She felt his shock and alarm through the bond and then his fear.“Skender is free in the mansion and you’re out there alone?”
“No,”she said quickly.“I mean, yes he’s free but I’m not alone. Jen and Decebel and Thia are here. We’re checking on the guards, and then Decebel is delivering me to you.”
“Are you alright?”
She knew he wasn’t asking if she was physically alright. He wanted to know how her mind was. Zara wanted to be honest with him, but she hated feeling weak.“I don’t know,”she said, finally.
“Okay, that’s okay,”Wadim told her gently.“Just come back to me, please.”
“On our way.”
Chapter Eighteen
“I’m seriously considering a life as a bounty hunter. Despite the danger—or maybe because of the danger—chasing Skender and his, I’m quite certain, fake mate is exhilarating. Not sure what that says about me … or maybe I am sure and I’m just not ready to own up to the fact that my blood lust is bordering on unhealthy.” ~ Jen
“Do you think,maybe, you were a little hard on Stelian and Marko?” Jen asked her mate as they stood outside of Vasile’s office. They’d rounded up all the pups, Bethany, and two healers and squirreled them safely away in Wadim’s lair. Now they were waiting on Vasile, Jacque, Fane, Alina, and Drake to join them. Costin was guarding the door down to the archives. Hell was pretty much going to have to become the coldest place in the universe before he was moving away from that door.
“No,” Decebel said. “They shouldn’t have taken both prisoners out at the same time and they shouldn’t have allowed them out without their hands being bound. Their punishment will guarantee that they don’t make the same mistake twice.”
“Well, as long as you’re sure,” Jen said as she bounced on the balls of her feet. Her wolf was restless inside of her, ready and eager for the hunt. “These people need to hurry up. Don’t they know we have fugitives to catch?”
Decebel shot her a look from the corner of his eye. “You do realize this isn’t a movie, right?”
“Yes, but if it was, it would be a damn good one,” she said with a grin.
“Do I want to know why you’re smiling like that?” Jacque asked as she and the rest of the pack members finally showed up.
“Where have y’all been?” Jen asked, ignoring her friend’s question. She was rolling her neck like a fighter about to go into the ring.
“Why are you doing that?” Jacque asked motioning to Jen’s feet bouncing and neck rolling.
“Gearing up,” Jen said, raising her eyebrows up and down. “Going on a wolf hunt.”
“Of course you are,” Jacque said dryly.
“We were checking rooms on our way here and alerting pack members to be on guard,” Vasile explained. “I’ve got wolves at every exit and every door in the mansion. Half of us will phase, and the other half will remain human.”
Jen was about to start stripping, but Decebel let out a string of Romanian curse words as he placed a hand on her arm to keep her from taking her shirt off.“Could you refrain from taking your clothes off for now? You can hunt in your human form and phase later if you need to,” he said through their bond.
Jen growled at him as she watched Drake, Fane, and Alina phase.“I want it noted that I am not pleased with you at the moment.”
“Noted, mate.Decebel chuckled.
“Alright,” Vasile said. “Let’s split up. Decebel, you and Jen take the first floor. Fane and Jacque take the second floor. Drake, you’ve got the third floor, and Alina and I will take the top floor. Avoid killing them if possible.”
Jen let out a disgruntled snarl.
Decebel chuckled.“He didn’t say you couldn’t bite them. Just don’t kill them.”
“I won’t take responsibility if my teeth happen to sink into a major artery,”Jen said as she and her mate started off at a trot. She put her nose in the air and took a deep breath, searching for Skender’s scent. She also tried to pick up any smells of emotions like nervousness or excitement.
“If they’re after Sally, which we all know is why the fool came back, then he’d look in the healers’ laboratory or Sally and Costin’s suite first,”Jen said through their bond.
“I’d bet on the lab first,”Decebel said.
Jen’s feet were silent on the polished wood floor as she kept pace with her mate. She wasn’t surprised that, even in his human form, Decebel was as silent as his wolf during a hunt.
When they were a turn away from the hallway where the laboratory was located, Jen caught Skender’s scent. She let out a low growl. She also picked up on another smell, unfamiliar to her.“Caught both their scents,”she told her mate.
