the silver in her hair.  She
can unlock anything.”  Max said.

“What are you doing, Max?”  Kari yelled, lifting her hands
and slapping them together as she spoke a few words and the ground shook.

“Not so fast, fairy,” one of the masked men growled,
shooting Kari with his weapon.  The ground stopped shaking as Kari slumped to
the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.  Jenna went to her knees with a
gasp of alarm.

“Oh, no, Kari!”  Jenna cried, turning her friend over.  To
her relief, she found a feathered dart protruding from Kari’s neck and felt for
her pulse, finding it slow but even.

Something jabbed into Jenna’s neck and she lifted her hand,
finding a feathered dart imbedded in her skin as well.  Her vision went spotty
and then dark as she slumped forward over her friend, the necklace falling to
the ground with a faint tinkling sound.

* * * * *

Jenna woke slowly, disoriented and aching.  Her vision was
blurry for several moments but her hearing was sharp, and she knew she wasn’t
alone.

“It’s good you’re awake,” a rough male voice said.  “I was
beginning to wonder if the dart was too effective and you would remain
unconscious forever.  Hardly useful to me if you can’t do your job.”

Blinking furiously to clear her vision, Jenna finally saw
clearly enough to know she was in a small room, with walls made of wooden slats
and a floor of rough stone.  A man stood by the door, leaning casually against
it.  He was tall and lean, with a thin mustache and long, black hair kept loose
around his shoulders.  His eyes were light green and they narrowed as he
regarded her.  She was lying on a cot, and when she tried to sit up, she found
that one ankle was tied with a thick rope to the frame of the cot.

“Where am I?” she croaked, her throat raw and a terrible
taste in her mouth.  “Who are you?”

The man strode across the room and picked up a plastic
bottle of water from a small table and opened it, handing it to Jenna.  She was
too thirsty to wonder if it was drugged, and she snatched it from his hand and
gulped half of it down before she stopped to take a breath.

“My name is Jasper, and I am leader of a wolf pack.  This is
the cellar of my home, in the Mortal Realm.”  He looked down at her, curiosity
in his gaze.  “Your boyfriend owed a great debt to me.  When I came to collect,
he offered to give you up in exchange for freedom from his debt, and I agreed. 
A fairy that can unlock anything would be quite valuable to a man like me. 
Many wonderful, expensive, important things are behind locks that can’t be
broken.”

“He’s not my boyfriend, and I’m not going to open anything
for you.  Let me go,” Jenna said angrily.

“No,” he said simply.  “You will do what I say, or you will
suffer.  I will come for you tonight for a job.  Do well, and I’ll give you
something to eat.  Make a fool of me, and you’ll be very, very sorry.”

He opened the door and shut it firmly behind him.  She
inspected the rope that tied her to the bed.  It was too thick and tied too
tightly for her to undo it.  She scraped it against the metal edge of the cot
for a few minutes, but couldn’t even break a single strand of the thick rope. 
She dragged the cot over to the door, raising her hand and laying it on the
place where the outside lock lay.  She could unlock anything, anywhere.  The
moment her palm hit the lock, burning pain shot through her and she yelped,
blowing cool air over her skin.  A chuckle came through the door, and she
recognized Jasper’s voice.  “The lock is made of iron, Jenna.  Do you really
think me so foolish?  Be prepared to do my bidding tonight, or find out what
real pain means.”

“Go to Hades,” she muttered, turning away and shoving the
cot back against the wall.  Iron was poison to fairies.  She was unable to
unlock something that was made of or covered with it.

Sitting back down on the cot, she checked herself over.  She
was still wearing her gown, and a quick peek under the hem told her that her
panties were intact.  She tested her limbs and looked over her skin for
injuries.  Except for the wound from the dart, she was fine.  Just thirsty and a
little hungry.  She didn’t know how long she’d been unconscious, but she
figured it had been at least several hours.

She grimaced, remembering how Maximus had pointed her out to
the black-clad men.  That slime-eating
herffler
had sold her out! 
According to Jasper, if he was to be believed, Maximus owed him a debt.  But
what kind of debt would a he-fairy from an affluent family owe to a werewolf in
the Mortal Realm?  It seemed inconceivable, and if she hadn’t witnessed Maximus
betraying her to them, she wouldn’t have believed it.  She’d known he was a
creep, but she had no idea he was the kind of creep that would hand over a
woman to other creeps — criminal ones — to save his own hide.  When she got out
of this mess, she was going to skin him alive. 
If
she got out of his
mess.

Jenna shook off the wayward thought.  There were no “ifs” in
this situation.  She
had
to get away from here so she could spell for
her truemate and start her new life.  She had no plans to join a criminal
enterprise as some kind of magical lock-pick, and she certainly had no plans to
die at Jasper’s hands.  So she would escape.  She had to.

Time slipped by slowly and she amused herself by imaging her
future with her truemate.  Summer picnics under a canopy of trees, skinny-dipping
under the stars, having children, visiting her parents and his family, making
new friends, learning to drive one of those vehicles
.  That would be a kick
.

She could just picture Kari coming to the Mortal Realm to
visit and Jenna driving up to surprise her.  Kari would be jealous of Jenna’s
good fortune and wish that she’d spelled for a truemate and taken a chance.

Hunger poked angry fingers at her, making her stomach
growl.  The meal she’d had with Kari seemed like a distant dream.  When her
body began to ache from the cot, Jenna paced as far as the short rope would
allow, and sang songs to keep from screaming in boredom.

The click of a key in the lock alerted her that Jasper had
come back.  There was nothing in the room for her to make a weapon out of to
defend herself.  The only furniture was the small table, which was bolted to
the floor, the cot, which was too heavy for her to do much of anything except
scoot along noisily, and the bucket that had been left behind for her to use as
a toilet.

This might be her only chance to escape, and she planned to
take the opportunity as soon as it was presented to her.

Two men came in with Jasper, both tall and lean, with a
hungry, predatory look in their eyes.  She had no doubt that they were wolves
as well, and she shuddered, afraid to know what they were thinking about when
they looked at her like that.

“It’s time to go.  Be a good girl and do as you’re told.  I
don’t make promises I don’t plan to keep,” Jasper said, reminding her of his
threat to make her suffer with all the delicacy of a brick through stained
glass.

One of the men, with a tattoo of a skull on his forearm,
untied the rope from the cot and twisted the end around his palm several times,
holding it like a leash.  She kept her expression neutral, following Jasper and
the man who held the rope as they left the small room.  The stairs leading up
were made from rough-hewn wood, and she was very aware as she stepped gingerly
on the planks that she was without shoes.  She wiped her palms on her dress,
her fingers trembling with nerves as they left the cellar and entered a small
kitchen.  The back door was open and she was led through it and out onto a
porch.  Three vehicles, including the large one that she had been taken in,
were parked behind the home.  She glanced around her and saw that the small
house was settled in thick woods, and there appeared to be no other homes
within view.

There were eight men with them, including Jasper and Tattoo-man,
who held the rope.  Four of them were near the black vehicle, which sat with
the back doors open.  It was full of boxes and electronics.  Tattoo-man stepped
from the porch and walked towards the black vehicle, and she had no choice but
to follow.  She stopped when Tattoo-man did, and he turned to talk to Jasper. 
She knew this was her chance to make a break for it.  He was distracted.

She let out a slow breath and released her wings, which slid
silently from her shoulder blades.  Power filled her, strengthened her, and she
tensed her body and ran.

She couldn’t fly with her wings, but they did give her speed,
and as she moved away from the man holding the rope, it ripped out of his hands
before he realized what was happening.

The trees blurred past her as she raced into the woods,
knowing that they would be able to track her unless she could find a place to
hide or find someone to help her.  If she could find a road, she might be able
to flag down a vehicle and they could call for help.

Suddenly, an arm snaked out and grabbed her, swinging her in
a wide circle and throwing her into a tree.  The side of her face hit first and
she let out a piercing scream as her body impacted with the trunk.  She didn’t
hit the ground, but was caught up roughly and tossed over a shoulder.  Her
breath had left her lungs when she landed on his shoulder and she struggled to
fill them as the man carried her back the way she came.

“Found this little bitch in the woods, boss.”  The man
holding her said, dumping her onto the ground.  A soft sob escaped her mouth when
the impact jarred her already aching body.

Someone fisted her hair, pulled her to her knees, and
slapped her.  She cried out as tears filled her vision but she knew the blurred
shape in front of her was Jasper.  “I warned you, bitch.”

Something cold and heavy settled on her neck, and
immediately began to burn her skin.  She lifted her hands to pull it off but it
seared her fingers.  It was an iron collar.

The hand holding her let go and she crumpled to the ground,
the flesh around her neck burning like acid was being poured on it.  She gasped
for air and tried to feel along the collar to find the latch, but it hurt too
badly.  The more she touched the iron, the weaker she felt and the more it
hurt.