“I can’t believe I’m hearing this.”

“But don’t you see that this is a good thing?”

He looked at her disbelievingly. “How could this possibly be a good thing?”

“It means she doesn’t intend to give up, she intends to fight her wolf. But she won’t have much luck with that until her wolf has calmed down a little. Jaime wanted you to have somewhere that you could put her while her wolf calmed.”

On one level, Dante could acknowledge that Shaya was right. Still, how was he supposed to put her through this? It seemed cruel. Her wolf wasn’t acting out of a wish to cause pain, she was frightened. She was traumatized enough, and he didn’t want to add to that.

Gabe stepped forward and lightly stroked her between her ears. She didn’t move at all.

“Dante, I don’t like this any more than you do. But it’s move her and confine her so that she has a chance to calm down, or risk her hurting someone or running off. Unless her wolf calms, Jaime will fade until eventually she’s gone, and her wolf will turn rogue.”

“He’s right,” said Trey, his voice uncharacteristically sensitive. “The tranquilizer will wear off soon. If we’re going to move her, it has to be now. I know you don’t want to do this, Dante, but you have to. Do it for Jaime. Give her an opportunity to come back from this.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

It had only taken an hour for the tranquilizer to wear off. Now—looking angrier than before—the black wolf paced in her crate, which was only twice as long and wide as her body. Several times she’d attacked it, looking for a weakness in the metal, and Dante had cringed every time her slender, graceful body smashed against it. Never had he felt more helpless or more like a bastard. For the past four years, her wolf had been caged, and now that she had finally surfaced again, she was back in a cage. And he’d been the one to put her in there.

She looked out at him with accusing, judgmental eyes. Guilt twisted his insides. “I’m sorry,” he murmured, although he knew she wouldn’t understand the words. Her response was a snarl that swore revenge. He heard as the door to the examination room opened behind him, but he only gave the visitor a sideways glance.

“Did she eat the meat?” asked Grace.

He shook his head. The wolf had snuffed at it.

“Does she recognize you?”

He was getting real sick of people speaking of his mate as though she was unbalanced. “Yes. I keep telling everyone—it’s not that she’s feral. She’s just scared and confused.”

“Sorry. It’s just that I heard she tried to attack you.”

“She smelled Laurie on me.”

“And why would she smell Laurie on you?” snapped Grace, giving him an accusatory look that was quite similar to the one his mate was wearing.

“See, now, if you’re reacting that way and I’m not your mate, is it any wonder that she wanted to draw blood?”

“I guess not. But you didn’t answer my question.”

He sighed. “Laurie threw herself at me when I was trying to get to Jaime’s wolf. She was afraid because of the duel between Jaime’s and Glory’s wolves, and she didn’t know what to do.” His wolf snarled at the memory.

“Afraid? Really?”

In response to the skepticism in her voice, he arched a brow questioningly.

“You don’t think that she did it on purpose?”

“Why would she?”

She gave him an impatient look. “Dante, honey, for a very observant person you have such a blind spot. The woman is jealous. I don’t know whether it’s because she’s still slightly possessive of you because you were once mated—”

“Partially mated.”

“—or whether it’s something else, but it wouldn’t surprise me if she did it on purpose so that there was no way Jaime would let you near her.”

“But she stayed with Jaime to fight when she could have just gone back to the caves with the rest of you.”

Grace shrugged. “I didn’t say I had all the answers. I just know the woman is jealous and doesn’t want you with Jaime. Did you know she came to your room just before the mating ceremony?

She wanted to see you alone. Dominic chased her off, and then Hope did her best to keep her away from you.”

He hadn’t known that, but at the moment he didn’t care to try to understand it. “Grace, I really can’t think of all this right now. All I care about is Jaime and making sure that she comes back.”

“Can you sense her?”

“Yes. She’s tired and irritated. Her wolf isn’t being very receptive to her right now.”

“She still feels unsafe. Unless that changes, she won’t pay much attention to what Jaime thinks or feels.”

He nodded. “I know. I’ve kept the number of visitors to a minimum. I figure the fewer people and scents around her, the better. It might help if she doesn’t think strange shifters are going to be hanging around what’s now effectively her den.” Only Taryn, Shaya, and Gabe had been inside the room. None of them had received a welcoming greeting from the black wolf. “I tried giving her one of my T-shirts that Jaime wears to bed, thinking she might find it comforting the way Jaime does. She ripped it to shreds.” Hearing Grace’s heavy sigh, he looked at her curiously. “What?”

“It’s just that seeing her like this…it reminds me of…”

“Louisa,” he easily supplied, since he’d been thinking the same thing. “Jaime won’t turn rogue.” It was an adamant statement, but he wasn’t sure who he was trying to convince more—himself or Grace.

“I hope not, honey. I really hope not.”

Dante spent the rest of the day simply talking to the black wolf. Most of the words were for Jaime, but the gentling tone was for the wolf. She didn’t calm as he’d hoped. When she wasn’t pacing or attacking her cage, she was huddled in a ball growling at anyone who came even remotely close to the crate—him included. So far he could only get three feet from the cage without the wolf growling and baring her teeth. Two feet, he promised himself before he went to sleep that night on the chair in the examination room. I’ll make it to two feet away tomorrow.

But he didn’t. The wolf’s state was worse in the morning rather than better, though she did actually eat the food Grace brought for her. Again he spent his day with her, talking to her, remaining at her side in a gesture that said he was there for her, only her. The fact was that he had no idea how to win her wolf’s trust. Trust was something that had to be earned, but how did he earn it in such a short time without being in a situation where he was tested? He had no freaking idea.