He crossed his arms in front of his chest as he stared down at her. “Then what will it take for you to get to see Slate?”

Instead of answering, Lilly pulled the phone from her pocket. “I just need to call her. But she’s probably not even up yet, or she’s tired. I’ll wait a little longer.”

“Will you join me back in our room and try and get a little sleep, seeing as you are tired as well,” Cypher pointed out.

She smiled as she took his offered hand and let him pull her to her feet. “Sleep, Warlock King—only sleep,” Lilly chided.

“Wouldn’t dream of trying anything else.” He shot her a wink and a roguish smile.

“I’ll believe that when Decebel lets Jen do a striptease in public.”

Jacque smiled as she ended the call and set her cellphone back down on the end table. She was sitting on the couch in the living room area of their suite holding a sleeping Slate.

“Grandma is coming to see you,” she whispered to the sleeping child. Jacque hadn’t been surprised to see that her mom was calling. She had been surprised that she’d waited so long. But she also appreciated that her mom had given her and Fane time to get settled in with their son.

“How are my two favorite people?” Fane asked as he stepped from their bedroom, freshly showered and looking too tempting for his own good. Jacque wanted to kick herself for drooling over her mate as if she’d just met him.

“I hope you never stop drooling, Luna,” Fane teased her.

She frowned at him. “Stay out of my head, wolf-man.”

“When will your mom be here?” he asked her as he sat down beside her on the couch.

“Half an hour.”

Fane reached out his hands and Jacque grinned. She loved it when Fane held Slate. It was the most amazing sight. She leaned over and placed their son in his arms and then sat back to watch as her big, bad, wolf-man turned into a pile of mush.

Two hours later, Lilly was gazing down at Slate in awe. “He’s so beautiful.”

“You have to say that,” Jacque laughed. “You’re his grandma.”

Lilly shot her a look. “Please. People know when their child or grandchild is ugly, but they are able to look past it because they’re looking at the child through eyes cloaked in love. In this case, however, Slate really is a beautiful baby.”

Fane had gone outside for a bit of fresh air, allowing Jacque and her mom to spend some time together but she could feel him getting restless through their bond. His wolf didn’t like being away from their pup and mate.

“Is Fane getting antsy?” Lilly asked with a knowing glint in her eyes.

“How’d you know?” Jacque asked.

“Because you start to fidget when you guys are apart for longer than a few minutes. I know that you can feel his stress through your bond; I can see it all over your face.”

Lilly leaned down and pressed her lips to her grandson’s forehead. “Love you, little Slate,” she whispered and then gingerly handed him back to Jacque.

“You don’t have to go,” Jacque started but Lilly waved her off.

“Yes I do. I’ve got stuff to do and you and Fane are still on your baby honeymoon. Get rest when you can and don’t say no to any offer of help, okay?” She eyed her daughter waiting for her answer.

“Alright, mom. I’ll take help when it’s offered.”

“Good.”

They hugged and said their goodbyes. Lilly opened the door to the suite just as Fane was reaching for the door on the other side and they nearly crashed into one another.

“Whoa, sorry about that Lilly,” he said, grabbing her shoulders and righting her before she fell over. “I wasn’t paying attention.”

“It’s fine, Fane. Your mind is on other things right now.” Lilly patted his cheek and blew Jacque one more kiss before disappearing through the door.

“Everything okay?” Jacque asked her mate as he shut the door behind him. He had a troubled look in his eyes as his brow furrowed and his mouth tightened.

“I called Costin while you were with your mom, just to see how he was. He didn’t answer, I’m afraid.”

Jacque was so glad to hear her mate say he wanted to check on Costin. Not too long ago, Fane wanted to kill Costin for something he never even did.

“Maybe he’s in the shower,” she suggested. “It’s still early enough.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Just try to call him back in a little while. Give him some time to get himself and Titus up and around,” Jacque told him.

“Alright,” Fane nodded. “I’ll call him later. If he doesn’t answer, I’m going to head over to the Serbian pack mansion and see for myself.”

“Or you could just call Decebel,” Jacque pointed out.

“I’d rather see for myself.”

“You don’t think he’s going to be able to fight it—the darkness—do you?” she asked.

Fane shrugged. “You’ve gone missing on me twice the only difference is that I knew where you were. I mean, I knew the circumstances. Sally is missing and Costin doesn’t even have the tiniest clue as to where she is or what’s happened. If it was me in his shoes, I’d be losing my mind, darkness or not.”

Peri watched the sleeping wolf, thinking of how much enjoyment she would receive if she clanged a cymbal right next to his ear. Does that make me a bad person? Probably, she thought. Then again, it’s not like the action would be a surprising move on her part. She did seem to have bitchy tendencies dancing around in her DNA. It was probably worse that she was just standing there staring at the Romania pack historian as he slept. Staring at a sleeping person who wasn’t your mate, or child, shot you straight up there to mayor of Creeperville.

She walked up toward the head of the bed and reached down, swiftly smacking the back of Wadim’s head. “Wake up, Historian. How can you be recording history if you’re lying in bed staring at the back of your eyelids?”

Wadim growled as he rubbed the back of his head. His glowing eyes met hers and held them for several seconds before he finally averted his gaze.

“Would it hurt you to knock?” he huffed out as he yawned and stretched before finally standing up.

“Depends on how hard I hit the door. I suppose if I knocked hard enough, then yes, it would hurt,” Peri deadpanned.