“It is within my right to speak for the females of my pack. Decebel will need to speak for the females in his pack.” He paused and glanced one more time at the males. He wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to strangle him in his sleep. “The females who have requested,” he laughed at that, “to go with Lilly will do so except Rachel.” Rachel looked at Vasile, waiting for his explanation and knowing the Alpha always had an agenda. “Rachel, we cannot have both healers away. One must remain here to tend to the needs of the pack and since you are in my pack, you stay.”

Gavril let out a satisfied rumble and walked over, tugging Rachel away from the group. He pulled her into his arms which seemed to soften the frustration that had been written across her tight lips.

Sorin stepped forward and Adam was right behind him. “Don’t you think some males should go with them?”

“And who would I send?” Vasile snapped, “If I send a couple of the mated males, the others will feel slighted. If I send any of the unmated males, they will die by the teeth of one of the mated males. So tell me Sorin, who can I send?”

Sorin did not have an answer and he knew Vasile was right. He stepped back, but his eyes continued to glow as he turned his eyes on his mate.

“Decebel, you must decide if you will allow your mate and Sally to go.” Vasile took a step back, giving the other alpha the floor.

Decebel’s eyes bore into Jennifer’s back. She refused to look at him and he knew it was because he hadn’t refused her request. How ironic was it that the one time he did not object to her, she gets angry about it.

“They may go.” his words rung out through the hall and he swore that everyone stopped breathing. Was he really so unreasonable that they would be so shocked over his decision? He thought back over the course of the past few months and decided, yes, he definitely was unreasonable when it came to Jennifer because the idea of losing her was enough to drive him to the most irrational choices sometimes.

“We leave tonight,” Peri announced. Growls and chairs being shoved out of the way began to fill the room as angry mates tried to keep their anger under control. Costin lost the battle and phased right there—clothes tearing, eyes glowing, saliva dripping from his fangs. He gave Sally one last look before turning and running from the great hall.

“Oh dear.” Sally blew out an exhausted breath.

“I think that’s going to top the understatements of all understatements,” Jacque told them as she pointed them in the direction of her own mate who was standing so still he didn’t even look like he was breathing, but his clawed hand gripping the door frame was the damning evidence that his own control was nearly gone.

“So where are we meeting and what time?” Jen spoke up and drew all the females’ attention away from the ticked-off males.

“Vasile said we can take the pack jet and it will be ready to go in two hours,” Alina told them.

Cynthia rubbed her hands together and was suddenly in all business mode. “Alright then, we have two hours to pack and calm the guys down enough so that they might not tear the mansion apart while we are gone.”

They each again glanced over their shoulders and Jen let out a snort. “Yeah, I don’t think anything we say or do is going to calm this bunch down. Look,” she pointed, “Vasile has Sorin up against the wall by his throat.”

Elle’s eyes widened and took a step in her mate’s direction, but Alina stopped her with a gentle hand on her arm.

“That is between Alpha and pack member. Do not interfere; you will only make it worse.”

Elle’s lips pursed and it was obvious that she didn’t want to listen to Alina. But after one last glance, she turned away.

The girls all agreed to meet at the front doors of the mansion in two hours whether their males were calmed down or not. Jen pointed out that maybe there should be some sort of signal if they were detained, “by ropes or something equally as fun,” she told them. They all shook their heads at her. With audible groans, they headed towards their rooms.

Jen turned to look at Decebel who hadn’t appeared to have moved from the spot where he had announced his decision. She narrowed her eyes at him and a snarl worthy of an alpha female ground out through her lips.

“Our room. Now.”

Decebel flinched under his mate's stare and the words that she pushed through their bond, the one he was trying to close off, tore at his heart. That pain would be nothing compared to the anguish he was about to endure because he was doing something that went against everything in his nature. His wolf was in an absolute rage and Decebel knew that if he let his wolf have any amount of control, he would grab Jennifer and never let her out of his sight. The idea of their mate and their child so far away was like a knife ripping through his organs, twisting this way and that, destroying any function they might have had. And this was only the beginning.

Chapter 6

“Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, there is no right choice in a situation. You can go over it and over it in your mind, looking at every angle, and there is simply nothing you can change. I would rather have her by my side, but then she would be in perilous danger. So I will send her home, but then she is out of my reach if something does go wrong. I must choose the lesser of two evils, but I’m beginning to wonder if even that will be too much a price to pay.” ~Cypher

“Enter,” Cypher called over his shoulder at the sound of the knock. He was attempting to sound civil but there was nothing in him at the moment that felt civil. Lilly was gone. He had sent her away. And so now here he stood on the brink of some sort of war with his brother and no mate to tell him all would be well. Whether a man knew it or not, he needed a woman at his back: someone to remind him that all is not lost, someone to show him the sliver of light that is creeping its way through the dark, someone to hold him, even when he didn’t realized he needed to be held.

“She is gone,” Gerick, the general of his army, spoke softly behind him.

Cypher bit back the snide comment that was on the tip of his tongue. It wasn’t Gerick’s fault that Lilly was gone. It was nobody’s fault but his own.

“I know, but thank you for telling me.”

He knew that Gerick wanted to say more, but was not sure if it was his place to do so.

“What is it, Gerick?” Cypher finally asked as a loud sigh gusted from his lungs.