“See, don’t you wish you'd given me the popcorn?” Jen retorted.

Jacque started laughing, she just couldn’t help herself. She was so grateful to have Sally and Jen giving her something normal to grasp onto.

Jacque turned and looked at her mom. “So my father left because he found his true mate, or whatever?”

“Yes, and I want you to know I don’t blame him. I knew that it would eventually happen,” Lilly answered.

“Did he ever know about me?” Jacque asked, not really sure if she wanted to know the answer because if he did, and he had never bothered to come meet her, it was really going to hurt.

“No honey, he didn’t know. After he left I had no way to contact him. If he'd known he would have wanted to be a part of your life. He is a good man, Jacque. Only problem was he wasn’t really a man. Just my luck, huh?” Lilly said with a sad smile.

Jacque thought for a moment and something Fane had said earlier came to mind – he had called her his mate!

She slowly turned to look at him and saw that his head was down, shoulders slumped as if he were deflated. It broke her heart to see him look so broken. Jacque walked over to him and got down on her knees in front of him. He still did not move. Jacque took her finger and placed it under his chin and raised his head so she could see his face. The look she saw brought tears to her eyes. She didn’t talk out loud, she felt like this was private, just between them, and for the next few moments there was no one in Jacque’s world but Fane.

“What’s wrong, Fane?” she asked him.

“You know what you are to me, yes?”

Jacque whispered her answer out loud. “Mate.”

Fane nodded his head. “Yes, meu inimă. You are my mate, the other half of my soul, and the thought of you not wanting me is more than I can bear,” Fane told her honestly.

“No pressure, huh?” Jacque said, trying to lighten the mood.

“I would never ask you to do something you do not want to, Luna, but I will not lie and say that I won’t follow you around like a sick puppy,” Fane said with a smile, though the tears were not quite gone yet.

“I just need time to sort through all this. I’m not saying I don’t want you, I mean, now that I’ve met you the idea of life without you makes it hard to breathe,” Jacque revealed.

Fane took her hands in his and said, “Time is the one thing I can’t give you, love.”

Chapter 18

Fane held the hands of his mate and hated to have to tell her that he couldn’t give her the one thing she wanted, but there was no time. He needed to complete the bond through the blood rites, especially since there was another Canis lupus attempting to claim her. Once the bond was complete, no other male could dispute whose mate she was.

Fane pulled Jacquelyn up off thefloor and returned her to the seat next to him. He continued to hold one of her hands, taking comfort from the touch.

“I’m not trying to rush you, Jacquelyn. Under different circumstances I would give you all the time you need, but you are not safe un-bonded,” Fane explained to her.

“Ok, that was just clear as mud. Would you mind elaborating why I am not safe?” Jacquelyn asked.

“When I came here my father…wait, let me back up for a moment and tell you a little about who I really am so that everything fits together, okay?” Fane asked.

“Whatever gets us to the place we need to be. I’ll try not to ask 'are we there yet',” Jacque answered impatiently.

“I am Canis lupus like your father. My lineage is Romanian. There are many types of werewolves. But we are known as Grey wolves, as is your father,” Fane explained.

“How can you know my father is a Grey?”

“My father told me,” he answered.

“Who is your father?” Jen asked, enthralled in the conversation.

Everyone in the room turned to look at her. She just lifted her shoulders and said, “My bad. That was Jacque's line, wasn’t it?”

Sally shook her head and hit Jen in the shoulder. Jen scowled at her.

“My turn,” Jacque piped in. “So, who is your father?” she repeated.

“I’m getting to that. You two jumped the bullet,” Fane told them.

The three girls laughed. Sorin coughed, trying to disguise his laughter.

“Jumped the gun, handsome, not bullet,” Jen corrected him with a grin.

“Oh. Well, as you would say, my bad,” he told Jen.

“Let me continue. As I said I am a Grey and my Pack is in Romania. Every pack has an Alpha, just like our animal cousins. The Alpha is sort of like the king, he rules the pack. He keeps order so that dominant wolves don’t tear each other apart, and so that everyone, especially the non-dominants, also called submissives, are protected.” Fane was trying to make sure he made all this as clear as he could so that Jacquelyn would understand where she fell in all this – and what her new life would be like.

“My father is the Alpha of the Romanian Canis lupus. I am next in line to be Alpha and our Pack calls me Prince. I am a dominant, which means it is in my nature to want to protect those weaker than me. It is also in a dominant’s nature to be aggressive and very territorial. An Alpha has to be a dominant or else he can not maintain order in the pack. Are you with me so far?” Fane asked her.

“You’re a Romanian werewolf prince, your dad is the werewolf king, you are bossy, possessive, and territorial by nature. Which, if you were just a wolf would mean you’d pee on whatever you wanted to mark as yours.”