“He won’t hurt you.” Bethany heard a feminine voice from somewhere beyond the wolf. She tried to look around him to see who was speaking but when she shifted, he shifted with her.

“Uh, he sort of already bit me so I’m not feeling reassured,” Bethany called out. “The snarling and sharp teeth say otherwise.”

“Fair assumption, but I promise the bite wasn't because he was trying to hurt you. He was just being friendly," the voice responded.

Another voice spoke up right after. "I imagine, being in her shoes would be quite frightening, even if she knew that he wouldn’t hurt her. The males can be quite intimidating once they go into Tarzan mode and can no longer speak in full sentences.”

Bethany noted that this voice, also female, was different from the first one that spoke. Exactly how many people were down there, and why weren’t they doing something about the wolf growling at her?

“True enough,” a new voice chimed in. “They are pretty scary when they start snarling and foaming at the mouth, not to mention how big they are. But like Jen said, he’d never hurt her. You know he wasn't biting to hurt her.”

“Hello?” Bethany called out. “There is a big, freaking wolf in my face, am I afraid or not?” she asked as the wolf took a small step toward her. His eyes began to glow and her breath caught.

All three voices spoke up at once.

“Not.”

“Afraid.”

“Well…”

Bethany nearly rolled her eyes but stopped herself. She was too afraid to look anywhere but at the beast in front of her. Great, she thought, they can’t even agree on whether she should be scared of the big bad wolf. Wait, who said well? What does well mean?”

“Oh, that would be me. I’m Sally.”

“Okay, Sally, what does well mean?”

“Well means…what are his eyes doing?”

“They’re glowing.”

“Ohhhh,” all three girls said at the same time.

Then a fourth voice chimed in. "Would you three quit with the commentary."

“No, no don't quit with the commentary. Tell me,” Bethany said as her voice rose an octave, “what does 'oh' mean?”

“Basically it means dude man has lost control of his wolf and fluffy is in the driver seat now,” the girl who had been deemed as Jen, according to the voice that wasn’t Sally, said.

Bethany didn’t have any idea what Jen meant. “What man? I don’t see a man.” She was beginning to feel a tad agitated. Why weren’t they helping her? Instead they were talking as though they came upon giant wolves threatening helpless girls all the time.

“Okay, before we dig ourselves any deeper into the rabbit hole, what’s your name?” Jen asked her.

“Bethany.”

“I’m Jen, my three amigos are Sally, Jacque, and Peri. We came to rescue you.”

“You’re doing a bang up job of it,” Bethany said before she could stop herself.

“Nice,” Jen laughed. “Able to be sarcastic in stressful situations. You’re going to fit in just fine,” she said sounding proud.

Bethany once again felt as though the girls were speaking a whole other language.

“So we came to rescue you, but Drake here flipped his lid and thinks you belong to him,” Jacque finished for Jen.

“Drake? Is he your pet?” she asked incredulously.

They laughed and, once Jen finally composed herself, said, “If he were my pet, I’d totally have him neutered.”

The large wolf’s head swung around to look at the girls and his growl got louder. Bethany was able to get her first look at the four girls when he moved his head. Three of them seemed like normal girls, probably about her age—maybe a year or two older. Her eyes widened when they fell on the one with a very large, very pregnant, belly. When they saw her staring at them, they all gave her a smile and wave as if she wasn’t sitting on the floor cowering within chomping distance of a pissed off wolf. The fourth one, well, she definitely didn't look normal. She was beautiful in an unearthly way. Though she looked very young, her eyes were ageless.

“Now, now, Drake,” Jen cooed. “You’re frightening her. It's bad enough that you bit her without her permission." The last part was bit out through gritted teeth.

Drake's snarl only got bigger as he stared them down.

"Oh hell, enough!" the unearthly beauty yelled.

She pointed at Bethany. "You be still." Then she pointed at Drake. "Unless you want a bunch of other males, not to mention vampires, all crawling around your mate, we need to leave—now. I can take you back to the Serbia mansion but you are going to have to be caged. You aren't safe and you know it. You lied to me, Drake. That is not cool. Not. Cool."

Bethany didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The woman was talking to the wolf as though he could understand her. She didn't think things could get any weirder. Until they did.

Suddenly there were huge bodies running into the room from the far right tunnel. They weren't vampires, at least not any that she'd ever seen. And judging by the looks on the girls’ faces, they knew the new additions.

The wolf in front of her tensed and slowly turned his body. He remained crouched over her, only now he was facing the large group on the outside of the cage. The sound of his growls increased and she felt that at any minute he was going to attack. The only one paying any attention was the beautiful woman with the ageless eyes.

The woman cursed under her breath and in the blink of an eye was standing in the cage next to the wolf and her. She reached down and grabbed Bethany's arm and placed the other hand on the wolf and then Bethany was swallowed by darkness.

Peri was pretty sure she'd never been involved in a bigger cluster in all her long life. She'd just witnessed a feral wolf claim his true mate by biting her in his wolf form. Who the hell does that? She wanted to smack Drake upside his head with a concrete wall.

She flashed the pair into the Serbia basement, which was basically a square room containing two very strong cages—put there for just such an emergency. Peri pushed Drake into one of the cages with her power and then slammed the door shut. She held her hand out and spoke in her own language, ensuring that the door couldn't be opened by anyone but her. If she died in the coming battle, Drake was SOL. Too bad, so sad.