by Quinn Loftis
“Finish it all ready. You aren’t a damn cat to play with your food. Can you not let him live?” Somehow Jacque heard the thought that future Jacque sent to Fane.
“I realize you do not understand everything because this fool kept you ignorant, and I’m sorry that it will hurt you to see him die, but I cannot break the rules of the challenge. He knew you were not his mate and yet he claimed you anyway. In our world, that is forfeiting one’s life.” Fane continued to fight with Lucas as he spoke to her but she noticed that he was no longer playing. He attacked with a ferocity that future Jacque had never seen and didn’t understand. In less than a minute from the time she told him to finish him, Fane had Lucas by the neck as his body hung at an odd angle.
Fane looked up and met future Jacque’s eyes, and Jacque felt all of his turmoil. “This is not how I wanted us to meet. I should have come to you sooner. I should have been here to protect you and bring you into our world gently, not with death and anger. I am sorry, Luna.”
Jacque had been trying to spare him these types of feelings. Now, as she stood there seeing Fane from inside her future self, she realized there was no such thing as sparing someone pain.
Chapter 12
“I’m not leaving this forest until I know she’s alright,” Jen snapped as she awkwardly limped through the dark woods on her one-shoed feet. Decebel was steadily grumbling behind her.
“I think you’ve helped enough for one night, Jennifer,” he growled.
“I don’t know what you’re so bent out of shape about,” she said swinging around to glare at him. “I kept all my clothes on.”
He raised a brow at her as he pointedly looked at the foot that was missing a shoe.
Jen rolled her eyes. “Oh, give me a damn break. You’re the only guy I know who thinks feet are sexy. It’s not my fault you have some jacked up fetish that makes you get all growly when I take off my shoes.”
Decebel crossed his arms in front of his chest as he looked down at her. He was even more handsome now than he’d been when they met. Maybe it was because she knew him better, or maybe it had something to do with bringing a life into the world together. Whatever the reason, it only pissed her off more when she was attempting to be mad at him and he had to go and look sexy.
“Stupid, yummy werewolves,” she huffed as she met his glare.
“Why did you come after her without telling me what your plan was? Why did you shut me out?” The second question was bit out as his jaw clenched. “We are a team, Jennifer. Where you go, I go. How can we be a team if you won’t be honest with me?”
“I never lied to you,” Jen pointed out. “Not really.”
“Twisting the truth so that it isn’t technically a lie does not make it right,” he parried.
“Maybe not in your land but in Jennifer-ville where I am the mayor, it’s totally acceptable behavior.”
His head dropped back as a frustrated sigh blew out of him. Jen actually felt sorry for him. Being mated to her was really more of a form of punishment most days. She wondered if he ever thought about what he could have possibly done to deserve such a fate.
“You try my patience, but you are not a form of punishment,” he said in a much gentler voice than his face conveyed.
Jen had opened the bond back up completely, and even though she’d been the one to partially close it, it was a relief to have the intimacy and rightness of it back in place.
“It’s not that I don’t want to tell you things, B, it’s just that I know you’d tie me to the bed and not let me out of your sight if you knew some of the things I want to do.”
“There are many nights that you don’t complain about such things.” His voice was low as his eyes narrowed on her.
She held up a hand. “Talking dirty to me is not going to distract me.” She paused. “Okay, so my tract record with that isn’t exactly stellar. It’s not going to work this time.” She took a step toward him wanting to touch him but knowing that would only lead to things that needed to wait. “I knew that if I told you I didn’t have a clue where Jacque was and I was walking around in the mountains at night, you would blow a gasket.”
His scowl deepened, if that were even possible. “And rightfully so! You’re my mate, the mother of my pup, and I’ve only had to watch you die a couple of times in the past year. Why on earth would I possibly not want you roaming through the forest after dark―especially one known for harboring practitioners of dark magic?”
“Sarcasm really doesn’t suite you,” Jen told him, placing her hands on her hips.
“When are you going to realize that I can’t change my nature? I will forever be too protective of you, unreasonably possessive of you, hyper vigilante of my duty to guard you, and constantly unable to quench my need to put you in a plastic bubble?” Decebel rubbed a hand across his jaw as Jen stared at his chiseled face.
“I get that it’s in your nature to be those things, Dec, but that doesn’t change the fact that I am always going to be independent and feel the need to protect those I love, with or without your approval.”
They stared at each other for several minutes before he finally looked away. He didn’t look down; he wasn’t about to show submissive behavior. “I suppose we are at an impasse.”
Jen shrugged. “Wouldn’t be the first time and sure as heck won’t be the last.” Jen scanned the forest around her yet again hoping to see signs of Fane and Jacque making their way through it, but just like the fifteen other times she’d done it, the only movement was the wind rippling through the leaves and brush.
“If Fane doesn’t whip the snot out of her for taking off like this, you can bet that I’m going to,” Jen growled as she found a comfortable spot against a large tree trunk. She patted the ground next to her and smiled up at her still irritated mate. “Pretend we’re on a romantic date,” she told him.
Decebel snorted but sat down next to her. “A romantic date in the dark, cold, freaky mountains?”
Jen smacked his leg. “Don’t be cute. That’s my job.”
Decebel wrapped an arm around her and pulled Jen tight against his side. She snuggled in and buried her face against his chest, breathing in deep and enjoying the scent of her man. There were few things she enjoyed more than the way Decebel smelled.
“Good to know,” he murmured having heard her train of thought.
They sat in companionable silence for several minutes before Jen let out a sigh. “If someone told you a year and a half ago that you’d be sitting on the ground in the mountains of Romania with your mate, whom you’d just recently had a child with, what would you have said?” she asked him. She felt his hand slide up her arm and back down again, attempting to rub some heat into her.
“I probably would have told them to give me some of what they were smoking,” he admitted.
Jen laughed. “Whatever. You wouldn’t have said something so chill. You didn’t start talking like a normal person until you met me.”
“There are lots of things I didn’t do until I met you,” Decebel said gently as his hand traveled back up her arm, past her shoulder to her neck, where it rested possessively.
“Back at ya,” Jen said as she patted his flat stomach. She paused and then added, “What do you think you’d be doing right now if we hadn’t met?”
“I don’t like to think about my life without you.”
“Was it really that bad?”
Decebel let out a long sigh. “I sometimes forget that you really haven’t been a part of this life for very long. Because of that, you don’t fully realize the darkness that is in the males until we meet our true mates.”
Jen pulled back to look up at him. He was right. She didn’t fully understand it but then how could she? She was a middle class, American girl from a semi-normal family. Jen had never had to experience two centuries of growing emptiness while a beast inside slowly takes over.
“But if someone had told me this is where I’d be in a year and a half, I definitely wouldn’t have believed them.” Decebel
’s hand massaged Jen’s neck causing a shiver to run through her that had nothing to do with the cold mountain air. “I had given up hope on finding a mate and part of me really didn’t want one.”
Jen held up a hand. “Stop. Go no further. I completely remember you not wanting a mate because you were worried you wouldn’t be able to protect her. Good thing for you, I didn’t really care what your worries were because all I knew was that you were mine.”
Decebel’s hand tightened on her neck and tilted her head back. With his other hand he ran his fingertip across her lips, over her chin, and down her neck. Jen was frozen, helpless, and utterly mesmerized by her mate’s glowing eyes and firm touch. He whispered something to her in Romanian and she felt her cheeks flush. Decebel leaned closer to her until his lips were nearly touching hers. “I have always been yours,” he whispered against her mouth. “Just as you have always been mine and will always be mine.”
“And you still want me even when I’m―” She couldn’t finish because Decebel had pressed his lips against hers. Jen was amazed that every kiss still made her stomach drop to her toes and her palms sweat. There was a time when she thought that those feelings would fade, that she would grow used to his touch, but she’d been wrong. Every fingertip across her skin, every trail of his lips down her neck, and every breath mingled with her own only increased her attraction to him. As his hand wrapped itself in her hair, holding her still as he kissed her greedily, Jen pressed against him. She growled, unable to get close enough to her mate to satisfy the growing need.
Decebel continued to ravish her mouth even as he used their bond to speak to her. “I still want you. Nothing will ever change that. If you keep up that line of thinking, I will cease being a gentleman and will simply take what I want.”
Jen smiled against his lips. “How many times do I have to tell you that you can’t take what is freely offered.”
“Are you offering yourself, Jennifer?” His voice was rough with need as he pulled her tighter against him.
“No, I think I like this whole idea of you taking what you want. So, consider this my response to your forwardness. Dec, we have to stop. No, I won’t be seduced. Stop, you animal.” Jen’s voice was dry as she reached to him through their bond. She could feel his humor but his desire for her was quickly dowsing all other emotions.
Decebel’s breaths were coming in shallow gasps as he pulled back from the kiss. Jen didn’t know when he had pushed her onto her back but there she was with her mate hovering breathlessly over her. His eyes glowed bright amber and she smiled up at him. “Hello, wolf,” she teased knowing that his beast was every bit as present as the man was.
“Mine,” he growled back at her.
Jen’s smile widened. If Decebel had been reduced to single word responses, then there would be no stopping him―not that she had any intention of that. So, Jen did what she does best, she poked the already agitated wolf. She leaned up, closing the small space he’d put between them. Her lips were a hair’s breadth away from his as she spoke. “Prove it.”
Chapter 13
Fane’s paws padded angrily against the ground as he moved through the forest. She wasn’t here. He knew it with every fiber of his being and yet, because it was the last place she’d been, he couldn’t bring himself to leave. The Great Luna had said that Jacquelyn was safe, but Fane needed to see her and touch her to truly believe that. His wolf was a snarling mess as he tried to figure out what he could do to get their mate back, and when he kept coming up empty, he snarled even more.
He wandered the forest pathways aimlessly. Fane came around a large boulder and stopped short as he felt magic roll over his fur. He froze, letting only his eyes move over the area surrounding him. Something had changed. He’d felt it as surely as if he’d walked from an air conditioned building out into the summer heat. Fane didn’t see anyone but all his surroundings had changed. He could tell that he wasn’t in the same forest he’d been in only seconds before. Finally, he took several steps forward, all of his senses on high alert, probing for any threat. As he slowly turned in a circle taking in the changes in scenery, a power stronger than he’d ever felt before forced him to his knees.
His head bowed low and his fur receded, replaced by his human flesh. Fane took several shaky breathes. He hadn’t forced the change and no one in his realm, not even his Alpha, could have pushed his phase back as simply and as easily. He knew that it wouldn’t do him any good to try and retaliate against the offender. No beings but the Fates and the Great Luna had such power. And this wasn’t the Great Luna. The Fates didn’t visit mortals, even supernatural wolves such as him, on a whim. As such, Fane wasn’t about to do anything rash. He stood, his legs still wobbly, and raised his head to look at the three beings before him. They stood there pulsating from form to form―sometimes appearing as a human, sometimes as an animal, and sometimes as something else entirely.
A pair of plain, black pants, definitely not manmade, appeared in front of him. He reached for them and slipped them on, never taking his eyes off the pulsating forms before him.
“Fane Lupei, son of the Romania pack Alpha, prince to his kind, mate of Jacquelyn Lupei, soon to be father of your own heir.” The combined voices of the Fates filled the area around Fane as though surround sound speakers had been installed in the forest. As he stared at the beings that pulsated before him, he shuddered at having their undivided attention fully focused on him and naming him so thoroughly.
He bowed his head once to acknowledge them, but he didn’t ask them what they wanted. If the Fates had shown themselves to him, there was a reason and they would get around to it when they were good and ready.
“Your mate has requested an audience with us.”
Apparently they were good and ready then. His breath caught in his throat and it felt as if a sack of concrete had fallen into his stomach. Jacquelyn wanted to see the Fates? Why didn’t she tell him? Was she in some sort of danger or trouble? The questions began to pile up faster than he could begin to come up with plausible answers.
“She wishes to make it so that you had not met,” they began but as soon as the words hit his ears Fane couldn’t hear anything else.
Blood filled his ears as the beating of his heart increased to a speed and intensity that was painful. His mate was trying to change their fate. He felt as though a knife had been stabbed repeatedly into his heart and lungs and he couldn’t catch his breath. He knew Jacquelyn loved him, he could feel the intensity of that love when their bond was open, but it didn’t take away the feelings of betrayal and doubt. Whatever twisted reason she had for wanting to do something so desperate, it wasn’t because she didn’t want him or love him. Regardless, he was pissed.
“Have you granted her request?” Fane finally managed to ask the Fates still pulsating before him.
“We have not met with her. We were intrigued by such a request, but when we approached her, she had been taken by the Great Luna. We can only assume that the goddess is attempting to explain the consequences of such a request.”
“At least someone is trying to talk some sense into her,” Fane growled under his breath.
“Step forward, Fane Lupei, and we will show you what your mate is seeing so that you too will understand the ramifications of her wishes.”
“Please, Fates, hear me now. I beg of you. Do not grant her this,” Fane pleaded. He was prepared to drop to his knees and grovel if it was necessary. His foolish, foolish mate, what had she done?
“Come, mortal,” the voices said in unison.
Fane took a shaky hesitant step toward the Fates. He was apprehensive about what he would see, but there was also a sick curiosity like turning your head to stare at a terrible automobile accident on the highway. Suddenly, he felt a warmth rush over him as his knees again hit the ground and everything around him went dark.
Images began to play in his mind as he watched himself make the decision not to follow his wolf’s instincts and go to Coldspring. He wanted to roar at himself, cursing i
nwardly, at his inability to move or speak as he watched a nightmare unfold before him: Jacquelyn meeting Lucas Steele, going on dates with him, kissing him, and looking at him with adoration in her eyes. Fane did, however, note that there was no love in her eyes, at least not the love that she looked at him with. He watched her relationship with Lucas rip apart her friendships and then, to his surprise, he watched Jen and Sally find relationships with other wolves in the Coldspring pack. It was all wrong―so very, very wrong. Surely if this is what she was seeing with the Great Luna then she was seeing that this was not what was best. How could it be? When he got glimpses of himself he watched the darkness grow inside of him as his beast raged against the man. His wolf knew that their mate was not in Romania and still Fane refused to listen.
It was his father who finally forced the issue. As Fane watched that version of his and Jacquelyn’s story unfold, he saw that their meeting was as set as the sun rise. They were meant for each other and no matter how she attempted to change it, they would end up together. Fane realized then that there were some fates that were unavoidable. The only variable was how difficult the people involved decided to make the journey. In the reality that played like a movie in his mind, there was so much more pain and hurt because of the path they had taken to find one another. Fane had to endure seeing his mate standing beside another male, one that believed he had the right to touch her and kiss her when she in fact belonged with Fane.
He still had to fight for her, but because Lucas was more attached to her, not to mention Sally and Jen’s attached wolves, this battle was much bloodier. So many more wolves lost their lives as Fane watched the two packs tear into each other.