Jen slowly turned her head to look at him. “Is it just me,” she asked, “or are there four carcasses in Jacque’s backyard? And if so, is this Lucas’s way of threatening her?”

  Fane stepped away from Jacquelyn and went over to inspect the four animals. He noticed right away there were no bullet wounds or arrow piercings. There were, however, tears in the animals’ jugulars. These four had been killed by wolves, they were all clean kills, and there was no damage to the rest of their bodies. He also noted they were laid out in order of size, smallest to largest. The first was a rabbit, next a fox, then a small doe, and last a large buck deer. Fane let out a low growl. Jacquelyn walked up to him and placed her hand on his arm, and it was enough to calm him.

  “This is no threat. It is an offering and a demonstration,” he answered.

  “Offering for what and to demonstrate what exactly?” Sally asked.

  “Lucas is offering Jacquelyn kills from his hunt, a peace offering of sorts. He is also demonstrating his ability to provide for her and the pack. He wants her to know he can take care of her should she become his mate. It is a wolf thing, so to speak,” Fane explained.

  “Okay, first of all, EWW!” Jacquelyn started. “Second, why in Sam Hill would I want four carcasses laying in my backyard, and three, what the hell am I supposed to do with them?”

  “I’m thinking bonfire,” Jen said.

  “Uh-uh, nope, that would stink,” Sally retorted.

  Fane pulled out his phone and dialed Sorin’s number. Sorin picked up on the first ring.

  “Da,” Sorin said.

  “Am ceva ce am nevoie să faci. I have something I need you to do,” Fane told him.

  A few moments later, Fane put his phone back in his pocket. He had explained to Sorin that he wanted him to take the four animals over to the car dealership where he had purchased his motorcycle and put them out front. After a brief silence, Fane pulled his phone out of his pocket again and dialed another number.

  “Da?” Fane heard, as his Alpha answered the phone.

  “Unde eşti tu? Where are you?” Fane asked him.

  “Your mother and I have just landed in Newark and are boarding the plane for Houston. It’s a little less than four hours from here to there. How far is Coldspring from Houston?” his father asked.

  “A little less than an hour,” Fane answered.

  “We should arrive at Jacquelyn’s between 1:30 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. What has happened?” Fane’s father asked with concern lacing his tone.

  “The Alpha, Lucas Steele, broke the challenge rules by harming Jacquelyn. Sorin stopped me from killing him, and now he has left four dead animals in Jacquelyn’s yard.”

  Fane heard his father growl. “How did he harm your mate?”

  “I wasn’t there to protect her.” Fane tried to swallow down the shame he was feeling. “He saw the markings on Jacquelyn’s back and neck, got angry, and grabbed her arms hard enough to leave bruises. Îmi pare rău că te-am părăsit, tată. I am sorry I failed you, father.

  “Tăcere, Silence. You have not failed me, son. You had no choice but to honor the rules of the challenge. You don’t have time to sulk over what happened. Do you hear me?”

  Fane took a deep breath. He knew this is what he needed to hear, and he was thankful that he had decided to call his father.

  “I hear you, Alpha,” Fane answered.

  “You have a fight to prepare for and a mate to protect. What happened is past. Take the anger you have over this and use it to fuel you during the challenge, but do not dwell on it.”

  “Thank you, Tată, father. I will see you soon.”

  Fane took Jacquelyn’s hand and led her toward the house. “Ladies, I don’t think our furry friends need an audience any longer,” he told them as he held the back door open for them.

  Without saying anything to each other, and without any conscious choice, they all went and sat in the living room. Jen and Sally each took an end of the couch while Jacquelyn and Fane sat on the loveseat. Fane was absently tracing the markings on Jacquelyn’s neck when Sally finally broke the silence.

  “What now?” She asked Fane.

  Fane was staring at Jacquelyn and had to make himself pull his gaze away to look at Sally.

  “My father and mother will be here around 1:30 or 2:00 a.m. Tomorrow he will call Lucas to make him aware of his arrival, and then they will set the time and place for the challenge,” Fane explained.

  “Are you nervous?” Jen asked him.

  Fane felt Jacquelyn tense at the question.

  “Inima mea, va rog sa nu faceti griji,” Fane thought to her.

  “I have no idea what you just said, but I have a feeling you are telling me to chill out. Am I right?” she asked him.

  “I didn’t exactly put it like that. What I said was, my heart, please do not worry.”

  Turning to look at Fane, Jacquelyn said, “How can you tell me that? You are going to fight another wolf to the death, and you tell me not to worry. Yeah, I’ll get right on that.”

  “Jacquelyn, I am not without defenses. I am from a strong bloodline, I am a dominant, and I stand to be Alpha to the largest pack of Greys in the world. All of these things make me stronger, and I have found my mate. Please, love, I don’t want you to be upset,” Fane implored her.

  Jacquelyn didn’t say anything. She just stood with her back to Fane, head down, looking utterly defeated, and the pain coming from his mate broke Fane’s heart.

  “I think a hot bath is in order. What do you think, Sal? Hot bath for the wolf princess?” Jen asked Sally with a look that said get up off your butt.

  Sally was a quick study. “Yep, most definitely. A hot bath is just what the doctor ordered … or something like that.”

  Fane watched helplessly as the two girls took his defeated and worried mate upstairs, away from him. His wolf was protesting, and so was the man. We should be the one comforting her. She is ours to protect and love. Fane began to step toward them but stopped abruptly when Jen pierced him with a stare and gave a short nod of her head that was most definitely a command for him to back off. He couldn’t help the growl he let out.

  “Don’t you growl at me, White Fang. I’ll have you neutered and declawed so fast you won’t know what hit you,” Jen retorted.

  Fane cocked his head to the side, looking at her, and then shrugged his shoulders. “At least you got the species right.”

  Fane let the girls go without further protest and sat back down on the loveseat. He let out a deep breath and laid his head back. He was tired and, to his chagrin, he was worried. Not worried about winning the challenge. He felt confident he could beat Lucas so he wasn’t worried about that. He was worried about Jacquelyn wanting to watch. The fight was going to be violent and messy. Fane could only imagine how scary it would be for her. He was learning when his Luna was angry, she tended to be impulsive in her reactions. His only consolation was that his mother would be there to keep Jacquelyn from doing anything that would put her in harm’s way. The thought of something happening to her caused him to be short of breath like he was having a panic attack. Okay, Fane, get a grip.

  After several deep breaths, he started to calm down. He closed his eyes and tried very hard not to slip into Jacquelyn’s mind to see if she was okay. It took all the manners his mother had beat into him not to listen to her thoughts. Instead, he laid there humming a tune from one of his favorite artists. Believe it or not, Fane, a Romanian, was a country music fan. Who knew? It was a song he wanted to share with Jacquelyn because it described so well how he felt. Soon, but not tonight. Tonight, she didn’t want to be with him, but soon.

  OceanofPDF.com

  Chapter

  Thirteen

  Jacque lay in the tub her two best friends had filled with hot water and bubble bath. She felt bad for walking out on Fane, but she was hurting, scared, and anxious. No amount of him telling her she shouldn’t worry was going to make it better. Tears ran down her cheeks as she imagined all the horrific possibilities of what could happen at the challenge. He expects me not to worry—as if.

  She stayed in the tub until the water cooled. As she got dressed and combed through her curls, Jacque pondered whether she should go to Fane or just go to bed. If she were honest with herself, she would do what every bit of her was craving to do: crawl up in his lap and let him hold her and spend as much time with him as possible. It truly was a no-brainer. As much as she loved Jen and Sally, a hot Romanian prince and, as fate would have it, her soul mate was waiting for her. She knew what Jen would say, something along the lines of “If you don’t go to him, you better believe I will.” Yep, mm-mm that’s what she would say. Okay, decision made. She winked at herself in the mirror as she turned to leave the bathroom.

  Before she went down to Fane, Jacque stuck her head in the door of her bedroom to thank Sally and Jen and let them know she would be downstairs. But before she could even open her mouth to speak, they were already answering her unspoken thoughts.

  “You’re welcome, we love you, you love us, we’re the best friends ever, and all that sap,” Jen said without looking up from the magazine she was flipping through.

  “Yes, we’re okay if you go down to Fane, no it won’t hurt our feelings, and we all know if you don’t, then Jen will,” Sally said with a wink.

  “True dat,” Jen threw in for good measure.

  “Okay, you two are the best friends ever. I mean that. I’ll be back in a little while,” Jacque started.

  “Don’t hurry on our account. You know we will want details, and if you come back up here with nothing juicy, I might just throw you out the window. Any questions?” Jen said without looking up.

  “You haven’t looked into that medicine we’ve talked about, have you?” Sally asked her sarcastically.

  “Details, okay, got it,” Jacque said as she turned to go.

  Just as she started to head down the stairs, she heard Jen yell, “Don’t think I won’t know if you’re lying. I know how many bases you’ve been on, you redheaded puritan. I will be able to tell fact from fiction.”

  “Oh, shut up already,” Sally scolded.

  Jacque laughed and shook her head. Jen was just trying to lighten the mood. Jen knew how hotheaded Jacque could be, and if she went to Fane already upset it would be hard for her to calm down and be reasonable. Reasonability wasn’t one of her stronger attributes, much to her frustration.

  As she walked into the living room, she saw Fane sitting on the loveseat. His arms were stretched out on the back of the seat on either side, and his head was resting backward. His eyes were closed and, because his breathing was so slow and even, it was hard to tell if he was awake.

  “I like the smell of your shampoo,” Fane said suddenly.

  Startled by his unexpected words, Jacque tried, without success, to suppress the squeak that escaped. Fane had not moved, nor had he opened his eyes. He just continued to sit there calm and collected. Jacque rolled her eyes and went around to the couch.

  Fane slowly raised his head and pinned Jacque with those piercing blue eyes, her heartbeat sped, and her breathing got a tad bit shallower. She had to look away from him before she made a fool of herself by drooling. “Yeah, that would be so cute,” Jacque snorted to herself.

  “Does being near me repulse you, Luna?” Fane asked her

  Jacque knew she must look confused, because, frankly, she was. How could he possibly think he repulsed her? If anything, he should be the one repulsed.

  “Why would you ask me that?” she asked him.

  “I know no other reason why my mate would choose to sit away from me instead of by my side,” Fane told her, sounding so formal and old fashioned.

  “Throw me a bone, Fane,” Jacque said in obvious exasperation. “Did it occur to you that maybe I just needed some space because it’s hard for me to think when I get close to you?”

  Fane grinned, obviously pleased with her comment, then stood up slowly, rising to his full height so Jacque had to tilt her head back to look up at him. He walked around the coffee table separating the two couches and sat down close to her.

  “Are you having a hard time thinking now?” he asked her softly.

  With a shuddering breath, all Jacque could do was nod her head.

  “Why did you come back down here, meu inimă, my heart? I didn’t think you wanted to be around me,” Fane told her.

  Jacque tried to scoot a little bit away from him, but it was in vain because he just scooted with her. Dang stubborn werewolf.

  “At first I didn’t want to be around you.” His head lowered at her words, so Jacque quickly went on. “I didn’t want to be around you because I didn’t want to hear you tell me not to worry or that it is going to be okay. Then I realized none of that really matters. What matters is being with you, spending time with you. I hate it when we are apart. I’m sorry if that sounds so desperate, but it’s the truth.”

  Fane wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him.

  “Thank you, Jacquelyn. You have no idea how hard it was to sit here on this couch and not come to you, and even harder not to seek out your thoughts. I love you. I’m sorry if my words upset you. I’m here if you want to worry, not worry, or anything else.”

  Jacque closed her eyes, soaking up the feel of him against her, the safety she felt with his arms around her, and the warmth pouring through her from his words. She didn’t know how she had been blessed to be Fane’s mate, but she was thankful beyond words.

  “As am I.” She heard Fane’s thoughts in response to her own, and it made Jacque grin.

  They sat there in silence for quite a while. Every now and then Jacque would hear Fane humming a tune she couldn’t place. Eventually, Jacque curled her feet up on the couch and leaned her head down onto Fane’s chest. Fane grabbed the blanket thrown across the back of the couch and covered her.

  “This is how I want to spend my nights for the rest of my life,” Jacque told Fane.

  “I guess that’s a good thing since I intend to keep you for the rest of your life,” Fane said, only half teasing.

  “It’s late, love. Why don’t you go to bed? I don’t want you to be tired tomorrow.”

  Jacque looked up at him and kissed him gently on the lips.

  “I don’t want to sleep in my bed tonight,” she told him.

  “Just where were you planning on sleeping, Luna?” he asked her.

  “Well, this is a wide couch. I imagine two people of reasonable size could sleep on it together,” she said, trying to suppress a grin.

  “What do you think the mom of one of the reasonably sized persons would say when she found her with another reasonably sized person of the opposite sex laying on a couch together?”

  “Don’t know. Want to find out?”

  Fane laughed at her silliness and, much to her surprise, he shrugged his shoulders and said, “Only live once. If I’m going to die, I would rather die lying in the arms of the woman I love, even if it is by said woman’s mother.”

  Fane kicked off his shoes and stretched out his long body on the couch. Jacque laid next to him. Fane put his arm over her waist and pulled her close against his chest. Jacque giggled when she heard him make a purring sound.

  “What are you laughing at?” he asked her.

  “Did you just purr? ’Cause I didn’t think wolves purred.”

  “I didn’t purr. I rumbled,” Fane said with as much dignity as he could muster.

  “You rumbled? Seriously? Pray tell, what does that mean?” Jacque asked him, trying hard not to laugh.

  “When wolves are content, they often make a rumbling sound that comes from their chest. I guess you could say it’s equivalent to a cat’s purr,” he explained.

  “It’s cute,” Jacque said.

  Fane began humming again and periodically kissing Jacque’s hair. The last thought Jacque had before falling asleep was that she didn’t have any details Jen would think were good, and that made her smile.

  Fane didn’t want to sleep for fear of missing a moment of Jacquelyn in his arms. He figured it wouldn’t last much longer because once her mom got home, she would probably make Fane sleep on the porch. Still, he would sleep in an igloo if it meant he could spend this night holding his mate, his Luna. He took a deep breath, taking in her smell—cotton candy and snow—and pulled her even tighter against him. Mine. Fane’s wolf was restless to complete the bonding and the Blood Rites. First, we must fight—for her, for the future of our pack. We must fight.

  He hadn’t realized he had fallen asleep until he felt something nudging his arm and a voice telling him to wake up. Fane opened his eyes, blinking several times to clear his vision. He looked down at Jacquelyn and saw she was still asleep. She must have been really tired to sleep through three Romanians speaking ninety to nothing in their native tongue. With that thought, he realized his mother and father were here conversing with Sorin.

  “Shhh,” Fane told them, pointing at Jacquelyn. “She needs to sleep. Can we take this to the dining room, please?”

  Fane slowly crawled over Jacquelyn, trying not to jostle her too much. Once up, he straightened the blanket covering her and leaned down to kiss her forehead.

  “Sorin, did Lilly come home with you?” Fane asked his guard.

  “Yes, she went straight to her room when we got home. Although, as she walked through the living room past a certain couch where two bodies lay, she did mumble something about a stinking, grubby-pawed werewolf. It was difficult to hear her, and there might have been an expletive or two.” Sorin was obviously taking great pleasure in sharing this information, especially in front of Fane’s parents.

  Fane chose not to take the bait but turned to his father instead. “You brought some of the pack with you?” Fane had just realized he could smell other Greys in the house. He tensed at this and suddenly wanted to be back in the living room with Jacquelyn. Although she was his mate, they weren’t bonded, and an un-bonded mated male Canis lupus was the most dangerous kind. As if on cue, he heard a slapping sound then Jacquelyn yelling, “Get your nose out of my face, you trespassing hairball!”