by Quinn Loftis
“I’m sorry to have barged in on you,” she started but was interrupted by Jacque.
“First off, you are welcome here anytime. Second, it was the fairy who barged in.”
Peri rolled her eyes but didn’t comment.
“Cypher has decided it is not safe for me to stay,” Lilly continued as if her daughter had not spoken, “because of his brother. So he has asked me to return to my home in Texas.”
Vasile did not speak right away. His eyes were narrowed, but not in anger. He seemed to be carefully considering what he would say.
“Did Cypher consult you on the matter before he asked you to leave?” he finally asked.
“No.”
“Surprise, surprise,” Jen muttered.
“Peri, what part do you play in all of this?” he asked as he turned to look at the fae.
“I went to talk with Cypher like I told you I would. It turned out to be a very informative conversation. First, we discussed the disgusting evil that is permeating his forest, and then we discussed the eviction of his supposed mate. Then I told him you requested his presence. Just as I was getting ready to leave, he asked me if I would accompany Lilly to the airport. Being the kind hearted person that I am, I agreed.”
There was a collective snort from the females in the room.
“If by kind hearted you mean meddlesome, then yes, you are indeed kindhearted.” The words came from Elle who sat across the room and surprised glances shot her way. She simply stared back, waiting for Peri to continue.
“Why did you bring Lilly here and not the airport?” Alina asked.
“I thought she had a right to tell her daughter what was going on and say her goodbyes.”
“So you do plan to go back to the U.S.?” Vasile asked.
Lilly glanced over at Jacque who stood rigidly with tight fists at her sides and narrowed eyes. Fane stood behind her with a hand resting on her hip. After several heartbeats, Lilly looked back to Vasile.
“Yes.”
“I’m going with her,” Jacque said as soon as the word was out of her mother’s mouth. She stepped away from Fane. He let out an audible growl and reached for his mate, but Jacque swatted his hand away. She walked over to stand next to her mom and took her hand.
“I know that Cypher thinks that he is making her safe by sending her home, but if his brother is as whacked as he says he is and he wants my mom, then an ocean is not going to keep him from her.”
Vasile looked from Jacque to his son and felt the weight of his position settle over him. Fane was in no state to travel, to be out of his territory, and out of Vasile’s control. And Vasile could not order Jacque to stay here. If he did, she would probably end up resenting Fane because of it. Next to him, Alina patted his leg and then stood up.
“I will go with Lilly and Jacque,” she announced. Vasile did not look up. He was not surprised that his mate would offer such a thing, and he would be a very dumb man to think he could stop her. He knew what she was doing, trying to appease their son and help keep Lilly and their daughter in-law safe at the same time. Fane just might be okay with Jacque going if his mother was with her―maybe.
“I’m going too.” Sally suddenly jumped up and hurried over to Jacque’s side. Costin’s face resembled Fane’s as he took several steps after his mate. The looks on the ladies’ faces had him stopping in his tracks. He had no doubts that they would claw his eyes out if he tried to get Sally; females could be protective like that.
“And me.” Jen was up as quickly as her pregnant self could move and standing next to the group. She looked back over her shoulder, expecting Decebel to be right behind her snarling and objecting. But instead, he was rooted to his spot. His jaw was so tense she thought he just might break it from clenching and his eyes were bright, bright, amber. For the first time in their relationship, he wasn’t stopping her from leaving his side, and with her being pregnant no less. The shock of it nearly drove her to her knees. She felt a warm hand slide in hers and looked over to see Sally giving her a gentle smile. Sally, the glue to the trio’s friendship, always knew what to do and when to do it. Jen turned her attention back to the group, effectively putting her mate at her back.
“If Jen goes, then I go.” Cynthia stepped forward with a resigned sigh.
Rachel, Crina, Elle and Cyn stepped forward next and the growls in the room were beginning to drown out the voices.
“This is really a tough choice,” Peri grumbled. “I can either live in estrogen city or testosterone valley.” She looked from the men to the women and then stepped towards the females. “But at least in estrogen city there will be chocolate and Jen to keep me entertained.”
Jen grinned. “We aim to please Peri fairy.”
Alina turned to her mate questioningly. “What would you say to this, Alpha?”
Vasile stood and looked around the room at the very tense, very angry mated males and then back at the determined females. “You are asking the impossible my love,” he told her.
“Lilly is pack by way of Jacque and it is our job to protect her. The males need to stay here and figure out a plan to deal with this new threat. I would think you all would be happy to have us out of harm’s way.”
He chuckled out loud. “You would play that card.”
Alina tilted her head to the side and waited for his decision.
“It is within my right to speak for the females of my pack. Decebel will need to speak for the females in his pack.” He paused and glanced one more time at the males. He wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to strangle him in his sleep. “The females who have requested,” he laughed at that, “to go with Lilly will do so except Rachel.” Rachel looked at Vasile, waiting for his explanation and knowing the Alpha always had an agenda. “Rachel, we cannot have both healers away. One must remain here to tend to the needs of the pack and since you are in my pack, you stay.”
Gavril let out a satisfied rumble and walked over, tugging Rachel away from the group. He pulled her into his arms which seemed to soften the frustration that had been written across her tight lips.
Sorin stepped forward and Adam was right behind him. “Don’t you think some males should go with them?”
“And who would I send?” Vasile snapped, “If I send a couple of the mated males, the others will feel slighted. If I send any of the unmated males, they will die by the teeth of one of the mated males. So tell me Sorin, who can I send?”
Sorin did not have an answer and he knew Vasile was right. He stepped back, but his eyes continued to glow as he turned his eyes on his mate.
“Decebel, you must decide if you will allow your mate and Sally to go.” Vasile took a step back, giving the other alpha the floor.
Decebel’s eyes bore into Jennifer’s back. She refused to look at him and he knew it was because he hadn’t refused her request. How ironic was it that the one time he did not object to her, she gets angry about it.
“They may go.” his words rung out through the hall and he swore that everyone stopped breathing. Was he really so unreasonable that they would be so shocked over his decision? He thought back over the course of the past few months and decided, yes, he definitely was unreasonable when it came to Jennifer because the idea of losing her was enough to drive him to the most irrational choices sometimes.
“We leave tonight,” Peri announced. Growls and chairs being shoved out of the way began to fill the room as angry mates tried to keep their anger under control. Costin lost the battle and phased right there—clothes tearing, eyes glowing, saliva dripping from his fangs. He gave Sally one last look before turning and running from the great hall.
“Oh dear.” Sally blew out an exhausted breath.
“I think that’s going to top the understatements of all understatements,” Jacque told them as she pointed them in the direction of her own mate who was standing so still he didn’t even look like he was breathing, but his clawed hand gripping the door frame was the damning evidence that his own control was nearly gone.
“So where are we meeting and what time?” Jen spoke up and drew all the females’ attention away from the ticked-off males.
“Vasile said we can take the pack jet and it will be ready to go in two hours,” Alina told them.
Cynthia rubbed her hands together and was suddenly in all business mode. “Alright then, we have two hours to pack and calm the guys down enough so that they might not tear the mansion apart while we are gone.”
They each again glanced over their shoulders and Jen let out a snort. “Yeah, I don’t think anything we say or do is going to calm this bunch down. Look,” she pointed, “Vasile has Sorin up against the wall by his throat.”
Elle’s eyes widened and took a step in her mate’s direction, but Alina stopped her with a gentle hand on her arm.
“That is between Alpha and pack member. Do not interfere; you will only make it worse.”
Elle’s lips pursed and it was obvious that she didn’t want to listen to Alina. But after one last glance, she turned away.
The girls all agreed to meet at the front doors of the mansion in two hours whether their males were calmed down or not. Jen pointed out that maybe there should be some sort of signal if they were detained, “by ropes or something equally as fun,” she told them. They all shook their heads at her. With audible groans, they headed towards their rooms.
Jen turned to look at Decebel who hadn’t appeared to have moved from the spot where he had announced his decision. She narrowed her eyes at him and a snarl worthy of an alpha female ground out through her lips.
“Our room. Now.”
Decebel flinched under his mate's stare and the words that she pushed through their bond, the one he was trying to close off, tore at his heart. That pain would be nothing compared to the anguish he was about to endure because he was doing something that went against everything in his nature. His wolf was in an absolute rage and Decebel knew that if he let his wolf have any amount of control, he would grab Jennifer and never let her out of his sight. The idea of their mate and their child so far away was like a knife ripping through his organs, twisting this way and that, destroying any function they might have had. And this was only the beginning.
Chapter 6
“Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, there is no right choice in a situation. You can go over it and over it in your mind, looking at every angle, and there is simply nothing you can change. I would rather have her by my side, but then she would be in perilous danger. So I will send her home, but then she is out of my reach if something does go wrong. I must choose the lesser of two evils, but I’m beginning to wonder if even that will be too much a price to pay.” ~Cypher
“Enter,” Cypher called over his shoulder at the sound of the knock. He was attempting to sound civil but there was nothing in him at the moment that felt civil. Lilly was gone. He had sent her away. And so now here he stood on the brink of some sort of war with his brother and no mate to tell him all would be well. Whether a man knew it or not, he needed a woman at his back: someone to remind him that all is not lost, someone to show him the sliver of light that is creeping its way through the dark, someone to hold him, even when he didn’t realized he needed to be held.
“She is gone,” Gerick, the general of his army, spoke softly behind him.
Cypher bit back the snide comment that was on the tip of his tongue. It wasn’t Gerick’s fault that Lilly was gone. It was nobody’s fault but his own.
“I know, but thank you for telling me.”
He knew that Gerick wanted to say more, but was not sure if it was his place to do so.
“What is it, Gerick?” Cypher finally asked as a loud sigh gusted from his lungs.
“Was it really necessary to send her away?” Gerick was attempting to keep the accusation out of his voice, but he wanted his king to be fully aware of the disapproval. “It isn’t just you who feels her absence.”
Cypher closed his eyes as he thought about the past couple of months that Lilly had been with him and his people. They had grown to love her nearly as much as he did. She was kind and understanding, willing to just listen when someone needed to talk. She had definitely brought something back to their kind that had been missing, compassion and hope. Cypher never thought that he would find a mate, and his people were convinced that they would eventually fade away as the magic continued to fade from the human realm. Cypher wasn’t sure if that was what would happen, but he understood what they meant. They felt insignificant, without purpose and unsure of what to do while they watched their king flounder his way through his existence, trying to make sense of what he needed to do next.
Humans simply did not understand the importance of a mate in the supernatural community. A mate was more than a spouse, more than someone you just spent your life with, or procreated with. A mate in the supernatural world was the completion of something that was not whole. A mate filled a space that no one else could.
Lilly was that person for Cypher. She was his, and through him, she was his people’s as well.
“Gerick,” his voice was soft as his head fell forward and a rush of air left his lungs, “I would not have sent her away if I had thought there was another option.”
“I know that. But by sending her away you have brought fear into the hearts of our people.”
“They should be afraid!” Cypher snarled as he whipped around and his eyes bore into Gerick’s. “My brother has nothing good left in him. Anything worthy in him died with his woman, and all that is left is an empty shell, yearning to be filled with the blood, sorrow, and grief of others. They should be afraid,” his last words come out in a near whisper.
Cypher knew that his words were cruel and that his anger was misplaced, but that did not help him keep it under control.
“I will be leaving in a little while to go to the Romanian pack. I’m going alone. You will need to keep an eye on the perimeter. The blackness in the air hasn’t grown any thicker, but it has not abated at all either,” Cypher’s voice had lost some of the edge and he was beginning to lock up the emotions that were threatening to consume him. He didn’t have time to pine over his mate. He had an enemy to defeat and he could not defeat him by standing in this throne room whining about things he could not change.
Lilly was gone, at least for now. Once the threat of his brother had been neutralized he would go and get her back. He only hoped that her heart did not move on while he fought to keep her safe and alive.
Decebel closed the door quietly behind him as he walked into the room Jennifer and he shared at the Romanian pack mansion. He watched quietly as Jennifer went into the closet and began bringing out clothes and laying them on the bed. She didn’t look at him or even acknowledge that he was in the room, so he waited. He didn’t have any idea what he was going to say to her, but he was terrified that as soon as he opened his mouth it was going to be to beg her to stay and plead for her forgiveness. He had hurt her so much in the past month, and he knew that she would only continue to hurt. What choice do I have he growled to himself. He wanted to save the life of their child, and he didn’t want to put Jennifer in a place where she had to choose between him or their baby. This was the only solution he could come up with, and he knew Jennifer would tell him it sucked and to come up with something new, but he was fresh out of new.
“Are you going to tell me why you are okay with letting your pregnant wife fly halfway around the world with a woman who is being hunted by a crazy warlock?” her voice was calm and even.
Decebel took a step towards her but she held up her hand to stop him.
“Answer me, B,” she told him firmly.
“I love you, Jennifer. I love you more than any man has a right to love. That is all you need to know.” He tried to implore her with his eyes to just trust him. But could he really ask that of her when he knew he was planning on ending his life without telling her.
“As romantic and fuzzy as that sounds, it’s a crap answer Dec and you know it.” Jen grabbed her suitcase from the closet and started put
ting the clothes she had laid on her bed into it. She let out a dry laugh that said she was anything but humored. “I mean seriously, after all we’ve been through together? After all we’ve done together, you honestly believe I will just take what you’re telling me and act like I have my head shoved so far up my butt that I can’t smell the shit you have spewing from your lips?”
His eyes widened at her language. He was use to her being crass, but even for her this was intense.
“Yeah, I said it,” she threw her arms out wide, “what are you going to do about it, Alpha? Tell me another sweet nothing and hope that I choke on it so I can ignore the fact that my mate is shutting me out and shipping me and his unborn child off to another country without so much as a ‘bye babe, hope our baby lives through delivery.’ Come on, Dec. What the hell is that?!”
Decebel turned abruptly and slammed his fists into the wall tearing through the plaster even as her words tore through his heart.
“HOW COULD YOU EVEN THINK SUCH A THING?” he snarled but kept his back to her. “You have no concept of the pain that I am going through right now, mate.” he turned slowly to face her as his breathing increased and he fought for control to keep from phasing. “The thought of you gone, where I can’t touch you, can’t hold you, can’t be there if you need me, is like a hot skewer being shoved into my gut.”
“How am I supposed to know Decebel?” she snarled right back. “You won’t let me in. You hide your thoughts from me. You keep your touch from me. It’s like you can’t stand to be with me. WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO THINK?” Tears were sliding down her cheeks and she had abandoned the half packed suitcase.
Their eyes met and the pain they both felt radiated between them. Decebel stumbled forward and fell to his knees in front of her.
“Please, I know I don’t deserve it, but please trust me,” he whispered against her stomach as he leaned against her.
Jen closed her eyes and soaked up the contact as she ran her fingers through his dark hair. It had grown enough in the past couple of months that it dropped in front of his eyes, adding to his off-limits allure.