"I disagree," Jen started.

"You can disagree all you like. Your job is to love me, to pull me and my wolf away from the darkness that would make us the most lethal killers. I don't need your protection, love, I need your light. I need to feel your touch on my skin for yours alone calms my wolf. I need your scent enveloping my body. I need your blood running through me." Decebel tilted Jennifer's head up so he could look into her shining blue eyes. "My wolf needs you to play with us, to challenge us. There are times when we need you to submit, and times when you are the last person we would want to submit to us. You are my beloved and beloved to my wolf. You are my mate, the other half of my soul. You are the only thing that belongs to me and with me and no other. For me, there is no life without you." He watched as tears fell from his love's eyes, and fear, pain, and love pulsed behind them.

"Bond or not, Blood Rites or not, when you leave this world I will follow."

Jen cried harder at his declaration, her forehead falling to his chest.

"Could you live your life without me in it?" he asked her gently.

Her head snapped up. "No," she said firmly.

"Then what makes you think I can live without you?"

Decebel saw that his words were finally getting through his mate's thick head, through her firm determination.

"Jennifer." Her name was a whisper on his lips

She looked at his face, his glowing eyes, his strong jaw, his sensual lips. He was hers. Jen had realized as she listened to him reason with her that she would never be able to live this life and not be bound to him. The very idea was tearing her to shreds. As she began to let go of that choice she felt her breathing ease. The turmoil in her was beginning to calm.

"I want you." He spoke the words he had spoken to her what seemed ages ago in an indoor garden standing in a gazebo. "I've waited more than a century for you."

Jen gasped as he lifted the hem of her shirt, revealing the dark tattoo-like marks that matched his own. His fingers traced the marks as he said, "You bear marks that no other ever will – marks that say you're mine. There is no other who will take the emptiness from me and no other who can love you as I will. I. Want. You."

Jen twisted in his lap and placed her hands on either side of his face. Her eyes narrowed as she stared at her destiny. "And so you will have me," she whispered against his lips.

Her lips pressed firmly to his as he wrapped one arm around her waist. With the other, he cupped the nape of her neck as if to keep her from leaving him ever again.

Decebel pulled his lips away long enough to say, "Tonight. Tonight we finish this."

Jen grinned against his lips, feeling his urgency build.

"Eager much?" she asked with a smile that almost reached her eyes.

"You have no idea," he whispered in her ear, bringing goosebumps to her skin.

Jen closed her eyes and took slow, deep breaths as she allowed his breath, his kiss, his touch to ease away the pain she'd brought upon herself.

Decebel pulled back and placed his forehead against hers, breathing hard. "I will never let you go."

"As if you would ever want to," she teased, regaining the humor that brought him so much joy. "There is all kinds of awesomeness going on here."

Decebel growled. "Baby, I think it's time you shared the awesomeness." His voice was a sensual caress.

Jen shivered. "The ceremony will be tonight?"

He nodded once in confirmation.

"So tonight I'm to spread the love, so to speak?"

Decebel grinned a wolf's smile and another shiver ran through her body. " As much as I want that, you need to heal. Tonight we will bond and do the Blood Rites, I will make you mine. But our consummation will have to wait."

Jen chuckled.

"That makes you laugh?" he asked, taken aback.

"Did you seriously just say consummation?"

"Disrespectful woman," Decebel growled as he gently nipped her bottom lip. That brought a shiver of awareness at the closeness of their bodies, which brought on another giggle from Jen.

"Now what's funny?" Decebel raised a single eyebrow at her.

She shook her head. "Sorry,  I was just thinking it's going to piss Sally off that she'll be the only one left in the sexual frustration club."

Decebel laughed. "Oh, I don't know about that. Costin looks more than on his way to  becoming a member."

Decebel stood and placed her back on the bed. He leaned down and kissed her one last time as Jennifer Adams. For their next kiss would be as mates and, little did she know, as husband and wife.

Decebel grinned to himself at that thought. It was good to keep his little spitfire of a mate on her toes, goodness knows she was going to constantly give him a run for his money.

"You have two hours to prepare. I'm sending Sally and Jacque in here to help you. I realize this is short notice, so don't stress. The only thing I care to hear from your mouth is yes. No more thinking, Jennifer." Decebel stared so deeply into her eyes she swore he could see her soul.

Jennifer smiled sweetly and said in her most mocking voice, "One of these days, fur ball, you and me are going to tango and you are going to wish – however briefly – that I had said no."

Decebel stood and rolled his shoulders back, his six foot four inch frame towering over her. He bared his teeth at her, canines lengthened. "I guess I haven't told you yet just how much I like dancing with you, and even you should know that there is no greater turn on than an Alpha's mate challenging him. So if I ever wish that you had said no, then, baby, it's only because it's my favorite form of foreplay."