“Do you think we will ever have children?” Jacque asked Fane as they lay on their backs on a blanket in the floor of their room. Fane had surprised her with a midnight picnic, complete with chocolate covered strawberries and the little finger sandwiches that she always thought were ridiculous. It had made her laugh, and that had been his goal.

“Most definitely,” he told her.

“How can you be so sure?”

“I don’t believe you could have been brought into this world and not be given the chance to pass on your love, compassion, intelligence, and loyalty to a child who could then be a light in this dark world. How will good remain in the world if those who are good do not raise up the next generation?”

Jacque smiled at him. “Thought about this much?”

Fane chuckled. “If you mean about procreating with you, well, what man doesn’t think about that with his wife?”

She smacked his arm and then broke into uncontrollable giggles as he tickled her. Though he never tickled her long, because there was only one thing he liked more than her laughter, at least that is what he had told her, and that was kissing her.

He braced himself above her on his arms and looked down into her flushed face. Her chest rose and fell rapidly as she tried to catch her breath. Jacque looked up into those amazing blue eyes and thought that if she could go to bed every night staring into those eyes, then she would be happy.

“One day, my love, we will have a child and that child will be more loved than any child in history.” He leaned down and kissed her gently, but had to stop because of her laughter. “What is funny?”

“Fane every parent feels that way about their child.”

“Maybe so, but then those parents aren’t Canis lupus. We love on a whole different level.”

“Don’t I know it,” she said breathlessly at the mischievous flash in his eyes.

He leaned down to kiss her again and as Jacque waited for their lips to touch, she felt his weight growing lighter on her, the heat of his body was leaving hers. She opened her eyes and saw that he was fading. “Fane,” she called his name, reaching for him desperately. His eyes were sad, as his lips moved, she read the words, “I love you.”

Jacque woke with a start as she sat up. Dirt was stuck to her sweaty cheek from where her face had been pressed to the hard ground. She looked around her and remembered where she was—the dark forest-not in her bedroom, not with chocolate strawberries, and not with her mate. Her heart pounded painfully in her chest and she pressed her hand to her chest as if that could take the pain away.

“How are you?” she heard Alina’s soft voice a few feet from her. Her mother-in-law looked utterly exhausted. She had been trying not to sleep, worried that the white wolf would return. Jacque hadn’t decided if Alina was worried she would miss seeing him because she wanted to see him, or if she was afraid she wouldn’t be awake to protect them. Most likely the Alpha was torn between the two emotions.

“The pain is getting worse,” Jacque admitted.

Alina’s lips tightened into a grim line. “And it will only continue to do so.”

Jacque let out a huff of laughter and grimaced from the pain it inflicted. “That’s what I love about you; you don’t sugar coat it. You simply tell it like it is.”

Alina smiled. “I could lie, but then I think you will handle the pain better if you are prepared for it.”

“Are you scared of him?” Jacque asked not bothering to point out the him she was talking about.

“Yes and no. Seeing him was such a shock, but then there was hope only to be quickly followed by despair. He has been trapped in this place for so very long, Jacque. For him to have been surrounded in this, breathing in the black magic every day, without light in his life, breaks my heart. I don’t know how much of him is left.”

“You mean how much is salvageable,” Jacque said for her. “You think he will have to be killed.”

“Yes.”

They sat quietly, staring off into the dark woods, watching shadows move that shouldn’t be moving, and hearing noises that caused goose bumps to rise on their skin. Gradually, the other women began to wake up and the groans and whimpers from the mated females was just another reminder of their dire situation.

“Any more visitations by Vasile’s long lost brother who is probably completely evil and wants to eat us?” Jen asked.

“Jen, really?” Sally said as she cut her eyes to Alina.

“I am not offended, Sally,” Alina said. “Jen’s evaluation of the situation is correct and I won’t delude myself into thinking anything else.”

“See,” Jen motioned to the Alpha, “at least one of us isn’t trying to dance around like some bat sniz crazy woman singing I Will Survive, when we all know that the last thing we are going to do is survive.”

“Bloody hell who crapped in your dream?” Jacque growled.

Everyone stopped moving and looked at Jacque who shrugged. “What?”

Jen laughed and then grabbed her stomach as cramps doubled her over. “I like that one wolf-princess,” her voice came out strained as she held her stomach. Cynthia knelt down beside her, instructing her to take slow deep breaths. Slowly, the cramps subsided, like they had before, only now they were happing more often.

“To answer your question, Jen,” Alina said. “He has not shown himself, but he is watching.”

“Okay that sort of creeps me out,” Crina said.

“I have to go with the Romanian on this one,” Jen agreed, “wolf form or not, I really don’t like an audience when I pee, having you all in my bathroom is bad enough.”

“I don’t know how much of the human is left, if any,” Alina told them. “If he has been in his wolf skin all this time, there is little chance that anything human in him remains.”

“So, anyone have any good news for the day, or night, or whatever the hell time it is?” Lilly asked. Surprised looks were cast her way as Lilly had been their perpetual positive force. “Hey, don’t look at me like that. I still have hope; I’m just going to be pissy while still having hope.”

“Pissy hopefulness,” Sally said. “I can see that catching on.”

“You Americans are so weird,” Crina told them as she stood and stretched out her limbs, groaning just as much as the others as the pain pulsed in her muscles.