Peri caught his arm as he passed her. “I’m needed here,” she said. “So you will need to stay with the females.”

Costin nodded, his mouth in a tight line. “I figured you would be the best to deal with this.” He lifted his chin in the direction of Sorin, who was barely being held back by Decebel’s power.

Costin continued on, girls in tow. Sally and Jen tried to keep their footing as he moved.

“Costin, did he say what I think he said?” Jen asked, pulling her arm from his and keeping up on her own.

“Mate,” Costin repeated Sorin’s uttered word. “He called Elle his mate.”

“Is that good or bad?” Sally asked tentatively as they made it to the hotel, pushing through the doors, never slowing their steps.

“If it’s real, then it’s good,” Costin answered. “But if it’s real and she ran, well, that’s....”

“JUBAR,” Jen finished for him.

Costin looked over his shoulder at Jen, his eyebrows raised in question.

“Jacked Up Beyond All Repair,” Jen explained. “I do try to curb my potty mouth,” she rolled her eyes, “sometimes.”

Chapter 13

“Sorin and Elle, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g. First comes bonding, next comes the bite, then a roll in the hay that lasts all night.

Who says I can’t hold a tune?” ~ Jen

Sorin paced the room from one wall to the other. His claws had partially extended and his canines lengthened. Everything inside him was telling him to go after her. He didn’t have a clue where she was, but his wolf didn’t care – he was confident he could find her anywhere.

His clothes were beginning to feel too tight, his skin sensitive with the need to phase. In response, he hastily pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it on the floor. As he made another pass from one end of the room to the other, he crossed in front of the bathroom mirror of the hotel room. He froze.

His was skin tingling on the right side of his back and neck and down the back of his right arm. My markings, he thought to himself.

Sorin slowly turned, looking over his shoulder at his back in the mirror. His breathing halted as he watched the markings on his skin – which had been there since puberty – change before his eyes. They were already elaborate because of his position in the pack, but now that he had found his mate they were even more ornate.

The black swirls and lines climbed from below the waistband of his jeans up to the back of his neck, right at his hairline. Then they swirled down and slid over his tricep and elbow, continuing around to the inside of his arm to his wrist. The markings never moved to the front of his body because, though he was dominant, he was not an Alpha.

Even after the markings finished changing, he simply stared over his shoulder. WhenElle fled, Sorin had thought that maybe he was mistaken about her, maybe his wolf was mistaken and she wasn’t their mate, but now he had no doubt. She was his. After 135 years of waiting, 135 years of the darkness consuming him piece by piece, finally he had found her, only to lose her in an instant.

Sorin snarled, unable to hold it in. Decebel was able to keep him from phasing and had given him the command to stay in his room, but his wolf and even the man was fighting it. She was out there, without him. Unprotected.  A Fae.

How was it even possible that a Fae could be his mate? He knew that she could hold her own in a fight, but he was still beyond worried about her.  Where had she gone?  Elle’s strength aside, the point was that she was his mate. She belonged by his side, under his protection.

Sorin stopped in his tracks and closed his eyes, searching for calm and control. He remembered the scent he had caught when she walked into the bar. She had smelled like raspberries and morning dew. It was the most alluring thing he had ever smelled. And as he thought of it he ached for her.

“Elle,” he whispered into the empty room. Why did she run? Had she felt threatened? Did she fear him?

Peri stepped into the room, Jen and Decebel at her heels.

The Fae took a seat on the end of one of the double beds. She knew it would help placate Sorin’s wolf if she kept herself lower than him. Jen started to sit but Decebel wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her against him.

“If you sit, you are telling his wolf that he is dominant over you.  You are my mate, therefore, you are Alpha to him. You have to always be thinking of these things, baby. You become easy prey to anyone who might use your ignorance against you.”

Jen didn’t respond, but let him know she understood what he was telling her. She was glad for the information and glad that Decebel was patient in teaching her things that she should know as an Alpha female, but still didn’t understand because of her newness to this world.

“We need to talk,” Peri said calmly.

Sorin snorted, so un-Sorin like. “You think?”

Go Sorin, Jen thought. Getting some attitude, sticking it to the man.

“Jennifer,” Decebel chastised.

“Sorry, I forget you like to listen to my inner dialogue.”

“How is it possible that a Fae is my mate?” Sorin asked through clenched teeth.

“Well, it’s a new development.”

Sorin waited for Peri to continue.

“Wadim approached Vasile only days ago to tell him the Great Luna had come to him in a dream.” Peri went on to explain everything. While she was speaking, the room grew eerily still.

As soon as she finished, everyone waited for Sorin’s response. Jen beat him to it.