She heard Decebel growl at her. She laughed. "Love you, my furry fur ball."

"Promise me you will never call me that out loud, in front of anyone."

"Now baby, you know I can't make a promise like that. You're bound to piss me off at some point and I need all the ammunition I can muster."

"Just get your butts in here." He was growling again which only made her grin bigger.

"Now, now, I will not stand for you talking about other chickadees' bums."

"Jennifer," he warned.

"Fine, jeez," she relented.

"Come on, girlies. Decebel’s yapping in my ear about getting all our butts to the meeting room."

"I don't know how you put up with his bossiness," Crina commented on their way out the door.

Jen snickered.

"If he was easy, compliant, and tolerant of her, she would turn him into a wolf rug and walk all over him," Jacque explained.

"Seriously," Jen added. "I can't French kiss a rug. Well I could, but then people would think I'd passed from mildly demented into full-blown off her rocker."

Sally cut a sideways glance at Jacque and raised her eyebrows. Jacque gave a slight nod in agreement with Sally's unspoken skepticism.

"Sally, Jacque, I will not hesitate to put super glue on your toilets, so wipe the smirks off your lovely faces."

Crina, Cynthia, and Rachel listened to the girls' banter, shaking their heads and laughing when Jen made a typical Jen statement.

As they walked, Jacque reached out to Fane. “Hey, wolf-man, I’m feeling a little left out here. All the other men are jumping all over their mates to get their butts to the meeting room.”

Jacque heard him chuckle and then he sent her a mental image of the two of them.

“I will be happy to jump all over you. However, I assure you it will be for a much different reason.”

Jacque laughed out loud and received knowing looks from the others.

“Have I told you lately that I love you?” Jacque asked.

“Yes, but I never get tired of hearing it. Now hurry up and get your butt in this meeting room,” Fane teased.

Jacque grinned to herself and somehow, even after the bonding and marriage, she still got butterflies at the idea of walking into a room knowing she was going to see Fane’s all-too-handsome face.

When they finally arrived at the meeting, the heaviness that cloaked the room brought their laughter and easy banter to an end.

~

The girls walked into the quiet room. The men were sitting in a circle. There were empty seats next to Decebel, Fane, Costin, and Gavril. Each mated female made their way to their respective places while Cynthia and Crina took the empty seats next to Sorin and Drake. Vasile and Alina sat near the front of the room with Peri sitting totheir left.

Jacque saw Wadim next to Sorin and smiled.

"Hey, history boy," she teased. Fane growled and she elbowed him as she continued to talk to Wadim. "So you're being dragged into this mess too?"

"How could I possibly miss the end of the world as we know it?"

Decebel and Vasile snarled at Wadim’s words.

"Not appropriate, Wadim," Vasile warned.

"My apologies, Alpha. I'm just feeling a little overwhelmed by the information I need to share with you," Wadim told him.

"Let's get started," Peri interjected.

Vasile stood and began to walk slowly around the circle as he spoke.

"Decebel and I, along with our Betas, Gavril, and Costin, have been discussing how we should proceed. We have decided that we cannot wait for Desdemona to strike first.  It would be better to be on the offensive instead of the defensive. This means we need to be taking steps forward to figure out Mona's plan and how we can keep that plan from bearing fruit." He paused, waiting to see if anyone had anything to say at this point. When nobody spoke up, he continued.

"Based on the information Peri has been gathering, we think it would be beneficial to send out two groups to two locations that are opposite one another in the country. We might be able to pick something up inadvertently just by being in the right place. For example, Peri and Decebel were able to get Costin a job at a bar in Ruse, which is right on the border of Bulgaria, close to the forest where we think Mona was headed. This bar is frequented by supernatural beings.

“Sally will join him, along with Jen, Decebel, Sorin, Cynthia, and Drake. And thanks to Perizada, Elle will be joining you as well. The other group will include me, Alina, Fane, Jacque, Crina, Rachel, Gavril, and Adam, again thanks to Peri’s help. Skender will stay behind and take care of my pack and Decebel will appoint someone in his place while we are gone. Our group will be heading deep into the Carpathian Mountains, in the area close to the bridge above the In Between.” Vasile stopped pacing. “Now, at one time there were tribes of pixies…"

"Whoa, hold the heck up," Jen interrupted. Decebel placed his hand on her thigh, which she ignored.

"Pixies? Seriously? Okay, right here, right now, give us a list of all the non-human beings that inhabit this great planet but live in secret all up in our Kool-Aid."

Sally and Jacque were nodding their heads in agreement.

Decebel rolled his eyes and waited to see how Vasile would respond to his mate’s outburst. He probably should have put duct tape on her mouth before the meeting began, but she tended to make things more interesting.

"I heard that about the duct tape, you Neanderthal," Jen growled through their bond.