His Secret Second

(Jenna POV)I am standing in the middle of the woods… alone… staring into the dark night sky.Heavy rain pounds down all around me, while thunder roars and lightning flashes across the sky. I am wearing a rain jacket, but it is only barely doing its job. My hair is wet, and I am drenched from head to toe.With just a few words and a few steps forward, I will be free of the Blue River Mountain Pack …and the prison that I have been living in for the past two years.“It’s time, Jenna,” my wolf, Willow, says in our link. “It’s now or never.”I don’t say anything. Instead, I continue to stare across the border, at the black SUV waiting for me on the other side.“The border guards will be here any minute, Jenna. Hurry up and say the words.”At the reminder of the urgency of the situation, the knots in my stomach twist tightly. I take a deep breath.“We have to go,” my wolf pleads.I frown.My wolf is right; we need to leave. But knowing that …believing that… does not make the choice

(Jenna POV)The day that Mr. McMahon returned, I began our meeting by going over the retainer agreement with him.“What the f&&k is this?” he asked as he looked over the contract terms.I leaned back in my chair and smiled.“Which part bothers you? I believe it is all pretty standard.”“$650 per hour? That is highway robbery!”“Is it?” I asked with fake sweetness.“Gary said that your standard rate is $450 per hour.”“You are not the standard client.”“That doesn’t mean you get to screw me over,” he complained. Then, as though an evil lightbulb went off in his head, he added, “Unless what you are really looking for is a good screw. In which case ---”I held up my hand. “Before you go any further, you might want to read paragraph 7.2.”“Each sexual comment or innuendo Client directs towards Lawyer that is not directly relevant to case processing shall result in client being fined $1,000,” he read out loud. “What the f&&k???? That isn’t a standard term.”I shrugged my shoulders.“

(Jenna POV)When Mr. McMahon told me about the trouble that his investigators were having with Blue River Mountain Pack, I thought the problem was that Alpha Rivers had something to hide.Now, after three weeks and thirteen missed appointments, I was convinced that the problem was that Alpha Rivers was just in hiding, period.The ladies at the hotel –who thankfully did not know or remember me from high school—told me that most wolves had not seen Alpha Rivers since he welcomed his new bride during her Luna ceremony a few months ago.If I was a romantic, I might have found that kind of sweet. It was not unusual for wolves to go through a honeymoon period after mating, and it sounded like that was what was happening with Alpha Rivers.But I wasn’t a romantic. I knew the other, uglier side of mating. Hell, I had been born as a result of that uglier side.You see, my parents were fated mates. They met when my father was 32 and my mother was 20. Male werewolves typically meet their fa

(Jenna POV)Danny Nichols is my mate.Danny Nichols is my mate.Danny Nichols is my mate.I wasn’t sure whether to be thrilled or horrified. I had crushed on Danny for so many years, never thinking for a moment that we would be mated.And yet we were.I didn’t even know how it was possible. Danny had been mated before. That meant that I was his second-chance mate. But I had never been mated, so he was my first.Usually, the Moon Goddess pairs first mates with first mates, and second chance mates with second chance mates. I didn’t know if that that was an absolute rule, but that is what I had always heard of happening. So how could Danny and I be paired? I mean, I guess it is possible that my first mate died and so I am on my second chance mate without knowing it… but wouldn’t I know that somehow?It was all so confusing.At the same time that all of these thoughts were going through my head, Danny unintentionally brought up one of the biggest problems that we would have: I did

(Danny POV)All it took was one dinner with Jenna Maxwell, and I knew that I was in love.The mate bond helped, yes… but Jenna was different than any other she-wolf that I had ever met.She was intelligent and witty, and her work stories kept me laughing. She also asked really good questions about my background, my family, and my work at the pack.Things were going so well at dinner that I began to worry that Jenna was too good to be true. That is why I brought up Beth, the tabloids, and pups. I thought for sure those topics would throw Jenna off somehow… but they didn’t.By the end of the dinner, I was floating on clouds. Not ready to call it a night, I invited Jenna to take a walk through the forest with me. She agreed, and we walked hand in hand for about ten minutes before I decided to really push my luck.“Can I convince you to come back to the packhouse with me for the night?”Jenna giggled. “Why? So you can mate and mark me?”I looked at her expectantly. She stopped wal