“Your father called.” Lilly was continually shooting the closest vampires with balls of magic. Jacque had tried to use her power again, but the battle with Alston had completely depleted her. “The vampires are taking dormants again, Jacque. Only it’s even worse this time.” A vamp made it within arm’s length of Jacque, and she whipped around, bringing her short sword across, slicing the bloodsucker across the throat. Then she brought the weapon back around and down, stabbing it in his chest. “He said every vampire left alive could eventually be one that kidnaps a dormant. That is unacceptable.”

  “But our people are in there.” Jacque pointed at the mountain. “My mate is in there.”

  Lilly glanced at her, and the fear Jacque saw in her mother’s eyes terrified her. “I know.”

  “Do you know anything else?” Jacque hoped her mom had seen something.

  After several seconds, she finally answered. “I haven’t seen the death of anyone here.”

  Jacque swallowed hard. “But you saw someone else’s death? Someone not here?”

  Lilly shook her head as a tear rolled down her face. “I didn’t know, Jacque. And even if I had known, I wouldn’t have told you. It wouldn’t have done any good. And it wouldn’t have changed the outcome.”

  Jacque wanted to rage at her mother. She wanted to tell Lilly that she couldn’t know if her action would have made a difference. But that wouldn’t be true. It would only be her pain, causing her to lash out in anger.

  “Move back.” Thadrick’s voice boomed as he motioned to their group.

  Jacque backpedaled, her eyes staying on the mountain. It was shaking so hard that vampires were falling off the highest peaks.

  “Myron.” Thadrick spoke to the other djinn. “Focus on any vampires that manage to escape the collapse.”

  Jacque stumbled as the quaking ground shook even more violently. Andora, the sprite queen, shot balls of light, one after another, at the scurrying vampires. Each time one was hit, the vampire burst into flames. Boain and Lorna fought fiercely, their combined movements so smooth they looked choreographed.

  Huge crevices formed in the ground all around the alpha. To the left and right of her, vampires fell screaming into the earth. Jacque watched, and it looked as if several of those fallen bloodsuckers had been pushed into the chasms. She turned her head and saw Nissa with her hands extended, focusing on the vamps. The fae was using her magic to send the vampires into the fissures.

  Jacque’s head snapped back to the mountain. She stood transfixed, watching in horror as it imploded on itself. Jacque heard screaming and then realized the sound was coming from her own throat. Her heart beat so hard in her chest it felt like it might explode. Then her feet were moving of their own accord. For some damn reason, she ran toward the falling land mass as if she could somehow stop its collapse. Jacque pumped her arms hard and called on her wolf to move them faster than she’d ever run before. She couldn’t let this happen. She didn’t care about the freaking vampires. There had to be another way. Her mate was inside there somewhere. Her pack members and friends were going to be crushed. At any moment, the falling rock would crush Fane, and her life would end as well.

  “What are you doing, you crazy ass alpha?” Crina appeared beside Jacque as she ran.

  Jacque shook her head. She felt tears running down her face. “I don’t know. But standing there and watching our family be buried beneath thousands of pounds of rock and dirt wasn’t working for me.

  Suddenly, she slammed into an invisible barrier. She and Crina were thrown backward, and they landed on their butts. Jacque, momentarily stunned, looked around, trying to figure out what had just happened.

  Her head turned frantically to find the source of the barrier. Then she saw them. Fae stones. But they were no longer the small rocks she’d known. Now the stones were as big as boulders, at least ten times their normal size. She saw three of the boulders circling the mountain, floating in the air. She assumed the other two must have been on the other side of the mountain, forming a complete circle.

  Light burst forth from the stones. Each ray reflected the color of the stone projecting it. Red for fire, blue for water, green for earth, iridescent shimmering white that almost looked like clouds for air, and a gold that represented the moon stone. Beams moved up and down her and the others like some kind of infrared scanner. She heard screams and looked down to see that when the light from the stones hit a vampire, the monsters went up in flames, just like they had with Andora’s power. But the stones were killing dozens at one time, instead of just one. The powerful magic of the stones reached all the way to the top of the mountain, which was now only half as tall as it had been. More and more vampires burned to ash.

  “Myron,” Andora yelled, “open the mountain. The stones need to get to the vampires inside.”

  “You know what that could do,” he said. “Miles and miles of forest, Andora.”

  “I don’t give a damn. Thadrick is inside. He and Clarion will protect our people. That’s all that matters right now.”

  Yes! Jacque wanted to shout. That was what she needed to hear. “Do it!” she yelled at the djinn. She didn’t know how or when Thadrick had gotten inside the mountain, but she imagined Gwen must have had something to do with that.

  Myron knelt to the ground and placed his hands on it, his fingers sinking into the soil, and then his chanting began again. If Jacque thought the earth had been trembling before, it was nothing compared to the way it was quaking now. Had she been standing, the alpha would have fallen like a sack of hammers, which is what everyone around her did, friend and foe alike.

  Jacque looked back at the mountain, and her mouth dropped open when she saw it erupt like a geyser. Bodies flew into the air, and she assumed they must have been vampires because when the beams of light hit them, the creatures burst into ash in midair. Rocks, trees, and dirt exploded around her. Then a shock wave blew outward from the mountain, sending Jacque and Crina tumbling backward like a couple of rag dolls. She fought to flip onto her stomach and lay flat. She crawled on her belly like a worm toward the destruction, the roiling ground bucking beneath her. Jacque prayed she would see Fane once the mountain was open. “Mother of pearl,” she whispered as she watched trees flattened to the ground as far as her eyes could see. They weren’t just toppled. They looked as if a giant hand had pressed them flat, like a leaf placed between the pages of a book.

  “Let’s hope there wasn’t anyone out in the wilderness camping or backpacking or doing any of the other crazy stuff you humans do.” Crina shrugged. “Because if so, they just got more than they bargained for.”

  Slowly, the rumbling ground came to a halt.

  “WADIM!” Zara’s voice broke their shocked attention, and Jacque saw the she-wolf running toward the demolished mountain. No invisible boundary blocked her way.

  Jacque jumped to her feet and saw Crina do the same. They took off, following Wadim’s mate. As Jacque looked at the flattened earth, she saw a group of people standing in the middle of it, unharmed.

  “FANE.” she yelled through their bond because she didn’t know if any words would make it out of her mouth.

  It felt like forever, but she finally reached her mate, slamming into him at a dead sprint. He pulled her into his arms without even taking a step back. Fane squeezed so tightly it hurt. And Jacque didn’t care. He was alive—they were alive.

  “Luna,” he said against her ear, burying his face in her neck and taking deep breaths.

  “What the hell happened?” She rubbed her face into his chest, pressing closer, but it wasn’t close enough. It would never be close enough.

  “I had to make a decision.” His voice sounded strained, even in her mind. “The vampires had to die, regardless of the consequences. They had to die, Jacquelyn. What Cain is doing, how he’s using them, is abhorrent.”

  She heard her father’s voice in his mind and realized Fane was showing her a memory—her dad explaining to Fane what he’d found when he’d gone hunting. She could feel his turmoil, how he’d felt completely at odds with making the hard decisions that leaders often found themselves faced with, and the desire to protect those he loved at the cost of other innocent lives.

  “I get it.” She hoped he would hear the sincerity in her voice and feel it through her emotions as she pushed her love through the bond. “No matter how it pains me, I will always support you. As long as it is for the good of others, I will always have your back.”

  Jacque felt his body shudder and wetness on her neck. Fane buried his face deeper against her and cried. She felt the fear he kept suppressed while issuing commands he knew could take the lives of everyone inside the mountain, which would also take out any true mates who weren’t even there. His anguish at possibly never seeing their son again robbed her of her breath. She ran a hand up his back until it was wrapped around the nape of his neck, squeezing tightly, letting him know she was there. His tears didn’t make him weak, not in her eyes, and she knew they wouldn’t make him weak in the eyes of their pack. Her mate’s tears were evidence of the heart that beat inside of him for every single member he called his own. He cried for the others that could have been killed. He cried for the children who would have lost their parents and for pack members that would have been left without a leader to give them strength to endure. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks. “My father endured these kinds of decisions for centuries,” he said. “He bore this weight, and he did it with dignity, humility, and in service to his pack. I had no clue.”

  “And you’re doing the same. Maybe you don’t see it while in the midst, but you, my amazing mate, are doing the same.”

  “Where is she?” Decebel’s voice boomed around them, and Jacque’s stomach dropped.

  Fane pulled back, and his eyes widened when he saw her thoughts and memories of what had happened when they were apart. “Alston’s dead?”

  She nodded her head.

  He cupped her face and leaned closer. “Like you said to me, beloved, I will always support you. You did what needed to be done. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to protect you or take that burden from you.”

  Jacque shook her head. “We were both where we were supposed to be. Even if it sucks, sometimes the right thing isn’t what we want, but that doesn’t make it any less the right thing.” She took a deep breath. “Decebel needs us.”

  Fane nodded and pressed his lips to hers, lingering only a few seconds before turning to face Decebel.

  Their beta turned his eyes on Jacque, and they glowed a bright amber. “She won’t answer me.” Jacque knew he was trying to contact Jen through their mental bond.

  “She needs you,” Jacque said. “No matter what you’re feeling through the bond. She needs you. Now.”

  Peri, with Lucian at her side, stepped up beside Jen’s mate. “Where is she?”

  “Sally and I convinced her to go to the healing room with the healer sprites. Cindy and Sally are with her.”

  As soon as the words were out of Jacque’s mouth, Peri flashed with the two males.

  Fane looked around them. “Everyone okay?”

  There were rumbles of ”Yes” and “We’re good,” then “Still breathing” from Adam.

  “I’m sorry about the damage.” Myron stepped forward. “I tried to minimize it.”

  “How was the spell broken? Crina showed me”—Adam tapped his head—“that Alston was dead. But the spell was still in place.”

  “The stones.” Nissa spoke up.

  All their heads turned upward, but the fae stones had vanished.

  “They show up when they’re needed most,” Jacque whispered, remembering the time Peri had first told them about the mysterious stones.

  “There is much to discuss.” Fane’s voice grew stronger, and he pulled his shoulders back. “We must regroup. We need to—” He glanced down at Jacque, and she saw sorrow in his eyes. “We need to support a pack member who is pain. And we need to take a moment to thank the Great Luna that we won this battle.”

  “Let me guess,” Elle said. Sorin wrapped an arm around her waist. “A bigger battle is coming?”

  “Duh.” Adam piped up. Crina elbowed him, but he kept going. “Where is the excitement if the next battle is smaller each time we win?”

  Jacque shook her head. “Have I mentioned that I think we need to hire a permanent pack therapist?”

  Fane squeezed her hand, and she felt his humor through their bond.

  “There aren’t any vampires left alive, at least not here,” Thadrick said. “So no bodies to clean up. Although I’m curious to see how the humans will spin this natural phenomenon.”

  Elle nodded. “It will be interesting.”

  “If nothing else,” Fane said, “it will send a message to the humans who are assisting Cain.”

  “What?” several voices said at once.

  “That’s part of the whole ‘things we need to discuss’ issue,” Fane said. “Right now, I need to follow my father’s example and take a moment to breathe. I’ll send out some of the other packs to hunt vampires, and we will join them after we’ve had a little time to focus on restoring our strength, loving on our children, and giving thanks to the Great Luna that Alston is dead.”

  “Hell yeah!” Adam whooped. “Props to our little ambassador group and our badass alpha.” He gave Jacque a thumbs-up. “I want to be you when I grow up.”

  Jacque smiled. “I don’t think there’s any chance of that, Adam. You won’t ever grow up.”

  He shrugged and pulled his mate to him. “You’re not wrong.”

  “Let’s go home,” Fane announced. “Though it’s not Romania, for now, home is where our pack is.”

  Chapter 15

  “Grief is not a systematic process. Everyone handles it differently. It looks and feels unique to the person experiencing it. And words offered to such a person can sometimes help them through that experience … or they can push the person over the edge of sanity that they were clinging to.” ~Jen

  Decebel stared down at his sleeping mate. She looked so small and vulnerable, wrapped up in a blanket lying on the bed. He sat next to her in the sprite healing room. When Peri had flashed him into the room, Sally and Cindy tended to her, but they quickly backed away upon his arrival. Now there was nothing but Jennifer. One of two females that held his heart and devotion without question. How many times had he been here? Looking at his female after she’d been through hell, and he hadn’t been there to hold her through it.

  Decebel’s wolf writhed inside of him, desperate to touch their mate. He pulled his shirt off, tossed it to the floor, and walked over to her. He saw the figure of someone on the opposite side of the bed and snarled.

  “Peace, wolf,” Peri said softly but firmly. “I understand what you need. I’m simply helping.” Her hand settled on his mate’s head. A second later, Decebel could see Jennifer’s shoulder where a shirt had been covering it before.

  “Skin on skin,” his wolf rumbled.

  The high fae would know that Decebel’s wolf needed to touch as much of Jennifer as possible—not sexually, though. That was the furthest thing from his mind. He needed her scent against him and his scent on her. He needed the warmth of her body, reminding him she was alive, despite the anguish she’d endured. She was alive.

  The high fae pulled back the covers, holding them high enough that they kept his female from being seen by anyone that might be in the room. Decebel climbed in beside her and tucked her small body tightly against him, her face pressed to his chest and his arms enveloping her, wishing he could fix the problem.

  “I’m here, baby,” he whispered against her hair as he pressed his cheek to her head. “For however long you need this, I’m with you.” He breathed in her familiar scent and closed his eyes, soaking up her warmth like a dried sponge absorbing water. Decebel could feel her emotions. He could see her chaotic thoughts, though she wouldn’t communicate with him. In her sleep, her walls were down, and she was open to him.

  Suddenly, a hand was on his head. “Don’t go there. Not right now,” Sally’s voice whispered. He hadn’t realized he’d been growling, and his body shaking, until the healer’s peace flowed into him, calming his enraged wolf. “Sleep now, Beta. As I did with Jen, I will make it so you won’t dream. Just be with her, rest with her. That’s what she needs. I will take care of Thia. You know she is loved and safe with our pack.”

  Decebel didn’t fight Sally’s magic. He knew if he continued to allow himself to see what had happened in that clearing with Alston, he wouldn’t be able to control his wolf. So for now, he would do as the gypsy healer of their pack commanded because he knew she was right. He let himself slip into the sleep that called to him.

  “It’s been three days, Peri.” Jacque rested her elbow on the arm across her chest and chewed on her nails. She wasn’t a nail biter, usually, but the past three days had turned her into one. She stared at the couple lying in the bed, and her heart bled for them. All the muscles in Jacque’s body ached from the tension of waiting and watching.

  “I’m making sure they are okay. Even without food and water, I am keeping their bodies strong.” Peri pressed her hand to Jen’s cheek and then to Decebel’s. She did this every four hours.

  Three healer sprites moved around the room, Cindy being one of them. To Jacque’s surprise, one sprite was a male. She’d seen male sprites around, but not as part of the group in direct service to Andora. Despite Jacque’s curiosity about that weird fact, her worry for her best friend was too great for her to think much about anything else.

  “Should we wake them?” the alpha asked. “Sally put them to sleep, so she can wake them back up, right?” Jacque understood the pain Jen would feel when she returned to the waking world would be almost unbearable, but her friend couldn’t heal if she didn’t face that pain. And Jacque knew Jen would do just that. Though she might stumble, the snarky woman would meet the challenge head-on. And she might even fall at some point, but Jen would push back to her feet. She wouldn’t let this tragedy defeat her; she couldn’t. Jen couldn’t be defeated because Jacque’s life wouldn’t be the same if she lost Jen. And Jacque knew a person didn’t have to die to be lost.