Blood Rites (16 page)

As Dillon stood very still in the open door,
Jen glared at Sally. "Did you have to point out to him that his
daughter was making out with a boy, alone, in a bed, alone?" she
muttered.

"Jen," Decebel grumbled.

Jen continued as if she hadn't heard. "I
mean, geeze, Sally, why not suggest he go give them a condom just
to, ya know, be on the safe side and while he was at it he could
take a banana and demonstrate how to put it on, and-"

"JENNIFER!" Decebel finally snarled.

Sally and Jen both jumped and turned to look
at him and they heard the guest room door clang shut. "What?" Jen
growled right back.

"I think he was just trying to say that we
all got the point, Jen," Alina said gently.

"Oh," Jen said taken aback. "Well, why didn't
you just say so? You didn't have to snarl at me," she huffed.

"I didn't snarl at you." Decebel's voice was
low and tight.

"Yes. You. Did," Jen argued.

"I have to agree Dec, there was definite
snarlige going on," Sally said, nodding her head.

"Okay," Decebel said calmly. "I'm sorry I
snarled at you," he told her.

"My name."

Decebel cocked his head and looked at her
quizzically. "What?"

"My name," she told him. "If you are going to
apologize to
me
, than you need to say my name." The look on
Jen's face was completely wicked.

Decebel clenched his jaw. His eyes were
beginning to glow gold, but he managed to say politely, "I'm sorry,
Jennifer
, for snarling at you."

Jen grinned and held up the phone she had
been holding. "That's going to be my new ring tone, the big bad
wolf apologizing to widdle ole' me." She batted her eyes
innocently.

Sally was coughing back a laugh, at the same
time hoping that Jen had not just prodded a sleeping lion.

Decebel didn't say anything as he rose. He
walked towards Jen who had the good sense not to run from a
predator, although her eyes did get a little wider. He stopped just
beside her and leaned down so that his mouth was next to her ear.
"A banana, Jen, really?" He whispered and then was walking
away.

The door was nearly closed by the time her
brain started functioning again. "Oh, Come On! It was all I had!"
She yelled, knowing his wolf hearing would pick it up.

Alina and Vasile had sat quietly through the
exchange. "Have I ever told you how glad I am that we don't have a
daughter?" Vasile asked her under his breath.

Aline slapped his leg. "Hush, did you just
see what I saw?"

"Yes," Vasile answered sounding very tired.
"I saw it. I haven't decided what to do about it."

Alina looked at him dubiously. "Do about it?
Alpha, you're going to leave it be and let fate take its
course."

"Mina," Vasile started to argue, but Alina
was already turning her attention back to Jen and Sally. Obstinate
woman, he thought to himself.

"I will be home in a few days, Tanya," Dillon
was telling his mate over the phone. She had called his cell phone
several times and sent him text messages as well, all of which he
had not responded to. To say the least she was ticked off.

"Why can't you tell me what you are doing?
And don't tell me its pack crap, you always tell me what's going on
between the packs." He could almost see her snarling at him as she
spoke.

"It's not something to discuss over the
phone, you are just going to have to trust me." Dillon was losing
his patience.

"Dillon, just tell me."

"Enough!" Dillon growled.

Silence came across the phone, all he could
hear was her breathing. "Tanya, I'm sorry love, I didn't mean to
yell at you. I’m just a little stressed at the moment, will you
please trust me? It wasn't right of me to leave without talking to
you first, but what's done is done."

She didn't respond right away and Dillon was
beginning to think she just might have hung up on him.

"I trust you, but you won't do this to me
again, Mate. I am your Luna and deserve more than that." Her voice
was calm and unwavering; she once again showed why she was his
Alpha female. She was deceivingly small and quiet, but when Tanya
needed to be Alpha she had no problem delivering.

"You are right, Luna. I won't let it happen
again. I love you," Dillon told her just before he hung up.

He stood in his hotel room, nursing the
scotch he had poured himself. He had called Logan and told him to
pull the wolves back for now, that they would regroup in the
morning. Logan insisted on staying at the hospital just to keep an
eye on the Romanian pack. Dillon told him to make sure he stayed
out of sight and didn't cause any problems. Dillon had
underestimated Fane's reaction to his announcement that he would be
taking Jacque home with him. He had no doubt what Vasile said was
true, Fane would kill anyone or anything that kept him from his
mate. Which is the way it should be, right? He would move heaven
and earth for Tanya, the only reason he hadn't told her about
Jacque was because he knew it was going to be one more reminder
that she was not able to conceive. He didn't want his mate to hurt,
to feel inadequate that she had not been able to bare him any pups.
Dillon didn't care, he was perfectly happy with their life, or was,
until he found out about Jacquelyn.

In truth he was once again being a coward,
just like when he walked out on Lilly without a word. And now he
had left without a word to his mate about a child he didn't know
he'd had because he was afraid she wouldn’t want him to have a
relationship with Jacque. He had a lot of groveling to do when he
got back. First he had to set things straight with Jacque and Fane.
He didn't want to lose her, but forcing her to come with him wasn't
going to make her stay, he realized now, it would only drive her
further away. He would tell her tomorrow that he had been wrong,
and weren't those the hardest words for any Alpha to choke up. It
seemed like those were the only words Dillon needed to say to the
women he cared about.

Logan stood in the parking lot of the
hospital. He had been watching and listening to any information he
could get about what Vasile or Fane's plans were regarding Jacque.
They didn't suspect anything of Dillon or his pack, even after
Sorin, Fane's apparent childhood bodyguard, had found the mechanism
he had placed on Lilly's vehicle. Vasile had decided it must have
been the Coldspring pack retaliating, and sent two of his other
wolves out to meet with their new Alpha. Of course, the new Alpha
had no clue of the mutiny taking place in his own pack, so Logan
was safe on that end. His next move was going to be to call Dr.
Steele as plan B was going to have to be executed. Fane would not
be leaving Jacque tonight, so they would just have to get Jacque to
leave Fane. He pulled out his phone and mashed the number two where
he had put the doctor on speed dial.

"Dr. Steele," she answered.

"You're going to have to get Jacque by
telling them about her friend's blood. Fane is staying," Logan told
her.

"Ok," she paused. "It's 5:30 p.m. now, so,
give me a couple of hours. I will have to wait until one of the
labs is clear. Once I have her in the lab and under sedation you
can come help me put her on the gurney to wheel her out. I will
have to get you some hospital scrubs to put on so you don't look
suspicious pushing what appears to be a dead body through the
hospital."

"I will wait for your call." Logan didn't
wait for her response, he simply hung up.

Taking a deep breath, he turned his face up
towards the setting sun, feeling the heat even this late in the
day. He hated the heat, it depressed him, even his wolf. He would
be glad to get back to his mountains in Denver. An iniquitous smile
stretched across his face, his wolf eyes glowing. He wouldn't be
returning to his mountains alone. That thought perked him and his
wolf right up.

Chapter 18

After
Decebel had left the waiting area, Jen
and Sally had decided to find a deck of cards and chillax, as Jen
liked to say.

"So, do you think Fane and Jacque have…"
Sally let the word draw out in a question.

"Have what?" Jen asked as she looked at her
cards. "Do you have a two of hearts?"

"Go fish," Sally said absently. "Have, ya
know, done it." Sally whispered, leaning across the table.

Jen was looking at her cards with such
concentration it was almost as if she were willing the one she
needed to appear in her hand. "Done it? What, you mean has he
bitten her? Three of spades?" she added.

"Go fish. No, Jen, that is not the 'it'
people refer to when they are talking about 'it'." Sally was making
quotations signs with her fingers as she spoke, which effectively
gave Jen a look at her cards.

"Six of clubs, excellent. Give it up, I saw
it," Jen told her, holding her hand out, making a 'give me;
gesture.

"It's not even your turn, you cheat. Now
listen to me," Sally tried again

"Sally, good grief. How you and Jacque have
stayed so pure with me as your best friend I'll never know. Sex,
say it with me. S-e-x," Jen said, sounding it out letter by
letter.

"Shhh! Don't say it so loud." Sally looked
around to see if anybody had heard.

"Why? It's not like people don't know what it
is, or don't know that everyone is doing it. Now give me your six
of clubs, hussy."

"Fine, here," Sally growled, slamming the
card on the table.

"Touchy, touchy," Jen muttered as she placed
her own six of clubs on top of the one Sally had laid down.

"The answer's no," Jen said absently.

"No what?" Sally asked and then added, "Jack
of diamonds."

"Damn," Jen mumbled and handed Sally the card
she had requested.

"No, I don't think they have done the
deed."

"Why not?" Sally asked, surprised.

"One," Jen said, leaning back in her chair,
tilting her head to the side as she looked at Sally. "Jacque won't
until she's married."

"Yeah, but it's Fane. I mean look at him.
You're telling me if you got that alone you wouldn't throw those
ideas out the window?" Sally interrupted.

"Do you really want to talk about what I
would do if I got that," Jen nodded her head toward the direction
of the hospital room where they knew Fane and Jacque were,
"alone?"

Sally shook her head and waved her hands.
"Point taken. Okay, move along, what was number two?"

"Two, Fane is too chivalrous with all that,
'I respect your choice to wait' crap. He could seduce her if he
wanted. Jacque would fold like a bad hand of Texas hold 'em. And
three, we'd know if they had." Jen began to look at her cards again
as if she had just cleared up the mysteries of the world.

"What do you mean we would know?" Sally asked
her, laying her cards down. Jen lifted her eyes to Sally and slowly
reached across the table and picked up her cards. She picked out
the ones that matched hers then laid them back down."I don't have
anything you need, so go fish."

"Jen, I'm serious. How would we know? I don't
think Jacque would tell us, she's too embarrassed about that kind
of stuff. She never told us about what she and Trent did."

"Trent was not Fane," Jen began. "We would
know because it would be written all over her. She would have the
morning after glow, the little grin on her face of knowing that her
innocence is gone and she lost it to a freaking Greek god."

"Huh," Sally said thoughtfully. "I've never
seen that look on you before." She looked at Jen questionably.

"Of course you haven't, I'm a virgin. That
and no Greek gods have offered themselves to me lately, but I
haven't lost faith." Jen threw that out there like it was no big
surprise.

Sally's jaw dropped. "You’re a WHAT?" Sally's
words came out just as Decebel walked up.

"Yes, Jen, you’re a what, exactly?" He asked
her, voice serious as ever, eyebrow raised.

Jen glared at Sally. "One word, Sally,"

Sally held her hands up in surrender. "Oh,
believe me, I have not forgotten what you will do if I say a word
when I'm not supposed to. I knew I should have gotten rid of those
damn dolls," she grumbled.

"Hi Decebel," Jen said, grinning innocently
and acting as if she had just noticed his appearance.

Decebel narrowed his eyes at her, then his
face wiped clean like a cloth running across a dry erase board.
"Vasile and Alina wanted me to invite you both to come eat with
everyone in the hospital cafeteria."

Jen tossed down her cards. "I could eat. What
about you, Sally?"

Sally was still staring at Jen with
shock-filled eyes. "You, you, Yoooouuu," Sally kept saying to Jen,
with different inflections in her voice.

"Sally, let's move past this and get on to
more important things, okay?" Jen took her IV pole in one hand and
Sally by the other hand and began pulling a reluctant Sally away
with Decebel to follow.

"What could be more important than the fact
that you're a mmrrm." Jen had slapped her hand across Sally's
mouth. She was trying to keep from losing her balance and knocking
her IV over and she looked back at Decebel, who was watching in
curiosity.

"You will have to excuse us for a sec, Dec,
she swallowed her tongue. I'm just going to help her cough it up.
We can meet you down there," Jen said sweetly while she continued
to keep Sally's mouth covered.

"Okay then." Decebel sounded unsure as he
walked past the two girls. He looked back at them one more time
before turning and walking away muttering in Romanian.

"What is wrong with you?" Sally sputtered
when Jen finally uncovered her mouth.

"I have a reputation to maintain. You can't
just go flapping at the lips that I'm as pure as you and Jacque,"
Jen said, hands on her hips, lips set in a tight line.