“Oh sweet heart, I’m here and I’ve come for what should have been mine.” Logan’s voice was just as she remembered it and she felt like oil had been poured on her skin, dirty, and sticky. She rolled over and vomited, just as his hand gripped her ankle, pulling her towards him.

“NO! STOP! PLEASE STOP, DON’T DO THIS,” She screamed at the tops of her lungs, but he didn’t stop. Her mind reached for a memory, something that she knew was real. They had been walking through the forest, she, the other females, and the males. They had been on their way to the mansion. How did she get here with Logan? How was he here touching her, oh god, he was touching her. She began to shake and her body felt cold, like it would never be warm again. She felt her clothes rip and a new scream erupted from her lungs. She opened her eyes, hell bent on killing Logan all over again. Only it wasn’t Logan standing over her, it was Lucas. What the hell? She must be going crazy. That was the only solution; she had to be losing her mind. She kicked, screamed, and clawed at him. In her mind, her nails were raking his face, drawing blood that was raining down on her.

Fane watched as his mate screamed, clawing at an invisible foe. She was hysterical and through the screaming, he recognized two names, Logan and Lucas. She kept saying over and over “don’t do this” and it was when he saw the desperation and fear in her open, unseeing eyes that he knew what was happening in her mind. It was the same thing that had happened in his mind, only now she truly thought it was happening to her. Once again, he sat helpless before his mate. His hands shook as he reached for her, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to touch her. He watched as tears streamed down her cheeks and blood trickled from her lips as she bit them against the screams she was fighting.

“Jacquelyn,” he whispered gently into her mind trying to be a calming presence even as he felt the chaos that was raging through her.

“Fane! Please help me please!”

“It’s not real love; he’s not real. Please come back to me. I’m here beside you and no one is touching you.” Fane flinched when he saw in her mind what she was seeing. When he saw Lucas reach for her he howled, feeling a rage unlike any he’d ever felt before.

Maybe it was the gypsy blood in Sally, but she knew that what she was seeing wasn’t real. Knew that she was actually experiencing what Costin had watched all that time that he had spent in the In-Between. Even with that knowledge, it didn’t make it easier and it didn’t make it go away. She closed her eyes against the hands that weren’t Costin’s on her body. She bit her tongue against the scream that threatened to spill out when she felt a knife pierce her skin. She fought every instinct inside to keep from calling out to her mate, but she wasn’t that strong. Costin made her strong, Costin made her the Sally she needed to be and without him she felt alone and broken. She felt Costin trying to push into her mind, but she didn’t want him there. She didn’t want him to know what she was feeling, what she was experiencing. But, in the end, her fear and need of him won out.

“Sally mine,” his soft voice filled her mind and she whimpered.

“Please, Costin, please don’t stay. You don’t need to see this.” She tried to keep the images from him, but knew she had failed when she felt his anger and desperation.

Costin understood now why one by one the males were howling. He felt his own wolf tearing through him, raging for blood and bone.

Peri stood, helpless, with Cynthia and Drake next to her. They stared at the mated pairs and watched as rage and despair took over.

“We have to do something,” Cynthia growled.

“You don’t think I’ve been trying?” Peri snapped. “I don’t know what else to do. You’re a damn wolf; help me figure out how to fix the magic that keeps them apart.”

Cynthia thought about it, trying to remember something, anything from their history that might aid them. She couldn’t think of anything that would help, but she knew someone who would know.

“Do you have a cell phone?” She asked Peri, who gave her an “are you freaking kidding me” look.

“I need to call someone.”

“What, you’re using your phone a friend option at this point in the game?” Peri walked over to where Jen lay, ignored the snarling Decebel, and reached into her pack. She pulled out the cell phone that had been dead for days.

She pushed power into it, and then handed it to Cynthia.

“Hope you know that this is your only life line left. Asking the audience isn’t an option and fifty, fifty just might get us killed by some pissed off mates,” she told the doctor.

“You are just a bowl full of cherries,” Cynthia snatched the phone away and started dialing.

“No my dear doctor friend, you are confused with someone who wants to blow smoke up your furry butt. What I am is a bowl full of wake the hell up and smell the roses.”

Q

Wadim snatched the phone up when he recognized the American number.

“Hello,” he asked, breathlessly.

“Wadim, it’s Cynthia.”

“You’re alive?” He asked as he flung himself back on the couch letting out a deep sigh of relief. Skender and Dillon who had been talking with him about their next move, both moved closer to him.

“Well, for the moment the answer to that question is yes. However, it is liable to change at any moment.”

“Why? Where are you? Where’s the pack? What’s going on? Where is Decebel?” Wadim had jumped to his feet at her declaration. He paced back and forth while the other two wolves in the room watched him with nerve wracking intensity.

“Okay, you are going to have to shut up and listen,” Cynthia growled through the phone.

Wadim took a deep breath and gathered his composure. “Okay, I’m good.”

“We’re in the forest on the way to the mansion,” she said.

“We’ll send vehicles for you,” Wadim interrupted just as Dillon made to leave the room.

“WAIT!” Cynthia yelled. The males froze.

Dillon, having taken all the waiting he could handle snatched the phone from Wadim.

“What the hell is going on Cynthia?” He growled.

“If you males would just chill out for two seconds and put away your need to control every damn thing around you I could tell you.”

A pause. “I’m listening,” Dillon responded, in a much calmer tone.