Her words had Decebel’s jaw clenching. He did as she asked and immediately felt Jen’s irritation.
She was going to bombard him with questions later, livid that she was shut out. She was like a dog hunting a meaty bone when she decided she needed information.
“I’m sure Vasile has told you.” Peri paused and glanced at the Romania Alpha. Vasile was shaking his head. “You didn’t tell them?”
“Tell us what?” Costin asked.
Decebel could tell the other males were beginning to become as agitated as he was. Something was very wrong.
“Why the hell not?” Peri growled at Vasile.
Vasile stood up and stepped around his desk. Alina stepped up beside him and placed a hand on his arm. Decebel could count on one hand the number of times he’d seen his old friend look so troubled.
“Perizada, I respect you as the ambassador that you are, the friend you have become, and as the mate that you are to my brother. But you will remember to whom you speak. I made the decision not to inform them of what you told me because I was hoping that this was an isolated incident. Since you and the other pack males destroyed the coven, I had hoped that the problem was solved.”
Decebel’s ears pricked at the word coven. “Vampires,” he growled. The other males added their voices to his as low rumbles vibrated in their chests.
“There haven’t been vampires seen above ground in centuries,” Cypher argued.
Peri finally turned away from Vasile and looked back at them. She let out a humorless laugh. “They still haven’t been seen above ground, at least not by anyone left alive. But they are hunting again. Of that, there is no doubt. Without going into too much detail, my mate, myself, and two other male wolves went to visit a coven in hopes of discovering some much needed information. But instead of finding information, we found bodies―lots and lots of little, young bodies. The vampires were all too happy to parade them in front of us. Apparently they’d forgotten what it’s like to provoke pissed off male Canis lupus. Dalton Black, the Beta of the Colorado pack, killed them all.”
Decebel was shaking with the need to phase. They were killing children, innocents. Children had always been sacred to him, but now that he had a daughter of his own, there was a whole new meaning to the term sacred child. The idea of his Thia in the hands of bloodsuckers filled him with enough rage that his hands began to phase and fur was beginning to sprout on his arms and neck.“We too had hoped that perhaps,” Peri continued despite the level of animosity now filling the room from all of the males present, “it was an isolated problem, that maybe only that particular coven had begun committing such atrocities. Tonight proved us wrong. Vasile, Alina, and I discovered a home that they had raided, but it wasn’t the only place that they had struck.”
“How many more?” Alina asked, her own wolf peering out at them from her eyes.
Peri’s jaw clenched before she finally answered. “Six.”
“Six more children?” Vasile asked.
The high fae shook her head and made a noise halfway between a snort and a huff. “They struck in six more cities.”
“How. Many. Children?” Alina asked again. Decebel wasn’t surprised to see Vasile holding onto his mate’s wrist because Alina looked ready to tackle Peri to the ground.
“Eighteen. Three in each city. All triplets. All under the age of eight.”
“How do you know this?” Fane spoke up, his voice hoarse with emotion.
“Spies. I’ve been working with the pixies. I had the pixie king put three of his warriors in each of the cities where I believed there to be covens.”
“How did you know where to look?” Fane pressed.
“It wasn’t hard once I started checking police reports for missing children.”
Vasile pinched the bridge of his nose. “Eighteen in one night.”
“What are we going to do?” Fane asked his father.
It was Alina who answered. Her voice was cold as ice when she met each of their gazes. “We’re going to kill them.”
“All of them?” Costin asked.
“Every. Last. One,” Decebel growled.
“I knew there was a reason I continued to put up with you wolves,” Peri told them with a smile that didn’t meet her eyes. “I can always count on you to be ready to make chew toys out of our enemies.” She turned to Vasile. “Cyn will be coming to assist you. I’ll be here when I can. Tonight my people are working on cleaning up the mess the vamps have made. Alston, a couple of the other high fae, and Cyn are working on the other victims’ homes. I’m not even going to get into why Adam and Elle can’t help. Let’s just say my plate is officially off limits for any added courses.”
“Thank you, Peri.” Alina took the fae’s hand. “We know you make a lot of sacrifices for our race and we are thankful.”
“Don’t be thankful, just kick some vampire ass and we’ll call it even.” She flashed away leaving them in Vasile’s office feeling as though the weight of the world had been dropped on their chests.
“What now?” Cypher asked.
“Now we get some sleep,” Vasile told them. “We will meet back here tomorrow evening. I’m giving you all day tomorrow to get your things in order. Put capable wolves in charge of your packs.” He glanced at Decebel and then at Cypher.
“What about our mates?” Costin spoke up. “What are we supposed to tell them now that we’ve been blocking them from our minds for an hour?”
“For now, tell them I ordered you to block them because of some sensitive information that is only for the warriors. I know that our females think of themselves as warriors and, in their own right, they are.” Vasile reached over and took Alina’s hands. “But they are still to be protected, even if they don’t like it.”
“If your females get upset, have them call me,” Alina offered.
“You’re joking right?” Fane chuckled at his mom. “Upset is what happens when Jacque’s hair doesn’t do what she wants it to. Me blocking her from my thoughts, yeah Mom, that’s way past upset.”
“Can’t we just tell them” —Costin tapped his mind indicating the use of the mate bond— “that you sent us on a mission. That way we don’t have to see them tonight?”
“Chicken,” Decebel rumbled.
All of the males’ heads turned to face him. “What?” he asked.
“You, of all of us, should be terrified. Jen’s going to rip you a new one,” Costin laughed.
“Yes, but I know several ways to soften my mate’s temper.” Decebel smiled a wolfish smile at them revealing long canines.
“Do whatever you have to in order to survive the night and day, gentlemen,” Vasile told them. “But do not reveal what Peri has shared with us this night. I have a feeling life is about to get very messy. Let’s give your mates one more night of normal.”
Chapter 2
“Sally and I have decided that putting up with Jen is a small price to pay for the entertainment value she and her mate provide. Need a laugh, just sit in on one of their fights. Need to get all hot and bothered, just sit in on one of their fights. Need a good cry, just sit in on one of their fights, and then you might have to cry over the good brain scrubbing you will need. Yep, those two are a regular lineup of prime time T.V.” ~Jacque
“She’s blind? And another one is a stripper?” Jen’s voice carried from the bathroom. She, Jacque, and Sally had gathered in Sally and Costin’s suite. “The Great Luna must be having to scrape the bottom of the barrel for healers if she’s resorting to blind chicks and strippers.”
“Jen, technically you could be classified as a stripper,” Jacque hollered back from the room where she and Sally sat. “You just never require money to take it off.”
“Actually, Jen’s more of a stripper than Stella. Stella doesn’t take off her clothes. She just dances,” Sally pointed out. She leaned back on the couch and let out a contented sigh. It was good to be home.
Jacque gave her gypsy healer friend a nod. “Good point. Jen’s clothes never stay on when she dances.” Both she and Sally’s heads turned as Jen came sauntering out of the bathroom.
“Hey, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, nobody asked for your sideline commentary. I was simply pointing out that these news chicas, you’ve been telling us about, seem to have a lot of baggage. No judgment,” she said holding up her hands defensively, “considering I’m barely nineteen, married, and have a kid.”
“They do have a lot of baggage,” Sally agreed. “But, they’re really great. You guys are going to like them.”Jacque reached over and patted her knee. “Miss them already?”
She gave her a small smile and shrugged. “They’ve been through a lot and are going to go through much more before it’s all said and done. I guess I’m like a mama hen. I worry about my chicks.”
Jen plopped down next to Sally on the couch and gave her brown hair a slight tug. “Yeah, well, listen up, Mother Goose. You are our best friend. I’m not saying I won’t like the new little chickadees, but just remember who claimed you first. So no crying over spilled healers, or whatever.”
“What she means,” Jacque chimed in as Jen proceeded to look over her fingernails intently, “is that she really missed you. Both of us did.”