When they reached Sally and Costin’s suite, they were breathing heavily but trying to be quiet about it so as to not to wake up Thia.
“Why do you two look guilty?” Costin asked as he pulled open the door.
“It’s usually because they are,” Fane said from just behind Costin. Jacque’s mate frowned at her as she and Sally stepped inside. “And why do you have Decebel’s daughter in your arms?”
The trepidation in Fane’s voice made the hair on the back of Jacque’s neck rise. She could tell he was concerned how the Serbian Alpha would react. “We might have, sort of, just a little bit, kinda stolen her?” The statement sounded like a confused question.
“Decebel doesn’t know you have his pup?” Costin asked, his eyes growing wider as he looked between Sally and Jacque.
“There was all this yelling going on, and Jen was like ‘you suck’ and Decebel was like ‘calm down babe,’ and Jen was like, ‘You’re all pussies, stuff your calm down in your pipe and smoke it,’ and Decebel was like ‘you told me to go’ and then Jen flipped her lid and was like “when did you start doing what I tell you. You’re all pussies, bitches,’” Sally explained in frighteningly accurate tones of voices. “There was so much going on so and the combined insults of P’s and B’s totally blew every ones’ minds. There wasn’t really time to stop and ask if they minded if we babysat so … I’m not sure if they, like, know,know, we have her.”
Jacque bit her lip to keep from letting even an inkling of a smile slip as she said, “I’m not exactly sure you got all the P’s and B’s in the right order in that story.”
“She said B and the P word. That’s really all I remember,” Sally defended.
“Wait, didn’t you say the B word?” Jacque asked.
“I don’t think that’s entirely relevant right now,” Sally muttered.
Jacque gave a nod of concession at Sally’s pointed look and started to rock Thia, who was beginning to squirm.
Fane pinched the bridge of his nose, and Jacque could tell he was trying hard to remain calm. “Okay, just so that we are clear as crystal…”
“Crystal clear,” Jacque muttered, interrupting. “It’s crystal clear, wolf.” Her green eyes met his glowing ones, and she bit back her words. “Ignore me. I’ve lost brain cells from boredom.”
Fane started again, only his voice was an even deeper growl. “Just so we’recrystalclear, Decebel and Jen are having an argument?”
Jacque glanced at Sally and then said, “Argument really doesn’t begin to describe it.”
“More of a conflict,” Sally said, giving Jacque a slight nod.
“No,” countered Jacque. “I think it’s more of a fight.”
“Still too mild,” said Sally. “I would say it’s a brawl.”
“A tussle,” Jacque agreed.
“A scuffle.”
“A violent differing of opinions.”
“A wrangle.”
“Oh, I like that one,” Sally said and then added, “a scrap.”
“An altercation.”
“A battle.”
“And,” Jacque said with a sigh after Sally’s last vocabulary addition, “if Jen wasn’t just three days out from giving birth, it would also be”—she paused and looked at Sally as they spoke together—“foreplay.”
Costin ran his fingers through his hair and looked at Fane. “How do you want to handle this?”
“I don’t know,” Fane said. “It’s completely different when a pup is involved.”
Costin nodded.
Jacque felt like they were missing something. “What’s different?”
