Costin pulled Sally onto his lap as they sat on the couch. Her wet hair stuck to his face. As he nuzzled her neck, his wolf let out a growl of contentment.

“Okay let’s hear it,” she teased him.

Costin took a deep breath and let it out before he started his tale. “Once upon a time there was a gypsy healer. She had been blessed by the Great Luna to minister to a pack of Canis lupus, healing them when they were injured or sick and protecting them when no one else could. She was brave, strong, honest, and breathtakingly beautiful.”

“Okay, now you’re stretching it a bit.”

Costin tapped her on the nose in admonishment. “Shh, no interrupting or you don’t get intermission.”

“What happens at intermission?” she asked with a coy smile.

“If you will be quiet, you will get to find out,” Costin kissed her quickly and then continued with his story. “She had a mate, one of the wolves had been given to her. The wolf considered her his precious gift, and he was madly in love with her. She only had to breathe and she captivated him. His life before her had been bleak, and he lived only for the next laugh. But those were becoming few and far between as the darkness crept into his soul. But she changed all that. She embraced him as her own, and he claimed her and let her know that not even death would keep them apart. He had explained that it was the nature of their mated pairs that when one died, the other followed and did so gladly.

One day, one horrible day, evil came knocking at their door. It broke their bond, ripping them apart and then it wrapped itself around their loved ones and began to strangle them and this precious healer could only stand by and watch,” he paused and looked at her, “or could she?” His words were a whisper. “She knew of something that could save them and could keep her people and her mate safe. She pleaded with him to understand and needed him to know that she was not choosing others over him, but that she was choosing life for him and the others under her care. He watched helplessly as she sacrificed her life, giving the ultimate gift to those who needed her.

Her mate held her still body, kissed her lifeless lips, and begged for death to take him so that he could be with her. She was his light, and now all he could see was darkness.”

He lifted her chin and kissed her deeply, running his fingers along her jaw and smiling when she giggled as he nipped her skin.

“Wait,” she said pushing on his chest. “Aren’t you going to tell the rest? That seems like a sad place to end.”

Costin shook his head. “It’s intermission. We need some happiness after all that doom and gloom. Then I will be able to tell you the rest.” He silenced her protest with another kiss and pushed all thoughts of the story from her mind.

“How long is intermission exactly,” she asked him nearly two hours later.

Costin looked at his wrist, where there was no watch.“Well, we’ve gone a little over, but I got a little carried away at the snack counter.”

Sally’s mouth dropped open as she looked at him. “Did you just call me a snack counter?”

Costin grinned shamelessly. “Totally did.”

“That’s it, intermission is officially over.” Sally stood from the bed grabbing the sheet to wrap around her.

Costin stood, following her shaking his head. “Nope, not quite yet, mate. Now it’s time for a bathroom break.”

Sally laughed as he picked her up and carried her to their bathroom.

“Costin, I don’t have to go to pee, and even if I did I wouldn’t do it in front of you. Put me down.”

Costin laughed and smacked her lightly on her backside. “Who said anything about peeing?”

Epilogue

“There is no journey as great as the journey of life. We are brought into this world with a purpose for our lives and then given free will to make the choice to fulfill our purpose, or not. We are given the choice to love selflessly, to forgive endlessly, and to give sacrificially. Some days we will get it right and we will rejoice, and then some days we will screw it up so good that we wonder if there is any hope for us. Rest assured, my friend, there is always hope…Unless you are mated to a werewolf, then you have two choices; make yourself a nice hand bag, or run―fast and far.” ~Perizada

Six weeks had passed since the showdown with Reyaz. “Are you ever going to let anyone else hold her?” Jen asked Decebel as he sat rocking Thia in their room.

Decebel looked up from his daughter and curled a lip at his mate, revealing white, sharp teeth.

Jen rolled her eyes. “Babe, you keep trying to intimidate me and all it does is turn me on; you’d think you’d learn.”

Decebel grinned. “Who says I’m trying to intimidate you?”

Jen laughed as she came over and took Thia from him. He frowned at her and stood to follow her. “Relax B, I’m just laying her in her crib so she can sleep.”

“She can sleep while I hold her,” he argued.

Jen gently laid Thia in her crib and then turned back to her mate. She propped a hand on her hip and tilted her head at him. “Okay, so if you are holding her, then how can you be holding me?”

Decebel stared at her blankly.

Jen let out a huff. “Seriously, I have to spell this out for you? And here I thought I mated to the smart one,” she grumbled as she walked away. He followed her from the small nursery they had added on to their bedroom suite and back into the main room.

His eyes narrowed as he watched her walk around their room, her hips swaying seductively. He felt his lips spreading into a smile yet again. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”