was stuck in one of these damn rooms, holding her son and feeling the loss of her in-laws as well as the pain of her mate. How much more could they take?
A moment later, she felt another searing spasm in her chest, but this time it wasn’t an emptiness that was left behind, but rather, a connection. The pack cord that had connected her to Vasile and Alina was no longer severed. It was now attached to another tether, braided together and pulsing with power.
Costin chuckled gruffly. “And so the prince takes the crown.”
“Fane is alpha?” she asked, hearing the surprise in her voice. “But Decebel was beta.”
“Fane is Vasile’s heir. It is as it should be,” Costin answered.
“Can he do it?” Sally’s lips tightened as she continued. “He’s been knocked down so much, even before this blow.”
“It isn’t the number of times we’re knocked down that matters, Sally mine,” Costin said gently. “It is the number of times we get back up. The fact that the pack bonds have attached to Fane, distinguishing him as alpha, is a testament that he is already beginning to rise despite this blow.”
“He won’t be alone,” Titus said quietly, his voice still shaking. “That’s what pack is for, Mommy. The angel said pack holds those up who cannot stand, and they hold them until they can support themselves.”
“You’re right,” Costin said as he looked down at their son. “Alpha Fane will not fail because he has all of us to help him.”
“Even me?” Titus asked.
“Especially you.” Costin smiled as tears filled his eyes. “You are the next generation. You, Thia, and Slate. The current generation might lead our pack, but it is the next generation that will carry on what we have started.”
Titus’s eyes widened a bit, and Sally just knew that he was about to say something a four-year-old shouldn’t understand.
“I guess that means you guys better start something good,” the child said sternly.
Sally nodded. “We are, sweet boy. We are starting something good. Because we won’t let Vasile and Alina’s deaths be for not.”
Jacque shook so badly that she worried she was going to drop Slate. She paced, unable to sit still because she knew the minute she sat down, she would lose the little bit of calm to which she clung.
Vasile and Alina, her alphas, the parents of the other half of her soul, were dead. The pain of them being torn away from the pack bonds had been rough, but it had been nothing compared to the anguish she’d felt through the mate bond. It was like a part of Fane had died, and she could feel that part slipping away.
He needed her, and yet all she could give him were mere words. Hell, she needed him, too, but she wasn’t about to let him know just how close to the edge of falling apart she’d come.
The door to her room suddenly opened, and two males walked in. She could smell that they were wolves. They’d brought food, just like they always did three times a day, and asked if she needed anything for the child.
Jacque was too screwed up in the head to do anything more than grunt at them. Her heart was shattering, and her arms were shaking so badly that she realized she needed to lay Slate down before she dropped him.
When the door closed, she took a blanket and wrapped it around her son. He started to fuss, but she bounced him gently on her shoulder and hummed the lullaby that Alina had always sung to him. He calmed and thankfully fell asleep. Jacque laid him in the bassinet, careful not to jostle him.
As soon as he was out of her arms, she walked over to the wall and lifted her hands, pressing them against the smooth surface. Jacque turned her head, pressed her mouth into her shoulder, and screamed. Her gut clenched so tightly she thought she might vomit. One hand clenched into a fist, and she pounded it against the wall as tears streamed down her face. When her air ran out, she sucked in more and screamed again and again until her throat was raw.
Despite the words she’d said to Fane, Jacque wasn’t as calm as she’d let on. Her heart was pounding alarmingly hard in her chest. Alina and Vasile’s faces filled her mind. They’d become her family, as much parents to her as her own. She loved them simply because they’d created Fane, but that love grew and became multifaceted