Sara and Brian were waiting in the living room. Sara had the brownie pan in her hands and Brian was carrying some games, only one of which Fane recognized—dominoes. His family back home liked to play dominoes.

  He took the brownie pan from Sara. “I will take these for you,” he said. Sara smiled.

  “Ready?” Brian asked them.

  With silent nods, they marched out the door.

  Sara knocked on Lilly and Jacquelyn’s door, and Fane felt a tingle of awareness on the back of his neck and turned to see a car cruising slowly by. He used his wolf’s superior eyesight to see who was driving. Fane was on edge. He now knew there were other Greys in the area and his father had indicated that he had information concerning Jacque’s family. Fane had also received an anonymous phone call from a wolf claiming to be the Alpha of the Coldspring pack, stating that Jacque had already been claimed by another wolf and Fane was to leave immediately. Fane hoped the Alpha was used to disappointment because he had no plans of going anywhere.

  Jacque was the one who answered the door, and Fane couldn’t help the smile that crossed his face. She was, after all, his fiery miracle. Like others before him, he could have waited centuries before he found her, and yet all it had taken was a mere seventeen years. The Great Luna had well and truly blessed him.

  “Come in, y’all,” Jacque said politely, her Southern drawl as cute as it was sexy.

  They entered and Jacque pointed them in the direction of the kitchen where Fane could smell the aroma of the already delivered pizza.

  “You look beautiful, Jacquelyn,” he told her, walking beside her toward the kitchen.

  “Flattery will get you everywhere.” Jacque winked at him. His eyes narrowed on her, and the blush that rushed up her neck to her face told him she felt the intensity of his gaze. He wouldn’t keep it a secret that he wanted her. This wasn’t some high school crush. This was his soulmate, and he wanted no confusion between them. He was here for her and her alone.

  “Hi, you guys,” Lilly greeted them, effectively saving Jacquelyn from any more of his intense attention. “I’m so glad you could come over!” Lilly and Sara hugged. Jen and Sally were already filling their plates when Lilly looked at them, “What, y’all couldn’t wait on the guests?”

  “Hey, we were doing you guys a favor,” Jen said.

  “Oh really,” Lilly said, “and just exactly what favor is that?”

  “Ya know, testing out the product, making sure it’s safe. I would hate to unknowingly poison our Romanian guest, although it would make for a great headline,” Jen answered.

  “Jen, do you always have to say what you are thinking? Have you ever thought to yourself, ‘Hey, self, maybe I should keep my trap shut? Yeah, good idea, self’? Jacquelyn glared at her best friend.

  “You’re just cranky because you’ve been thinking about Trent.” Jen’s eyes gleamed knowingly at Jacquelyn.

  Fane couldn’t help the low rumble in his chest that escaped at the name of his mate’s all-too-recent old flame.

  Lilly’s head snapped around to look at him. Fane cocked his head to the side as his wolf perked up at her perceptive gaze. “Interesting. She knows something.”

  Jacquelyn must have caught that last thought because he heard her ask, “She knows something about what?”

  Fane looked away from Lilly and turned to look at his Luna’s confused face. He was certain Lilly knew he wasn’t human, but Jacque, apparently, wasn’t aware of that fact.

  “Fane, what are you thinking about?” Jacque asked again.

  “We will need to talk later, Jacquelyn, and your mom needs to be present as well,” Fane told her.

  “Ooookay.”

  Everyone filled their plates and moved to the dining room. Fane noticed that Jen and Sally managed to maneuver things so he and Jacquelyn had to sit next to each other. He found it amusing. He would have made sure he sat next to her without their feeble efforts.

  “So, are you kids looking forward to starting your senior year? Do you know what classes you will be taking?” Brian asked.

  Mouths full of pizza, they all nodded simultaneously. Jen was the first able to talk. “Naturally, I’m taking anatomy and physiology.”

  “Really, is that because you like—” Brian started to ask.

  But Sally and Jacque interrupted quickly. “Don’t go there,” they both spit out.

  “Because I like science?” Jen finished for him. “Nope, ’cause I like boys, silly rabbit.”

  Lilly rolled her eyes, and Fane almost choked on the pizza he was attempting to swallow. Jacque looked over at Fane, and he noticed her face was red.

  Once he’d recovered, Fane winked at her, and that only caused the blush to deepen.

  “Just what is your favorite subject, fetița mea picantă, my spicy girl?” he asked her.

  She was just taking a drink when he sent her the thoughts and she nearly spewed it out of her mouth.

  “Are you okay, Jacquelyn?” Fane asked her, his voice sounding a little too innocent.

  She glared at him as she answered, “Fine, thank you.”

  “I will have you know that I prefer contact sports to classes. I find that a little physical violence is good for the soul,” Jacque returned with a smirk.

  “Like I said, you’re fetița mea picantă.” Fane ran his tongue across his bottom lip as his gaze held hers.

  Her eyes widened slightly, and she quickly looked away.

  “Lilly, how is the bookstore doing?” Sara asked her.

  “Great! Since I hired more staff, I’ve caught up on inventory and started working on some other ideas I’ve been brainstorming, like maybe putting in a coffee shop and having a gift section. You know, just more things to help bring in a variety of customers,” Lilly told her.

  “Mom, I didn’t realize you were planning all this.” Jacquelyn frowned.

  “Well, you’ve been preoccupied this summer, and I’ve been at the store a lot. I was going to tell you about it, but time just seemed to get away from me.”

  Fane caught the implication when Lilly said Jacque had been preoccupied. She was referring to the breakup with Trent. Apparently, it had been a bigger deal than Jacquelyn let on.

  “Does it really matter to you that much?” Jacque asked him.

  Wow, he needed to work on blocking his thoughts, or he was going to get himself into trouble.

  “Be patient with me, Jacquelyn. I will explain things soon, and then you might be able to understand why I react the way I do,” Fane said. He was attempting to keep his voice calm and stifle the biting tone of his impatient wolf, who disliked the distance between them.

  After everyone finished eating, they cleared the table and picked out a game Fane had never heard of called “What’s Yours Like?”

  Jen read the directions.

  Fane didn’t catch everything, but he got the gist of it. The active player would listen to others describe “what theirs was like.” For example, someone might say, Mine is big, while someone else might say, My wife likes mine. The answer in that example was paycheck. Fane realized right away this was going to be a game in which Jen would enjoy causing Jacquelyn as much embarrassment as possible. He inwardly grinned, looking forward to seeing his mate squirm.

  “Okay, who’s going to be in the hot seat first?” Brian asked.

  “I’ll go first,” Lilly answered. “I have a feeling things are going to get inappropriate very quickly, so I might as well start them out rated G.”

  Fane smiled when Jen let out a low groan. “Come on, Ms. P, give us a little credit. We are more than mature enough to keep our minds out of the gutter.”

  Jacquelyn and Sally’s eyebrows rose at the same time as they looked at their blonde friend. “We are?” they asked in unison.

  Jen growled. “You two aren’t helping our case.”

  Brian spoke up before the girls could continue their banter. “Jacque, you pull out the answer and say your first clue, then pass your card to the next person. Lilly can take a guess whenever she is ready and feels she knows the answer, or she can wait until all the clues are given.”

  Jacquelyn pulled out the card, and sure enough, her face turned red. Oh, yes, this is going to be fun.

  “Mine is…” Jacquelyn paused. “Curly,” she said simply, but she still couldn’t keep from turning red.

  Fane saw the answer in her head and winked at her.

  Sally was next. “Mine is long.”

  Sally handed the card to Sara, who said hers was like chocolate, smooth and dark, and Brian said his wife claimed his was the color of sand.

  Finally, it was Jen’s turn, and Fane could tell everyone was a little nervous about what she would come up with.

  “Mine is silky to the touch,” Jen said with a wink at Fane.

  Fane felt Jacquelyn’s wave of jealousy like a tidal wave. His head tilted slightly as he studied her. Interesting., She doesn’t like Jen flirting with me. Her head snapped around to glare at him, and he realized she had heard what he was thinking.

  “Relax, my Luna. I assure you I am all yours,” Fane promised, and he meant it down to his marrow. He was hers, and there would never be another. He was careful to block those thoughts from her. Fane had a feeling it might make her a tad nervous if she fully understood just how permanent was their bond.

  “Oh, this coming from the Romanian who is jealous of a boy I’m no longer dating. Not to mention, you and I are not together, so it’s really of no consequence how you feel,” Jacquelyn told him in a huff. “It’s your turn, by the way,” she added.

  Fane looked over at Jen, realizing she was holding the card out to him and looking at him knowingly. She must have recognized he and Jacquelyn were conversing.

  Fane looked at the answer on the card and debated what to say that wouldn’t completely embarrass him. The choices were not good. He could go with straight, or short, or black. All those options could be taken, as Jen would no doubt do, to have very un-innocent connotations.

  “Mine is”—well if you gotta go down, do it with a bang—“short.” And with that, everyone lost their composure. It was obvious Jen knew all his choices were pretty poor, and she had been waiting for him to choose to take it and run with it.

  “Nice,” Jen said putting her hand up for a fist bump with Sally.

  In all the commotion Fane just couldn’t help himself and looked up at Jacquelyn, who was giggling wildly. He raised an eyebrow at her. “Did I amuse you, fetița mea picantă?” Fane asked her.

  All Jacquelyn did was wink at him, but it about did him in. She was a joy to his heart, and she was all his. Now, he just had to convince her of that … and, quite possibly, her mother as well. Fane had considered whether to talk to Lilly and Jacquelyn tonight, but as the evening carried on, he decided to talk to his father again one more time. Perhaps the Alpha had uncovered more information that would help Fane make the safest decision for his mate.

  The evening turned out to be a lot of fun and laughs. Sometimes, the girls laughed so hard they had tears streaming down their faces. At one point, Sally fell out of her chair from laughing so hard because the answer to the question had been tires on your car. Naturally, Jen had not disappointed and said hers were round. And when it was Fane’s turn, he realized a little too late that his vehicle only had two wheels, so his response was, “Mine has two,” which resulted in Jen laying her head on the table and laughing so hard her whole body shook. It was wonderful, even if they were enjoying making their answers sound like they were talking about certain parts of their anatomy. What did you expect from teenagers with a game called What’s Yours Like? The whole evening made Fane feel at home because these people were close-knit like his own pack. They often got together and ate and played games or just gathered around the fire to talk.

  As the evening came to a close, they began to say their goodbyes. As Fane walked past Jacquelyn to the front door, he turned to her and asked, “Could I talk with you a moment? I won’t keep you from your friends long.”

  Jacquelyn turned to her mom and girlfriends. “I’ll be outside for just a minute, okay?”

  “Okay.” Lilly nodded. She looked like she wanted to say more but refrained.

  “Don’t hurry on our account. You hate to rush these kinds of things the first time around,” Jen commented.

  Sally hit her on the arm. “Quit embarrassing her.”

  Jen shrugged. “It’s what I do.”

  Fane put his hand on Jacquelyn’s lower back to gently guide her to the porch. He felt a shudder go through her body as he touched her. “Mine,” his wolf told him.

  Once outside, Jacquelyn turned to him, looking up into his face with curiosity, and asked, “What’s this about?”

  It felt so good to be this close to her. She completed him and filled a void he hadn’t realized was there. He’d heard other males in his pack talk about the darkness that grew inside them without the light of their true mate. He hadn’t reached that point yet because he was still so very young for one of their kind. Now he would never reach that point, as long as Jacquelyn didn’t reject him. Mine. His wolf growled more sternly than before. Obviously, the beast didn’t appreciate the idea of their mate rejecting them. All the wolf wanted to do at that moment was wrap her in his arms and just hold her, take in her scent, mark her as his.

  Fane pushed those worries and desires aside so he could answer her question.

  “There is much I need to talk with you about, but I don’t think tonight is a good time. I’m not trying to be cryptic,” he said quickly when he noticed the irritation flitting across her face, “but I need to talk to my father about some things. I would, however, like to take you out on a date, if you would do me the honor,” Fane told her.

  Jacquelyn looked at him blankly and blinked a few times. Clearly, she’d not been expecting the request.

  “So, what I’m hearing you say is you have information that I need to know, but you’re not going to tell me just yet, and with all this bizarre stuff going on … well, bizarre to me, you want to go out on a date like everything is just rosy?” she asked as her hands flitted in the air punctuating her irritation.

  “Pretty much.”

  “Well, I can’t very well hold a gun to your head and make you tell me, although Jen would think that a perfectly acceptable response. But then again, Jen also thinks going to football practice and lying out in her bikini is amusing so, ya know, gotta keep it all in perspective.” She paused and tapped her lips with her fingers. After a few seconds that felt to Fane like an eternity, she continued. “Okay, I’ll go out with you. When is our little adventure, and how should I dress?” she asked.

  “Tomorrow, wear something comfortable to ride on the motorcycle, and don’t worry, I bought you a helmet.”

  “You did what?” Her voice rose right along with her forehead. “Presumptuous much?”

  Fane stepped closer to her, lowering his face toward hers, and whispered, “I felt my chances you would say yes were pretty good. I can be very persuasive when I need to be.”

  Fane stayed there a minute longer but decided it best he back away from her a little because he was very tempted to kiss her. She shook her head as if to clear it when she stepped back and looked at him with what he thought might be longing in her eyes.

  Time to go. He took her hand and lifted it to his lips, never breaking eye contact, and gently pressed it to his lips. Her scent hit him hard, and he had to grind his teeth together to keep his chest from rumbling in contentment. To his surprise, he also had to fight his wolf for control to keep from licking her skin. Yes, she was temptation in its purest form and would no doubt cause him endless amounts of pain.

  “Thank you for a wonderful evening. I truly enjoyed your company, my Luna,” Fane said quietly.

  Jacquelyn seemed at a loss for words as her mouth opened and closed, resembling a fish out of water and endearingly cute, but she finally spit out, “Me too.”

  Fane didn’t want to leave her. It was against his instincts, and his wolf growled at the thought. She was supposed to be with him where he could take care of her and keep her safe. If she had grown up with his kind, and been raised knowing what he was, she would understand their single days were over. She would accept him willingly and eagerly because she would fully grasp the magnitude of finding a true mate. But Jacque didn’t know about him or his kind. She didn’t know how desperately he needed her. So, he would have to be patient and take advantage of the time they could spend together soaking up her presence. Fane leaned in quickly, took a deep breath, then blew gently next to her ear. She shivered. What Jacquelyn didn’t know was that he wasn’t trying to be sensual by blowing next to her ear. He was putting his scent on her so other Greys would know she was his. It would only linger a day or two since it was only an external marking and not in her blood. The only permanent way to put his scent on her was to complete the bond, to share his blood, and take hers. Unfortunately, they weren’t quite there yet.

  With that, Fane forced his feet to move and turned away from his mate. His steps felt as though he walked through quicksand as he trudged back to the Henrys’ home. At the door, he turned one last time to find her still standing there watching him, and he lifted his hand to his mouth, blew her a kiss, and sent her a thought. “Sweet dreams, meu inimă, my heart. Dream of me. I will be dreaming of you.”

  OceanofPDF.com

  Chapter

  Seven

  Jacque stood on the front porch, staring after Fane as he retreated to the Henrys’ house. She wanted to call him back. Something deep within her, something she didn’t understand, was loathe to spend a second without him. “Get a grip on yourself, woman,” she scolded. In an attempt to clear her head, Jacque sucked in a few deep breathes. She noticed the subtle scent of woods and spice. The scent called to her, to a deep and primitive part of her she hadn’t known existed. Something made her want to claim the scent as hers in a primal way. Yet, the smell also comforted her. But, why? Jacque decided she wasn’t going to touch that with a ten-foot pole. Her bizarre meter had already reached a critical state. Attempting now to understand the animalistic urges she was suddenly experiencing would only send her completely over the edge.