“How do you like me now bee-otch?” She grinned, wickedly.

“What do you need from us?” Dain finally spoke up.

“Why, Dain, thank you, it’s so nice of you to ask,” Peri’s voice dripped, with false congeniality. “I have this small, teeny, tiny problem. You see the nasty old witch has put a spell on the mates of the wolves, well seven of them to be exact. They are experiencing the very same torments that their mates experienced while trapped in the In-Between.” Peri didn’t bother to tell them that their mates couldn’t touch them. There were just some things that were need-to-know, and these Fae didn’t need to know. “I can’t break the spell by myself and the two healers are also under the spell so I cannot ask for their help. That leaves me with you bundle of joy.”

“We will come with you,” Dain nodded, “we will help these wolves who obviously mean so much to you.”

Peri rolled her eyes. “I’m glad that you all have decided to come to your senses. But, I do hope that you are acting for the right reasons. And, don’t expect someone to bow down at your feet and kiss your toes for saving the day. Saving the world is the most thankless job ever. If you don’t believe me, then go ask the humans who do it daily.” The Fae continued to goggle at her. Peri clapped her hands together and rubbed them as if they were cold and she was trying to get them warm again. “Enough with all of that, let’s get down to business.”

Q

Costin lay next to Sally on his bed. He was as close to her as he could get without touching her and yet it felt like they were worlds apart. Her eyes would flutter open occasionally and the lost look that glazed over them nearly broke him. His Sally was shutting down. She was escaping into herself to get away from what she was going through, even though it wasn’t really happening. She didn’t have a wolf to turn to for strength and help; she only had the deep recesses of her mind to run to. She was trying to get as far away from the bad things as she could, but it also took her far away from Costin. He continued to try to speak to her using their bond, but she had effectively severed it. The only thing that he knew to do at that point was to talk to her, to share with her, his heart, his love, his longings.

“Sally mine, I know you are in there. I know that you are protecting yourself, and I’m glad for that. I miss you. I miss your skin, your hair, the way you smell when I touch you. Did you know that you smell different when I touch you? I don’t know if Jacque or Jen ever explained that to you, but as your mate, you respond differently to me. There’s a desire that isn’t there with anyone else and that causes you to give off a different scent. It’s the most alluring scent in the entire world. But, because I can’t touch you, it’s gone. I miss the way you blush when I flirt with you and how soft your lips are when I kiss you. You know what’s crazy? Not too long ago, I didn’t have any of those things and I was still able to live. Sure, it wasn’t a great existence, but I was alive. Now, that I have you, I can’t live without those things, Sally. Not just because of the Blood Rites, but because I couldn’t go on without you being in this world. So you see, when this is all over, you have to come back to me. Whatever it takes, my sweet love, I will do it. I will take away every nightmare, every soul haunting memory, and replace it with my love. Do you hear me Sally?”

Costin’s voice filled with the unshed tears that he had been fighting and he unconsciously reached out to touch his mate only to withdraw his hand quickly. “You have to be okay,” he whispered. “You have to, because I am not okay without you.” He let his mind drift back to the quiet moments that he had been given with her, his brown eyed girl, so many soft laughs, and sweet smiles. He thought about the night that he had held her in his arms as she slept. It was the first time she had ever slept in a bed with a male, and it was the best night of his life. He had been awake for hours after she fell asleep. He had listened to her heartbeat and the rhythm of her breathing. It had all been music to his ears.

He smiled when he remembered the night he had taught her how to bartend. She was so easy to be around and he knew that he constantly had a ridiculous grin plastered on his face because of her, but he didn’t care. As long as his Sally was happy, healthy, and safe, he didn’t care about anything else. Yet, here she lay next to him, and she was none of those things. How many times could a man fail the woman he loved, before it became too much? He didn’t know the answer to that question, but he did know that if there was anything that he couldn’t handle in this world, it was watching his mate suffer, and not being able to do a damn thing about it.

“I will make it right, Sally mine,” he whispered, into the room, his quiet voice mixing with the sound of her occasional whimpers. “I will make it right, and kill the one who made it wrong.”

Q

Decebel paced the room like a caged animal. His breathing was rapid and he was holding back his wolf by a thin thread. His eyes continually darted back to the woman on their bed and with every glance his heart broke all over again. He knew that the other males were feeling exactly the same, only he had one thing they didn’t, a child. A child made in love with the woman who completed his soul. There was nothing more that he wanted in this world than to hold his baby girl in one arm and his female in the other and he swore by everything he could think of that he would do that very thing.

“Think, Decebel, think,” he muttered to himself, for the thousandth time. His brain was a fog of rage and worry. His heart felt as if hundreds of needles were puncturing it, stabbing over and over with every desperate sound from his mate. Every thought was out of his grasp, every breath was a struggle and he was beginning to wonder if he and Jennifer would ever have a happy ending. They had been through so much since they had met and he just felt it was a matter of time before they didn’t make it out as they had so many times already. He turned abruptly when he heard his name.

“Dec,” Jen whispered. He was at her side in the blink of an eye.

“I’m here baby,” he told her, gently. He looked at her gold locks and longed to sink his fingers deep into the strands, like he had so many times before. He needed to see the spark in her blue eyes and hear the sharp slash of her tongue when she snapped her sarcastic remarks at him. Some might be hurt or annoyed by it, but he knew that was how his Jennifer showed her love. If she ignored you, then that was when you should be hurt. He watched as her lips tensed and her eyes squeezed shut. He knew when her body shuddered that she was in pain, or at least she thought she was. Decebel knew first hand just how powerful the mind was and how it could make the body feel.