Chapter 7
Fane and Decebel ran through the forest, and though they weren’t in their wolf forms, they still moved inhumanly fast. Fane had caught Jacque’s scent the minute he’d gotten out of the SUV, which had been about the same time Decebel finally decided to tell him that his mate and Jen were being chased by wild boar. He kept trying to reach out to her, but she had their mental bond closed up tight. All he could picture was his pregnant mate running through a dark forest with pigs attempting to trample her. She wasn’t helpless, by any means, but she was his and she was once again in harms’ way.
“How far did Jen say they were?” Fane asked Decebel as the Alpha kept pace beside him.
“She didn’t,” he growled. “She was yelling like a maniac and then she just shut me out.”
Fane was pretty sure that they would never fully understand their females. They wanted space, of course, but all hell would break loose if the males were the ones who closed the bonds. They wanted open and honest feelings, and yet Jacque hid from him instead of talking to him about whatever it was that had caused her to close their bond. He was truly at a loss on how to be what she needed.
Decebel suddenly made a sharp turn as he yelled, “There!”
Fane altered his course to follow the Alpha. He’d lost Jacquelyn’s trail a quarter of a mile back and could only pick up Jen’s scent and the scent of wild pigs. But still he kept running because Jen had said they were together. He had no reason to believe that Jen would be lying about it.
Jen continued to run despite the fact that she could feel her mate closing in on her. For someone who prided herself on her adaptability, she was feeling rather unprepared. She was blaming it on pregnancy hormones… No, not her own, she couldn’t get by with that anymore but she could claim Jacque’s. “Yeah, you just keep telling yourself that, blondie,” she grumbled to herself as she pushed her feet to move even faster. Jen knew she wasn’t going to keep it up much longer. Decebel was simply just too much stronger and faster than her. His legs were more powerful and able to cover more ground than hers, no matter how much she hated to admit it.
When she could hear his breathing behind her, she knew it was time to move on to part two of her plan…whatever the hell that was. She slowed down until she was able to come to a stop and leaned over, resting her hands on her knees. Her breathing was fast, but she was in no way out of breath. Werewolves could run for a long time before they finally gave out.
Decebel’s arms were around her seconds later and she leaned into his touch as she always did and always would. Jen was going to soak it up while she could because it wouldn’t be long before he put on his brooding face and started grilling her with questions that she was not going to have answers to.
“Are you alright?” he asked, his voice low and fervent.
Jen pulled back to look up at him and sure enough his amber eyes glowed with the presence of his wolf. “I’m good.”
“Where is Jacquelyn?” Fane asked as she watched him stomp around in useless circles searching through the trees. Jen could tell he was trying to listen as well. Poor wolf wouldn’t hear what he was hoping to.
“Okay, so you might want to sit down for this,” Jen said as she stepped out of Decebel’s hold. She pulled the band from her hair and re-gathered it into a neater pony tail, more to stall than for any other reason. It wasn’t like she really cared what she looked like in that moment.
“No offense, Jen, but I don’t want to sit. I want to see my mate. Is she alright? Has she found a place to hide from the boar?” Fane’s eyes were glowing the ice blue that was freaky as much as it was beautiful.
Jen let out a long sigh. Damn, she hated to give in so easily, but what was she supposed to do? It’s not like she could just keep running and expecting them to follow her. Eventually both the males were going to figure out that there weren’t any stupid pigs in the forest and there sure as hell wasn’t any Jacque. “Okay, so it’s like this,” she began. “I came over here with every intention of spending some time with my bestie and hoping to figure out what’s crawled up her butt and made her act so weird. When I got here I caught her scent leading into the forest. It was strong so I knew it was recent.” Jen paused and wondered if maybe she should skip all the truly unnecessary information, because Fane was really starting to look a tad crazy. But then she remembered the Great Luna asking her to distract him. She couldn’t let the deity down, so the long, totally unnecessary version it would be.
“So what did I do?” she asked as she walked over to a tree and leaned up against it, crossing her arms in front of her chest—might as well get comfortable. “I trek my happy little butt up into the forest, in the dark, where it is beginning to get cold. The whole time I’m marching along I’m thinking my pregnant little friend―well not little. . .because let’s face it, the girl's butt has expanded. Anyways, I’m thinking she better have brought something warm to wear, because as you can see,” she said as she pointed to herself, “I did not come prepared to take a leisurely stroll through the cold mountain terrain. But then, knowing Jacque, and what a planner she is not, I’m figuring she probably didn’t put on a coat so I started to pick up the pace. I didn’t realize how far I’d gone until I happen to look around and notice all the big boulders and crevices in the mountain. This is where you,” she said looking at Decebel, “contacted me about my breathing. Truth be told, babe, I was having some flashbacks to a certain time when a nut job pushed me into one of those crevices.”
Decebel growled and took a step toward here. Jen held up her hand. “Chill, big guy, I lived. I’m here. It’s all good.” Jen had yet to open the bond completely back up, and she felt Decebel’s very powerful push and finally dropped it.
“Are you truly okay?” he asked and the tone of his voice had her wanting to crawl up in his lap and reassure him that memories weren’t enough to have her falling apart.
“I’m fine, B. It just caught me by surprise.”
He watched her intently before finally nodding.
“Not to interrupt but could you please just get to the part where you tell me where Jacquelyn is?” Fane asked and Jen could tell he was trying very hard to keep the growl out of his voice.
“Right,” Jen said turning back to him. “So, after dealing with that minor setback I continued on my mission to figure out where Jacque was and why the crap she’d gone so far into the mountains at night.”
Fane paused in his pacing and closed his eyes. Okay, Jen, she thought, maybe I should tone it down about his mate being alone in the dark cold mountains full of predators.
“Maybe you should just get to the point,” her mate helpfully added.
She shot him a glare. “I have a reason for doing what I’m doing.”
“Naturally,” he huffed.
“Not too long after the boulders, I picked up a scent that didn’t belong in the forest.”
Fane’s head snapped around and his eyes narrowed on her.
Jen held up a hand. “Whoa, hold it together a little longer wolf-man. It was the Great Luna.” Jen inwardly growled at herself for not having a better plan. Man, it was embarrassing to have to resort to the truth, especially since giving him the truth wasn’t really going to help. Regardless of what the Great Luna had told her, she still didn’t have a clue where Jacque was, and that was not going to make the already pissed off wolf any happier.
“What did she say?” Fane practically snarled.
Decebel took several steps closer to his mate; his natural instinct to protect her, no matter who it was, taking over. Jen knew she was going to have to tread carefully. Male werewolves were touchy about their females on a good day. Fane did not know where his mate was and could not communicate with her. It definitely wasn’t a good day.
“You know how she can be,” Jen hedged. “She said a whole lot but very little of it was any use. Basically, it was a whole lot of Jacque needing to learn a lesson about something―blah, blah, blah― and she might have mentioned something about needing me to distract you for a bit so that she would have time to teach Jacque said lesson. So naturally because she is a deity and all and could basically zap my ass out of existence if she wanted to, I did as I was told and I provided a distraction. I will admit that it was not my best effort, but, seriously, look at what I had to work with.” She motioned to the forest around her. “I’m honestly quite ashamed that I’ve had to give you this long, drawn out story, though it is the truth, when I could have just told you that last part. But you have to try and understand the position that I’m in here, Fane. I mean surely if the Great Luna knows where Jacque is then she isn’t in any danger.” Jen was attempting to sound reasonable but judging by the rapid breathing that was issuing forth from Fane, he was a few exits past reasonable-ville.
“So where did she say my mate was?” Fane asked and his words sounded a tad garbled since his incisors had lengthened—not a good sign.
Jen chuckled. “Funny thing that, um.” She paused. “She didn’t exactly say.”
“So she gave you an idea of where she is?” Fane asked, his piercing blue eyes boring into her.
“Not so much.” Jen shook her head.
Fane was shaking with the need to phase, to hunt, and to protect his mate. Jen knew exactly what he was going through because she’d felt those emotions running through her own mate when she and their daughter had been in danger. He was basically a ticking time bomb. And here she thought things were going to be all calm and hunky dory for once. That will teach her to think.