Chapter 16

“Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines stronghold as a fortified place, a place of security or survival. Jen defines stronghold as Helm’s Deep, a place where hobbits, dwarves, and elves in movies go to fend off bad guys. I’m pretty sure her brain only works in military lingo and movie comparisons. We don’t have hobbits or dwarves but we do have a few elves.” ~Jacque

Jacque waited for her father-in-law’s response, but he just stared at her in confusion. Being centuries old, it was understandable he missed the reference.
Finally, Fane said, “It’s a fictional stronghold from a book, Da. Jen is asking if we have something like it.”
“Did you know about Helm’s Deep?” Jacque asked him through their bond.
“You just heard me explaining it to my father.”
“No, furball, I mean the one your dad is talking about?”
“Oh, well, what’s going to get me in the least amount of trouble?” Fane asked, and she heard the amusement in his voice.
“That answers my question,” Jacque said out loud.
“I can neither confirm nor deny your claim. Shh, the Alpha is talking,” he whispered to her.
Jacque rolled her eyes but did direct her attention back to Vasile, who was answering Jen’s question.
“We do have a … Helm’s Deep, as you call it,” Vasile confirmed. “But we call ours the Den.”
Jen shook her head, and Jacque knew what was coming before her best friend spoke. “The Den isn’t going to work. It’s not even close to dramatic enough. I mean, the world could come to an end as we know it, man! The name of a place has serious repercussions on how effective that place will be as a stronghold.”
“I’m thinking that’s a new level of B.S., even for her,” Sally said with a crooked grin.
“I’d have to agree. She’s definitely upped her B.S. output,” Jacque said.
“What about,” Jen began, completely ignoring the two girls, “the Deep Den?” Her voice took on a spooky quality as she spoke, and her eyes narrowed on Vasile.
“You do realize saying it like that doesn’t make it somehow more mysterious, right?” Sally asked.
“And it can’t have the word deep in it, otherwise we’re just being copycats,” Jacque pointed out.
“Pixies forbid we be copycats,” Costin said with a feminine gasp.
Jacque glanced at him. “Don’t ever do that again.”
“Have to agree, Dimples. That was disturbing,” Jen said and then looked back at Vasile. “Okay, so when are we evacuating to the … yet-to-be-awesomely-named-by-me stronghold?”
“I want everyone ready to go in four days,” Vasile said.
Jacque felt the tension in the room go up as they realized the time for waiting was over. They were taking the fight to the Order.
“You will begin evacuation that morning. It will take some time to get there,” the Alpha continued. “You’ll need to get an early start.”
Jacque raised her hand and waited until Vasile acknowledged her. “Why can’t we just have the fae flash us there?”
“Right now, as far as we know, the only supernaturals near us that are in league with the Order are in our basement. But there’s no way to know for sure, and using magic leaves—”
“A trace,” Jacque finished for him. Peri had explained the fingerprint magic left behind and how supernaturals could be traced that way.
“So, we’re going to be hiking?” Jen asked.
“Yes, you will,” Vasile said.
Jacque noticed, not for the first time, that he said “you” and not “we”. “Why do you keep saying ‘you’, instead of ‘we’? What do you and Alina have planned?” She felt Fane’s body grow tense as a fleeting thought rushed through his mind. “You’re leaving us here?” she asked her mate quietly.
Vasile cleared his throat and crossed his arms in front of his chest. He seemed to be gearing up for a fight. Smart man, Jacque thought.
“Alina and I have discussed this, and we’ve spoken with your mates. Not all of us will be attending the summit. Some will have to stay behind and supervise the evacuation.” He looked at Sally, Jen, and Jacque in turn. “We need you three to remain here and care for the pack. As your Alpha, I am assigning you and the rest of the females to evacuate the pack to the Den and protect the stronghold. This decision is final.”
“No offense, Alpha,” Jen said with a slight growl in her throat. “but where B goes, I go.”
~
“You’re not coming with me,” Decebel said, his voice tight as his eyes began to glow with his wolf. Everyone in the room had frozen at his cool words, and the air itself seemed to chill.
Jen briefly thought she needed to get her ears checked because she knew her mate had not just said what she thought he had said. “B, I really want to give you the benefit of the doubt and toss up your momentary insanity to lack of action of the marital kind. Please tell me you did not just say that I wasn’t coming with you. Please tell me you haven’t forgotten that where you go, I go. Please freaking tell me you aren’t trying to protect me by tucking me away as if I am a precious, fragile possession you’re scared might shatter at the slightest bump.” Her voice rose with every word, and she knew it was not only anger fueling her outburst, but also fear. Jen, the she-wolf, was terrified of being separated from the man who held the other half of her soul. “Please tell me that you—”
“Of course, I’m trying to protect you!” Decebel’s roar cut her off and reverberated off the walls of Vasile’s office. “Bloody hell, female, I. Love. You! I love you so much there are times I can’t breathe for fear of something happening to you. Already, I have endured losing you, seeing you hurt, feeling your pain and anguish. How many times do you think a man can take failing to keep his woman safe? You’re damn right I’m trying to protect you. You aren’t the only one who is afraid, Jennifer. And you are precious to me! There isn’t a day that goes by that the sun doesn’t rise and set because you are by my side. You and Thia are my world.” He stepped closer to her and cupped her face in his large hand. “I’m not telling you to stay because I think you’re weak. I’m not telling you to stay because you’re fragile. I’m not telling you to stay because I think it’s your place. I’m telling you to stay because I need you to protect our pup, protect our pack, and make sure that there is a place for me, for the other males, to come back to. Don’t you see?” he nearly whispered.
“See what?” Jen asked softly, all the anger now dissolved under the weight of her mate’s words and the emotions coming through the bond.
“Don’t you see it is precisely because you are female that we need you to stay?” He pressed a finger to her lips to keep her from speaking knowing she was about to protest. “Let me finish,” he ordered. “You are going to have to organize an evacuation of not only the Romania mansion but of the Serbia one as well. You will have to ensure that there are provisions, food, clothing, blankets, weapons…”
“Feminine products,” she muttered quickly.
Decebel’s brow drew into a sharp v. “What?”
“You left out feminine products in your list of provisions,” she said.
Though his eyes were still glowing, his lips turned up in a small smile. “Exactly. And while you are organizing all of that, you will be keeping our pup safe, fed, and healthy. And on top of all that, you’ll also have to take care of our pup, you will be checking on your best friends, making sure they haven’t forgotten their feminine products. And while you’re checking on your best friends, you will be constantly checking on me through our bond, making sure that your mate comes back to you.”
“Damn.” Jen breathed out. “I’m awesome.”
He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’m not knocking my gender, but a man wasn’t designed to think that way. I see a threat to my mate, pup, or pack and nothing else matters but neutralizing that threat. There’s no multitasking or thoughts of provisions. There is only me and my wolf with our teeth and our claws out for blood. But you, my beautiful female, you can do all of it. You can fight your foe while taking care of the pack. You can taste blood between your teeth and still remember to feed our daughter. You can stand side by side with your friends, ready for battle, and still consider that after the battle the injured will need care, the pack will need food to keep up their strength, and the females will apparently need their … feminine products. So, yes, you are awesome.”
“Is it horrible that all I can think right now is, ‘Bloody hell, I want to have your babies’?” Jen asked, completely in awe of Decebel’s words. His ability to make her feel as though she was the most precious thing in the world to him left her feeling lightheaded.
Decebel pressed his lips to hers and then, after a brief, hard kiss, he pulled back just enough to speak. “I love you. My wolf adores you. And in our eyes, there is nothing you can’t do. Don’t doubt us again.” The last was an order, and it came from his wolf. Jen felt the beast through their bond and his desire to nip her hide because she had doubted their motivations for leaving her behind.
“I love you, B,” Jen said as she wrapped her arms around him and pressed her face to his chest, breathing in his scent and praying it wouldn’t be the last time he would hold her in this life.

Fane’s eyes had not left his mate’s from the moment Decebel had begun speaking. He was pouring his own emotions through their bond, needing Jacque to understand he agreed with Decebel and his wolf felt the same way.
“You’re not weak,” Fane said through their bond, hearing her doubts. “Everything he has said to her, every single word, I feel the same way about you, Jacquelyn.”
She stepped closer to him, and Fane turned so his back was to the room and she was blocked from view. “I feel you, wolf-man. I know how you feel about me, and I am amazed by it. But that doesn’t make it easy to let you go without me.” Her words were soft as tears slipped from her eyes and down her cheeks.
Fane leaned down until his forehead was pressed to hers. Her body was rigid as he wrapped his arms around her smaller frame. Jacquelyn trembled, and it drove him crazy to know he was the one causing her fear. Was there a part of him that was glad she would be on the other side of the globe when the battle finally began? Absolutely. But it wasn’t because he didn’t think she wasn’t capable of helping. It was an instinct as strong as breathing and eating. He needed her and their son to be safe and protected. But what Decebel had said was just as true, regardless of the fact that they wanted their females safe. The pack needed them to care for the young. The future of their pack could lie in the hands of the females caring for it.
“I love you,” he whispered. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Our son is the second-best thing that’s ever happened to me, and I am fighting for the future I want to have with you both.”
“Then I will be here making sure you have something to keep fighting for,” Jacque said with a small smile.
Fane could feel her fear in the bond, but she wasn’t angry.
“I love you back,” she said as she pressed her lips to his.

Costin was trying not to shake as he looked at his mate. He knew the other males didn’t like being separated from their mates, but for him, it was much more than a simple dislike. He wasn’t sure if he was capable of leaving Sally behind, so very far away from him. Costin still struggled when she wasn’t by his side, even in the mansion. He did a good job of keeping his fears under tight control, but hearing Vasile’s announcement, despite having already heard the plan, caused the reality to hit Costin like a speeding freight train right in the chest, knocking the wind right out of him. He didn’t want Sally to be worried about him, so he’d been trying to deal with his emotions on his own. That ship had apparently sailed because their bond was wide open, and the floodgates in his mind gushed with all the fears and insecurities with which he’d been wrestling.
He felt Sally shift to face him. “Open your eyes and look at me, Costin.”
His eyes snapped open. He hadn’t realized he’d closed them.
“Talk to me,” she said gently.
Costin couldn’t help but run his eyes across the room, taking in all their pack members. This wasn’t exactly the place he wanted to deal with this.
Jen was his saving grace. “It’s getting late and we can’t do anything more here. Why don’t we call it a night, and tomorrow the she-wolves and awesome healer chicks will begin to make an evac plan? Is that alright, Vasile?”
Vasile looked at Costin as he nodded. “I think that’s a good plan.” Then Vasile turned to the three fae. “We will see you at the summit?”
Riven nodded. “And between now and then, we will conduct our own investigation on the Order. We shall share our findings at the summit.” Without saying anything further, they flashed from the room.
“Alright then. Good work, team,” Jen said, clapping her hands. She may have said more but Costin didn’t hear it. His attention was completely focused on his mate.
“Let’s get Titus in bed and then we’ll talk, alright?” she asked him.
To be honest, she could ask him to walk through fire for her and he’d build the fire himself and light that sucker up.
A small smile tilted on her lips as they made their way to Rachel and Gavril’s suite to get Titus. “I don’t think I need anything quite as dramatic as you building your own burning inferno.”
Costin wrapped an arm over her shoulder and pulled her tightly into his side. “Keep me posted if you change your mind.”