“Of course, he’s trying to kill anything that is between him and his mate!” she yelled at him. “And you want me to take her further from him? Have you lost your ever-loving mind?”

“But, he’s—” Decebel started, a growl forming as his mate refused to submit.

“He doesn’t need to be further from her, fleabag. He needs to be closer.” To his utter shock his mate started crying. “He’s been separated from her for months without the bond. He didn’t know where she was or what was happening to her and now he’s found her. But he found her unknowingly in the arms of another wolf. And you want me to separate them again?”

Peri stood up then and patted Jacque to do the same. “We will walk over to the other side of the room,” the high fae said calmly. “We will leave Sally right there with nothing stopping him from getting to her.”

Jacque looked down at her friend and it was obvious that she didn’t want to let Sally go.

As soon as the females were out of Costin’s line of sight, the males released him and he went straight to his mate.

Costin fell to his knees as he wrapped his arms around his Sally. He pulled her shaking form into his lap and curled his body around hers. His wolf settled as soon as his flesh touched hers. He wanted to console her but he, himself, was weeping just as deeply. Mine, his wolf rumbled and rejoiced at having their mate in their arms again. He buried his face in her hair and breathed. He ignored the scents that weren’t hers and pulled in the scent that only he could smell. All of the rage and chaos faded from his mind as the light of his mate penetrated all the darkness that he thought had destroyed him. His hands shook as he ran them down her back and arms. “You feel so good,” he said out loud. He wanted so desperately to hear her voice and he wondered if she wanted to hear his. So he continued to speak out loud instead of through the bond. “I’ve been lost without you, Sally. Please, beautiful, talk to me.”

She laughed and it sounded cruel. “What do you want to talk about, Costin? How I’ve been unfaithful to you for months? About how another male touched me, kissed me, took me to be—”

“DON’T,” his wolf warned her as he lifted her chin to look at him. “Now is not the time or the place. I love you. Nothing. Nothing, is going to change that. Just—” He paused and hated that he sounded insecure. “Do you still have feelings for me?” He needed her to confirm that her heart was still his. He needed to hear her say that she wanted him.

Her eyes widened as she looked up at him. “Why would you ask me that?

“Because all I can feel through the bond is that you don’t want me to touch you. I feel your need to get away from me, and I need to know why you’re feeling those things?”

Sally glanced over his shoulder and Costin growled at whoever was intruding on their time.

“Costin, I’m going to take you and your mate home. This is not the place,” Peri said. “I’ll need to touch you, as well as Sally. Can I touch your mate?”

Costin’s wolf wanted to say no. He didn’t want anyone else’s hands on his mate. He didn’t want anyone else’s scent on her. But instead of saying no, he nodded. At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to go home and be alone with his mate.

He felt Peri’s hand on his shoulder and saw where the fae placed her other hand on Sally’s shoulder. She flashed them and the next thing he knew, they were in their suite at the Serbian pack mansion.

“Before I go, Sally,” Peri addressed the healer. “You need to know that the bracelet he gave you was covered in a magic. Its purpose was to cause incredible desire for the person who presented it to you. Simply put, a monkey could have handed it to you and you would have laid down willingly. It wasn’t you. You didn’t want him, not like that.” And then she was gone

Costin knew they’d have to talk about Peri’s words at some point, but first he needed to know the answer to his original questions. Though her lack of response was killing him, Costin was scared of pushing her when she seemed so fragile.

When he pulled his face back to look down at her, he saw the bite mark that wasn’t his. His wolf surged forward. Costin tried to stop it, but the beast was not having it. She was theirs. “I’m sorry, Brown Eyes,” he told her and then he struck.

Costin’s teeth sank down into her tender flesh and he drank her blood—her very essence. Her scent mingled with his own. When he released her, he heard her whimper. He licked the mark and watched in awe as the power of the true mate bond negated any other claim by a male that was not her true mate. The bite Jericho had given her was gone. The scent—the foreign scent, the tainted scent—that had been left on her vanished and all that remained was Costin’s claim.

She sobbed even harder and tried to pull away from him. Like hell, he thought.

“I’m sorry, love. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I needed to mark you. My wolf he—”

“You’re sorry?” she asked, cutting off his words and pulling back to look up at him. His breath caught in his lungs at the perfection before him. Her hair was no longer blonde with purple streaks, it was back to it’s beautiful, chocolate brown. “I’m in awe of you,” he whispered. He could feel her disbelief and growled at her. “Feel me, Sally. I’m telling the truth. You, incredible female, are mine and I am humbled.” He felt like he was going to come undone at the seams. The fear that she didn’t want him was threatening to suffocate him. His wolf was pacing now, no longer at peace because their mate wouldn’t tell them what she was feeling.

“I love you,” she whispered. It was so soft that he barely heard it. Costin pulled her tighter against him. But then she turned and straddled his lap, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. She buried his face in his neck and held on as though something was going to try and pull her away.

“It’s just so much,” she began. “I…” Her shoulders shook and she held him tighter. “Why did this have to happen to me? I love you more than I ever thought I was capable and I would never, ever betray our love, but that’s exactly what happened.”

A huge part of Costin—mainly his wolf part—didn’t want to think about or discuss any part of her relationship with the other male while her memory had been cloaked. But he knew she would need to and he was going to have to reassure her that it didn’t matter. Nothing could ever change the way he felt about her.