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.”