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, asif 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.

Jen groaned. “Dude, that is so wrong. Why would you even put that out there? I mean first of all you have seen his gorgeous chest and know that he has the furthest thing from man boobs, second. . . .”

“Oh shut up, blondie. The point wasn’t to insult your man’s wicked sexy chest; it was that you can’t claim to have to be nursing Thia during the meetings because you are spending an entire weekend away from her and she is obviously getting fed somehow,” Jacque growled.

“Jacque, you’ve been to those meetings; you know how boring they are. You would be making up breastfeeding lies to get out of them too,” Jen whined.

Alina was laughing at the two friends when the cottage door opened and in walked a tired looking Sally. “Anyone call for a healer?” she said as she smiled at the three women.

“Crap, it’s about time you show up. Geeze, you’d think you were off getting ready to save the world or something.”

Sally shook her head. “Ah-ah-ah, Jennifer, no more business, we are officially off-duty. I’m not a healer, you’re not a mamma, Jacque’s not a princess, and Alina’s not an Alpha. We are simply the chicks, having a chick weekend.”

“Yeah, well tell that to my boobs because they don’t seem to understand the milk factory needs to shut down,” Jen huffed.

“Has she been doing the whole whining about breastfeeding thing again?” Sally asked Alina and Jacque. “Because I thought we had nipped that in the bud.”

“It’s our fault. We brought up the Alpha meetings she keeps missing,” Jacque explained.

Sally made and “ah” motion with her mouth.

“Oh, give me a break. I had one little meltdown over the whole experience, and now you are acting like I complain about it all the time.”

Jacque rolled her eyes. “Jen, you were screaming at the top of your lungs that it wasn’t fair that you had to give up your perky rack, and you were sick of your nipples feeling as though they had been stuck in a pencil sharpener while salt was poured on them.”