Big Bad Bite (12 page)

A bellowed “enough” ripped through the cabin
from Uncle Owen and all activity, inside or out, came to an
immediate stop.

Frustrated, Jenna shoved sweaty hair out of
her face. No longer caring how mad her Uncle was, she threw her
hands up in the air, “What the hell Uncle Owen? I get that you’re
mad! Fine! Maybe I’m mad now too. You just up and freakin’
disappeared on me!” Throwing her hands out wide to wave at the
room, she shouted, “But is all of this really necessary?”

Suddenly Uncle Owen dropped into the chair
behind him, looking weary, and rested his head in his hands in a
clear sign of frustration. Long moments of silence filled the air
before he rubbed his hands over his face, looking from her to Adam,
and back again before shaking his head in defeat. “Sit down, Jenna.
Adam, please have Clay, Amy and Max come in here. We all need to
have a talk. Logan, hand Jenna her shirt and then go find a towel
for your sister so she can stop the bleeding.”

With those words, Jenna froze. Surely, she
did not hear him say that? With stunned slowness, she turned to
look at the person she’d just elbowed moments before. Her eyes met
an amused smirk set on a face that was remarkably similar, however
masculine, to her own. With same black hair cut short that framed a
face featuring her high cheek bones and straight nose. The only
difference between them that she could see was his eyes, which were
the same brilliant grass green with small gold flakes as her
Uncles. He bent over to scoop her tank top up, and then reached to
hand it to Jenna’s unsteady, outreached hand.

Adam started to move towards her with
determined strides when Logan stepped directly in front of her and
started growling. Shocked into silence, she stood there watching as
Adam tensed with narrowed eyes and growled back in a deep timbre
that seemed to travel directly through her body, clenching muscles
in a certain area that she didn't want to acknowledge at the
moment.

In a tone full of amusement, Uncle Owen told
Logan to stand down and let Adam pass. Stepping around her younger,
masculine version, Adam ran his hands lightly over her body, then
her hair, as if checking for any injuries before giving a gruff
order to Amy to get the bandages. Then he pulled her into the steel
trap that other people called arms. As he cradled her head to his
chest running a soothing hand over her hair and down her back,
Jenna realized that he was petting her, but was he doing it to calm
her or himself?

The logical part of her brain reminded her
that she had decided to stay away from Adam. That she shouldn’t let
him hold her or comfort her in such an intimate manner. The
overwhelmed and slightly scared half told that logical half where
it could shove it. That here in Adam’s arms was exactly where she
needed to be, and nothing had ever felt quite as right.

His chest vibrated as he half growled, “Why
isn’t she healing, Owen?”

Her Uncle’s reply was cautious, “Because
Jenna doesn’t actually have that ability. She heals only marginally
faster than a human. Her strengths lay elsewhere.”

Trying to get some semblance of normal back,
she pulled herself out from Adam’s arms. Refusing to acknowledge
the frown she somehow knew was adorning his face. Thankfully, Logan
appeared with the towel, followed by Amy with the bandages and
medical tape. Needing desperately to put some control back into her
spiraling surroundings, she threw those thick titanium and
concrete-enforced walls back up around her emotions. Practically
daring anyone to try and tear those bad boys down again. In doing
so, she became the distant but effective cop, rather than the
uncertain and unnerved Jenna O’Conner.

“Amy, will you lead me to the bathroom so
that I can bandage this back up?”

Nodding her head silently, she took Jenna’s
hand and pulled her through a bedroom to a small private bathroom
beyond. Shutting the bedroom door behind them, so that they could
have a semblance of privacy away from the testosterone laden room
they just exited.

“You okay, Jenna?” Amy’s voice was heavy with
worry.

Jenna’s mind went into overtime. Her Uncle
Owen was sitting in the living room with someone he claimed was her
brother, along with the Alpha of a wolf shifter pack who seemed
strangely protective of her at the moment. Maybe protective wasn’t
the right word. Possessive, that seemed to fit the situation
better. Hell, he might as well have tattooed ‘MINE’ on her
forehead. That was not a response or emotion from Adam that Jenna
had signed on for. Somewhere in this cluster-fuck of a moment,
Jenna had allowed herself to become overwhelmed; slipping into a
small state of shock. That reaction just wouldn’t do. It was time
for her logical self to slip back into character and back into
control. Jenna had questions, and Uncle Owen had damn well be ready
to give some answers.

Amy watched her intently as Jenna thanked her
for the help before slipping her tank top back on. With smooth,
controlled strides, she flung the bedroom door open angrily and
walked balk into the living room to take a stance formidable to
Stonewall Jackson’s, waiting for the battle to begin. Her feet
placed shoulder width apart. Arms crossed confidently over her
chest. A menacing, pissed-off-female look flashing all over her
face, as she stared at her Uncle.

“And where in God’s green earth have you been
all these years, Uncle Owen?”

Logan’s gave a gruff baritone chuckle from
the chair he sat in across the room from his Uncle. “Well, I guess
you weren’t joking when you told me she had Dad’s temper. The next
family reunion should turn out to be rather fun.”

Jenna ignored the comment as she watched her
Uncle wearily swipe his hand down his face before looking back to
her. “Sit down, Jenna. As much as I would love to coddle your
stubborn ass, you’ve just dumped a load of problems on me that I
don’t have time to deal with.” As Jenna’s mouth opened to make an
exasperated, and furious, retort he held up a hand to silence her.
“Shut it for a minute, Jenna! I mean it!” Uncle Owen’s nostrils
flared, as his face tensed with anger. The tart smell of his
aggravation filled the room. “Imagine my surprise, when I pick up
the newspaper this morning to find your picture plastered on the
front page. It was a damn good thing I happened to be here to track
down some rogue wolves. Somehow since the last time I saw you,
where I implicitly remember explaining the need for you to hide for
your own safety, you’ve lost all the God-given brains you had!
What’s done is done, but now we have to salvage this situation so
sit your ass down before I make you sit down!”

She stared at her Uncle, trying to remember
if she’d ever seen him this mad before. With his fists clenching
the arms of his chair so tightly, it looked like it may break any
second, combined with the fact that his face had turned a riveting
shade of red, the answer seemed easy. She came to the conclusion
that it was a resounding no. Wanting answers more than she wanted a
fight with him, Jenna stomped to the nearest chair facing the
entire group and flopped down into it.

When she was settled, Uncle Owen glared at
her for a good minute before finally speaking again. “I’ll give you
this, Jenna. At least you have solid instincts when defying a
direct order given to keep you safe. Adam is one of a handful of
people that I would trust with the knowledge of your existence at
this moment. At least until I’ve finished tying up some loose
ends.”

“Direct order? I’m not in the military, Uncle
Owen. And you sure as hell aren’t one of my supervising officers on
the force. So I don’t remember you giving me a direct order!” She
scoffed back at him.

In the space of a breath, her Uncle’s furious
snarls were blowing hot air across her face as he hovered inches
above her. Damn, she didn’t know he could move that fast. “Yes,
Jenna! An order! A simple order at that! STAY HIDDEN!”

The walls of the cabin practically shook as
his roar echoed around the silent room. The atmosphere was beyond
tense as he eased back slowly to sit back in his chair while she
stared back at him coolly. The room was, in fact, so tense that it
felt like an explosive pressure filled the space. It was a pressure
that continued to build, expanding rapidly. Hell, it reminded her
of a balloon being blown up too quickly. She was just waiting for
the house to mimic that balloon, and explode.

Uncle Owen huffed in irritation again. “I
realize that you don’t know the slightest thing about pack life,
but you’re going to have to learn quickly. Your absence from this
side of your heritage has gone on long enough. It’s time for things
to change. Until I resolve a few more issues that concern your
safety you won’t be able to come home to your pack. Adam’s pack
will serve as your temporary pack until then. Understood?”

Silent moments ticked by as she sat there
staring at her Uncle, conjuring up a resolve of steel, promising
herself that one day she would find the strength to beat the shit
out of him. It would have to be at a time when she thought she’d
have a shot in hell of winning. Like when he was old, wrinkled, and
decrepit. Her family was turning out to be downright
ridiculous.

When Uncle Owen finally got tired of waiting
for her answer, he leaned his head on the back of the chair and
huffed again in frustration. Hell, Jenna was starting to believe
that if he huffed and puffed any more, then he should be required
to threaten to blow someone’s house down.

Adam cleared his throat, effectively catching
their attention. “Pack Master, if I may, why is Jenna’s life in
such danger that you’ve gone through such lengths to hide her from
our society? Her being a hybrid is controversial, but not enough to
elicit such measures, is it?”

While Jenna was silently wondering what the
hell a Pack Master was, her thoughts were cut short when everyone
in the room turned to stare at her. Not exactly the kind of
attention she was comfortable with.

Her Uncle’s exasperated voice asked, “How
much do they know Jenna?”

“Not everything.”

“Are Adam, Amy and Clay the only ones that
know of your existence? Or is there anyone else I need to know
about?” Her Uncle’s cold calculating tone returned.

“My partner Kent knows too, thanks to Adam
being so nosey. And you should probably know that he’s a
demon.”

A litany of curses sounded from Uncle Owen.
“Is he a threat, Jenna?”

“Absolutely not! He saved my ass last night.
If it weren’t for Kent, I’d have a hell of a lot more than just
these grazes. You leave him alone. Besides, Adam seems to know him
so he can’t be all that awful, right?”

Uncle Owen looked to Adam, who nodded his
agreement. “Kent’s alright, Pack Master.”

Rubbing his hands down his legs, Uncle Owen
shifted forward in his chair so that his elbows were braced on his
knees. Looking around to analyze all the occupants of the room he
reached some inner decision before finally speaking again, “What we
discuss next does not leave the confines of this group. Anyone who
violates that will be subject to punishment by me.” Looking back to
her with his face filled with worry, Uncle Owen kept going,
“Jenna’s one of a kind. She’s not a wolf shifter-human hybrid. Her
mother is a demon. So Jenna is the first of any shifter kind that
we know of to have successfully merged with demon genetics and
live.”

The room became eerily silent as Adam and Amy
watched her, both with shell shocked awe. Clay’s mutter of ‘holy
shit’ long moments later clued Uncle Owen that he could continue.
“That is why Jenna was hidden from everyone. Her father and I
didn’t want to take a chance with those who would murder her for
what she was. I kept limited contact while I could, but after Jenna
and Logan’s father was killed during the pack wars and I took over
as Pack Master, the risk was too high to continue to do so. That’s
why you haven’t heard from me in so long, Jenna. It was necessary
for your own safety.”

A sense of sorrow settled into the pit of her
stomach. Then the overwhelming surge of anger that had been
festering only moments before was washed away by the onslaught of
emotions Jenna now felt for a man she had never known. Her father
was dead. Should she hurt for him? He’d never seen her a day in her
life. Yet part of her felt mortally wounded by the knowledge that
she would never know him. Never know whether part of him cared or
wondered about her at all.

Logan stared back at her with affection in
his eyes. Before she realized her mouth had opened, she heard
herself say, “Did he look like us? Our Dad?”

Logan smiled. “You look a lot like him. I’ve
got pictures I can show you later, but I’ve always been told I’m a
younger version of him. If it weren’t for your freaky blue eyes,
I’d say you look just like him too.”

Cocking an eyebrow, I responded, “Freaky blue
eyes?”

Logan’s smile widened until it resembled the
Cheshire Cat. “Yeah, freaky. They look like a serial killer’s eyes.
Got any bodies in your closet you need us to bury?”

“The closet is empty right now, but if you’d
like me to fill it up we could start with your body.”

Everyone in the room snickered, but Uncle
Owen only sighed. “Seriously, children. You’ve known each other for
less than ten minutes and you’re already starting the bickering
siblings crap?”

Logan shrugged. “Just wanted to make her feel
like family, Uncle Owen. No reason to pretend to be anything but
what we are.” He rubbed his hands together in glee, “How soon can
we take her home? I’d like to see how she pans out against a few
people I have in mind.”

Owen dropped his head to the back of his
chair in apparent despair. “Logan, you cannot use your sister as
your personal guard dog against your ex-girlfriends. Frankly, you
deserve every clingy and obnoxious moment. Might teach you a lesson
about where you dip your wick, so to speak.”