Piercing Silence (12 page)

Fane looked up and met
future Jacque’s eyes, and Jacque felt all of his turmoil.
“This is not how I wanted us to meet. I should
have come to you sooner. I should have been here to protect you and
bring you into our world gently, not with death and anger. I am
sorry, Luna.”

Jacque had been trying to spare him these
types of feelings. Now, as she stood there seeing Fane from inside
her future self, she realized there was no such thing as sparing
someone pain.

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.”

Chapter 13

F
ane’s paws padded angrily against the ground as he moved
through the forest. She wasn’t here. He knew it with every fiber of
his being and yet, because it was the last place she’d been, he
couldn’t bring himself to leave. The Great Luna had said that
Jacquelyn was safe, but Fane needed to see her and touch her to
truly believe that. His wolf was a snarling mess as he tried to
figure out what he could do to get their mate back, and when he
kept coming up empty, he snarled even more.

He wandered the forest pathways aimlessly.
Fane came around a large boulder and stopped short as he felt magic
roll over his fur. He froze, letting only his eyes move over the
area surrounding him. Something had changed. He’d felt it as surely
as if he’d walked from an air conditioned building out into the
summer heat. Fane didn’t see anyone but all his surroundings had
changed. He could tell that he wasn’t in the same forest he’d been
in only seconds before. Finally, he took several steps forward, all
of his senses on high alert, probing for any threat. As he slowly
turned in a circle taking in the changes in scenery, a power
stronger than he’d ever felt before forced him to his knees.

His head bowed low and his fur receded,
replaced by his human flesh. Fane took several shaky breathes. He
hadn’t forced the change and no one in his realm, not even his
Alpha, could have pushed his phase back as simply and as easily. He
knew that it wouldn’t do him any good to try and retaliate against
the offender. No beings but the Fates and the Great Luna had such
power. And this wasn’t the Great Luna. The Fates didn’t visit
mortals, even supernatural wolves such as him, on a whim. As such,
Fane wasn’t about to do anything rash. He stood, his legs still
wobbly, and raised his head to look at the three beings before him.
They stood there pulsating from form to form―sometimes appearing as
a human, sometimes as an animal, and sometimes as something else
entirely.

A pair of plain, black pants, definitely not
manmade, appeared in front of him. He reached for them and slipped
them on, never taking his eyes off the pulsating forms before
him.

“Fane Lupei, son of the Romania pack Alpha,
prince to his kind, mate of Jacquelyn Lupei, soon to be father of
your own heir.” The combined voices of the Fates filled the area
around Fane as though surround sound speakers had been installed in
the forest. As he stared at the beings that pulsated before him, he
shuddered at having their undivided attention fully focused on him
and naming him so thoroughly.

He bowed his head once to acknowledge them,
but he didn’t ask them what they wanted. If the Fates had shown
themselves to him, there was a reason and they would get around to
it when they were good and ready.

“Your mate has requested an audience with
us.”

Apparently they were good and ready then.
His breath caught in his throat and it felt as if a sack of
concrete had fallen into his stomach. Jacquelyn wanted to see the
Fates? Why didn’t she tell him? Was she in some sort of danger or
trouble? The questions began to pile up faster than he could begin
to come up with plausible answers.