“Stop pacing Jas, you’re making me nervous,” Bjarni implored. Wulf was supposed to be back about three hours ago. He had left last night, promising to be back this evening by dinnertime. It was midnight and none of them had returned yet; there was no news. It was driving her mad. He had made sweet love to her before he left, asking her not to leave the compound, no matter what until he returned, that he had to be sure she was safe. She had promised, just as he had promised to come back after meeting the traitorous FBI agent. They were planning on drilling him until they got the info they required. They had liaised with another FBI agent they worked with. The agent was to be on standby and would listen to the confession so he could take agent Jack Finn into custody. What if the other agent was also a traitor?

She couldn’t do this; it was driving her crazy. Bjarni had tried to keep her occupied, she knew that she was feeling like this because she had had no contact from Wulf.  Bonded couples needed to touch or talk often or they would start feeling the deep loss that most of the time, had driven bonded couples to commit suicide when one partner went missing for a long while. 

Now she understood what Wulf meant when he was leaving, saying, “I leave the most precious part of me in your safekeeping; Bjarni make sure she doesn’t do anything if I’m detained.” Wulf had said as he was about to pull away with the others. They had tried to contact the men but none of them were answering. She had been pacing behind the couch in the entertainment room. Bjarni and Caelius had tried keeping her entertained but her mind wasn’t able to concentrate on anything except Wulf. Caelius had left about ten minutes ago to try to contact them again. Bjarni was sitting on the couch watching a movie.

“I’m going to my room.” She only made it to the door.

Bjarni stood in front of her with his arms crossed. “I’m sorry Little Sister, but I can’t let you do that. Wulf entrusted your life into my hands and I can’t see you or what you are doing while you are in your room,” he said with an apologetic look on his face. 

“I’m just going to lie down, I will be fine.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t let you do that. Lie here on the couch I will turn off the TV. You can try and sleep here. If anything happens to you Wulf would kill me. But if for some reason he didn’t, I would want to be dead if I had to watch one of my brothers lose his mind because of me.” He had a helpless look on his face. She didn’t want to make this difficult for him, so she turned and went to sit on the couch. Returning to his seat he was about to turn off the TV when she stopped him. 

“Leave it on, the noise doesn’t disturb me,” she said just as Caelius came back.

“I’m sorry but I can’t get hold of them,” he apologised. She nodded and closed her eyes. She didn’t see the look that passed between the two men. They both got up and went to stand outside the room where she wouldn’t be able to hear them. 

“I got hold of Ceric. He’s still waiting, Draco and Wulf haven’t come through the tunnel yet.”

“What are we going to do with her? She’s already freaking out. You know the longer it gets the worse it will be. What’s Wulf thinking, I’m sure he must know she’s suffering,” Caelius grumbled.

“That’s what’s worrying, he would never hurt or let anything or anyone hurt her if he could stop it. For him to still not to have appeared or contacted us; there must be something wrong. Soon or maybe already he must be feeling the same separation effects that she’s feeling.” Bjarni had been through this before with another brother, he knew the effects of separation that a couple went through. He would do anything not to go through that again.   

Both men were looking at the couch where she was resting, trying to sleep curled up like a child.  She looked so lost that both men wanted to hold her close and protect her from the world. A few hours later they were still sitting in the Entertainment room. Caelius had fallen asleep. Bjarni was leaning back on his side with his eyes closed but Jas could tell he was awake. She had tried to sleep but she had a tightness around her heart that was driving her crazy. Tears were rolling down her face; she hadn’t even noticed when she had started crying.  A few hours later she got up, she couldn’t sit here doing nothing. As soon as she moved Bjarni opened his eyes.

“What’s wrong little sister?” He was looking at her with concern.

“I can’t do this anymore Bjarni, I’m sorry!”

“His just late Sugar, give him time.” Caelius was now also awake.

“I know and I tried, but I have this pressure, this feeling of loss it’s bigger than what I think,” she said hysterically.

“Okay, I didn’t want to do this, but I’m sure it’s kinder than leaving you the way you are.”

“What do you mean Bjarni?”

“I’m going to give you a sedative; I got it from Bion. It’s light and won’t harm you, I promise.” He got up and went to the small bar fridge in the corner, pulling out a bottle of water. Dropping two little tablets that he had taken out of a small plastic bottle that he had kept in the pocket of his jacket into her hand. 

“I don’t want that, what if Wulf needs me?”

Bjarni advanced shaking his head. “I insist Little Sister; it will relax and give you a few hours peace of mind.  Don’t worry if Wulf arrives or phones we will wake you.”

She looked at him for a while, then nodded. He handed her the bottle of water waiting while she swallowed them. Taking the bottle away when she was finished.

“Bion tells me they work quickly so maybe you should lie down.” He inclined his head to the couch. Taking his advice she stretched out feeling herself starting to relax, she was also feeling drowsy.

“Is she out?” Caelius asked a few minutes later.

“I think so, Bion said she should be out for about six hours.”

“I’m going to try them again, hopefully we have better luck this time.” Pulling out his satellite phone he dialled.   After two rings, Ceric answered. “Hey dude, what’s happening?”

“They have just come through the tunnel, I can see them running this way. Will contact you once we are on our way.” The call went dead.

“At least we know they’re alive.” Fifteen minutes later Caelius’s phone rang. “Hey!”

“Caelius, how’s Jas?” Wulf asked, his voice straining. Caelius looked at Bjarni and they both looked at her. Wulf wasn’t going to like knowing they had drugged her.

“She’s fine. How are you guys? Did the mission go well?”

“It went well enough; we’re a bit banged up but will survive. Let me speak to her.” The men looked at each other. How the hell were they going to delay this?

“Oh, what happened? How did you guys get hurt?”

“We’ll tell you everything when we get there. Now let me speak to her.” Wulf’s voice was gruff and Caelius could hear the impatience in it.

“Umm, I can’t do that.” He really wasn’t looking forward to this.

“What the fuck do you mean? I want to speak to her.” His voice raised in worry.

They had just arrived at the airstrip to board the plane to fly back home. Wulf was on edge; his instinct had been correct there had been an ambush but they had prevailed. He had got some useful info and had managed to hand special agent Jack Finn over to his colleagues to arrest him for conspiracy. He had been feeling the effects of separation from Jas for a couple of hours now, he needed to talk to her. His shoulder was still hurting like the devil, but he had refused assistance from Bion until they were in the air.

Wulf had been shot, the bullet luckily had gone right through the top right-hand side of his shoulder. Draco had also been shot, but the bullet was still lodged in his leg. Even with the pain of being shot this helpless feeling of loss had no match.

“She’s sleeping.” Bjarni had taken the phone away from Caelius and was now trying to calm Wulf.

“It’s nine o’clock in the morning. What you mean she’s sleeping? Wake her up Bjarni!” Why were they being so difficult? Had something happened to her and they weren’t telling him? “Bjarni is something wrong? What’s going on?” he was starting to panic. 

“She’s fine, I promise. It’s just that we kind of had to drug her and we can’t wake her up.” Bjarni explained, waiting for an earthquake to hit him. Wulf was quiet for a while, when he spoke again his voice was so low if it wasn’t for their extraordinary hearing they wouldn’t have heard him.

“Mother Fucker! You drugged her? What do you mean drugged her? And why isn’t she waking up?” Wulf could feel himself losing control, his vision was blurring. If anything happened to his woman they were dead. 

“Wulf, we gave her something to sleep, she was stressing. The effect just hasn’t worn off yet.”

“We’re on our way home. My woman had better be fine!”

Throwing the phone, he sat forward with his elbow on his knees and dropped his head onto his hand.  His injured arm was hanging down. His breathing was laboured, he could feel himself losing control.

“Hey, my man, try and relax. You will see her in about four hours. We’re taking off now!” Ceric called out from the front of the plane, Wulf had hardly said anything since he had joined them. They could all see he was in distress and pain.

“They drugged her; apparently she wasn’t handling it too well!” he growled, still holding his head.

“It’s just a sedative, she’s sleeping until the effects wear off. She will be fine.” Bion was leaning over Draco’s leg extracting the bullet. They were in the seats behind Wulf. He had heard the telephone conversation and was now trying to appease him. Wulf lifted his head looking back at Bion.

“You gave them a sedative to give my woman and you didn’t mention it to me?” His eyes were shining with fury.

“They were only to give it to her if they couldn’t calm her. It’s not going to hurt her Wulf we were all thinking of her wellbeing and yours. If we had said anything to you your mind would have been on her the whole time and not on what you were doing,” Bion reasoned, trying to calm him.

Wulf growled and lowered his head again. Everyone was quiet for the rest of the flight. Bion approached Wulf to attend to his shoulder. Wulf tensed but didn’t raise his head. When they landed Wulf was the first out of the plain. He went through the tunnel into the compound and followed his woman’s scent to the entertainment room. Bjarni was standing outside the room waiting for him.

As he approached, Bjarni nodded into the room. “She’s still sleeping.”

Stepping inside the room, he stood there just breathing in her essence. She was lying on the one couch, her legs were drawn up into a ball. Her face was blotchy. He could see she had been crying for a long time. Walking towards her he picked her up and held her close to him.

Sitting on the couch he nuzzled her hair. He hated knowing that she had suffered. If he had been able to talk to her it would have been fine, but because they had blocked all connections, he hadn’t been able to contact her until they had crossed the tunnel and got into the car. He had phoned straight away but they had already sedated her. He sat like that for about three hours before she started to rouse. As she awoke she felt the heat enveloping her and Wulf’s scent; it filled her with peace and contentment. 

“Wulf,” her eyes were so heavy she could barely get his name out.

“I’m here Angel … I’m right here,” he said, kissing her forehead. She cranked her eyes open, looking into his worried eyes. 

“I was so worried about you. Please don’t do that again.” She was rubbing her face against his chest as she spoke.

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“Why did you take so long? Why didn’t you call? It was driving me crazy not knowing?”

“It took us longer than we expected to break him. He had also taken some Keres MC friends with him. We had to neutralize the situation before we could extract the info we needed from him,” Wulf explained, trying to make it as light as possible. Sitting up on his lap she looked him over. When he saw the horror on her face he knew he should have taken the time to get cleaned up, but all he could think about when he got here was to see her.

“Don’t worry, it’s just a scratch.” She stroked her finger lightly down his face where he had a bruise on his cheek and a cut above his brow. That area had swollen, closing his eye a little. She lightly felt over the bandage on his arm. Looking up into his eyes, he could see the distress there.

“What happened to your arm?”

“It’s nothing, a bullet grazed it. How are you feeling Angel? I understand that Bjarni gave you something to sleep?”

“I’m feeling fine now that you are here. I don’t want to feel like that way again. I was so worried about you and the longer it took, the worse it got, it was like an emptiness in me. I’m going to handcuff myself to you next time you have to leave.” She promised, hugging him around the neck tightly.

“I forgot to ask, how are the others?”

“They’re fine. It was just Draco that got shot but he’s also fine.” Just then Bjarni stuck his head in the door.

“So, I see you are awake, and looking happier. Wulf I’m never taking care of her again, just so you know. She nearly had me crying too,” Bjarni teased, winking at her.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I was being such a baby. I was just so worried.” Burying her face in Wulf’s neck again in embarrassment.

“Stop teasing her dimwit. Bjarni, thanks. I’m sorry I was cranky on the plane, I appreciate what you did.” He looked at Bjarni in apology, knowing that he had snapped and that Bjarni was only trying to help.

“No apology needed, I understand,” he stated and left as quickly as he had arrived.

“Shall we go eat something? I’m hungry. We didn’t eat anything yesterday,” She asked just as her stomach rumbled. Wulf smiled and nodded, standing up still holding her against his chest.

“Put me down, you will hurt your arm. Wulf, put me down.”

“It’s fine, you won’t hurt me. You’re as light as a feather,” he teased, but he lowered her to the floor, wrapping his arm around her waist to guide her to the kitchen.