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tonight.”
    “Who was she?” Jane asked in a quiet voice, her gaze still
locked with Jude’s.
    He was instantly unsettled. Breaking their eye contact, he
turned away. Jane sprang to her feet, surprising everyone, including herself.
Jude looked at her over his shoulder, a curious expression on his chiseled
face.
    To Drake, she said in a breathless voice, “Perhaps a little
less testosterone in the room would help ease the tension.”
    He gave her a contemplative look, clearly not willing to
leave her alone with two shifters, even if they had imprinted on her.
    “Drake.” Her tone was insistent.
    “Fine.” He stalked toward the door, but said, “Call me if
you need me.”
    “Of course.” She knew she wouldn’t. There was nothing Drake
could do to help her at this point.
    Jude sat on another sofa facing her and said, in answer to
her earlier question, “I suppose it’d be moot to lie and say I don’t know what
you’re talking about.”
    She nodded. “I’m pretty good at this. You can’t hide
anything from me. Especially now that you’ve imprinted on me. The gift is even
more powerful.”
    “Some gift,” Cray muttered. “You’re close to tears.”
    She tried to compose herself, but the pain was real and
palpable and…excruciating.
    As she took a few steps toward Jude, he said, “Her name was
Celine. She was a member of my pack until a hunter attacked her. He left her to
suffer instead of finishing her off. She was injured too badly to self-heal. I
found her just before she passed. There was nothing I could do to save her. She
died in my arms.”
    Jane sucked in a sharp breath as she felt the familiar stab
of pain in her chest that always accompanied memories of Sean. He’d been slain
too. She knew how devastating it was to lose a lover and her heartache doubled
as she experienced Jude’s torment along with her own.
    She swayed again on her high heels, reeling from wave after
wave of dread, sorrow and angst washing over her. Cray moved behind her, gently
placing his hands on her biceps to stabilize her.
    “Jane,” he whispered in a soothing tone. “Try to make it
stop.”
    “I can’t,” she mumbled as tears filled her eyes and grief
consumed her. Not just hers, but Jude’s as well. She said to him, “You didn’t
imprint on Celine, but you loved her.”
    “Very much. She wasn’t the one though.”
    “How can I be?” she asked as fat drops rolled down her
cheeks. “For either of you? And both of you?”
    “I don’t know,” Jude told her. “It’s not something I’ve ever
experienced before and I don’t know exactly how it works, except to say that
something within both of us connected with something deep within you.”
    “Like soul mates.” She’d thought Sean had been hers, but
even with him, she’d never felt this magnetic pull so acutely.
    “True mates,” Cray said from behind her. “Jude and I always
thought of it as a mysterious and unattainable wolf legend, because neither of
us had experienced it in our twenty-nine years.”
    She turned to face him, finding that breaking the eye
contact with Jude helped to lessen the agony radiating throughout her body. She
stared up at Cray, allowing her soul to connect with his instead. Warmth flowed
through her, along with an intimate sensuality that helped to push out some of
the pain. The very essence of Cray was magical to her. He oozed sex appeal, no
doubt about it, but he also emitted a quiet strength. A gentle passion that was
the polar opposite of the fierce passion she sensed within Jude.
    A molten sensation seeped through her veins and down her
spine as Cray’s large hands clasped her waist and their bodies gravitated
toward each other and naturally melded together. Jane’s fingers touched his
skin at the opening of his shirt, the tips trailing along his supple skin. His
muscles tensed in response to her light strokes.
    He was so much like Sean, before he’d been turned. His skin
was hot and it felt heavenly against hers.