The Wolf's Mate Book 6: Logan & Jenna Read online

  McKenna saw Logan and wheeled around, heading back towards the house. Logan pushed forward, moving as fast as his paws would carry him over the rough ground. The woods became a dark blur around him as his senses all focused on getting back to his mate as soon as possible. He knew his pack was with him, following close behind. They would all be worried that maybe it was one of their mates that was in trouble. But a tightening in Logan’s gut told him that it was Jenna who needed help.

  The house loomed into view and Logan shifted on the fly, leaping up onto the porch and racing through the open back door.

  His eyes roamed the room quickly, seeing Cades and the other females standing watch over Jenna as she sat huddled in the corner of the couch, her arms wrapped around her knees and her hands clenched into tight fists. Her body jerked and she sobbed softly.

  He went to his knees on the couch in front of her. “Baby?”

  She blinked pain-filled amber eyes at him. Holy shit.

  Her voice was scratchy and rough. “Hurts.”

  “I know, baby.” He touched her hands, which were curled together, her nails digging into her palms. She looked to be in incredible pain, her breath coming out in fast pants and her eyes glazed.

  There was a knock at the door and Cades left the room. After a fast, quiet conversation, she came into the room with a man that Logan didn’t recognize.

  Jason, his parents Peter and Tina, his brother Michael, Linus, Bo, and Reika all came into the family room. Jason said, “Doc? What are you doing here?”

  Cades said, “I called Doc Mirelli’s house and his mate called him in from his hunt and said he would come right over.”

  The older man came over with a red emergency bag slung over his shoulder and said to Logan, “I need to examine her, is that okay?”

  Logan swallowed the anger that welled inside him at the thought of someone touching Jenna and nodded, sitting back on his heels. Something hit him in the back and he looked and saw that Bo had tossed Logan’s clothes at him. He dressed quickly and stood as close to Jenna as he could without interfering with the doctor’s examination.

  The doctor tugged on one of her clenched hands, slowly stretching out her arm, and tears streamed from Jenna’s eyes. Logan could see that she was struggling to keep it together, and it broke his heart that she was in so much pain.

  And he wanted to kill the doctor for hurting her further.

  He reminded himself that the doctor was going to help her, but it didn’t stop him from thinking about throwing him across the room.

  Doc Mirelli looked up at him as he opened his case and took out a stethoscope. “I can see the mark on her palm, so I know she’s your blood bonded mate. Tell me everything that’s happened since that moment.”

  Clearing his mind of vengeful thoughts, Logan told the doctor about finding her in the woods, the blood bonding, and what had happened over the last week.

  “She almost died from the iron poisoning?” Doc Mirelli asked as he listened to Jenna’s heart and then clicked a penlight and flashed it into her eyes.

  “Yeah. The fairy that healed her said that another hour and she’d have been too far gone to heal. Does that matter?”

  “Actually, yes.” The doctor replaced what he’d taken from the bag and after a few quiet moments of rummaging, pulled out a small vial of clear liquid and a needle. “Blood bondings are extremely serious. In the history of our people, blood bondings were done fairly frequently, when wolves found their truemates. It was a ritual that bound the two by blood. With the blood of the male inside the female, it was said that he was linked to her in an extra, stronger way. Over time, and with less of our people finding their truemates, blood bondings stopped being performed. Except in extreme cases like this. When one of the truemates is injured, a blood bond can strengthen the wounded one.”

  The doctor paused and looked at Jenna. She shook slightly, the muscles in her arms spasming. Logan growled softly, sat down on the couch, and put his arm around her. She whimpered, but didn’t pull away from him. He had to comfort her. He couldn’t help himself.

  “So what are you saying, doc?” Logan asked.

  “I’m saying that Jenna was so weak from the iron poisoning that your blood overwhelmed her system. She’s acting both like a new wolf and a caged wolf.”

  Logan frowned. “A new wolf?”

  “I’m sure you recall what it was like when you first shifted, how crazy your emotions could get. Young males and females can have wild mood swings, out-of-control feelings, and aggression.”

  Peter moved closer to the couch. “Did you say caged wolf?”

  Doc Mirelli nodded. “Yes. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a wolf that’s been denied shifting on the full moon, but after a few months, the full moon becomes like torture for them. Their bodies beg to shift but they can’t.”

  “Jenna’s not a wolf.” Logan pointed out.

  “No, but she’s acting as if she’s a real wolf and has been denied the ability to shift for so long that the full moon is driving her insane.” Doc Mirelli said.

  Logan’s mouth dropped open. “Full moon fever?”

  Cades said, “Is there anything you can do for her?”

  “I can inject her with a strong muscle relaxant. That should help to ease her knotted muscles and relieve the tension in her joints. And then I think you need to take her out for a run.”

  “What?” Logan said, not sure he had heard right.

  The doctor turned up the sleeve of Jenna’s top until her upper arm was exposed and swiped an alcohol pad across her skin. As he uncapped the needle and filled it with the clear liquid from the vial, he said, “She’s definitely not going to shift, but there’s a part of her that needs to be let free, and the easiest way to do that is to take her outside. She needs to run the tension from her body and give into the moon like a wolf would. It’s my best suggestion for how to help her. I can drug her, if you’d rather, and she’ll sleep until dawn, but her body will still ache and it will take her longer to recover.”

  “No, don’t drug her. I’ll take her home and run with her,” Logan said.

  “Do you want company?” Bo asked.

  Shaking his head, Logan watched as the doctor injected Jenna and put away his supplies. The doctor stood and excused himself for a moment, pulling his cell from his pocket and walking into the hallway.

  “No, this is between me and my mate. I fucked up enough already as it is, and I need to fix it myself,” Logan said.

  “How did you fuck up?” Jason asked.

  Logan ground his teeth together. All the little things she’d done that he had found odd were coming back to haunt him now. She’d wanted to bite him, she’d referred to herself as one of his kind, and she’d been moody as hell. They were like pieces of a puzzle that suddenly fit together. “She needed me and I left her. I wasn’t paying close enough attention and she’s in terrible pain.”

  Doc Mirelli came back into the room, sliding his cell back into his pocket. Logan looked at him. “Will this happen every month?” Logan couldn’t shake feeling like a colossal asshole.

  The doctor shook his head. “I just spoke to a colleague of mine at the hospital and explained the situation, and he said that this is a one-time manifestation of full moon fever because of the blood bonding. The next full moon, she shouldn’t have any issues. I do caution you, Logan, that you’ll find yourself more protective of Jenna because of the blood bond. It’s normal, but you’ll want to be careful around unmated males because they might trigger your protective instincts and, you know, you’re a pretty damn big guy.”

  The others chuckled but Logan couldn’t even muster a smile. He knew that what he felt for Jenna was stronger than normal mating feelings. He would rather gouge out his own eyes than see her cry even one tear in pain.

  Doc Mirelli handed a brown plastic bottle to Logan. “Here are some pain pills if she needs them, but I’m pretty confident that a good run will help her more than anything once the relaxant begins to work. And I don’
t think you could have stopped this from happening, Logan. She clearly didn’t know what was going on, and there’s no way you could have predicted that her body would lock up like this. I’ve never actually seen it happen before, but then again I’ve never known a wolf and fairy to enter into a blood bond when the fairy nearly died. Don’t beat yourself up. Take her out tonight and let her lead. If she wants to run until dawn and chase deer, then that’s what her instincts are telling her to do.”

  Logan thanked the doctor and looked at his friends. “I’m going to get my mate home. Thank you, all of you, for your help.”

  Cades, standing in the shelter of Jason’s arms, said, “She’s your mate and part of our pack, Logan, of course we would help. Whatever craziness happened tonight, it was clearly out of her control. Take good care of her, and let us know if we can do anything else.”

  Logan gathered Jenna in his arms and lifted her up as he stood. She made a soft sound, but her eyes were closed and her face wasn’t drawn in pain. He hoped that meant that the relaxant was starting to loosen up her muscles. Even now, her body felt like it was made of stone.

  After saying goodbye to his friends, he put Jenna in the truck and headed for home. Jenna was silent for the short drive, and Logan was worried that her ears were still sensitive, so he didn’t speak. Doc Mirelli said her ears were okay, just highly sensitive to noise right now. As a wolf he had superior hearing, but he’d been born with it. He couldn’t imagine how shocking it must have been to Jenna to have her hearing suddenly sharpen.

  He parked in the garage and carried Jenna through the house and out to the backyard.

  “Baby?” He kept his voice low. She lifted her head from his shoulder slowly and looked at him with her still-amber eyes. “Can you try to stand for me? It’s time to go for a run.”

  She blinked slowly, as if processing his words, and then nodded. He lowered her legs to the ground, keeping his other arm supporting her. Her legs straightened very slowly, and she took in a deep breath but didn’t make any pained noises.

  She took a tentative step away from him, swayed slightly, but straightened on her own. She took another few steps and stopped, lifted her head to the sky and took in another deep breath, rolling her shoulders and cracking her neck.

  Her voice was rough when she spoke. “Will you run with me?”

  “Absolutely.” He pulled off his shirt and tossed it onto the porch. It wasn’t normal to shift twice in one night, but Logan hadn’t gotten in his full run before and his body was still humming with the desire to be in his wolf form.

  He stripped completely and knelt on the ground, looking up at Jenna as the wolf form took over his body. She watched him with her wolf-colored eyes as he shifted completely, and when he shook out his body, she licked her lips and a small smile curved her mouth. She pulled off the long-sleeved top she was wearing, revealing a white tank. Then she turned and began walking towards the woods. She paused from time to time, stretching her legs and arms and rolling her shoulders, and although she still moved as if her muscles were tight, she was definitely improving.

  She moved into the trees and then stopped once more, toeing off her shoes and removing her socks. She glanced at him. “I want to feel the ground.”

  He nodded, wishing that he could speak in his wolf form. She knelt in front of him, moving so fast that he jerked slightly in surprise. She butted her head gently against his shoulder, wrapping her arms around him. She buried her face in his furry neck.

  “You smell good.” Her hands slipped up the back of his neck and caught his ears, curling her fingers around them briefly before moving down and across his back as far as she could reach. It felt so good to be touched by his mate that he shivered and she giggled.

  She lifted her head from his neck and brushed her cheek against his muzzle, making a pleased humming sound. “I’m feeling better, but I want to run now.”

  He chuffed at her and she stood, wincing slightly. But she seemed to shake it off as she turned and walked into the woods. He thought she moved gracefully in spite of her aches, and he was proud of her for pushing forward when it might have been easier to just curl up with the pain pills and ride it out.

  He trotted next to her, giving her a few feet of space between them so she could move whichever way she wanted. The woods were thick and deep and she slowly began to pick up her pace, until she was jogging. She changed directions at will, circling around, crossing over their previous paths and weaving between the trees. Logan was impressed that she was able to move so fluidly. She stopped after an hour and pulled off her jeans, revealing a pair of red and white striped panties.

  When she spoke, he noticed that her voice was no longer scratchy. “Too hard to run in tight jeans.”

  He barked in agreement, although he had enjoyed the way the jeans had hugged every inch of her body. Now her creamy legs were visible in the moonlight, and he growled lightly in approval. She flashed a smile, one that he might even call wolfish, and took off again, moving faster.

  An hour passed, then two. Jenna had discarded her tank along the way, not even stopping her quick pace to rip it over her head and drop it in the brush, leaving her in only a bra and panties. Logan felt the moon set and the sky began to darken. A small creek came into view, and he recognized it as the one that ran across his property. Jenna splashed through it with a laugh and stopped on the opposite bank, throwing her head back and lifting her arms to the sky. She yelled, but it was a sound of celebration, and Logan’s heart lifted. Was she feeling free of the effects of the full moon fever?

  Her head lowered slowly and her eyes met his as he sat back on his haunches on the soft grass on the other side of the creek. She reached behind her back and then tugged her bra off, tossing it aside. Before he realized what she was doing, she leapt across the narrow creek and tackled him, rolling to the ground. He shifted as they rolled and settled on his back, with her straddling his hips.

  She ground the apex of her thighs against the erection that sprang up immediately, sliding her palms up his chest, where her thumbs traced his collar bone as her hands hooked over his shoulders.

  Leaning forward, the hard points of her breasts brushed his chest, and he wrapped his arms around her, sliding his hands up and down her back as she kissed him. She writhed on top of him like a live wire, her hands slipping up into his hair as she explored his mouth with her tongue.

  She slid her mouth across his cheek, curling her shoulders forward slightly as she gripped his hips with her knees, stopping at his ear.

  Her voice was a low caress as she whispered, “Mine.”

  His fingers curled into the thin fabric of her panties and ripped them away from her body.

  She lifted slowly, sinuously over top of him, reaching for his cock. He groaned as she fisted him, pumping slowly. The sight of her, like a forest nymph, was nearly his undoing and his body tensed as he gave over control of things to his mate. She spread the pre-come around the head of his cock as it throbbed in her hand, and then she rose up enough to take him inside her, teasing him with the hot wetness of her sheath.

  An eternity passed in his mind as she slid down him by slow inches until her body was pressed flush against his and his cock was buried to the hilt in the depths of her pussy. She lifted her hands from him completely, closing her eyes as she traced the outline of her body, over the curve of her hip to the dip of her waist to the swell of her breasts.

  His thumbs rubbed on her skin as he fought the urge to thrust up into her as his body screamed for completion. She lowered her head slowly and placed her hands on top of his. With smooth, slow motions, she began to rock on him and he was mesmerized by the movements of her body as she rode him. She moved one of his hands forward, and he pressed his thumb against her swollen clit. When she moaned her approval, letting her head fall back as her hips began to move on him faster, he started working her clit with short, slow strokes to the same tempo of her body on him. The faster she moved, the faster his thumb moved. Her body began to clutch his, hur
tling him towards completion.

  She placed both hands on his knees and leaned back. He began to thrust his hips up to meet her movements as his thumb rubbed faster. He felt her fingernails dig into his knees as her body tightened around him and he moved his thumb faster, his free hand gripping her hip.

  “Logan,” she moaned, as her pussy fluttered around his cock and pleasure flooded him, “Logan!”

  She jerked on top of him as her pussy clutched his like a vise and he exploded inside her, growling her name. His wolf howled in his mind to mark her again. Just as he was reasoning with his wolf that she’d already been in so much pain that night, that she didn’t need any more, Jenna leaned forward, fisted her hand in his hair and jerked his head to the side. Making a soft snarling sound, she sank her teeth into his neck. His cock, still buried inside her, jerked back to life as she marked him, her teeth breaking through the skin so he could smell his blood on the air.

  All reason, all thought left his mind as she released his neck and lapped at the wound with a soft, purring sound in her throat. His hands seized her and he rolled to his knees, turning her over until she was on all fours, kneeing her legs apart roughly.

  He sank his cock deep inside her, taking her hard and rough as she dug her hands into the ground and cried out her pleasure. As he neared completion again, he jerked her up by her shoulders and sank his teeth into the place where her neck and shoulder met, his fangs elongating in his pleasure as his cock emptied inside her, and he marked her a second time.

  Her blood hit his tongue like the sweetest candy, and he felt her heart racing under his hands as he slipped his arms around her and held her tight against him. She moaned softly, her head tipped to the side and her hands holding onto his arms as they both shook from the effects of their orgasms. He slowly released his fangs and they receded into his gums as he licked across the wound.