“If you don’t stop that line of thinking I’m going to drag you off into the forest and throw my gentlemanly ways to the curb,” Fane growled in her ear.

  Jacque shivered at his words and blushed as she saw his thoughts. She slapped his hands that rested on her stomach. “Behave.”

  “You first,” he parried.

  She turned in his arms and looked up into his handsome face. His skin was lined with worry and fatigue and still, he was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

  “I’m so glad you’re okay,” she whispered to him.

  His eyes softened and he leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips.

  “Because of you,” he murmured them.

  His hands began to slide down her back and just before they reached her butt, she pulled them back up. Her eyes widened in surprise. “Feeling bold?”

  He growled at her. “Mine.”

  “Yes,” she nodded, “but now is not the time.”

  Fane stepped back and grabbed her hand. He began to pull her towards the semi-privacy of the forest. “I can make it the time.” His voice was low and laced with the desire she could feel radiating from him.

  Jacque pulled against his hold and he stopped instinctively at her struggle. He looked back at her as his eye narrowed.

  “Fane, you know I want you. You can feel it just as I can feel it coming from you, but we are in danger and need to get back to the mansion.”

  “Do you have any idea what I have been watching for the past weeks?” His words rang in her mind as he took a slow, measured step towards her, stalking her.

  “I can’t begin to imagine what you have been through, and I know that you need to know I’m okay, that we’re okay.”

  “YOU DON’T KNOW!”

  Jacque flinched at the snarl in her mind and the rage behind his words. She knew he was hurting, knew he felt out of control and for that reason she let the disrespect he had just shown her pass. He loomed over her as his body trembled with pent up hurt, anger, desire, and love for the woman standing before him.

  “I’m the only one who has the right to touch you. I’m the only one who has the privilege of protecting you. I’m the only one who should know you, and I know it wasn’t real, I know it in here,” he beat his hand on his chest over his heart. “But in here,” he tapped his head, “in here I keep seeing someone else’s hands on you. Sometimes forced, and sometimes invited.”

  Jacque gasped as a hand flew to her mouth. She had never considered that he might fear her actually turning to another, cheating on him, allowing another near her. So he hadn’t only watched someone force themselves on her, Fane had watched her invite another to her bed. Her stomach rolled with nausea as she saw his thoughts, saw what he had watched. She turned and ran for the forest barely making it before she began to retch. The thought of someone else was horrendous; actually seeing herself in the arms of another was too much. She finally understood his need to claim her. In his mind, they needed to consummate their bond again.

  Tears streamed down her face as she heaved. Sobs pushed themselves up through her throat and she collapsed to her knees. She shook with revulsion and tried to push the images away. The worst part was the faces of those she had willingly taken; the two men who had taken her, one who had scarred her body and her soul. Trent, the human male she had dated but never allowed to touch her in such a way. And worst of all, males of her pack, men she considered brothers. Those faces made her vomit more and she fought to keep from passing out.

  “Jacquelyn, look at me.” Fane’s voice came from a few feet behind her. He wasn’t touching her, he wasn’t comforting her, and she knew she must revolt him. That thought tore through her soul, ripped right through her and she gasped at the pain.

  “Jacquelyn,” he said, more insistently.

  He wouldn’t want her anymore. Not after seeing that. How could he, even knowing it wasn’t really her, how could he ever move past those images. He would leave her and she would be alone. He would turn to another for his comfort and she would be forced to watch, as he loved another.

  “JACQUELYN,” Fane took a step forward as he snarled. His eyes glowed bright blue and his body trembled.

  Suddenly Costin and Decebel were standing between him and Jacque. Their bodies were tight with readiness, eager for battle. Fane snarled and felt himself beginning to change. His hands grew long claws and his muscles began to bulge and strain against his clothes. He felt the power of his Alpha roll over him and knew his father was preventing him from changing all the way.

  “Back off, Fane,” Decebel growled.

  “Who are you to stand between me and mine?” Fane met Decebel’s eyes without blinking and held them.

  Decebel took a menacing step forward and since Fane did not retreat, the two dominants were nearly touching.

  “You need to cool off.”

  “Get. Out. Of. My. Way.” His clipped words, betrayed the calm he was trying to portray and the shaking of his hands didn’t help either.

  “You’re going to wind up hurting her and later, when you have cooled off, you will want to kill yourself for the indiscretion you committed against the one person who doesn’t deserve it.”

  Fane’s eyes snapped passed Decebel when he saw movement. He didn’t hear the yell, nor did he feel the arms that attempted to hold him back when he lunged for Costin who was attempting to help his mate stand. All Fane saw were Costin’s hands on his mate, Costin’s skin touching hers and the memories came rushing back.

  “Peri, is there anything you can do to keep the neurotic werewolves from killing each other?” Jen asked, dryly as she watched her mate attempt to pull a seething Fane off of Costin. Costin was holding his own, but she knew he was holding back because he cared for Fane. He knew that Fane wasn’t in his right mind at the moment. Jen would like to say that she didn’t think Fane would ever hurt Jacque, but she had never seen him look at her the way he had been and, truthfully, it scared her.

  “Fane, stop this.” Vasile’s words wrapped around his son and pulled Fane back from Costin. He pulled against his father’s hold, but couldn’t budge. He stared at Costin, challenging him, daring him to touch her again. He would kill him, Fane’s wolf decided, he had touched Jacquelyn, he had been one of the males she had willingly accepted, real or not, and Costin would have to die.

  Costin must have seen the determination settle in Fane’s eyes as he took a step away from Jacque.

  “Fane, I would never hurt your mate,” Costin told him, firmly.

  “You touched her,” Fane’s eyes narrowed, dangerously. “You took her in a way you had no right to. YOU KISSED HER, YOU BEAST,”

  “ENOUGH!” Vasile roared, cutting off Fane’s words.

  Fane fell to his knees as Vasile’s Alpha command pushed him to submit. He pulled his head up and his eyes met Jacquelyn’s. Tears streamed down her face and he could see the fear and knew she was on the verge of running.

  “Don’t,” he told her urgently. “Don’t leave me.”

  “You don’t want me,” she responded and flinched at her own words.

  “I will always want you.”

  She shook her head. She knew what she had felt inside him, the revulsion that filled him.

  “Not at you,” he answered her thoughts. “At everyone else love, but never you.” He held his arms open to her. “Come to me.”

  Jacque fought the urge to rush to him. She feared his rejection and knew that she couldn’t handle it if he pushed her away.

  “Jacquelyn, come now.”

  “Here we go with the damn dog orders,” muttered Jen as she folded her arms across her chest.

  “Let me go,” Fane told his father, never turning away from Jacquelyn. “I’m not going to hurt her,” after a long pause, he added, “or anyone else.”

  “Why is that not reassuring to me?” Crina asked Jen softly.

  “Because his wolf’s eyes still stare out from his too handsome, albeit quite deranged looking, face.”

  “Yeah, that could be it,” Crina agreed.

  Vasile gradually let his hold on his son lesson as he carefully watched to make sure that he wasn’t going to attack. When Fane didn’t move, he released him fully.

  Fane took a step towards his mate and stopped to make sure she wasn’t going to back away. When she stood her ground, he took another step and another, until he was standing right in front of her.

  “Please leave us,” he spoke softly but knew everyone would hear him.

  Decebel let out a low growl and was going to take a step towards Fane until Jen stepped in front of him.

  “He won’t hurt her.”

  Decebel stared at his mate a moment before he finally relented. He took Jen’s hand as he turned to follow the others to give Fane and Jacque as much privacy as the forest would afford.

  Once they were alone, Fane placed two fingers under Jacquelyn’s chin and gently raised her face to look at him.

  “How could you possibly think I wouldn’t want you?”

  Tears slid down her cheeks as she tried to speak. Her lips trembled and she tried to look away, but he held firmly to her chin.

  “How could you after watching that? How could you ever want to touch me again?”

  Fane's eyes closed briefly as he realized that she had thought his emotions were directed at her. He wasn’t mad at her and she didn't revolt him. She was his. His precious mate and he knew that she hadn’t really been touched or kissed or loved by another. He knew it, but still his wolf and he needed to connect with her emotionally as well as physically. He needed to reassure himself that she still wanted him, desired him, and no other.

  Jacque stood on her tip toes and pressed her lips to his. She reached up, ran her fingers through his thick, black hair, and moaned when he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer. She opened her mind to his and poured her heart into their kiss. She thought about their wedding night, about the blood rites and then the time after. She reminded him of their first time together and all the times after, showing him the only way she could at that moment, how much she needed him, wanted him, and thirsted for him.

  She was his, no doubt, but he was also hers.

  “You are mine,” she told him. “There is no other for me. My heart, my body, and my desire are for you alone.”

  Fane’s body shuddered as Jacquelyn’s words reverberated to his very soul. His wolf and he was hers. He felt the truth in those words and it eased something inside him just a little. His hands roamed her body as much as he dared in their semi-private environment and he didn’t think he had ever wanted to be alone with his mate more than he did at that moment.

  She pulled back from his kiss gasping for breath and he smiled slightly at her swollen lips.

  “Soon,” she panted.

  “Not soon enough,” he growled.

  They stared at each other as they tried to get their breathing under control. The image of her looking at him in fear flashed in his mind and his heart ached.

  “I’m sorry I scared you,” he whispered.

  Her arms were still wrapped around her neck and her hands gripped his neck tightly.

  “I wasn’t scared of you; I was scared that I’d lost you, because of what you have endured. I saw what you had visually endured and even now, I can’t think of it or I’ll be sick again. Fane,” her voice wavered as she tried to keep it together, “the thought of any man’s, hands besides yours, is revolting. I don’t want those images in your mind. I don’t want our bed tainted with that.”

  “I’m sorry. It’s my fault that I saw it. It was my fear that created it and after I saw it once, it just grew inside me. More and more I feared that I wasn’t enough for you, that you would realize that you deserved someone better.”

  Jacque silenced him with her lips as she kissed him deeply. When she pulled back, again she nipped his collar bone as punishment for his doubt.

  “There is no one better for me. Not in this realm or any other.”

  Fane pressed his forehead to hers and breathed in her scent. Then his eyes found his bite mark from the blood rites ceremony and he growled. He kissed down her face to her neck. When he reached the mark, he kissed it gently and then gave into his wolf.

  Jacque gasped as she felt Fane’s teeth sink into her tender flesh and as quickly, as the pain had started it was gone. A rush of pleasure brought another gasp from her and then a deep, throaty moan. She gripped him tightly as she felt the pull of his mouth and she smiled as she heard him sigh in contentment. He liked the way she tasted, she heard his thoughts loud and clear, and it only made the experience that much more intense and intimate. Finally, he released her and licked her neck tenderly. He kissed the bite several times before he nipped her ear and growled. “Mine.”

  “I think you’ve established that wolf-man,” she teased.

  “Want to reciprocate?” He asked her as he tilted his head to the side giving her a clear view of his neck. He wanted her bite, wanted his scent running through her veins, but he knew that his Jacquelyn was a very private person. The only reason she had let him bite her was because she had felt his need. She had compromised since they couldn’t make love, she submitted to his bite instead.

  “I want to, you know I do.” Jacque pleaded for him to understand. She wasn’t rejecting him.

  “I know love, I know you do. It’s not fair of me to ask it of you when I know how you feel about it.”

  “It’s just so intimate. I feel I might as well be standing here naked.” She laughed at her insecurity and reveled in the laugh that erupted from Fane.

  “As much as that idea appeals to me, I wouldn’t want others to see you so I can understand why you don’t want others to see you bite me. It is intimate and under normal circumstances, I would not have done that here.”

  “I know,” she told him with a smile, “but I’m glad you did. It’s calmed your wolf.”

  “Yes,” he agreed. “He definitely feels more secure with you at the moment.”

  “Are you going to lose it again?”

  Fane knew she was teasing, but the truth was he didn’t know. It was a possibility and so he wouldn’t lie to her.

  “I don’t know.”

  She kissed him gently before stepping back but keeping hold of his hand.

  “Okay, we will cross that bridge when we get there,” she shrugged then as she turned to pull him towards the others, “or fall off.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence babe,” he muttered.

  Jacque laughed, “If worse comes to worst I’ll just have to let you ravish me like a caveman.”

  Fane growled, “Don’t tempt me.”

  The others were waiting for them just over a hill. The camp had been packed up and they were ready to be on the move again.

  “Did you finally give in and just let him have his way with you, Red?” Jen asked, with a wicked grin.

  Decebel, who had an arm wrapped around her, pulled her tighter and growled.

  “Relax B. You’ll get your roll in the hay soon.”

  Decebel leaned down and nipped her neck sharply. “You’re writing checks, Jennifer.”

  “Yeah, yeah… that I can’t cash. I get it, but maybe rough is what I’m aiming for Dec, ever think about that?” She rounded on him and raised a single eyebrow in challenge.

  “You really want to do this now?” He growled at her.

  “Good grief,” Peri groaned, as she rubbed her forehead. “The Great Luna, save us from horny, dominant werewolves, and the mates that are determined to push them over the edge they are precariously perched on.”

  Vasile stepped forward so that he stood where he could see the whole group. He let his power loose and watched as one by one the wolves dropped to their knees; all except Decebel and Gavril. Gavril willingly went to his knees of his own choice, but Decebel remained standing.

  “I know you all are feeling a bit territorial with your mates. I understand that you feel the need to connect with them, to reestablish your claim and bond, but you are not pups to be ruled by your needs and desires. You will pull yourselves together, you will hold it together until we are safe, and you have a private room to lose it. Are we clear?”

  Rumbles of agreement met his waiting stare and after several moments of Vasile’s intense gaze, he pulled his power in and let them up.

  Some of the tension that had been growing between the males abated, though not completely.

  “Okay, let me catch you up to speed,” Peri began speaking. “The Great Luna had the Fae council send out the call to the packs. She is not asking politely for you all to unite, she is demanding it. They should already be gathering and hopefully, by the time we make it back to the mansion they will be there and in one piece.”

  Vasile rubbed his brow as worry seeped into him. “Skender is in charge right now, and though he is dominant, he is no match for an Alpha, let alone eleven of them.”

  “Skender is diplomatic, Vasile,” Decebel assured him. “He can keep the peace. Not to mention, Dillon Jacobs will be there. He is levelheaded and smart, and should be able to curb any violence.”

  Vasile let out a deep breath and though he knew Decebel’s words to be true, he also knew that Alphas didn’t mix, no matter how levelheaded or diplomatic they might be.

  “We need to move quickly,” Peri continued. “Mona is going to learn of your escape soon enough and she will not let it go unanswered. She knows that we are in these mountains and she will use anything she can to take us out.

  “Well, let‘s quit wasting time here trying to kill each other and get a move on.” Elle surprised them all with her sudden candor.

  Sorin smiled at his mate. “Feeling feisty?”

  She returned his smiled innocently and kissed his cheek. “I’m as eager as the rest to get back.”

  Sorin’s eyebrows rose in surprise and his response in her ear was anything but innocent.