Just One Drop
Book 3 of the Grey Wolves Series
Quinn Loftis
© 2011 Quinn Loftis
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Acknowledgments:
First I want to thank God for blessing me with a creative spirit. He has blessed me beyond measure. I also want to thank my husband for all his support, for the teasing that he gives me for writing teen paranormal romance. I like to remind him that at least he's never bored being married to me. I also want to thank a friend who has been a blessing to me, Melinda Senter, for her help in the creative editing. Her wicked sense of humor and eye for details has truly been a help. I also want to thank her for the beautiful cover art she has created for me. I want to thank Rachel Carr for being a fantabulous editor. I have been so blessed to get to know Rachel and her help has been invaluable. Thank you also to Jennifer Nunez for also editing and encouraging me to keep writing. Thank you to all my beta readers and reviewers. I cannot express my thanks for all your feedback and help. Finally, most important in many ways, thank you to everyone who has taken a chance on an unknown, self published author and purchased my book. Thank you for the reviews good and bad. Thank you for taking your valuable time and spending it with my characters and their story.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Epilogue
Chapter 1
"Jen, you are not going back to the states so quit trying to pack your damn clothes," Sally growled. She intercepted Jen and snatched the pants she was carrying to an open suitcase, which lay haphazardly across the large four poster bed. Jen steadily ignored her and did an about face to the closet to grab more of her clothes.
"Would you please just talk to me? Please?" Sally's voice was beginning to take on a high-pitched whine.
"Oh, good grief. For the love of healthy ears everywhere, quit your belly aching," Jen snapped, the clothes in her hands growing more wrinkled by the second. "Sally, there is nothing to talk about, okay? It is what it is."
Sally threw her hands up in the air as she exhaled loudly. "No, it is not what it is, whatever the hell that means. It's a whole freaking lot more complicated than 'it is what it is'." Sally was beginning to get desperate, and although when Jen started this little stunt Sally thought that throwing her suitcase out of the window might be drastic – yeah, not so much anymore.
As Jen continued to throw clothes into the suitcase, Sally decided that desperate times called for desperate measures. She went over to the window and pushed it open. Without much grace, she managed to push the screen out and didn't blink when it tumbled down the side of the three story mansion. Jen was still in the closet when Sally picked up her suitcase and began carrying it toward the open window.
"Put the suitcase down, step away from it slowly, and nobody gets hurt," Jen ground out as she came out of the closet.
"I'm sorry, Jen, but I can't let you leave. So I'll risk your wrath and do whatever it takes to keep your cranky, sulky, continually pissed off butt in Romania."
Jen took a step towards Sally and the suitcase that was now teetering dangerously on the ledge of the open window.
"Back the hell off, Jennifer Adams." Sally tilted the suitcase back as if to let it fall. Jen continued to take slow, measured steps towards Sally, thinking that her usually mild mannered friend wouldn't dare let go of the suitcase…She was wrong, so very wrong. Sally didn't just let go of the suitcase, she gave it a huge shove just as Jen lunged to grab it. Sally jumped back, slapping her hands over her mouth. She was nearly as surprised with herself as Jen was.
"What…how… why," Jen sputtered as she stared at Sally incredulously. "You bitch," she finally managed to spit out.
"It's for your own good, Jen. Really it is," Sally told her, backing away from the fuming Jen.
Jen leaned out the open window and saw the fate of her now scattered suitcase and clothes. She looked back at Sally, still shocked that her friend had pulled such a stunt. Shaking her head, she turned and headed towards the door of the bedroom.
"Where are you going?" Sally asked.
"Out," Jen growled as she pulled the door open.
"At least take a coat. It's cold out!" Sally yelled at Jen's retreating form.
Sally stood and stared. She didn't know if she had done the right thing, but she knew that Jen didn't need to leave. Sally couldn't explain the feeling, but something in her said that something bad would happen to Jen if she left Romania right now. She didn't try to examine the feeling; she just accepted it for what it was…for now.
Jen stormed down the long staircase, taking two at a time, all the while hoping she didn't pass anyone so she wouldn't have to talk. Once on the ground floor she made a right and headed down a long hallway. She passed the library, a sitting room, and the entertainment room before finally arriving at her destination. Without knocking, she threw the door open and walked inside.
"Jen, what can I do for you?" Vasile asked as he looked up from his desk.
Before she answered she shut the door behind her. Then, taking a deep breath, she turned back to Vasile.
"I can't stay here."
Vasile didn't look surprised at her admission and he didn't respond. Instead he waited for her to continue.
She took another deep breath and let it out slowly. "Look, I know you know what Dr. Steele told me about my blood results. Regardless of that, I can't change how I feel about a certain wolf. I can't change the fact that, wolf blood or not, I'm not his mate, and said wolf wants nothing to do with me. How do I know this, you ask?" Jen continued before Vasile could say a word. "Because he just up and left. Not so much as a 'see ya later, Jen', 'take care, Jen', 'goodbye, Jen', 'have a nice freaking life without me, Jen',"
Jen slapped her hand over her mouth, embarrassed that she had spilled all that to Vasile. She knew the only reason she was discussing this with Fane's father was because she was desperate to get away from this place. To get away from the only man – she'd come to realize over the past couple of months – that she loved. After Dr. Steele revealed to her that she had a minute, very minute amount of werewolf blood in her, she had thought that maybe there was a chance for her and the fur ball. That hope been quickly doused when said fur ball up and disappeared. A week after Jacque and Fane's ceremony, Decebel had gotten in his Hummer and, without looking back, driven away from the pack mansion. And 62 days, 4 hours
, and 22 minutes later he still hadn't returned. But who's counting?
"Didn't you just turn eighteen, Jen?" Vasile asked her.
Jen looked a little confused at his choice of response. "Umm, yes. I believe that loud racket you heard a couple of weeks ago was Sally and Jacque's idea of a birthday party. What does that have to do with me leaving?"
"If you are eighteen, Jen, you are an adult. I can't make you stay here. If you want to leave, if you really think that is the best thing for you, then you can go. I will allow you to use the pack plane to get back to the U.S. if that is truly what you want," Vasile explained.
Jen cocked her head to the side, eyes narrowed at the Alpha sitting calmly in front of her. "Just like that? No trying to convince me to stay, or telling me not to give up, or yada yada yada bull crap?"
"No 'yada yada yada bull crap'," he agreed.
"Huh, okay then. Let's do this," she stated.
"Now?"
"Yes, now. Is that a problem?"
Vasile picked up the phone, never taking his eyes off her. "Sorin, could you please come to my office?"
Jen took a seat in one of the chairs in front of Vasile's desk. Resting her hands on the chair arms, she couldn't keep her legs from bouncing up and down as she waited for Sorin to arrive. Vasile didn't say anything while they waited and that was just fine with Jen. She didn't want to listen to any more reasons about why she should stay. She heard the door open and close, and then Sorin stepped up beside her.
"What can I do for you, Alpha?" he asked Vasile.
"Jen has decided that she wants to go back to the U.S.," Vasile began, and to Sorin's credit he didn't so much as flinch in Jen's direction. "Could you please arrange for the plane to be ready? Get her things, drive her to the air strip, and make sure she gets on the plane safely."
"Of course." Sorin answered as if Vasile hadn't just told him Jen was leaving only two months after arriving.
As Jen stood up, she stopped Sorin from leaving with a hand on his arm. "Please, it's not necessary to get my things.” Sorin started to object but Jen cut him off. "Really, I'm good to go. Right now." She turned to Vasile, looking for some sort of confirmation that this was okay. After a moment of looking into her eyes, Vasile turned to Sorin and nodded once.
As they began to walk out of the office, Jen turned back to Vasile. "You won't tell anyone, will you? I mean, will you let me call them once I get back to the States?"
Vasile smiled gently. "I won't say a word."
She let out the breath she had been holding. "Thank you."
Jen sat in the passenger side of yet another Hummer, wrapped in a parka Sorin had grabbed. "What is with you wolves and Hummers?" she muttered grumpily.
"They do well in this climate," Sorin answered, never taking his eyes from the road.
Jen glanced at him briefly, then looked out the passenger window. Her mind wandered to a certain tall, dark, gorgeous werewolf that she so desperately wanted to see, yet longed to stab in the hand with a butter knife at the same time…funny how that temptation seemed to apply only to him.
Vasile waited until he heard Sorin pull away from the driveway before picking up his phone again. "I need to speak with you." He listened to the voice on the other end. "No, not necessarily right this minute, just in the next hour would be good." Ending the call, he immediately dialed another number and waited for an answer, a voice came on the line. "Stall," was all he said.
Vasile leaned back in his chair, folding his hands in his lap. He shook his head as he chuckled. Alina was going to scold him for meddling, as she would call it, but he was Alpha. It was his job to meddle, and he was good at it.
Chapter 2
An hour and a half later…
Fane held up the piece of paper his father handed him. He looked at his father, then back to the paper in his hand. "You want me to tell my mate that you waited an hour and a half to inform me that her best friend left to board a plane headed back to the States?" Fane growled.
"I did not wait. I called you the minute she left. You didn't arrive for an hour and a half," Vasile answered, completely unruffled by the growl in Fane's voice.
"With all due respect, Alpha, you could have mentioned the reason you wanted to see me."
"No, I couldn't. I told Jen I wouldn't say a word," Vasile emphasized.
"Jen didn't catch that little loophole?" Fane asked, his eyebrows raised.
"Don't you think you ought to tell your mate what's going on? I don't know how much longer Sorin can stall the plane before Jen figures out something is going on."
Fane's head snapped up at his father's words. "She hasn't left yet?"
"Do you honestly think I would let her leave?"
"Luna, I need to speak with you. Could you please come to my father's office?" Fane sent Jacque his question through their bond. It had become so strong since their mating that she was a constant presence and comfort in his mind.
"Why do I hear worry in your voice, wolf-man?" Jacquelyn asked him suspiciously.
Without answering his mate, he glared at his father. "I will get you back for this, Alpha. Just to warn you ahead of time."
Vasile winked at his son. "A little lesson in dealing with conflict with your mate will be good for you."
Fane looked at his Alpha in amazement. "Father, you do realize who I'm mated to, right?"
Vasile cleared his throat. "You do have a point there." But he still offered no apology for his nonchalance in the matter.
The door to the office flew open as a frustrated looking Jacque stormed in with a worried looking Sally right behind her.
"What's going on, Fane?"
"First, it's not as bad as it sounds," Fane began.
Jacque held up her hand to cut off her mate. "Spit it out, fur ball."
"Sorin took Jen to the pack plane to fly back to the States."
"WHAT!" Jacque and Sally yelled at the same time, causing both wolves to grimace in pain because of their sensitive hearing.
Jen sat on the plane, drinking the second Coke Sorin had brought her while she waited for the runway to be cleared. Apparently, December in Romania got icy. Go figure. She didn't really care about the runway or the plane being ice-free, she just knew that the longer she sat here, not in the air, not moving towards North America, the more nervous she became that she would be discovered by her two neurotic best friends who she knew meant well, but didn't get why she had to leave.
Everyday Jen woke up hoping that she would go downstairs and find Decebel; she went to bed every night wondering why he left. She had no idea if he knew about her wolf blood, and she was to the point that she didn't want to care. Easier said than done, she thought. Why couldn't she fall in love with a normal guy, someone who didn't go furry at will? No. That would be too stinking easy.
She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. Her mind wandered back to the night of Jacque and Fane's bonding ceremony. Her life forever changed when Dr. Steele had explained that the blood test she had run on Jen after the car wreck had come back abnormal. Abnormal as in not human. Jen remembered feeling like the walls of the room were closing in on her.
"What do you mean, 'not human'?" she had asked Cynthia.
"You have werewolf blood. Though it is a very minute amount," Cynthia had answered.
Sally'd been sitting next to her, and her reaction had been what Jen wanted to say: "SHUT UP." Sally yelled this, causing everyone around them to stop and stare. Jen hadn't really noticed. The only thing she'd been able to focus on was a certain wolf who had been eyeballing her all night.
"What does that mean, exactly?"
"It means that somewhere in your family, generations ago, was a werewolf." The doctor seemed baffled by this. "I don't even know how it's possible unless all of his descendants mated with humans and the bloodline gradually diluted."
Jen and Sally had listened to the doctor explain that maybe something as traumatic as the accident had triggered the very dormant gene – perhaps that was why her wounds had healed so
quickly. Jen asked if she thought she would develop any other werewolf characteristics. Cynthia felt that since Jacque hadn't, and she was half-were, that Jen was in the clear. But she truly didn't know what it would mean for Jen or her future. "You are the first dormant I have ever met," she told Jen.
For two months after learning about the werewolf blood that lay dormant in her blood, she had been constantly watching for any other wolf-like attributes. The only thing that she felt was different was that she could sense emotions. Well, strong emotions to be exact. She didn't really understand it, but she could almost smell them and each emotion smelled differently. Jen mentioned it to Sally and Jacque and they both had wanted her to go to Dr. Steele. She never did.
Jen heard a car door slam, which brought her back to the present, to the wonderful fact that she was sitting in a plane, a plane that would take her away from all this werewolf stuff.
She tapped her foot impatiently and drummed her fingers on the arm of the seat. "What could possibly be taking so freaking long," she said to the empty plane. With an exaggerated huff she undid the seat belt and stood, tired of waiting. It was time to take things into her own hands.
She looked out a window and her breath froze in her lungs at the sight. Where there had only been one black Hummer, now sat two. No way, she thought. It's not him. Vasile has, like, a million black Hummers. She had long ago decided it was a wolf thing.
Jen stepped back from the window, taking some slow, deep breaths. She closed her eyes and tried to regain her bearings. I got this. Finally ready, she walked towards the exit sign.
To what, she didn't know.
Chapter 3