"Fane, stop."

Fane turned his head slowly to find her standing only a few feet away. Peri stood directly next to her. He pulled his lips back and showed her his teeth. It was his kill, his prey, and he would finish it.

"No, Fane. Please, come here," she pleaded with him.

"I will finish it, Fane," Peri told him. She didn't meet his gaze; she wasn’t challenging him. "Tend to your mate. If you recall, she was just in the hands of a sadistic vampire. Perhaps, she would like to be in the hands of her mate now."

Fane looked from Peri to his mate. Jacquelyn was practically bouncing on the balls of her feet. She was anxious. He opened the bond wider and felt her worry, fear, and love flow through him. She did need him. She needed him to hold her more than she needed him to rip the heart from her attacker.

Fane looked down at his prey. With a final snarl, he turned and headed for his female. He began to phase, and when Jacquelyn realized what he was doing, she looked over at Peri.

"Little help please," Jacque pleaded.

Peri chuckled but waved her hand so that by the time Fane was standing back in his human form he had a pair of jeans on. One more flick and a shirt appeared in his hands. Fane haphazardly shoved the shirt over his head as he moved closer to Jacquelyn.

"Are you alright?" he asked as he tried to move to touch her. But he didn't realize that he didn't even have his arms through the shirt sleeves.

She laughed and the sound made him want to move mountains for her. "Here." She reached out to help him get the damn shirt on. Her fingertips slid over his skin and Fane felt his wolf calm at the touch.

With the shirt finally in place, Fane took Jacquelyn’s face in his hands and stared intently down at her. "Are you alright?" he asked again, more slowly.

"I'm fine. I meant it when I said he wasn't hurting me," she promised.

He studied her a minute longer before leaning down, closing the space between their faces, and claiming her mouth. Fane wasn't usually one for a whole lot of public displays of affection, simply because he didn't like making his mate uncomfortable. But in that moment, he needed her like he needed the blood flowing in his veins. He slipped his tongue into her mouth, tasting her and reveling in the desire he felt racing through her.

His hands released her face and he wrapped his arms around her, sliding one hand up her back until it was buried in her hair. He moved the other one to her lower back and held her close to him. The image of her in the vampire’s hands flashed in his mind and he pulled back from the kiss. He pressed his forehead to hers as he tried to regain control of himself.

"Better?" she asked him with a shy smile.

He chuckled, which is what she intended. His mate was anything but shy when it came to him.

"Don’t ever do that again," he growled, though it was without real heat.

Her mouth dropped open. "Do what?"

"Get grabbed by a vampire."

Her eyes narrowed and he could see the redheaded temper that he loved so much flaring up. "I did not get grabbed by a vampire on purpose, you overgrown mutt."

"That was weak, Red." Jen’s voice popped the bubble that seemed to have kept the rest of the world out while they focused on one another. "Chick, you're pregnant. You can do so much better than that."

"Jennifer," Decebel's voice joined in.

"What? I'm just saying…if she's going to insult him then she needs to do it right."

"Yes, that is a very important lesson any female should know," he said dryly.

Jacquelyn rolled her eyes before looking once again up at him.

"I love you," he told her softly. Fane wanted nothing more than to take her somewhere away from vampires, away from her mouthy friends and their mates, so that he could show her with more than just a kiss.

"You better," she warned. "I'm not above sitting on your lap while my water breaks."

Fane tried really hard not to make a face. She laughed. Apparently he hadn't succeeded.

"You can't really do that, right?" He looked over her head at Jen and Alina, two women who'd had babies. "She can't really do that, right?" he asked them as well.

Jen shrugged. "I'm convinced my little half blood is capable of anything she puts her mind to. So if she thinks hard enough about her water breaking while snuggled up on you, then yes, yes I think she could do it."

Fane looked down at his mate who wasn't giving anything away by laughing. She was just staring up at him, waiting for him to decide what he believed. Then his eyes narrowed because he could feel the humor through their bond.

He leaned down to her ear and put his mouth right against it as he spoke. "Let us make a bargain, sweet Jacquelyn. You promise not to do this water breaking thing on me, and" —he paused blowing warm air down her neck and feeling her shiver against him— "I promise to…" Fane trailed off, not daring to speak the rest out loud because he knew how well all those around them could hear. So instead he spoke through their bond. Keeping his head bent down to her neck, he pressed a kiss on his mark as he struck his part of the bargain. When he pulled back to look down at her, she was frozen, her face flushed, and her heart beating so hard he could see the pulse in her neck.

Fane was pretty sure she'd make him pay for that later. But the look on her face, as she tried not to react to his words in front of everyone, was worth whatever she dished out.

Jacque's heart hadn't pounded this hard when the vamp had held her, yet the words her mate had just whispered into her mind had it beating painfully.

"You are so dead, wolf-man," she said through the bond once her brain was working again.

"At least you're calling me a man again. That whole wolf-boy thing was starting to give me a complex."

"You'll have more than just a complex when I'm done," she muttered under her breath.

Peri dealt with the vampire Fane had maimed and then called everyone to gather round. Nissa was still gone, so she knew she'd need to check on the fae after she'd gotten the wolves safely home.

"All of the children found," —she paused and looked at Costin who held Titus in his arms— "save one, have been successfully returned to their families. Cyn, Nissa, and I have taken great care to ensure that they will not remember their time with the vampires. Even though they are dormants, they are too young to understand. So Vasile has asked that we keep an eye on them as they grow up and from there we will see what the Great Luna has planned for them."