by Quinn Loftis
Jen was nodding, though the tears had begun to fall. Decebel reached over and pulled her into his arms. “I’ve got you baby. I’m not letting go.”
Decebel struggled to keep his rage contained as he felt the strongest woman he had ever met, fall apart in his arms. He didn’t try to get her to talk. He didn’t ask her how he could help, he just held her, and if that was all she ever wanted from him ever again, it would be enough.
“Not for me it wouldn’t,” Jen told, him through their bond. “Make me forget Dec.”
Decebel pulled back so that he could look into her blue eyes.
“It’s too soon Jennifer, give yourself time.” He gently brushed her hair from her face and kissed her forehead.
“Have I ever let you get away with telling me what I needed?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “I’m telling you that I need you. I keep seeing and feeling those faces, those hands,” Jen let out a choked sob as she stared up into his amber eyes. “Don’t make me beg.”
Decebel sucked in a breath as he saw the fear in her eyes. Fear that he would reject her, fear that he would be disgusted by her, fear that he would no longer want her.
Decebel growled at her as he leaned down. His lips caressed her face gently until they hovered just above hers. “You never have to beg. I’m yours and I will always give you what you need. What do you need baby?” His lips brushed against hers as he spoke. “Tell me what you need Jennifer and it’s yours.”
Jen trembled as she felt his hand slip under her shirt. He stroked her abdomen and then trailed his fingers up the side of her body tracing her markings.
“You,” she breathed out, softly.
He pulled back to take his shirt off and grinned at her when her eyes widened.
“Does that mean I still do it for you?”
Jen smiled through the tears as she nodded. Decebel helped her remove her shirt and then pulled her body tight against his. He kissed her deeply and growled when she ran her fingers through his thick, dark hair.
“I love you Jennifer,” he told her over and over as his hands roamed and his lips followed. “You are mine. Every inch of you, every strand of hair, every soft moan, every beat of your heart, belongs to me.”
Jen’s heart swelled with love as she listened to his words and then felt the truth behind them with every kiss and touch.
“Baby, open your eyes.”
Jen opened them to see him hovering over her. He kissed her cheeks, her nose, and across her jaw before kissing her softly on the lips.
“Keep your eyes open,” he whispered. “I want you to see who is with you, and who is touching you, who is loving you.”
“Okay,” she told him, softly. And she did. And, they were still open long into the night when he lay beside her watching his fingers as they traveled up and down the markings that ran from her hip to under her arm.
“Are you okay?” Jen asked him.
He looked up from his hand to meet her eyes. “As long as you’re with me, I’m okay. Are you? Did I hurt you?” He laid his hand across her abdomen as he asked.
Jen shook her head. “You didn’t hurt me.” She placed her hand over his, loving the warmth she felt from his skin. Her eyes felt heavy though she tried to hold them open.
Decebel chuckled. “You can close them now, beautiful.”
Jen growled at him.
“Don’t go starting something you can’t finish,” he teased.
Jen felt something inside her loosen at his teasing. It was right. They had grieved, they had held each other, made love, and now they just needed to be together, doing what they did best.
“Crap, for a minute there with all the tender loving and what not, I forgot that I was mated to a perv.” Her eyes sparkled with laughter.
“Oh, we can’t have you forgetting something so important.” He grabbed at her playfully. “Come here and let me remind you.”
Laughter filled their room, where once tears had been, as Jen let Decebel heal her heart over and over. Bit by bit he reminded her who he was, and who she was to him.
Q
Fane closed their door and turned the lock. After finally getting her to invite his touch, he helped Jacque undress and into the shower as silent tears slid from her eyes. He had tried to get her to lie down, but she kept insisting that she needed to get clean, that she felt dirty. So, he helped her shower and then dried her off and carried her to their bed. He climbed in next her, pulled the covers up over them, and enveloped her in his arms.
Jacque wrapped her body around Fane’s, seeking the heat from his body, needing to feel all of his skin against all of hers. She didn’t realize that she had been whimpering until Fane started speaking to her softly. He smoothly transitioned from English to Romanian and back again, as he attempted to soothe her.
“Luna,” he pulled her face up to look at him. “Tell me what to do. Please, I don’t know what to do.”
Jacque stared into his glowing blue eyes as she felt the beat of his heart against her chest. He wiped the tears gently from her cheeks and kissed her slowly. When he pulled back, he saw that her eyes were glowing as well. “Sing to me,” she whispered.
He brushed the red curls from her face as he stared into her eyes and began to sing the song he had shared with her on the night before his battle with Lucas, and night that now seemed so very long ago. His eyes softened when she ran her fingers across his lips as he sung.
As his rich, deep voice reached into the broken parts of her soul, Jacque grabbed onto his words like a lifeline. She ran her hands across his shoulders and chest, following the touch with her kiss. Fane’s words trembled slightly as she pushed him on his back and laid her body over his. She laid her head on his chest and tried to melt into his touch as he ran the tips of his fingers from her shoulders to the backs of her thighs. She took comfort in the touch that she knew so well. She pushed away her pain and fear and latched onto the feeling of hands that knew her better than she knew herself and a man who loved her more than any other ever could.
The room was quiet when the song ended. Fane continued to caress her skin wherever he could reach and kissed her hair as he breathed in her scent.
“Fane,”
“Yes love.”
“We’ll get through this,” Jacque made it a statement, needing to hear herself say the words out loud.
“Together,” he agreed.
He rolled her over quickly yet smoothly until she lay beneath him. He stared down into her eyes, as his fingers brushed gently against her jaw. He leaned down, kissed her, and groaned when she yielded to him instantly. Jacque opened her mouth and welcomed the deep kiss as his tongue explored her. She pulled back and smiled at the surprised look on his face.
“You told me touch was healing to wolves, that it brought comfort and security,” she told him.
He nodded.
“I need healing, comfort, and security Fane,” she whispered, against his skin as she kissed his neck, shoulders, and chest in between each word. She pushed his hands, showing him through their bond where she wanted them to be. Fane’s chest rumbled as he felt her need and was surprised when he realized it was every bit as great as his own.
“You need me, my touch, my kiss, my love,” he hovered over her, looking down at her face and body.
There was a time when Jacque would have blushed under his gaze, but not now, not when Fane had shown her just how completely a male loved his female in their world.
“I do,” she agreed.
“Good,” Fane growled, as he lowered his body to hers.
No more words were needed as they clung to one another. Fane met her every need and Jacque took greedily from him, knowing that it pleased him to provide for her in any way, whether it be physical or emotional. She let go completely, knowing that he would always provide for her, always protect her and always love her.
“Always,” she heard his whisper in her mind and felt the certainty of it in his touch as he made love to her.
Chapter 18
&nbs
p; “Okay people, so we’ve reached the part in the story that is considered the calm before the storm. Everyone is getting in their “I love yous” and “goodbyes” and blah, blah, blahs because they know that all hell is about to break lose. It’s all very touching, but honestly, it’s time to put on our big girl panties, and I do mean that literally, and batten down the hatches because hurricane Mona is heading our way people. So get your butts out of your mate’s beds, yours truly included, and bring the rain.” ~ Jen
Lilly, Cypher, Thalion, and his warriors gathered around the fire. The night was chilly and the knowledge of what was to come only made the cold harder to endure. Cypher and the elf warriors had been able to kill some rabbits for dinner. Though it wasn’t the most filling meal, it was enough. When they were done eating, Cypher pulled Lilly over into his lap where he sat leaning against a tree. She snuggled into his chest and tried not to worry about her daughter, or Mona, or Cypher, or anything else she had no control over.
“What’s she like?” Cypher asked.
Lilly tilted her head up to look at him. She smiled warmly. “She’s the best person I know.”
Lilly knew he was asking about Jacque and it warmed her heart that he wanted to know about the most important person in her life.
“She is full of life. She’s got a smart mouth on her; she’s stubborn, beautiful, and loves with her whole heart.”
“Sounds like someone I know,” Cypher told her, as he kissed her forehead.
“We’re alike in a lot of ways,” Lilly agreed. “But, she’s better than I am and I’m glad for that. No parent wants their child to inherit their faults or make their mistakes.”
“What mistakes have you made Lilly? What deep secrets does your heart hold?”
Lilly considered whether she should tell him about Dillon, about how Jacque came to be a part of this world.
“Haven’t you wondered how it is that Jacque is mated to a werewolf?” She asked him.
He nodded. “Yes, I’ve wondered, but I figured you would tell me when you were ready.” He paused. “Are you ready?”
She shrugged. “It’s not like we have anything better to do.”
Cypher tightened his hold on her and kissed her neck, “I love hearing your voice, but I’m sure I can find something to do that I would love just as equally as listening to you.”
Lilly laughed. “I’m sure you could.”
“Sooo,” he prompted.
“I fell in love when I was young. He was handsome, fun, and not human. Within days of meeting him, my heart was his. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always possessed what I considered to be some sort of sixth sense. It doesn’t always happen, but sometimes I just feel like I know something about a person and that was how I felt about Dillon. I knew something was very different about him. When I confronted him about it, he told me what he was. At first, I was a little freaked, but then I saw that he was still the man I loved. What I was not prepared for was when he told me that I was not his true mate.”
“How were you together if you weren’t his mate?” Cypher asked, gruffly.
“He loved me. He told me that there was a possibility that one day he would meet his true mate and if he did, he would have no choice but to go, that his soul would cry out for her. At the time, I didn’t care; I just wanted to be with him. Time went on, things were good, and then the impossible happened. I got pregnant. Canis lupuses have a very hard time conceiving with each other, to conceive with a human was unheard of. As soon as I found out, I rushed home to tell him. I walked in, ready to share the good news, only to find a note with my name on it and all traces of Dillon were gone.”
Cypher stroked her hair as he felt the heart that, though mended now, remembered a time when it had broken.
“I never tried to find him. He didn’t know he had a daughter until this year. Jacque didn’t know anything about her father or what he was until Fane came to Coldspring and claimed her as his mate.”
“So, you have seen Dillon recently?” Cypher asked, and Lilly could tell he wasn’t happy about it.
“Yes.”
“Do you still love him?”
“Not the way that you think. I love him, because he gave me Jacque.”
Cypher tried not to be jealous, but the idea of his mate with another man was not sitting well with him, even if it had happened so many years ago.
Lilly felt Cypher’s arms tense up. She looked up into his face and saw anger and possessiveness in his eyes.
“Talk to me Cypher,” she said to him, gently.
“I don’t want to share your heart,” he told her, honestly.
“You will always have to share my heart. Jacque holds a big chunk of it.”
Cypher shook his head. “That’s not what I meant. I expect to share with her and I’m happy to do so, but I hate that he held it at one time.” Cypher closed his eyes and tried to sort through his emotions before he continued. “I don’t want to sound like a petulant child, but I want you to be all mine.”
“I am all yours, Cypher, or at least that’s the direction we are headed, but you have a past as well. If I remember correctly on a certain night when you held me in bed I asked you if you had been with a woman and you said yes.”
“None that I have loved, none that have ever had any hold on me,” Cypher argued.
“They had to have held something sweetie, for you to be in their bed.” Lilly snorted at her own joke, but noticed that Cypher didn’t find the humor in it.
“That was a good one; you have to at least give me a little credit.”
He growled. “It was crude.”
“Yes, well so was the act of you sleeping with women solely for gratification, but then it happened right?” She shot back.
“Are you jealous little one?” He asked with a gleam in his eyes.
“No,” she answered, in a clipped tone.
Cypher pulled her against his chest and put his mouth directly next to her ear. “Since the moment I laid eyes on you I have forgotten any other woman who has crossed my path.”
“And your bed?” Lilly asked.
“In my mind, there is only you, Lilly. All I see is your face all I want is you. You are right we both have a past. I will try not to let your past make me into a jealous fool.”
“So, when you meet Dillon, you will be nice?” She asked, cautiously.
“Why would I meet Dillon?” He asked.
“Because he is Jacque’s father and if you are my…” She stumbled for words because she still wasn’t sure what to call him.
“Your mate, Lilly, I’m your mate.”
“Okay chill out. Geeze, if you are my mate, then you are bound, at some point, to meet him,” she paused before she added, “and if they called the packs, he is probably going to be at the Romanian mansion.”
Cypher’s breath froze in his lungs. He hadn’t expected to have to meet his mate’s former lover in a matter of hours.
“Cypher?” Lilly turned to look at him. “You okay?”
He took her face in his hands and kissed her gently at first, but then his lips pressed harder and he pulled her tighter. After several minutes, they were both breathing heavily. Lilly blushed as she thought about the others sitting nearby. It felt like any time Cypher’s lips met hers she forgot about everything else.
“You are mine,” he told her firmly.
“Cypher, Dillon has a mate. He isn’t going to try to take me.”
“I need to know that I am not competing with a memory Lilly. I need to know that your heart is yours to give and not in the hands of a man who gave you up.”
Lilly smiled up at him as she ran a finger across his lips.
“You have nothing to worry about, Warlock King. I got my heart back a long time ago and for the first time I’m ready to give it to someone who wants to keep it.”
Cypher pressed his forehead to hers. “Forever?”
“That’s all I’m asking for,” Lilly smiled. “But, I swear if we do this, and then some time down the li
ne some chick comes out of the woodwork claiming to be your woman, I will castrate you. I just need you to know that upfront.”
Cypher cringed. “Then lucky for me there is no woman lurking in my past, or waiting in my future.”
“Good answer,” Lilly kissed him quickly on the lips, and then snuggled into him.
“Sleep little one,” Cypher’s chest rumbled with his words. “Tomorrow is going to be interesting.”
Cyn crept up slowly on the sleeping group. The warlock warriors at her back moved just as silently as she, which surprised her because of their size. She paused when she felt a hand on her arm. She looked over to see Gerick, Cypher’s head warrior, put his finger to his lips. He motioned for the others to surround the sleeping group and Cyn smiled when she saw the mischief in the warrior’s eyes.
“How is it that I have come across so fair a maiden in the woods all alone?” Cyn closed her eyes as she admonished herself. She hadn’t bothered to check if the forms that appeared to be sleeping were really all people.
Thalion wrapped an arm around her and pulled her against his chest.
“I’m glad you made it back safely,” he whispered against her neck.
For just a moment, Cyn relaxed into his hold. For just a moment, she let herself think of what it would be like to be his, but just as quickly, she let it go. She pulled away from him and turned to face him.
“I should have known that someone would be keeping watch.” She had made a rookie mistake and it irked her that Thalion had witnessed it.
“You were just eager to get back to me,” he teased.
“It’s not long until daylight,” she told him, ignoring his jesting. “Have you all come up with a plan?”
“We’re going to the Romanian mansion,” he said, nonchalantly .
Cyn rolled her eyes. “They are on the verge of war with a witch, have twelve packs gathered under one roof and you think you can just march up and ask to break bread with them?”