“True enough,” a new voice chimed in. “They are pretty scary when they start snarling and foaming at the mouth, not to mention how big they are. But like Jen said, he’d never hurt her. You know he wasn't biting to hurt her.”
“Hello?” Bethany called out. “There is a big, freaking wolf in my face, am I afraid or not?” she asked as the wolf took a small step toward her. His eyes began to glow and her breath caught.
All three voices spoke up at once.
“Not.”
“Afraid.”
“Well…”
Bethany nearly rolled her eyes but stopped herself. She was too afraid to look anywhere but at the beast in front of her. Great, she thought, they can’t even agree on whether she should be scared of the big bad wolf. Wait, who said well? What does well mean?”
“Oh, that would be me. I’m Sally.”
“Okay, Sally, what does well mean?”
“Well means…what are his eyes doing?”
“They’re glowing.”
“Ohhhh,” all three girls said at the same time.
Then a fourth voice chimed in. "Would you three quit with the commentary."
“No, no don't quit with the commentary. Tell me,” Bethany said as her voice rose an octave, “what does 'oh' mean?”
“Basically it means dude man has lost control of his wolf and fluffy is in the driver seat now,” the girl who had been deemed as Jen, according to the voice that wasn’t Sally, said.
Bethany didn’t have any idea what Jen meant. “What man? I don’t see a man.” She was beginning to feel a tad agitated. Why weren’t they helping her? Instead they were talking as though they came upon giant wolves threatening helpless girls all the time.
“Okay, before we dig ourselves any deeper into the rabbit hole, what’s your name?” Jen asked her.
“Bethany.”
“I’m Jen, my three amigos are Sally, Jacque, and Peri. We came to rescue you.”
“You’re doing a bang up job of it,” Bethany said before she could stop herself.
“Nice,” Jen laughed. “Able to be sarcastic in stressful situations. You’re going to fit in just fine,” she said sounding proud.
Bethany once again felt as though the girls were speaking a whole other language.
“So we came to rescue you, but Drake here flipped his lid and thinks you belong to him,” Jacque finished for Jen.
“Drake? Is he your pet?” she asked incredulously.
They laughed and, once Jen finally composed herself, said, “If he were my pet, I’d totally have him neutered.”
The large wolf’s head swung around to look at the girls and his growl got louder. Bethany was able to get her first look at the four girls when he moved his head. Three of them seemed like normal girls, probably about her age—maybe a year or two older. Her eyes widened when they fell on the one with a very large, very pregnant, belly. When they saw her staring at them, they all gave her a smile and wave as if she wasn’t sitting on the floor cowering within chomping distance of a pissed off wolf. The fourth one, well, she definitely didn't look normal. She was beautiful in an unearthly way. Though she looked very young, her eyes were ageless.
“Now, now, Drake,” Jen cooed. “You’re frightening her. It's bad enough that you bit her without her permission." The last part was bit out through gritted teeth.
Drake's snarl only got bigger as he stared them down.
"Oh hell, enough!" the unearthly beauty yelled.
She pointed at Bethany. "You be still." Then she pointed at Drake. "Unless you want a bunch of other males, not to mention vampires, all crawling around your mate, we need to leave—now. I can take you back to the Serbia mansion but you are going to have to be caged. You aren't safe and you know it. You lied to me, Drake. That is not cool. Not. Cool."
Bethany didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The woman was talking to the wolf as though he could understand her. She didn't think things could get any weirder. Until they did.
Suddenly there were huge bodies running into the room from the far right tunnel. They weren't vampires, at least not any that she'd ever seen. And judging by the looks on the girls’ faces, they knew the new additions.
The wolf in front of her tensed and slowly turned his body. He remained crouched over her, only now he was facing the large group on the outside of the cage. The sound of his growls increased and she felt that at any minute he was going to attack. The only one paying any attention was the beautiful woman with the ageless eyes.
The woman cursed under her breath and in the blink of an eye was standing in the cage next to the wolf and her. She reached down and grabbed Bethany's arm and placed the other hand on the wolf and then Bethany was swallowed by darkness.
Peri was pretty sure she'd never been involved in a bigger cluster in all her long life. She'd just witnessed a feral wolf claim his true mate by biting her in his wolf form. Who the hell does that? She wanted to smack Drake upside his head with a concrete wall.
She flashed the pair into the Serbia basement, which was basically a square room containing two very strong cages—put there for just such an emergency. Peri pushed Drake into one of the cages with her power and then slammed the door shut. She held her hand out and spoke in her own language, ensuring that the door couldn't be opened by anyone but her. If she died in the coming battle, Drake was SOL. Too bad, so sad.Peri let go of Bethany's arm, keeping her on the outside of the cage and a good five feet away from it. "Okay," Peri breathed out. "I don’t have time to walk you through all of this. So here are the cliff notes. That" —she pointed to Drake— "is a werewolf. He can understand everything you say. You should be safe from him because he thinks you're his mate. But, stay away from the cage anyway. You are to stay here until I return. We will not hurt you. Your days feeding the vamps are over. Now, are you going to have a panic attack, or pass out?"
Bethany stared at her with wide eyes. "I don’t think so."
"Good. Oh, one more thing." Peri glanced back at Drake and then to the dormant girl. "If he phases back into a man, under no circumstances are you to let him talk you into biting him. Are we clear?"
"Uh, I'm a hundred percent positive that I won't be biting a werewolf."
Peri laughed. "Yeah, that's what I said too." Peri flashed from the room leaving the pair alone and wondering if she'd done the right thing, not that she'd had a choice. She reappeared back in the underground dungeon where an all-out war had erupted. Only there were no vampires involved, at least not yet.
"ENOUGH!" Vasile’s voice boomed against the walls and a hush fell over the room. The Alpha turned to look at her. He did not look pleased. "When this is all said and done, if we live, we are going to have a long, long discussion on why listening to these three" —he motioned to Jen, Jacque, and Sally— "is detrimental to your health."
Peri flashed him a smile. "Please don't expect me to learn my lesson. That's just way more effort than I'm willing to put in."
Vasile felt his mate’s hand on his arm—smart woman. He was at his breaking point. He took a deep breath and then focused back on the matter at hand. "You three are to stay here." When the girls started to argue, Decebel cut them off.
"Jennifer, enough." His voice was not harsh, but it was firm. "The malice that fills this place is enough to choke a demon. You have to stay here if I'm going to be able to fight. Fane I'm sure feels the same way. And, Sally, if something happens to you while under my protection, Costin will have my head. You've had your adventure. In some jacked up way you even helped. Now please just wait for us."
To Vasile's surprise the girls all nodded.
"Good," Vasile said and then addressed the others. "Alston and Peri will flash back closer to the surface. We are to keep ourselves between the girls and the vampires. If we come across any dormants alive, Peri will flash them here to the girls. Fight smart, fight to kill. Do not prolong the battle by taking your anger out on the vamps. It will only cause unnecessary risks. Am I clear?"
Everyone agreed. He turned to his mate. "Do you think you should stay here with the girls?"
Alina's jaw was tight. "No, I will help look for survivors while you fight. The girls will be fine without me. Decebel has trained Jen well and Sally is not without defenses."
He pressed a kiss to her forehead. This had been hard for his tender mate. Alina loved children. She'd always wanted more, but it hadn't happened. And now they were finding out there were dormant children alive in the world being tortured. It would take a long time for her to heal from this once it was over.
Decebel took Jennifer’s face in his hands and tilted it up so that she was looking at him. She was so damn beautiful, and infuriating. "I love you."
She smiled at him. "Even though I drive you crazy?"
He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers, intending it to be a quick kiss, but she tasted so good and he'd been so worried about her, he deepened it and groaned when he felt her respond to him. Her hands slid under his shirt and pressed into his back. His wolf rumbled his approval at the skin on skin contact. When Decebel pulled away, they were both panting shamelessly.
"Be careful, B," she said softly. "I'd hate to have to save your ass and make you look like a pansy."