“If I never see you again, at least I can say that you were mine. At one time, you belonged only to me. I hold onto that as I feel the link between us slipping away. I hold onto the knowledge that there was a time when the bond between us completed our souls, leaving no space between us. There was a time when I did not question how long our lives together would be, because where you went, I went. And now, somehow, we went different directions, and I am so much weaker without you.” ~Alina
“Do you think we will ever have children?” Jacque asked Fane as they lay on their backs on a blanket in the floor of their room. Fane had surprised her with a midnight picnic, complete with chocolate covered strawberries and the little finger sandwiches that she always thought were ridiculous. It had made her laugh, and that had been his goal.
“Most definitely,” he told her.
“How can you be so sure?”
“I don’t believe you could have been brought into this world and not be given the chance to pass on your love, compassion, intelligence, and loyalty to a child who could then be a light in this dark world. How will good remain in the world if those who are good do not raise up the next generation?”
Jacque smiled at him. “Thought about this much?”
Fane chuckled. “If you mean about procreating with you, well, what man doesn’t think about that with his wife?”
She smacked his arm and then broke into uncontrollable giggles as he tickled her. Though he never tickled her long, because there was only one thing he liked more than her laughter, at least that is what he had told her, and that was kissing her.
He braced himself above her on his arms and looked down into her flushed face. Her chest rose and fell rapidly as she tried to catch her breath. Jacque looked up into those amazing blue eyes and thought that if she could go to bed every night staring into those eyes, then she would be happy.
“One day, my love, we will have a child and that child will be more loved than any child in history.” He leaned down and kissed her gently, but had to stop because of her laughter. “What is funny?”
“Fane every parent feels that way about their child.”
“Maybe so, but then those parents aren’t Canis lupus. We love on a whole different level.”
“Don’t I know it,” she said breathlessly at the mischievous flash in his eyes.
He leaned down to kiss her again and as Jacque waited for their lips to touch, she felt his weight growing lighter on her, the heat of his body was leaving hers. She opened her eyes and saw that he was fading. “Fane,” she called his name, reaching for him desperately. His eyes were sad, as his lips moved, she read the words, “I love you.”
Jacque woke with a start as she sat up. Dirt was stuck to her sweaty cheek from where her face had been pressed to the hard ground. She looked around her and remembered where she was—the dark forest-not in her bedroom, not with chocolate strawberries, and not with her mate. Her heart pounded painfully in her chest and she pressed her hand to her chest as if that could take the pain away.
“How are you?” she heard Alina’s soft voice a few feet from her. Her mother-in-law looked utterly exhausted. She had been trying not to sleep, worried that the white wolf would return. Jacque hadn’t decided if Alina was worried she would miss seeing him because she wanted to see him, or if she was afraid she wouldn’t be awake to protect them. Most likely the Alpha was torn between the two emotions.
“The pain is getting worse,” Jacque admitted.
Alina’s lips tightened into a grim line. “And it will only continue to do so.”
Jacque let out a huff of laughter and grimaced from the pain it inflicted. “That’s what I love about you; you don’t sugar coat it. You simply tell it like it is.”
Alina smiled. “I could lie, but then I think you will handle the pain better if you are prepared for it.”
“Are you scared of him?” Jacque asked not bothering to point out the him she was talking about.
“Yes and no. Seeing him was such a shock, but then there was hope only to be quickly followed by despair. He has been trapped in this place for so very long, Jacque. For him to have been surrounded in this, breathing in the black magic every day, without light in his life, breaks my heart. I don’t know how much of him is left.”
“You mean how much is salvageable,” Jacque said for her. “You think he will have to be killed.”
“Yes.”
They sat quietly, staring off into the dark woods, watching shadows move that shouldn’t be moving, and hearing noises that caused goose bumps to rise on their skin. Gradually, the other women began to wake up and the groans and whimpers from the mated females was just another reminder of their dire situation.
“Any more visitations by Vasile’s long lost brother who is probably completely evil and wants to eat us?” Jen asked.
“Jen, really?” Sally said as she cut her eyes to Alina.
“I am not offended, Sally,” Alina said. “Jen’s evaluation of the situation is correct and I won’t delude myself into thinking anything else.”
“See,” Jen motioned to the Alpha, “at least one of us isn’t trying to dance around like some bat sniz crazy woman singing I Will Survive, when we all know that the last thing we are going to do is survive.”
“Bloody hell who crapped in your dream?” Jacque growled.
Everyone stopped moving and looked at Jacque who shrugged. “What?”
Jen laughed and then grabbed her stomach as cramps doubled her over. “I like that one wolf-princess,” her voice came out strained as she held her stomach. Cynthia knelt down beside her, instructing her to take slow deep breaths. Slowly, the cramps subsided, like they had before, only now they were happing more often.
“To answer your question, Jen,” Alina said. “He has not shown himself, but he is watching.”
“Okay that sort of creeps me out,” Crina said.
“I have to go with the Romanian on this one,” Jen agreed, “wolf form or not, I really don’t like an audience when I pee, having you all in my bathroom is bad enough.”
“I don’t know how much of the human is left, if any,” Alina told them. “If he has been in his wolf skin all this time, there is little chance that anything human in him remains.”
“So, anyone have any good news for the day, or night, or whatever the hell time it is?” Lilly asked. Surprised looks were cast her way as Lilly had been their perpetual positive force. “Hey, don’t look at me like that. I still have hope; I’m just going to be pissy while still having hope.”
“Pissy hopefulness,” Sally said. “I can see that catching on.”
“You Americans are so weird,” Crina told them as she stood and stretched out her limbs, groaning just as much as the others as the pain pulsed in her muscles.
“So what’s the plan?” Jacque asked. “Are we going to sit and stare at the forest on the left side, or are we going to stare at the right side?”
“Well, Jacque, it’s a difficult decision because they look so different,” Elle joked.
“Yes well, being a captive is hard work, but someone’s got to do it.”
“Yeah, well could we bloody hell get someone else to volunteer next time?” Jen quipped.
“Shh,” Cynthia suddenly said as she waved the others to be quiet. She pointed off to her left and they all turned in slow motion to find the white wolf lying very still, watching them.
Alina stood and walked to the furthest edge of the clearing as she dared. She knelt down and bared her neck to the wolf. When she heard a low rumbled, she sat down and then looked at him.
“Do you remember who you are Lucian?” Alina asked.
“I take it that’s his name,” Jen whispered.
Sally shushed her as she pulled Jen down to sit next to her. The others followed suit and listened as Alina spoke to the wolf.
“You are a man, not just a wolf. You have family, a brother who has mourned for you. Lucian, blink if you understand me.”
They waited with baited breath. When he blinked, there was a collective sigh and then gasps passed through the group.
“Okay, that’s a start,” she said. “Do you remember who you are?” Blink. “Do you remember your brother, Vasile?” Nothing. “Can you still take your human form?” Blink. Another round of gasps.
“Okay that’s a whole ‘nother freaking ball game Alina,” Cynthia spoke up. Alina held up a finger to silence them.
“Do you mean us harm?” Nothing. “Okay, that’s good,” she said as relief flooded her voice and body. “Will you talk to us?” Nothing.
Then, as quietly as he had appeared, he got up and left.
Alina stared in the direction he had gone and tears filled her eyes. She had never known Vasile’s brother, and yet she felt a strong sense of loss because she knew how it had hurt her mate to lose him. And now he was back, but he didn’t remember Vasile.
“Is anyone else just a little freaked out that the wolf just told us he can still phase?” Jacque asked.
“A tad,” Sally agreed.
“Maybe a little,” Cynthia added.
“Frankly I’m just glad he doesn’t want to snack on us,” Jen said.
They didn’t know how much time passed before they saw the white wolf again, or Lucian as Alina called him. They were guessing that it had been three or four days, maybe more. They were trying to judge time off their sleeping patterns, but they had determined that the pain from the bonds breaking was making them sleep more. Cynthia said it was a way for the body to deal with the pain, to run away from it. Food kept showing up, but they hadn’t seen Reyaz since the first time he had come.
“Maybe he forgot about us,” Crina said.
“As much as I don’t want to be in the clutches of Reyaz the crazy, if he forgot about us we’d be even more screwed than we are now. Jen don’t even think about it,” Jacque cut Jen off before she could get a word out. “We would be stuck here with no food, and no way to escape.” she finished.
Sally looked over at Jen who was rocking back and forth with her lips pressed together. “It’s killing you isn’t it?” Jen nodded.
Jacque groaned. “Fine, spit it out you nympho.”
“Ugh, thank you! You said screwed.” Jen pointed at Jacque and giggled.
Jacque’s eyes widened as she looked at Jen, then she turned to Sally. “Things are much worse than we realized if that is her only sex remark.”
Sally nodded. “I think it’s a lack of you know what. She’s losing her touch because she doesn’t have anything to draw her ideas from.”
“Oh, good call, that’s a great psychoanalyst of her.” Jacque agreed.
Jen frowned. “Okay, so what I’m hearing you two say is that I need to get some.”
“Pretty much,” Sally nodded.
“This is what you guys are subjected to all the time isn’t it?” Lilly asked Alina, Elle, and Crina.
Alina laughed. “It’s never boring when they are around.”
“When did females begin talking so openly of bedding?” A deep voice shattered the calm moment. The words were choppy as if the owner hadn’t spoken in a very long time and he had just had to relearn how to use his lips.
“Lucian,” Alina’s voice held so many emotions it was hard to tell which one was dominant. She walked towards him, but Elle grabbed her arm, keeping her back when she would have gone closer.
“How do you know me?” he asked. His head cocked to the side in a very wolf like gesture but the furrow of his brow held all the intelligence of a man trying to remember.
Elle stared at the man before them and tried to remember if this is what he had looked like so many years ago. His hair was blonde, which was rare for someone of his descent, although not totally unheard of. He was every bit as tall as Vasile but he was leaner. She imagined that could be attributed to the fact that he had been living in a land that was essentially was dead. His facial structure was very similar to his brothers, but instead of blue eyes, Lucian had silver eyes with a rim of black around the iris. It looked as if someone had taken eye liner and drawn a circle around the silver, capturing it and causing it to jump out at the one who bore the weight of their gaze.
She didn’t know what she had been expecting him to wear, nothing at all if she had actually thought about it. He did, however, have on a pair of loose fitting cotton pants. Her head tilted as her mind processed this. If he was wearing a pair of pants that were obviously from this time, someone else was aware of his presence here as well. Elle was still trying to figure out how Lorelle and Reyaz knew about the dark forest. It was not something that anyone was supposed to have been able to remember, and the fact that two supernaturals had, did not bode well for everyone else. Alina’s voice drew her attention back to the scene before her.
“I am your brother’s mate,” she answered.
He stared at her blankly. No emotion crossed his features at the mention of a brother. He seemed to be trying to figure them out, as if they were an complex equation with which he was struggling.
“What does the dark wizard want with you?” he asked her.
Alina blinked several times, confused by his question. “Dark wizard?”
“Yes, the one who brought the fae with him.”
“Oh, you mean Reyaz. He isn’t a wizard, he’s a warlock,” she told him, “he wants to kill us.”
“Why?”
“Revenge. He wants to kill Cypher’s mate because his own mate died and he blames his brother,” Cynthia answered.
“Okay, so is anyone else wondering why we’re just spilling our guts to this Neanderthal?” Jacque whispered.
“Dude, shut it. This is the most interesting thing to happen since Sally had her dirty dream.” Jen said.
“It wasn’t a dirty dream,” Sally muttered defensively.
“Just keep telling yourself that Sally, whatever makes you feel pure and innocent, but we know the truth.”
“Is there anyone searching for you? Do they know you are missing?” Lucien asked.
“Our mates know,” Alina answered. “They are probably frantic by now.”
“Why did they let you out of their sights?”
“And there it is, the butthead gene that they all share,” Jen said without trying to keep her voice down.
“At least they’re consistent,” Sally commented.
Jen started to reply but once again felt her stomach cramp and nearly fell to the ground. Cynthia caught her and eased her down and the other girls gathered around her protectively. Cynthia pressed on her abdomen to feel which direction the baby was turned and kept the frown to herself when she felt that she was dropping into the birth canal, preparing for delivery.
“What is wrong with her?” Lucian's urgent voice broke through the murmurs and Lilly turned to answer him.
“She is pregnant and getting very close to her due date, and the bond between her and her mate is nearly broken, so she is in a lot of pain. In fact, every mated female here is losing the bond with their mates and are in a lot of pain, though they hide it well.”
Lucian continued to look at Jen and the women hovering around her, but he still spoke to Lilly. “Why are you telling me this? Why are you not worried that I will somehow use it against you?”
Lilly looked at him thoughtfully. She took in his bedraggled appearance, and the obvious neglect of his health. His body was so lean, unlike the werewolves she knew. She watched as he looked on at Jen. Worry was written on his brow and the need to do something showed in the way he bounced lightly on the balls of his feet. “You are not a bad man,” she finally told him, “you may have been in a bad situation for a very long time, but if you were evil, it would have overtaken you long, long ago.”
“I may not be evil, but there is darkness inside of me and where there is no darkness, it is empty, just waiting for the darkness to fill it up.”
Lilly was caught off guard by his candidness and a swell of compassion rose in her heart for this man who had been alone for so long in such a desolate place.
When Jen was finally able to sit up and breathe without crying out in pain, they all gathered in a semicircle facing Lucian who sat ten feet away from them. He was still very leery of them, but at the same time it was apparent that he was starved for companionship.
“What happened to you, Lucian,” Lilly asked, getting right down to it.
“I volunteered to fight the witches and Volcan, along with some other warrior wolves.”
“Why did you survive and no one else?”
“I don’t know.” He ran his hand through his shaggy hair. The motion looked so unpracticed and new. Many of his movements were that way, like he was relearning how to use his body in his human form.
“Okay,” Lilly said calmly, “How have you survived? What have you been eating?”
This time his eyes widened in shock as he looked at the females. “I don’t know that either.”
“Have you been alone the whole time,” Elle asked.
He nodded. “Yes, until Reyaz and the fae showed up, it was only me.”
Elle sensed there was something he wasn’t telling them. She didn’t feel as though he had ill intent towards them, more like he didn’t quite trust them yet to bare his soul.
Alina was about to ask him another question but he jumped to his feet, moving so fast they barely saw him. “He’s coming,” he told them with wide eyes, “he must not know about me.” He turned and, just as he had done before, he became one with the darkness of the forest.
“Hello ladies,” Reyaz smiled at them, but it was not a happy smile. It was a smile that a child gave to the piece of cake sitting before him covered in thick, rich icing. Needless to say, it was creepy.
“Hello Clarice,” Jen whispered in her best Hannibal Lector voice. Sally elbowed her but then whispered. “Silence of the Lambs.”
“The hunt will begin soon so I need to get you all in your places. I have set up a nice little game for your males and they are trying to figure out where you are as we speak so that they can begin the hunt. So, Lorelle will do the honors of taking you each to your resting place, no pun intended.” He chuckled at himself and it made Sally want to stab him with something very sharp over and over again. The violent thought should have bothered her, should have, she thought, but didn’t.
“Don’t worry, you won’t be alone. You will go in pairs. That way you will have someone to talk to while you wait.”
Lorelle appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Elle and Lilly and then was gone so quickly that it took the others a second to realize what had just happened.
“Mom!” Jacque screamed just as all the others joined her in calling out after Elle and Lilly. She turned to scream at Reyaz, but he too was gone. More quickly than they could have imagined, Lorelle was back and grabbed two more, this time Cynthia and Jen. Next, it was Sally and Crina and last Jacque and Alina. No matter how they tried to hang on to each other, Lorelle pulled them apart and flashed with them before the others could retaliate.
When the clearing where the females had once been was empty, the white wolf stepped out from the forest and stared at the spot. He let out a low growl, then threw his head back and howled like he had done so many times, only this time there was someone to hear.