“As am I,” she heard Fane’s thoughts in response to her own. It made Jacque grin.

They sat there in silence for quite awhile. Every now and then Jacque would hear Fane humming a tune she couldn’t place. Eventually, Jacque curled her feet up on the couch and leaned her head onto Fane’s chest. Fane grabbed the blanket that was thrown across the back of the couch and covered her.

“This is how I want to spend my nights for the rest of my life,” Jacque told Fane.

“I guess that’s a good thing since I intend to keep you for the rest of your life,” Fane said, only half-teasing.

“It’s late, love. Why don’t you go to bed? I don’t want you to be tired tomorrow.”

Jacque looked up at him and kissed him gently on the lips.

“I don’t want to sleep in my bed tonight,” she told him.

“Just where were you planning on sleeping, Luna?” he asked her.

“Well, this is a big couch. I imagine two people of reasonable size could sleep on it together,” she said, trying to suppress a grin.

“What do you think the mom of one of the reasonably-sized persons would say when she found her with another reasonably-sized person of the opposite sex laying on a couch together?”

“Don’t know. Want to find out?” was Jacque’s reply.

Fane laughed at her silliness and much to her surprise, he shrugged his shoulders and said, “Only live once. If I’m going to die, I would rather die lying in the arms of the woman I love, even if it is by said woman’s mother.”

Fane kicked off his shoes and stretched his long body out on the couch. Jacque, trying not to be clumsy, stretched out in front of him. Fane put his arm over her waist and pulled her close against his chest. Jacque giggled when she heard him make a purring sound.

“What are you laughing at?” he asked her.

“Did you just purr? ‘Cause I didn’t think wolves purred.”

“I didn’t purr, I rumbled,” Fane said with as much dignity as he could muster.

“You rumbled? Seriously? Pray tell, what does that mean?” Jacque asked him, trying hard not to laugh.

“When wolves are content they often make a rumbling sound. I guess you could say it's equivalent to a cat’s purr,” he explained.

“It’s cute,” was all Jacque said in reply.

Fane began humming again and would periodically kiss Jacque’s hair. The last thought Jacque had before she fell asleep was that she didn’t have any details that Jen would think were good. That made her smile.

Chapter 26

Fane didn’t want to sleep. He didn’t want to miss a moment of having Jacquelyn in his arms. He figured it wouldn’t last much longer, because once her mom got home she would probably make Fane sleep on the porch. Still, he would sleep in an igloo if it meant he could spend this night holding his mate, his Luna. He took a deep breath, taking in her smell, cotton candy and snow, and he pulled her even tighter against him. Mine. Fane’s wolf was restless to complete the bonding and the blood rites. First we must fight, Fane thought. For her, for the future of our Pack, we must fight.

Fane didn’t realize he had fallen asleep until he felt something nudging his arm and a voice telling him to wake up. He opened his eyes, blinking several times to clear his vision. He looked down at Jacquelyn and saw that she was still asleep. She must have really been tired to be sleeping through three Romanians speaking ninety to nothing in their native tongue. He realized with that thought that his mother and father were here.

“Shhh,” Fane told them, pointing at Jacquelyn to make his point. “She really needs the sleep. Can we take this to the dining room, please?”

Fane slowly crawled over Jacquelyn, trying not to jostle her too much. Once he was up, he straightened the blanket that covered her, and leaned down to kiss her on the forehead.

When Fane walked into the dining room, he realized Sorin was home.

“Sorin, did Lilly come home with you?” Fane asked his guard.

“Yes, she went straight to her room when we got home. Although, as she walked through the living room past a certain couch where two bodies lay, she did mumble something about a stinking, grubby-pawed werewolf. It was difficult to hear her, and there might have been an expletive or two.” Sorin was obviously taking great pleasure in sharing this information, especially in front of Fane’s parents.

Fane chose not to take the bait, and turned to his father instead. “You brought some of the Pack with you?” Fane realized he could smell other Greys in the house. He tensed at this, and suddenly wanted to be back in the living room with Jacquelyn. Although she was his mate, they weren’t bonded. An un-bonded mated male Canis lupus was the most dangerous kind. As if on cue, he heard a slapping sound, and Jacquelyn yell, “Get your nose out of my face, you trespassing hair ball!”

Fane was moving before she even finished her sentence. Then he had the Grey by the throat and on the ground.

“What are you doing with your nose near my mate, Boian? And why should I not snap your neck for being so near her?” Fane asked the wolf.

“I meant no disrespect,” Boian answered.

“I knew we were missing something. Didn’t I tell you, Sally? I said, 'hey Sally, I think something’s going on downstairs', and what did you say? 'No, it’s just your imagination'.” Everyone turned to see Jen and Sally coming down the stairs. “Ok, Fane, we’re here. You can continue strangling whoever this fine piece of meat is.”

Fane slowly let the other Grey up and stepped in front of Jacquelyn. He did not take his eyes off Boian, nor did he relax his stance.

“Would someone like to clue me in as to what in tarnation is going on?” Jacquelyn asked, trying to look around at the people in the room but unable to do so because Fane was right in front of her. “Fane. Seriously, dude. You have a great backside, but I don’t think this is really the time for me to admire it. So could you please get your royal butt out of my face?”

The other wolves in the room all tried to disguise their laughs with coughs, obviously finding it amusing that a little human would talk to the Prince of their Pack in such a way.

“You can park your royal butt in front of me, Fane, I don’t mind,” Jen told him with a wink, which only made the other wolves laugh harder.

Fane growled but acquiesced to Jacquelyn’s wishes. He moved to the side but did not sit down. It was not wise to sit in front of other dominant wolves, it made you look like prey.