The warning in Vasile’s voice made the hairs on the back of Costin’s neck rise and he bit back the growl that rose in his chest. He wrapped a protective arm around his mate and pulled her close to him.

“Relax, Costin. I am not threatening your mate, I am warning her. But I am threatening my son.” Vasile shook his head wearily and retreated back to his desk. “You both are dismissed. Sally, thank you,” he paused, “for speaking with him.”

Sally gave a slight bow of her head before following Costin from the room.

Vasile sat in the chair behind his desk. The aged leather wrinkled and groaned beneath his weight. His heart was heavy with the burdens their pack had so recently endured, but he knew that there were more to come. A new threat had risen, just as an old one had fallen. Now in the midst of that threat, Vasile also had to worry about his only son. He had known that Fane wasn’t coping well in the aftermath of Mona’s spell, but there had been too much going on for him to address it. Now that he considered it, he wondered if he had fallen short as an Alpha and father for not making the time.

“As usual, you take on blame that is not yours to bear.” He heard Alina’s words in his mind. He smiled to himself as he reached out to her.

“Isn’t it? I am his Alpha, his father. Is it not my place to make sure that he is well?” he asked her.

“He is a grown man and he is mated. It is her place to care for him first. Should she not be able to handle it, then it is her job to come to you. Do not add to your already heavy load my love. For even you, as strong as you may be, can be crushed.”

He chuckled out loud at her chastisement and took pleasure in knowing that she was the only one who could ever get away with it.

“How did I ever deserve to have you as my mate, Mina?” he asked her gently.

He felt her hand brush the back of his neck and her lips against his own.

“When I figure it out, I’ll let you know,” she teased.

Vasile growled at her cheekiness. “I swear I’m going to have to limit her time with those girls and that damn fae as well.”

“Were you ever going to tell me what you saw?” Costin asked Sally as they headed to the pack healer’s room. She had been working with Rachel on different herbal remedies, going through the archives of their people and relearning all that the gypsy healers once used to tend the wolves.

“I think there is some sort-of healer/wolf confidentiality that Fane is entitled to,” Sally told him with thinned lips.

“Did you really have to go see him alone? I don’t like you being with a male by yourself, especially an unpredictable one.”

Sally huffed. “Fane would never hurt me, Costin, and he’s mated. You are going to have to curb your possessive instincts in order for me to domy job.”

“No, you are going to have to learn to let me in. We are a team. It’s my job to protect the healer and I can’t protect you if you don’t let me near you.” Costin’s voice was becoming more and more gravelly with each word.

“Why are you so cranky?” Sally asked as she pushed open the door to the healer’s study. Shelves filled with plants, herbs, and odd looking stones lined the walls. Books were scattered across the two tables that ran the length of the room.

“How do you feel about it?” Costin asked quietly.

Sally knew what he was asking. He wanted to know if she was angry about what Jacque experienced. But how could she be angry when she had experienced something very similar?

“How are you not losing it like Fane over what I experienced?” she countered. “Why aren’t any of the other males killing each other over what their mates felt while under the curse? You have to know that all of you males fear us going to other men. So we all went through that same thing.” She walked over to him and looked up into his hazel eyes—eyes that shown with such love that when they gazed upon her, it took her breath away.

“I know you want no other than me. I know that you would never touch another male and because I know that, deep in my soul, I have let go of what happened under the curse. You showed me the night we were bonded that there is nothing that could ever take your love from me. So what do I have to be upset about?”

Costin reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear and Sally leaned into his touch. He leaned down until their foreheads touched and inhaled her scent through slow deep breaths.

“Thank you,” he whispered softly. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close to him. It was his favorite place to be—wrapped around his mate, protecting her, loving her, and reminding her that she was his.

“I love you,” she told him gently.

He grinned at her flashing his dimple. “What’s not to love?”

Sally rolled her eyes as she pulled back from him and he reluctantly let her slip away.

“I swear you and Jen were separated at birth,” she grumbled as she turned to open up one of the healing books.

“So what are we doing today?” he asked as he rubbed his hands together like an eager child.

“A tonic,” she told him as she flipped the pages.

“A tonic for what?”

“Overbearing, jealous, obnoxious, yet hot, werewolves.”

Costin let out a laugh that filled the room and flooded Sally’s heart with joy.

“Will it affect my good looks?” he asked her playfully.

“Oh, yes perfect,” she muttered to herself ignoring his question.