“No, you couldn’t,” he purred as he took a step towards her and then another until he was standing right in front of her. “You would miss me too much.”
Jen rolled her eyes. “You get me knocked up and suddenly you think I can’t keep my paws off of you.”
“Do I need to refresh your memory of the past week?”
Jen actually blushed. “No need to be bringing up old stuff, Dec.”
“Oh, I definitely think there is a need.” His voice seemed to drop even deeper.
Jen held up her hand to hold him off. “No means no, my insatiable mate. I have a chicks’ weekend calling my name and you, my furry love, have the wrong equipment to come and play. I love you.” She leaned forward and gave him a quick kiss and dashed out of his reach before he could grab her. She headed over to Thia’s bed where she lay sleeping and leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Give’em hell, mini me,” she whispered to her daughter. When she turned to face her mate she saw that he was standing in front of the door blocking her escape. He looked quite confident in his ability to keep her from leaving. Thankfully, she had planned ahead. She smiled sweetly at him as she picked up her suit case and then counted down under her breath. “Five, four, three, two, one . . . any time now.”
Peri suddenly appeared right next to her. She grabbed Jen’s arm, gave Decebel the finger, and then flashed out of the room.
Decebel growled as Jen’s laughter filled the room and then she was gone. He stared at the place she had just stood and then he chuckled. “Well played, Jennifer, well played. Just remember what you always say about payback.” He sent to her.
“Bring it, baby,” she whispered back.
“You’re sure this is a good idea?” Vasile asked his mate for the second time.
Alina narrowed her eyes at him. “Vasile, I bonded with you because of the man you were, not because of the man you were destined to become. It is good for others to see that you are not perfect. We have both grown and changed over the centuries; I think for the better.”
“Then why is it necessary to share with them all of our past mistakes?” he grumbled.
She laughed. “Oh mate, you know the answer to that. It is our mistakes that make us who we are. Without our mistakes we would never grow in character, or mature. Without our mistakes we would not be able to tell our children and grandchildren that yes you will fall, but then you will get up, brush yourself off, and be stronger because of that fall. You know this better than most. Let me have this time with the girls. Let me share with them how you came to be the most powerful Alpha in our history, and let me tell them how you won my heart.”
Vasile took her face gently in his hands as he looked down at her. His female who had taken him on time and time again, who had loved him through good and bad, who knew the ugliest parts of his soul and still claimed him, looked up into his eyes. “You tell them what you think you need to, but in the end the only thing they really need to know is that I am the man I am today because you gave me the honor of becoming my true mate.” He kissed her deeply, with all the passion of two centuries worth of love, pouring into her mind the images and emotions of his feelings for her.
When he pulled back she was breathless and her cheeks were flushed just as they had been so many times in the past after he had loved her. “Have fun, Mina, and then come back to me.”
“I always do, Alpha mine,” she whispered.
Romanian Proverb # 1
Cine se face oaie il mãnâncã lupii.
He that makes himself a sheep, shall be eaten by the wolf.
“So how did all your men take the girls’ weekend?” Jacque asked the group as they settled in the living room of the small cottage.
“Well, if Peri and I hadn’t planned for her to steal me, I might still be in my bedroom with my Neanderthal of a mate,” Jen laughed. “He was actually standing in front of the door attempting to keep me from leaving.”
“Fane just hates that I’m not within his reach now that there’s a bun in the oven. He seems to think that for some reason pregnant equals invalid.”
Alina smiled at her daughter-in-law. “Unfortunately, Jacque, the further along you become, the worse that will get.”
“She means the wider your ass gets the more incompetent he will find you, or in my case irresistible,” Jen winked.
“You are so disturbed,” Jacque told her with a snicker. “I wonder when Sally will show up?”
“She shouldn’t be too much longer. She and Rachel were going over some things for Peri and whatever this secret mission is that she and Costin are a part of,” Alina answered.
“Oh, as if you don’t know,” Jen scoffed.
“I might know something, and you would too if you would ever show up to the Alpha meetings,” Alina pointed out. “And,” she held up her hand cutting off Jen’s argument, “don’t say that you have to watch Thia. You have a pack full of females, not to mention the healers and your best friends that would all but rip that baby from your arms.”
Jen flung herself onto one of the empty loveseats dramatically. “Yes, but only 'my girls' produce what she wants, and it is at the very moment those droll, boring Alpha meetings begin, that Thia always gets hungry. Weird coincidence, I know.”
“Uh-huh and since when did Decebel’s man boobs begin producing milk?” Jacque asked dryly.