The Burning Claw (The Grey Wolves #10)(42)

“Ugh, it’s Titus, Mrs. Jen. And I want to be like my daddy.”
The vehicle went quiet at the boy’s declaration. Jen’s heart hurt for Sally and her mate. She prayed that Titus would get to grow up with Costin as his father because he would grow into one heck of a man if that’s who he wanted to emulate.
They finally pulled into the drive of the Romania pack mansion and though there was still a little tension from Titus’s words, Jen felt some happiness over the fun that they’d had with Zara and the little boy.
Decebel was the first one out of the vehicle, and Jen was pushing her door open when she heard her mate’s growl. It wasn’t his I’m irritated with you growl; it was his I’m going to rip someone’s head off growl.
“Dec?” Jen said as she swiveled back in her seat to look across at him. He was as still as stone, the only movement the almost imperceptible rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. She realized he was scenting the air.
“Take them in and get Vasile,” he practically snarled. “Now.”
Jen scrambled out of the seat and got Thia out of the car seat. She motioned for Zara and Titus to hurry and she ushered them inside, looking back over her shoulders once to see her mate taking off his shirt. “Well, crap,” she muttered.
Jen took them straight to Vasile’s office and handed Thia off to Rachel who was already waiting for her. She pushed through the group to the front of Vasile’s desk. “Decebel needs you now. He’s out front.”
Vasile was up and over the desk before she finished. Jen turned to follow and saw Jacque standing, looking confused. “Give my future son-in-law to Alina and get your butt in gear,” Jen yelled. Fane, move it!” She hurried after the Romania Alpha. She had a bad, bad feeling about this.She heard Jacque and Fane behind her and, by the time they reached the front door, Fane was moving in front of them lunging outside, placing himself between them and whatever was waiting outdoors.
Jen and Jacque watched as the three males lifted their noses into the air and took deep breaths. Jen tried to do the same, but her sense of smell, though better than a human, still wasn’t even close to her mates.
“Do you smell anything?” she whispered to Jacque.
Jacque shook her head. “I got nothing.”
When Decebel finally dropped his nose and turned to look at her, his eyes were bright amber. “Blood,” his wolf rumbled. He’d already stripped to his boxers. The wolf was ready to hunt. Vasile and Fane were also stripping their clothes off and movement to her left caused her to look at Jacque who was already in her bra and underwear. Jen raised a brow at her.
Jacque shrugged. “Childbirth stole my modesty.”
Jen snorted. “You don’t even remember giving birth.” She let out a sigh and started stripping quickly to catch up with the others who were already phasing. When her four feet hit the ground she heard her mate’s howl mixed with Vasile’s. They were making their presence known. They took off at a run toward the forest as the sun continued to slip further from the sky and the moon began to take its place.
Decebel’s heart pounded in time to his paws as he flew across the forest floor. Vasile was right beside him with Fane just a hip’s length behind them. The females were only two steps behind Fane. Decebel hated that Jen had followed him out there when he didn’t know what they were going to find, but he knew telling her to stay behind would have only resulted in an argument which would have wasted valuable time—time that they might not even have.
When they’d been back at his own pack headquarters, Decebel had thought he’d caught the scent of blood, and something else that he couldn’t identify, but the breeze had changed direction and he’d lost it. But as soon as he’d stepped out of the vehicle in Vasile’s driveway, the smell assaulted him—blood, lots of blood, and one other scent that he now recognized—Costin.
“What!” Jen yelled in his mind. “You smell Costin? Why can’t I smell him? Is it his blood? Is he okay?”
“Calm down, Jennifer. I have no idea if he’s okay, but no it is not his blood. It’s animal blood. You should be picking it up—”
“Oh, man, bloody hell, that’s a lot of blood,” she said, interrupting him.
“Stay close,” he commanded her, hoping she would at least humor him.
They veered right, following the smell, weaving in and out of trees and brush. The foliage was growing denser, making it difficult to move quickly. Limbs grabbed at their fur, as if the forest itself was trying to impede them. For a moment, Decebel’s mind slipped back to a time when Mona, the witch they’d killed, had used the forest against them along with its inhabitants. He released the thought. There were no more witches to use the forest against them. 
They began to climb higher into the mountains and the scent continued to get stronger. Whatever it was that was injured, or dead, was either very large, or there was more than one. They’d just crested a hill when he and Vasile were abruptly halted in midstep. The scene before them looked like something out of a horror story.
“What the…” Jen muttered as she walked up to stand beside him.
Decebel took in a deep breath, just to be sure, and when it filled his lungs with the scent of his Beta, he knew. Mingled in with the scent of the dozens of dead wild boar was the scent of Costin. These kills hadn’t been for food. The bodies of the animals had been mangled, as though whatever had killed them had been in a crazed frenzy. The stench of reckless, mindless violence hung in the air. No Canis lupus in his right mind would do such a thing. Werewolves killed for food, for the protection of their pack, or when they were directly challenged by another wolf. Those were the only reasons. They didn’t kill simply for the pleasure of the kill or the exhilaration of the hunt, though their wolves did feel those things when the action was taking place. They were controlled killers, not homicidal animals.
“Costin’s gone feral.” As soon as the words left his mouth, his wolf went into full on protect mode. His first thought was get his mate to safety.
“Jen, you and Jacque need to get back to the mansion,” he ordered.
She turned her head to look at him and lifted her lips in a snarl. “I can fight. I’m not a weakling.”
“You’re the mother of my child and I don’t want you injured or worse to leave Thia without her parents. A feral wolf is unpredictable. Costin, for all intents and purposes, is not our friend right now. He’s our prey. We need to catch him before he kills more than just wild boar.”
The snarl dropped away as her eyes widened. She realized his implications. He turned and nudged her shoulder with his big head and the others followed. Vasile took the rear position, guarding them from attack, and Decebel took the lead. Fane flanked them on the sides, weaving in and out from left to right providing protection to Jacque and Jen.
With every step he took his anger grew. What could he have done different to have prevented this? How could he have helped his pack mate so that he’d been able to fight the darkness? Decebel growled. He was Alpha. It was his job to protect his pack and he’d failed Costin. Not only had their healer been taken from them but now his Beta had succumbed to the uncontrolled beast inside of him. There was still a thin shred of hope that he could be saved. If Sally was brought to him quickly enough she might could push back the darkness with her light. But Sally was not with them.
Decebel was facing one of his biggest fears; the possibility that he was going to have to end the life of one of his pack, one of his friends. To lose Costin meant losing Sally for good as well and the loss of either let alone both of them would leave a huge wound in their family, one that might never heal.
Chapter 15
“So often things are not what they seem. People say one thing but mean another. They act one way in front of one person, only to turn around and act completely differently with someone else. Frankly, it’s damn annoying. Can’t we all just say what we mean, and behave in the same manner whether alone or with other people? Is that too much to ask? Well, apparently it is. Stupid free will.” ~PeriPeri needed to be in Romania attending the meeting that she and Vasile had planned, but instead she stood across the street from a bar called The Dog House and she wasn’t impressed. The pixie who had been staking out the place was standing next to her but was invisible to the human eye thanks to Peri’s magic. Apparently, strong magic, pack magic, had been detected in Oceanside and the trail led straight to the grungy, dilapidated bar currently standing before them. Of course, after her visit with history wolf and the Missouri Alpha, she now knew why there was pack magic in Oceanside. The possibility that she was dealing with those lunatics in the Burning Claw made her want to snarl, not unlike Lucian would do.
“What is it about liquor, pool tables, obnoxious music, and obnoxious people that attracts werewolves to bars?” Peri muttered under her breath.
“It’s only fitting,” the pixie spoke up. “Werewolves, after all, are rather obnoxious.”
“I knew I liked you for a reason.” The high fae grinned down at the little being. “Tell me why you think our Sally is in there.”
“Because the female I saw working here is new. She has long brown hair, brown eyes, just like you described. But most importantly, she isn’t a wolf, nor is she entirely human,” the pixie explained.