“We can try, Alina. We will take her across the Veil. The magic there is stronger.”
“Good,” Alina stated and looked at Jen. “We’re going to get Jacque help, then we’re going to petition the Fae council, and then we’re going to gather the packs. It’s time we joined together as a race and stood by one another. Then we’re going to kick that evil witch’s ass.”
“That’s what I’m talking about,” Jen whooped as she threw a fist into the air.
They began packing up their camp in a rush. Once they were all standing with packs on their backs, Peri used her magic to make Jacque a floating gurney.
“The closest crossing to the Fae realm is deeper into the mountains,” Peri told them as she began to walk, and beckoned them to follow.
“What is with these Veils being so deep in the bloody mountains all the time?” Sally muttered.
“Seriously,” Jen agreed and winked at Sally. “You can’t expect me to be trekking my pregnant butt all over this forest.”
The group let out a collective groan.
“Here we go,” Sally murmured under her breath.
“What?” Jen asked. “I’m just saying.”
“I vote we knock out the pregnant chick when it comes down to that or strangling her,” Peri called over her shoulder.
“Good thing this isn’t a democracy,” Jen hollered back.
“Jen, behave so that the nice fairy won’t want to strangle you.” Cynthia grinned at Jen.
Jen laughed. “Aw, sweet Peri Fairy wouldn’t strangle wittle ol' me.”
Peri began to walk more quickly and the others followed suit.
“Why are we moving faster?” Crina immediately asked.
“Because we need to save those blasted males quickly so that Decebel can keep his mate in line.” Peri looked over her shoulder at Jen. “She’s not even got a small bump in her flat little belly. Can you imagine when she’s big enough to have 'wide load' plastered across her butt? She’s going to be a bloody nightmare.”
“I heard that,” Jen growled.
Alina chuckled, thankful for the distraction.
“Peri, be nice to the pregnant werewolf. Jen, stop antagonizing the fairy.”
The entire group laughed at Alina and laughed even harder as Peri muttered under her breath, “Fairy, my ass. You’ll all be thinking fairy when you’re farting out of your mouths.”
Sally marched behind the group, listening to the banter. She closed her eyes, once again trying to reach Costin, and felt their bond open briefly. What came through nearly caused her to crumble. All-consuming fear poured over her. She stumbled but caught herself before she fell.
Her breathing became erratic as she tried to collect herself. She looked up and saw that the others were still walking – no one had noticed her reaction. Good. Calming herself, she bit her lip trying not to think about the image that had flashed briefly in her mind, an image from Costin. It was her, lying on the ground, blood pooling around her body. Her face was contorted in intense pain. The fear and panic she had felt in Costin... They had to get their mates out of there. No one could stand that for long. Not even men as strong as theirs.
Chapter 21
“In my heart I know it’s not real. I know she is safe. But my mind does not believe my heart. My mind sees her lifeless body before me and my wolf rages. Kill, maim, and destroy, he snarls in my head. I feel my humanity slipping away as I watch unspeakable things happen to my mate. My wolf only believes what is before him and the emotions of the man are stopping him from being what he needs to keep her safe. I don’t know how long I can stay me. I don’t know how long until the wolf takes over for good.” ~ Costin
Costin closes his eyes against the scene before him. If he has to watch another man put his hands on her, or hear her cries for his help again, he’s going to go crazy. She begs for him to save her. She asks why he won’t stop them from hurting her, why he is letting them touch her.
Costin is on his knees as he looks up at her tear-streaked face.
“It’s not real, baby,” he whispers through tears. “It’s not real.”
“Costin, please stop him, please don’t let him touch me again.”
Costin watches her struggle against the male’s hold. She reaches out to him and Costin tries to get to her, but it is all in vain.
He closes his eyes as she screams began anew. The sounds are enough to make him vomit and even the smells are real. His precious Sally’s scent, wrapped in fear, anger, lust and pain.
“ARRGGGG!”
He screams into nothingness, his cries smothering out that of his mate's.
Decebel felt the world crash in on him as he watched Jennifer give birth to their baby girl. Blood was everywhere and the echoes of his mate's cries bounced off the walls. Just as the baby was born, a huge owl swooped down and clutched the screaming babe in its claws. The owl took off into the night with a loud screech. Decebel lunged for the animal, the cries of his baby – his and Jennifer’s little girl – deafening in the night.
“Why didn’t you save her, Dec?” Jennifer asked him through tears and moans of pain. “Why didn’t you save our baby? You promised to save her.”
Decebel closed his eyes and when he opened them Jennifer sat before him, whole, and glowing with pregnancy. He wanted to enjoy the brief moment of peace, but couldn’t, knowing that it was only beginning again. His fears would once again be fulfilled before his eyes. And it would happen over and over and over.
Jen climbed into his lap and it was so real he could feel her breath on his neck. Her scent wrapped around him and he clung to her.
“Shh, baby,” she cooed to him. “It will be alright.”
“No it won’t, Jennifer. It will never be alright.” Decebel’s voice shook with pain and his shoulders shuddered as sobs wracked his body.
Then Jennifer was ripped from his grasp, a formless shape her captor. She screamed in pain clutched her swollen abdomen.
Decebel reached for her, begged the form to let her go.
Blood poured from between her legs, splashing to the ground with water mixed in. Jennifer fell and rolled onto her side. He watched helplessly as the form hovered over his mate and pushed on her stomach.
“DECEBEL!” Jennifer screamed. “Make it stop, make it stop! Don’t let them take her from me, from us.”
“Shh, my love, please, it’s going to be alright.” Decebel crawled on his stomach to her, his body covered in her blood. His hands slipped in the sticky substance as he got closer to her. He cradled her face in his hands and tried to wipe away the blood he got on her pale skin.
“It hurts,” she whispered.
“I know. I know, baby. I’m so sorry.” Decebel leaned down and kissed her lips gently. He gathered her to him and watched helplessly as she writhed in pain and finally gave birth to their child. He laid Jennifer back and reached for the still, little form.
Decebel looked into the beautiful face of their baby and wept at the lack of life. No crying, no breath, no movement. Nothing.
“Let me see her,” Jennifer whispered to him weakly as she reached for the child.
Vasile reached for Alina but she backed away from his grasp.
“How could you let this happen, Vasile?” she asked him through tears. “How could you not protect your own?”
Vasile closed his eyes, searching for the truth in his mind, remembering his mate telling him this wasn’t real. He needed her strength, especially now as he stood before a version of his mate who looked upon him with such disappointment that even as an Alpha he felt small. Alina was his heart. Everything good in his life came from her and the idea of disappointing her, of not being what she needed, paralyzed him. He had let her down. He had let his son be taken, along with his pack and the Alpha of another. He hadn’t fought hard enough, or done everything he should have.
“How can you stand before your pack as Alpha?” Alina spat at him.
“Mina.” Vasile’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “I’m sorry, Mina. I fail
ed you.” He knelt before her and waited for the words he had always feared, words he knew would cause him to destroy the world.
“I can’t love a man who can’t take care of his own, Vasile.” This version of Alina glared down at him with such vitriol it made him sick.
Vasile’s wolf howled and clawed at his insides, trying to get free. He refused to lose his mate. Nothing – heaven, hell, or anything in between – would take her from him, not even by her choice.
“You are mine!” he snarled. Of course, this Alina didn’t respond. She wasn’t real.
Suddenly she was gone and his Alina stood before him. “Vasile...” Her voice was tentative and lost.
Vasile stumbled toward her as he stood. He took her in his arms and held her close, breathing in her scent.
“You left me. Why did you leave me?”
“Shh, Mina,” Vasile soothed. “I’m here, I didn’t leave. I’m here.”
Alina fell apart in his arms; the wetness from her tears caused his shirt to stick to his skin. She plead for him to come for her, to bring Fane with him and never leave her again.
Vasile, Alpha of the Romanian Grey Wolves, begged his mate's forgiveness, forgiveness that he knew would not come from this Alina. For every tear she cried he cried more. For every broken sob she emitted his heart tore in two. Everything in him knew this wasn’t really his mate, but everything told him it was. He had to fight it. He couldn’t give into the wolf, he couldn’t give into the horrifying possibility that he and his would be doomed to suffer their fears for eternity.
He had to remember his mate, his true mate, and know that she was waiting on him, was expecting him to come through this a whole man, not a broken wolf.
Adam, Sorin, Gavril, and Drake were also going through their own personal hells in The In Between, each man suffering over and over their deepest, darkest fears. And as they endured in what they felt was solitude, little did they knew they were mere feet from each other.
A devastated Sorin watched as the mate he had just found turned her back on him.
Adam stood before an enraged Crina, cringing as she told him just what she thought about being mated to a Fae.
Gavril sobbed as Desdemona cut his mate's still-beating heart from her chest. Her screams pierced his heart.
Drake stared into the darkness, darkness so bleak and alone that the arms of death called lovingly to him.
So on and on they endured. They seethed, they howled, they wept and cried out at things that weren’t really before them. Their wolves raged inside of them, seeking a way out of the man, but they held on.
~
Mona opened her eyes after seeking out the In Between in her mind. The pixie King had contacted her when he captured the males and she had been nearly as excited as a kid on Christmas morning. She wanted to see the great Vasile broken, the mighty Decebel a blubbering idiot, and stared in satisfaction as she watched them. She couldn’t see what they were seeing, that was their reality, but she could see their reactions to it.
“Music to my ears,” she told the empty house she was staying in while she waited for Cypher to fulfill his end of their bargain.
“Wolves wailing like just weaned pups. I should video tape them and send it to their mates as presents. It will be the gift that just keeps on giving.”
Mona began to pace as she thought about what was to come. She was to meet with Cypher in a matter of hours and he would be opening the Veil to the underworld. With the demon horde under her command, she would be able to wipe the wolves from the face of the earth. She would take the two healers and with their blood be more powerful than any other being, even the Fae.
Looking at the clock, she noted that it was still several hours until her meeting. As much as she detested resting, she decided she was going to need energy to wipe out the wolves. She kicked off her shoes and laid down on the floral couch and found it surprisingly comfortable.
“Who says there’s no rest for the wicked?”
She grinned to herself as she drifted off.
~
Lilly lay on her back on a couch in one of the many sitting rooms of the huge mansion. Cypher had been gone all day and late into the night. She knew she had angered him with her accusation, but he hadn’t denied it, so she figured part of his anger was probably directed at himself. She stared at the ceiling, her mind trying to come to terms with what her heart was feeling.
“Okay,” she said to the empty room, “I’ll admit it. I have feelings for a warlock. There, I said it.” She rolled her eyes at herself as she thought about how silly she must look laying on her back, talking into the empty room about her feelings for a warlock. A freaking warlock.
“You forgot to mention the King part.”
Lilly jumped at the sound of Cypher’s voice, causing her to roll off the couch into an unlady-like sprawl on the floor. She glared up at him as he stood over her.
Cypher walked over and reached for her hand. She reluctantly placed it in his and he pulled her up from the floor, directly against his body. She let out a gasp but didn’t have much time for more than that before his lips were against hers. Lilly wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. She separated her lips at his urging and he licked his tongue across hers and she groaned passionately.
Cypher picked Lilly up into his arms, never breaking the kiss, and sat her down on his lap as he sat on the couch. He raised one hand, gathering her hair in it and used it as an anchor to guide her head as he kissed her.
Lilly was beginning to get lightheaded and pulled back to take some deep breaths. She closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against his.
“You’re – the – enemy.” She panted as she spoke.
Cypher released her hair and stroked his hand down the length of it.
“Shh, little one. No, not your enemy, never your enemy.” He kissed her forehead tenderly and waited for her to open her eyes and look at him.
When she finally did he saw the fear and confusion in them.
“I won’t hurt you Lilly,” he told her firmly.
“What about the rest of the world?” she asked him.
Cypher let out a deep sigh. He started to turn his face from hers, but Lilly was having none of it. She placed both her hands on either side of his face and held his gaze.
“Cypher, you are a good man. I can feel it. For whatever reason you think that the only way to help your people is to help Mona. I’m telling you right now that evil never wins.”
Cypher reached up and tenderly stroked her cheek. “I've been alive along enough to know the ebb and flow of things, Lilly. Desperation changes what once would have been easy decisions. Circumstances change.”
Lilly didn't look away. “She will betray you.”
“But you won’t,” he whispered softly.
She took his hand and kissed the center of his palm.
“I don’t understand what's between us, Cypher. I’m drawn to you. I feel something for you and I don’t want to see you hurt.”
Cypher thought, brooding. First of all, he didn’t want to lose Lilly. In the two days he’d known her she had stolen his cold, dark heart. If she asked him to walk through fire naked as the day he was born, he would have done it with a smile. No, he didn’t want to lose her. That meant handling things with Mona. He was going to have to tread carefully to beat the witch at her own game.
“What would you have of me, little one?” he asked her.
“Don’t help her. Whatever she has planned, it’s only for her own gain. I have a feeling it has something to do with the wolves and if it does, then it has something to do with Jacque.”
“Does this pack have a healer?” Cypher asked carefully, knowing that Lilly’s answer would tilt the scales.
“Yes,” Lilly told him. “Jacque’s best friend is a gypsy healer.”
Cypher closed his eyes and growled. Mona wanted this pack destroyed so she could have the healer. He knew of their importance to witches. She may not have spelled her plan out to him, but Cy
pher was old and his memory was long. If Lilly’s daughter was in the pack Mona wanted to destroy, then he would have to move mountains to make sure that didn’t happen.
“Talk to me, Cypher.” Lilly ran a finger lightly across his lips. “Show me what I’m worth to you.”
“A gypsy healer’s blood is very powerful,” he began in a tired voice. “They are pure – pure of heart and mind and there is power in that purity, power that a witch could never possess because witches lack that purity. Mona wants the healer’s blood. She wants to destroy the pack and take the healer.”
Lilly jumped from his lap and he let her, knowing she needed to get it off her chest.
“You were going to help her with this?” Lilly’s eyes widened.
“I led her to believe I would open the veil to the underworld, Lilly. I never intended to help her destroy anything.”
“How am I supposed to believe you? How am I supposed to trust you?” she asked him incredulously.
“You have to make a choice.” He held his hand out to her, waiting to see if she would take it. “Make a choice to see what this is between us. Either way I will not let any harm come to your daughter or her friends.”
Lilly looked into his eyes and then at his outstretched hand. She seemed to make a decision. And when she placed her smaller hand in his, she let him pull her back onto his lap. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her tenderly, then he smiled at the dazed look in her eyes.
“Wipe that smirk off your face, warlock King,” she growled playfully.
“My apologies. I didn’t realize my kisses were so potent.”
Lilly snorted. “Maybe they’re actually boring and making me sleepy.”
Cypher grabbed her chin gently but firmly and held her still as he kissed her again. When he was done he pulled back and looked at the passion dancing in her golden eyes.
“Definitely not boring,” he murmured.
She grinned and nipped his lips affectionately.
Deciding he couldn’t put it off any longer, he let out a deep breath.