Piercing Silence (7 page)

“
Can we go?” Jacque asked
her as she watched the past her fall apart. She didn’t want to hear
about how a wolf that wasn’t her mate cared for her, especially
when that relationship was tearing her friendships
apart.

The Great Luna looked over at her and
nodded. “Perhaps, now is a good time to show you how your true mate
fares without you by his side.”

Jacque’s stomach dropped. She truly hoped
she wasn’t about to have to watch Fane with another girl the way
she’d just watched herself with Lucas.

“
What if I tell you that
I’ve seen the error of my ways? Can we just go back to our
time?”

The Great Luna smiled as she took Jacque’s
hand. “I want to believe you, but it is my experience that humans
never learn that quickly, and you, my child, are half human.”

Jacque attempted to steel herself against
what she might see. She didn’t know if she could watch Fane have a
life without her. In fact, she was pretty sure that if she watched
Fane smile at another female the way she’d just watched herself
smile at Lucas she might attempt to claw the chick’s eyes out.
Wouldn’t that be dignifying?

Chapter 7

F
ane 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.

J
en 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.

Chapter 8

T
he world around Fane suddenly disappeared as his tunnel
vision set in. All he could see was his pregnant mate, in his
mind’s eye, surrounded by every possible danger he could think of.
He had no idea where she was or how to find her. He wanted to
believe that if the Great Luna was involved, then his mate had to
be safe, but that just wasn’t enough for him. He needed to see her
or, at the very least, hear her voice. He was beginning to realize
that everything he’d been upset about, all the things he couldn’t
move past, really amounted to a huge pile of nothing that, through
his own self-pity, he had made into a big deal.

For the past few months, he should have been
enjoying the time with his mate instead of fretting over the past.
He should have been relishing the moments they had without danger
constantly knocking at their door. Instead of worrying about his
ability to protect his child, or whether or not he would make a
good father, he should have been rejoicing that they were even
expecting a child considering how difficult it was for their kind
to have children. Fane had squandered the time they’d had and now
he didn’t have either his mate or his child. Why did it always take
drastic measures to make him see what was right in front of his
face?

Focus on her,
his wolf spoke up, obviously losing patience with
the man.
Let us get her back and then you
will fix the wrong.
It was one of those
moments when Fane was truly thankful for his beast and his ability
to think without the cloud of emotions hanging over him.

We will search for
her
, Fane told him. He felt his wolf’s
agreement but wasn’t prepared for the sudden phase that his beast
forced. One minute he was standing on two legs and the next his
clothes were shredded and he was on all fours. Everything around
him sharpened into focus as all of his wolf’s senses took
over.

“Are you alright, Fane?” Decebel’s voice had
his large wolf head turning to look at the Alpha.

Fane met his eyes for several seconds before
nodding and dropping them. He turned back to look deeper into the
forest, and despite his inability to scent her, it was the only
direction he knew to go so he took off at a sprint, unworried about
what Decebel and Jen would do. They weren’t his concern. Only
Jacquelyn and their pup mattered. As he ran, he drew comfort from
the memories—the times when he had allowed himself to enjoy her. He
let them pour over him until he was drenched in her presence even
though she wasn’t with him.