“Cynthia, what’s wrong?” He looked over to see Jacque writhing in pain, her face so contorted it hurt to watch. “Fix her!” Logan yelled at the doctor who was sitting across from Jacque, a syringe of pain medication already in hand.

  “The pain medicine isn’t lasting as long. Sedating her would be the only way to stop the pain,” Cynthia snarled, her lips curling back to show her teeth.

  “NO!” Jacque ground out. The thought of not being able to reach Fane was unbearable; she would rather endure her present torment. “No sedation, please, no.”

  Logan knelt down beside her and tried to take her hand is his, but Jacque jerked away. “Don’t touch me!”

  Logan growled, his eyes narrowed, and his lips drew into a thin line. He turned to Cynthia. “Tomorrow, we will try giving her my blood.”

  “No, no blood,” Jacque moaned as she continued to fight through the hurt.

  “Jacque, the blood will make you better. You don’t know what you are saying.” Logan tried to persuade her.

  Jacque opened her eyes and looked directly at Logan. “Not your blood. Never your blood,” she ground out through her gritted teeth, but loud enough for him to hear.

  Logan snarled at her as her rejection slapped him in the face. He felt a rage come over him and wanted to break something, anything. He grabbed Jacque’s arm and jerked her forward so that her face was inches from his. The hold he had on her felt like at any moment her bones would snap in half.

  “You will take my blood, you will be mine, and there’s nothing that pup can do about it.” His eyes were glowing dangerously as he snarled at her, and although she knew she shouldn’t provoke him more, all sense of survival went out the window.

  “You may have taken me,” her voice was barely a whisper, “but I will never be yours.” As if to punctuate her words, she snarled back and then spit in the wolf’s face. Jacque watched as his canines lengthened, felt his nails turn to claws against her skin. Logan dropped her back to the chair and slapped her so hard she was sure some teeth came loose.

  “LOGAN! What the hell is wrong with you?” Jacque heard Cynthia yell.

  When Logan turned at the sound of her voice, Cynthia saw Logan’s eyes looked wild, his breathing rapid and uncontrolled. He was being consumed by madness. She knew that males who lived too long without mates could go insane, but he seemed to be progressing at an incredible speed. In the four days she and Jacque had been with him, she had noticed his hunched shoulders, as well as the constant furrowed brow and narrowed eyes as his mood grew darker and darker. The only thing that Cynthia could figure was that maybe the idea of having Jacque wasn’t truly doing anything to combat the madness because she wasn’t his true mate. The woman he thinks is the one who will fill that dark abyss is rejecting him, and the precarious dam that had been held in place by the promise of a mate had broken when Jacque had told him she would never be his. It was then that Cynthia realized that Logan would do whatever it took to have Jacque submit to him, even if it meant beating it into her. She lunged for him, trying to grab the hand that was rearing back to hit Jacque again.

  Logan turned at the last minute and his fist connected with Cynthia’s face. She felt her jaw break, and then the lights went out.

  * * *

  Jacque saw Cynthia hit the floor from the force of Logan’s fist. Before she could call out to the doctor, Logan had jerked her up by her hair. Jacque screamed at the sharp pain that burst through her scalp. She squeezed her eyes shut when she felt him lean into her neck and take a deep breath. She wanted to vomit at the idea of him taking in her scent. Her skin crawled at the contact of his against hers.

  Logan sat down on the chair and pulled Jacque onto his lap. He continued to grip her by her hair, holding her in place. She watched in sick fascination as he brought the forearm of his free hand to his mouth and with the canines that had lengthened, bit down. The bite was so deep that his blood ran freely from the wound. Logan turned and looked at her, the blood on his mouth dripped down his chin as he spoke. “You shouldn’t have pushed me, Jacque. It could have been special. It could have been good, but you pushed, so now we do it the hard way.” As soon as Jacque realized his intent, the pain was forgotten and her sole focus was on doing whatever it took to get out of Logan’s grasp. She kicked. She clawed his arms and face, but he was too strong.

  Jacque closed her eyes and continued to struggle. She gagged when she felt his arm against her mouth, the smell of iron hitting her nose just as she felt a warm, sticky substance touch her lips. She struggled harder, but Logan had moved the hand that had been holding her hair to her forehead to hold her head in place. He pushed his arm harder against her mouth, and then she felt him clamp her nose shut. She tried so hard to hold her breath, determined to die from lack of oxygen before she would swallow his blood, but her body betrayed her. Almost as if against her will, her mouth relaxed and she gasped for air. Logan took the opportunity to push his arm farther into her mouth. No matter how hard she struggled, she couldn’t stop the blood she felt flowing from his arm down her throat.

  Jacque’s eyes jerked open when she felt the pressure from her mouth recede as Logan pulled his arm away. The look in his eyes was feral, dangerous. He continued to hold her head in place as he replaced his mouth where his arm had been. Jacque tried to squeeze her lips closed against the slot of his mouth. When that didn’t work, she bit him as hard as she could. Logan jerked back. But instead of the snarl she expected, his lips were curled up into an unnatural smile. “If I had known all it would take to get you to bite me was a kiss, I could have saved myself a lot of trouble, Jacque.”

  His voice was deceptively calm, but Jacque could see the storm that lay just beneath the surface. He started to pull her up, and she closed her eyes, thinking that maybe now he would leave. Her mind ached from fighting to keep Fane from hearing her. Her body hurt from its own abuse as well as Logan’s.

  Logan must have sensed the small amount of relief that came over Jacque as he shifted her back to the chair because he leaned down next to her ear and whispered, “Your turn.” Then he ripped the neck of her shirt. Jacque instinctively turned away, attempting to hide herself, but realized her mistake too late when she heard Logan howl and his claws raked across her back, across her mate’s markings. Jacque screamed as her flesh tore. She felt the warmth of her blood running across her skin. She felt Logan lean down over her and run his tongue across her. Finally, she felt his teeth pierce her skin. Her lips screamed for the one who would save her, but couldn’t.

  * * *

  “FANE!” She screamed as she clawed at the chair, trying to get out from underneath Logan, away from him, away from his mouth. “STOP! Please stop.” She sobbed. And in between her sobs, she could hear him sucking greedily at her flesh and the sound made her so sick that she vomited all over the floor. The smell from her sickness must have pushed through the lust that had permeated Logan’s mind because he finally pulled back. She felt his weight leave her body and heard the sound of his steps getting further away. She looked up at him as he opened the door to the room that had become her own personal hell. Through the tears in her eyes, she saw the blood smeared all over the front of his shirt and on his lips, her blood. Logan looked back at her, “You may have his marks on you, but it’s my blood that is in you.” Jacque pressed her face into the cushion of the chair. She heard the door close, and as the lock clicked in place, she felt something inside her break.

  Her body shook uncontrollably while tears poured from her eyes. She could feel Fane pushing in her mind, trying to get through, but she kept the walls in place. How could she face him when another’s blood was in her, when another’s teeth had pierced her skin? She could feel her stomach clenching, preparing to expel the poison Logan had made her swallow, but nothing would come up. No matter how hard she heaved, nothing would leave her body. She cried until she thought she couldn’t possibly have any tears left. She was wrong.

  “My love, I’m here.”

  The tears began anew at the sound of that voice in her mind, at the feel of the lips she felt press to her forehead through their bond. Shame washed over her as she thought about Logan’s lips on hers and the retching began all over.

  “I’m sorry, Fane. I’m so sorry.”

  Jacque pulled her knees as close to her chest as she could with her leg cuffed to the chair. She tucked her chin into her chest as the blood dried on her back, and the pain continued to pulse through her. She closed her eyes and shut the world out.

  Fane stood in the hotel room looking out over the city of Denver and off into the mountains. The soft murmur of Jen, Sally, and his mother was behind him. It had been two days since they arrived, and still they knew nothing more than they had before. Fane’s father had questioned over half of Dillon’s pack and so far everyone had been truthful; no one knew anything about Logan’s actions or whereabouts. To add to Fane’s frustration, he was having trouble staying in contact with Jacquelyn. She kept blocking her thoughts from him, and at first he figured it was to keep him from knowing how much pain she was in, but now he was beginning to worry that there was more to it than that. He closed his eyes against the thought of the other wolf putting his hands on Jacquelyn. He knew thinking like that wouldn’t help him find her. It would only succeed in causing Fane to want to kill something or someone. Fane reached out through their bond, and as he had been able to all the other times, he felt her but couldn’t hear her thoughts. She was only letting him through enough to know she was alive. Fane didn’t know he was growling until he felt Sally’s hand come down on his shoulder.

  “You okay?” she asked him.

  Fane shook his head in frustration. “Something isn’t right.” Fane stepped away from her touch, not consciously realizing he couldn’t stand the touch of anyone other than his mate. “I can feel her.” He continued to pace the expanse of the room. “But that’s all. Every now and then, she will give me a brief comment, but then she shuts me out.”

  Sally could see the visible signs of Fane’s frustration written across his brow. His eyes narrowed, and he looked out the window as if he could see her if he searched hard enough. She turned to see Jen come stand beside her, arms folded across her chest in an identical pose to Sally’s.

  “What’s up with lover wolf?” Jen asked Sally, and regardless of the words, her tone denoted how much she cared about Fane and Jacque.

  “He says he thinks something is wrong with Jacque, but she won’t tell him,” Sally explained.

  “Of course she isn’t going to tell him. She knows he would go all claws and fangs up on someone if he thought she was being hurt. That’s not to say I’m not royally ticked at her for keeping something from him, because that means she’s keeping it from us as well.”

  Sally’s reply was interrupted by a curt knock on the door, followed by an uninvited Decebel. Jen rolled her eyes and let out a huff of air. “You got the knocking part right, fluffy, but you forgot the part where you are asked to come in. You don’t just knock and then walk in.” Jen turned to Sally, shaking her head. “You would think they at least have some sort of puppy training class or something.”

  “If you aren’t careful, he’s going to be picking Jen-kibble out of his teeth after his next meal,” Sally whispered under her breath while Decebel continued to stare Jen down.

  Jen’s gaze never wavered as she responded to Sally. “And what makes you think I object to being dinner?”

  Sally choked, and Jen slapped her on the back while simultaneously winking at Decebel, finally breaking their standoff.

  “Fane, Dillon has called and says he has two wolves who want to speak with you and your father.” Decebel turned his eyes from Jen.

  Fane’s head snapped around. Decebel immediately dropped his eyes and stepped to the side to leave the doorway open. Fane began to say something as he passed Jen and Sally, but was cut off. “Don’t even say it. We are going with you even if it means we have to hide in the car.” To everyone’s surprise, it was Sally who made this announcement. She grabbed Jen’s hand and tugged her along. Decebel looked to Fane who simply shook his head as if to say, just leave it.

  * * *

  Fifteen minutes later, Fane, Vasile, and Decebel got out of the rented vehicle to go into the Denver pack’s headquarters. Fane looked back at the four remaining in the vehicle: Sally, Jen, Lilly, and Alina. Worry was etched on each of their faces. “We will be back shortly,” was all he said, then he was gone.

  “Have I said yet how much this just sucks?” Jen muttered under her breath.

  Lilly patted her hand. “We are going to find her.”

  “I’m the one who’s supposed to be saying that to you, Ms. P.”

  * * *

  “Vasile, these are the two wolves who wanted to talk with you.” Dillon indicated the two wolves who sat across the table from them in the dining room.

  “Michael, Sean, tell them what you told me, please.”

  Michael and Sean both looked slightly nervous, but only because they were sitting in front of one of the strongest alphas in the world, not because they were guilty of anything.

  “All we know is that Sam said he was getting a flight to Springfield, Missouri a few days ago,” Michael told Vasile.

  “Why would you think that would be important information?” Vasile asked.

  “Well, because Sam is Logan’s best friend, and we heard you were asking if anybody in the pack had helped Logan. If anybody did, it would be Sam.”

  Fane growled low, showing that he was losing his patience. “What does Sam going to Springfield have anything to do with helping Logan?” he growled.

  It was Sean who answered this time. “If Sam was going to Springfield, then that probably means he is going to Ozark.”

  This time it was Decebel who growled. Vasile eyed both of his wolves and then turned back to Michael and Sean. “Please forgive their manners; they are a little stressed at the moment. Please explain the significance of Ozark.”

  “Oh, right. Sorry.” Sean continued, “Sam owns a cabin in Ozark, Missouri, and when he goes there, he usually flies into Springfield.”

  Vasile grabbed Fane’s arm before he could leave, cocking his head to the side, a very wolf-like gesture. “Excuse me for asking, but why would a wolf that lives in Colorado own a cabin in the Ozarks?”

  Michael looked at Dillon for permission to answer. When Dillon nodded, he turned back to Vasile. “Sam’s father is the alpha in Springfield, Missouri. When Sam goes to visit his family, he usually stays at the cabin on the land where the Springfield pack hunts.”

  “This just keeps getting better and better,” Decebel grumbled.

  Fane turned around slowly as Michael finished speaking. He looked at his father and then at Dillon. “So what he’s saying is, my mate has been kidnapped and taken into the territory of an alpha who doesn’t know she is there and placed in the middle of his hunting ground?”

  “Yes?” Michael’s voice was nearly a squeak. He watched Fane’s eye glow brighter and his canines lengthen.

  “Dillon, do you know where this cabin is located?” Vasile asked, his eyes never leaving his son.

  “No, but I will contact Sam’s father. If I tell him what is going on, maybe he will be willing to help.”

  “Or once he figures out his son is involved, he may decide it’s in his best interest to just stay out of it,” Decebel added.

  Dillon nodded his agreement. He pulled out his phone and dialed the Springfield alpha’s number.

  When the interrogation had ended and Fane returned to the car, he slammed the door of the SUV, causing the four women waiting to jump.

  “Things went that good?” Jen muttered under her breath.

  Vasile and Decebel climbed in with less fanfare. Vasile was already on the phone with Sorin as he pulled out of the Denver pack’s driveway.

  “Sorin, get the plane ready. We’re going to Springfield, Missouri.” There was a pause as Vasile listened to Sorin on the other end of the phone.

  “Yes, we’re taking everyone. Get us a hotel. I’m not totally sure about all the details yet so we will need a place to regroup.” Vasile ended the call and looked in the rearview mirror at Lilly, who waited patiently.

  “Logan has been getting help from a pack mate whose father is the alpha in Springfield and has some land with a cabin in Ozark. We think this is where Logan is holding Jacque.”

  “Well, that’s good news, right? So, what’s with the obvious anger?” Sally asked.

  “The alpha is not cooperating. He wouldn’t give us the location of the cabin. All he said was that he wouldn’t let his son know that we knew their general location,” Fane growled out.

  “What the hell?! Vasile, can’t you do anything to this alpha? Give him a good shake by the scruff or something?” Jen asked, her frustration obvious.

  “Did you just say a good shake by the scruff?” Sally asked her dubiously.

  “What? I’m just saying.”

  “If it comes to that, then yes. But I don’t have my whole pack with me, and the Springfield alpha is no weakling,” Vasile answered.

  “Oh, right. Geeze, this SUCKS!” Jen growled out.

  The drive back to the hotel was quiet. The tension was palpable, and the waves of frustration rolling off of Fane were enough to cause motion sickness.

  * * *

  They hadn’t been back in the hotel room for five minutes when Fane collapsed to the floor. He grabbed his head, fighting the stabbing pain. As he squeezed his eyes closed, he realized it was Jacquelyn’s pain he was feeling. Something was seriously wrong. He reached out to her, but she was pushing as hard as she could to keep him out. Fane pushed harder. He got a very brief sense of fear, or terror rather, and then she slammed the walls down even harder.

  “Ahhhh!” Fane yelled.

  “Fane, what’s wrong? Is she okay?” Sally and Jen were both kneeling on either side of Fane, who continued to growl so menacingly that for the first time Sally really was afraid.