Three days missing.

Costin was a mess. There was no other way to put it. Before Sally, he’d been getting by, living behind the smile and the jokes, but deep down the darkness was creeping further and further into his soul. Then she’d come, and like the first rays of the sun in the morning, she’d lit him up from the inside out. Sally had replaced all of the loneliness and pain. She’d brought him the hope that comes with having a true mate. And just as quickly as she’d appeared in his life, quicker actually, she’d been ripped away.

“Can we go outside, Daddy?” Titus asked. It was midafternoon and he knew the little boy had to be getting restless. He’d gotten to play and walk around the mansion, but he’d been cooped up inside, and Costin knew that fresh air would do them both some good.

“Sure, buddy. We can go out.”

Peri had been kind enough to bring Titus some clothes and a jacket, shoes, and socks. Though Spring was upon them, in the morning the air was still cool enough to warrant a light jacket. Costin helped Titus pull on his jacket and slip on his shoes before taking his hand and walking them out of the large house.

“There’s a lot of steps to take before you can get to a door to go outside,” the little boy pointed out.

Costin smiled. “Yes, there are a lot of steps to take.”

“Will we always live here?” Titus asked.

Costin thought about it. He’d always planned to stay in the pack mansion, though not everyone in the pack lived there. But he guessed that could change, if Sally wanted. Although even if they didn’t live in the pack mansion, they would need to live close since she was healer to the Serbia pack.

“It depends on what Mommy wants,” Costin told him.

“I think she will want to stay.”

“Do you want to stay?” he asked his son. For some reason, it wasn’t hard at all to think of Titus as his son; it was like the boy had always been his and Sally’s.

“It feels safe here,” Titus admitted. “Safe is good.”

“Yes, I agree,” Costin nodded. “Safe is always good.”

Once they were outside, Costin let Titus take the lead. They walked up toward the forest that lead into the mountains. Though he wasn’t in his home country of Romania, the huge mountain range was the same, and the forest brought back so many memories—some good, some bad. It was where they’d fought Desdemona. It was where they’d battled the warlocks, who happened to be battling trolls at the time. It was where the males of the pack had been taken and banished to the In Between. Some would say those were bad memories, but for Costin they were bittersweet. Yes, they were memories of some very dark and difficult things, but they were also memories that included his love. He would take any memory, no matter how painful it was, if it included his Sally in some way.

“I like the being outside,” Titus said with a smile in his voice. “I like the sun and the way the forest smells.”

“You didn’t see either of those things for a long time.”

He shook his head. “Nope. Only the black.”

Costin knew that he was speaking of the darkness that was underground. “Were you scared?” Costin asked the boy.

“Sometimes,” Titus admitted. “But sometimes the angel would come visit me and then I wouldn’t be so scared.”

The Great Luna had been watching over her children, as she always did. Though Costin hadn’t been Titus’ dad at that point, he was still so thankful that she had been watching over the child that would one day be his and his mate’s.

“COSTIN!” His name rang out, piercing the silence of the forest. He scooped up Titus and bolted back to the mansion. His thoughts immediately jumped to the possibility that they’d found Sally. His heart was pounding as hard as his feet were against the earth and, though he usually wasn’t ever short of breath thanks to his werewolf gene, he could barely breathe.

As soon as the mansion came into view, he saw Jen standing on the steps, her face splotchy with tears and her cheeks red. She looked overjoyed. Decebel stood next to her and, though his face wasn’t nearly as exuberant as his mate’s, it was still obvious that he was relieved. They must have found her. They had to have found her.

“Jacque and Fane are alive!” Jen blubbered. “Peri said they woke up last night but she didn’t tell us because she wanted to give them time with Slate—that’s what they named him. I told her I was pissed that she didn’t tell us, but that I forgave her because she did keep my best friend alive, and she had my gratitude for eternity because of it. Although she didn’t—COSTIN!”

Costin didn’t register his legs giving out from underneath him. He didn’t notice Decebel moving toward him at inhuman speed to catch Titus before his knees crashed to the ground, along with his hope.

They hadn’t found his Sally. She was still lost to him. Her light was still gone. Costin wanted to be strong. He wanted to be stoic like Decebel, and levelheaded like Vasile, but that wasn’t who he was. He was the lighthearted, emotional one. He couldn’t hide his pain behind a mask of fury or a wall of determination, at least not yet. Costin was still too broken to do anything more than fall forward, his head pressed against the ground, and weep.

Decebel looked at Jennifer from where he knelt holding Costin upright with one hand and holding Titus with the other. He motioned his head toward Titus. “Take him to meet Jacque and Fane. He would probably like to see the new baby as well.”

Jennifer stared in complete shock at the male before her. Decebel knew that she hadn’t realized that Costin might have thought that they had news of Sally. All she had been thinking about was the need to tell him that Fane and Jacque, two of Costin’s closest friends, had not died. She didn’t think about the fact that screaming his name in such urgency might cause him to come to the wrong conclusion. She wasn’t aware of just how far Costin had already slipped into the darkness. Decebel had been careful to keep that information hidden from her. His mate was already dealing with enough stress, adding more wouldn’t help their situation.

After another gentle nudge from her mate, Jennifer looked up at him, dragging her eyes slowly from Costin. “I didn’t, I didn’t realize,” she whispered, though Decebel’s sensitive wolf hearing had no trouble picking up her words. The joy had been leached from her face, replaced by remorse and shame.