Untouchable like a distant diamond sky

I'm reaching out and I just can't tell you why

I'm caught up in you, I'm caught up in you

Untouchable, burning brighter than the sun

And when you're close, I feel like coming undone

In the middle of the night when I'm in this dream

It's like a million little stars spelling out your name

You gotta come on, come on, say that we'll be together

Come on, come on, little taste of heaven

It's half full and I won't wait here all day

I know you're saying that you'd be here anyway

But you're untouchable, burning brighter than the sun

Now that you're close, I feel like coming undone

Jacque didn’t really understand how she knew it, but she believed without a doubt that her future was with Fane. She wasn’t sure how or why, or when, and at that moment he seemed very untouchable – she sure as hell was coming undone.

The song stopped and her phone started vibrating. For a moment she was a little disoriented, then she realized she was getting a phone call. She looked at the screen on her phone and it was Jen.

“Hello?”

“Got good news, got bad news. Won’t charge you for either so which do you want first?” Jen answered.

“Slap me first, pat me on the back last,” Jacque told her.

“Bad news it is. I won’t be back over to your house until nine at the earliest. My mom and dad are in one of their ‘we’re a family, we need to eat at the table together, blah blah blah’ moods. So naturally, being the sweet little thing that I am, I didn’t argue with them for twenty minutes or slam my door and tell them how 1950s they were being. Nope, not me. I smiled sweetly.”

“Jen, you don’t do anything sweetly. How did you manage a smile?” Jacque retorted.

“Oh, shut up. That was the slap. The pat is I get to come over, even after the little fit that I didn’t throw,” she said with smug satisfaction.

“Try to keep your mouth shut between now and then so that you don’t have to call me later with something worse than a slap, okay?” Jacque told her.

“Okay, okay. Geez, who spit in your pizza?”

“I’ll give you the full details tonight, but suffice to say at least one piece has made its way into the puzzle.” Jacque thought about her words for a moment, then remembered a question Fane had asked her when he was “talking” to her. He had asked where she got her odd way of speaking. Did she speak oddly?

“Jen, do you think I speak oddly?” Jacque asked.

There was silence for a moment at the other end of the line. Jacque assumed either Jen was thinking or she had found something more interesting to pay attention to. Jacque was just about to ask again when Jen answered, “You do realize who you're asking, right? ‘Cause I just asked you who spit in your pizza and you knew exactly what I meant. So, I’m just saying I might not be the best judge ofany oddities you may possess.”

“True dat,” Jacque responded.

“I’ll see you tonight. Try not to do anything too crazy without me. You know how I like to watch,” Jen said, cackling as she hung up.

Jacque shook her head, laughing to herself about her friend’s sick, twisted sense of humor. She didn’t bother to turn her music back on, she just listened to the sounds around her. For the most part the only noises were the occasional bird or dog bark. Other than that it was a quiet summer day. As beads of sweat ran down her collar bones she thought, Let’s qualify that. It’s a quiet, hot, summer day.

Jacque rolled over onto her stomach and closed her eyes, letting the heat and the sounds run over her. Before she realized it she had fallen asleep.

Chapter 8

Fane looked at his watch. It was half past noon. Sara had been gone an hour and he still hadn’t heard Brian at all. There was an eight hour time difference between Coldspring and Romania, so it was eight thirty in the evening where his family was. He decided to call his dad while Brian and Sara were out. He had some questions that he thought should be answered before he had to start explaining things to Jacquelyn.

He dialed his father’s cell phone number and listened to it ring.

“Da?” his father answered. This was the way he always answered, with a simple “yes.” No “hello” or “this is”, just yes. Something so small, but it made him homesick.

“Tată,” Fane answered.

“Fane? Cum te simÅ£i?” his father asked him.

“English please, father, I’m trying to get in a better habit of not switching back and forth in conversation. I am good. How is mamă? How is the Pack?” Fane asked.

“Your mother is good, other than missing her pup. The Pack is good,” his father responded.

Fane asked about the Pack for two reasons. The first was that he was to be Alpha one day and his father had been teaching him for as long as he could remember that the other wolves in the Pack were like his children. He was to love them, protect them, and care for them. Sometimes that meant feeding them, other times it meant disciplining them. So as Prince and future Alpha he knew it was his duty to make sure the Pack was well.

The second reason was because there were a lot of un-mated males in the Pack, and un-mated males were restless, aggressive, and for lack of a better term, stupid. It really was true that behind every great man was an even greater woman – it stood true for wolves as well. Until a male wolf was mated, his emotions were volatile; he tended to be restless, and prone to wandering. All could lead to territorial battles and, needless to say, it could get messy. Once a male wolf bonded with his mate, all of those aggressive tendencies were balanced out by the gentle nature of his mate. It was not really known how it worked, but from what some males had said, it was like the better half of their soul was given back to them and they felt whole.