Blood Rites

"You know, I could just shift and be out of these in a second," she challenged him, trying to hold his stare.

Logan growled and stepped towards her, his eyes glowing. Cynthia had to drop her gaze. Crap, he was more dominant than her. Of course he would be, he was a freaking Beta.

"You can try to change, but know this: there is only one reason I am not an Alpha of a pack. Can you guess what that is?"

Cynthia realized what he was telling her was that his power was strong enough to prevent her change. He would have to be Alpha material in order to do that. The only thing that would make him weaker than other Alphas of course, she thought, looking over at Jacque... "You don't have a mate," she answered.

"That will be remedied soon enough," Logan growled, his eyes still glowing.

Logan turned to leave the room, telling her not to move. Regardless of what he had said she tried to change, but Logan had been telling the truth. The power he had flowing through the house prevented her change.

Logan returned, carrying three more sets of handcuffs. He walked over to her and he grabbed one of her ankles and applied the cuff, then with the other end he cuffed the rail of the cedar chair. Cynthia glared at him as he watched him secure Jacque in the same fashion.

As Logan stepped away, he heard Jacque moan. He looked back at her and saw that her eyes were fluttering and she was trying to move. He stood frozen, waiting, but he didn't have to wait long as Jacque's eyes opened. She looked at him then tried to look around, her eyes finding Cynthia.

"Dr. Steele?" Her voice was hoarse and full of unasked questions. Jacque turned her head back to him. "Logan?" She groaned and tried to pull her legs up towards her chest but wasn't able since one was cuffed to the chair rail. When it seemed that the pain had passed she looked down at her foot, and then tried to pull her arms around, realizing she was handcuffed.

"Would someone like to explain to me why I'm handcuffed and not in the hospital?" Jacque asked, looking back and forth between Dr. Steele and Logan.

"You've been kidnapped, Jacque. Logan wants to make you his mate," Cynthia answered matter of fact like, and with much more truth that Jacque expected.

Once again, pain wracked Jacque's body and she closed her eyes, trying to shut it out. When she could breathe again she looked at Dr. Steele. "What's wrong with me?"

Cynthia explained to her the same thing she had to Logan in the plane, but stopped before she told her how she could be healed.

"Okay, doc. You can't possibly think that I don't know that you must know how to fix this. Why else would Logan bring you along?"

It was Logan who answered. "You need wolf blood. You will get it from me."

"Excellent," Jacque said sarcastically even as she reached for Fane with her mind.

"Fane!" She couldn't contain the fear that poured into the bond between them. She was in pain, she might die if she didn't get werewolf blood, and some crazy wolf had once again decided she should be his. Said wolf wanted her to take his blood and, yeah, scared was an understatement at this point.

Jacque felt arms wrap around her and a hand caress her face. “Jacquelyn." The desperate ache she heard in his voice was enough to bring tears to her eyes.

Chapter 28

Sally and Jen listened as Vasile told everyone what had happened with the Coldspring pack. When the wolves had returned from their meeting, eyes glowing and the power rolling off of each of them sucking the air from the room, it gave away that they had bad news.

"Now that we know who has her, how can we figure out where Logan took her?" Alina asked her mate.

"I've been thinking about that and the only thing I can think to do at this point would be to question Dillon's wolves." Vasile turned to look at the Alpha. "How do you feel about that?"

Dillon nodded his head in agreement. "I was thinking the same thing. I don't know if Logan would have confided in any of my pack, but the only way to know for sure is to question them." He turned to his wolves. "Lee, Phillip, Dalton, and Aidan, you will be first."

Vasile stood and turned to Lilly. "If you don't mind, I would prefer all of the women wait in the kitchen."

Before Lilly could object, Jen grabbed her hand. "Come on, Ms. P. Let the fur balls do their thing. I'm sure they will gladly fill us in once they have beaten the truth out of these four."

"Jennifer," Decebel growled.

"Save it, wolf," Jen growled back, holding her hand up in indication she didn't want to hear what he had to say, "you and I will dance later."

Lilly let Jen pull her into the kitchen while Sally and Alina followed. Sally went straight for the fridge and pulled out a Coke. Turning to Jen, who had hopped up on the counter, she tossed her one, knowing she would be expecting it. Then Sally grabbed her own and went and stood next to Jen, leaning back against the counter. Alina stood opposite the girls with Lilly next to her.

"Alina, why would Logan take Jacque?" Lilly asked the female Alpha.

Alina stared at the floor for a few moments before answering, "I can think of two reasons. One, he thinks he is helping Dillon by being the one to make the decision to take Jacque so that Dillon doesn't have to."

"If that's the reason he's dumber than he looked," Jen said in between drinks.

"The second would be the one I feel is probably the reason, he wants a mate. I'm not sure how old Logan is, but from the power I could sense on him he's old enough to be feeling the effects of not having a mate," Alina explained.

"What is with this mate business? Is it really so big of a deal that these werewolves are willing to gamble their lives?" Sally asked Alina.

"To a human it seems unrealistic," Alina answered. "The idea of a soul mate, what we call a true mate. There are so many facets to the magic behind our kind. I don't understand it all, I just know what I've seen to be true. There is a darkness in the soul of a male wolf. He is designed to be fierce, unrelenting, protective to an extreme, and unforgiving. If a male does not find his mate, this darkness begins to take over and gradually he begins to go mad, unable to control the darkness that was once something that kept his family, his pack safe. Often males will describe it as being at war with their wolf." All three women were listening so intently that they didn't notice the male wolves that had gathered in the background, listening.