Chapter Ten

Dean's screams filled the plane as I tried to push his small intestine back into his body. Tears threatened to escape my eyes. I felt so terribly guilty to be causing him so much pain, but it had to be done. I had to fix him!

"Jezebel! Stop! Put him out of his misery, there is nothing you can do!" Jason yelled over Dean's cries.

"I will not put him down like a DOG!" I screamed back.

"Jezebel," Dean whispered quietly while my hands were not squishing his guts back into his body.

"Dean?" I asked softly, worry coating my tone so thickly I hardly recognized myself.

"It's okay," was all he said as his eyes began to droop. I heard his heartbeat become erratic and then slow.

"NO!" I screamed as I beat his chest with my fist.

A gentle rustling inside me started and the smell of earth and vegetation surrounded me as I felt my shields come crashing down. Emotions swept over me like heartbreak, anger, worry, anxiety, and loss. Then my wolf howled within me and it wasn't until I noticed the others around me that her voice had exited my body as their ears were covered by tense hands. With my wolf's power just beneath my skin she guided my hands to Dean's wound, new feelings surged through me as power began to build in my aura and travel to my hands. I felt determination, love, and loyalty surge through my body and into Dean. I felt like I was in the middle of a hurricane. There was no wind, but the constant feeling of swirling power around me caused my head to spin. The power grew and grew as I surged it into Dean and like I had stepped on a land mine I was slammed backward. I felt my back hit the roof of the plane, and my front hit the floor. My head began to ache, but I looked up just in time to see Dean's eyes meet mine before I saw more darkness.

There are two kinds of sleep that you remember, dreams, and the kind where you know you are asleep but you form conscious thought and think profound off the wall thoughts like, I am sleeping and I want to stay that way. I started off thinking that way, but then a thought popped into my head, I have been passing out an awful lot on this plane ride. I hope this isn't a sign as to how the rest of the job is going to be. Then I realized I didn't feel like I was flying…it actually felt more like a car ride…I wasn't lying down as a matter of fact.

My eyes shot open.

"Where are we?" I asked sharply.

"Just a few minutes away from Il Duce Luna pack lands." Dean said calmly and smiled at me.

"Dean!" I said relieved as I hugged him and was practically sitting in his lap.

A low growl echoed through the car, and then I realized that we were in a limo and Stefan sat across from us.

"I'm alright babe," he chuckled, "Thanks to you and your stormy alpha powers."

I laughed aloud. "So it wasn't just me."

"Not at all sweet cheeks." Dean answered lightly and pinched my side making me jump and giggled because I was ticklish.

"Dean!" I laughed.

Suddenly arms latched onto me and pulled me to a deliciously warm and delectably hard chest and just as wonderful arms encircled me.

"MINE!" Stefan growled at them all as they moved to pull me back.

"What are you, four? Did someone just try to play with your toy?" I asked seriously. The underlying contempt at the objectiveness was unquestionable.

I didn't take the time to think about the fact that I hadn't tried to move since he pulled me into his embrace. I think I was too content to want to move from his warmth and possessiveness. The unmistakable power behind that one word was sending chills down my spine and straight down to my sex.

"Jezebel, you might not want to tease him right now." Jason mentioned as he inched back.

I searched his energy with my own and I knew his eyes would be the eyes of his wolf; the frantic rage was making my skin dance with the power rolling off him in waves. I tried to turn toward him but he only gripped my body tighter. He was not holding me tenderly, he held me like a child holds their favorite teddy bear when a bully threatens to take it. One arm held me underneath my plentiful chest, and the other held me around my shoulders, but his arms were so meaty that his arm hair was tickling my chin. I lifted my right hand enough to lightly touch his arm around my torso. I stroked his forearm and felt the small tingles begin to shoot up from my fingertips. With my touch his grip relaxed enough for me to turn to face him. I moved my right hand up to his shoulder, and my left pushed its way up to the middle of his chest, gently guiding him to lean back. As he moved, I made my move to straddle his lap, upon doing so his eyes turned to the Alpha fire that I had planned on, and his hands began to knead at my back, travel down my sides, to my thighs, then back up and around. I moved achingly slow, all the while holding his eyes with my own, only stopping to look at his lips once to let him know it was okay.

Our lips touched lightly, just a brush, and then I didn't expect the moan to escape my throat or for my back to arch as my core grew hot as I grinded my hips into his hardened member. My wolf growled and the sound reverberated into my throat. I moaned as he shifted just slightly to press his lips to my throat and the action thrusted his hips across my sensitive sex forcing a moan out of me that started from my base and echoed through the limo and my team members' ears.

With that thought I grabbed Stefan's head, looked into his eyes and saw his wolf was present but not angry or ready to change anymore.

"That's enough." I said as I pushed his hands back and moved back to sit with Dean and Jason. I managed to hide the embarrassment in my gut from my face, but these were shifters with a highly developed sense of smell, they knew my arousal was genuine and not staged. There was an unwritten code however among our kind; you didn't mention stuff like that when someone is trying to save face about something embarrassing.

"I know that wasn't just nothing for you, Jez, as does every wolf in here. " Stefan growled. Well there should be a rule saying that you couldn't mention personal stuff like that.

"Pull over." I growled menacingly toward the driver.

"Don't stop," Stefan countered, efficiently over-ruling my command.

"I said PULL OVER!" I commanded, every ounce of alpha power I had pent up for years shot out in one statement and the breaks were immediately slammed to the floorboards.

I leapt from the vehicle faster than you could blink, literally.

I was hoping to walk and cool off a bit before we started to fight more, but I knew deep down that that was a pointless hope. Stefan followed me out of the limo.

"Get back in the car!" he yelled after me.

I didn't answer, I just continued to walk toward the pack house.

"Jez! Please get in the car!" he said annoyed, but attempting to appeal to my better nature.

I wanted to say something smart like ‘well since you said please' but I forced myself to keep walking. If I engaged with him, it would stir up more feelings. The only reason I was here was to help his pack, and I was being paid for it. I didn't owe him an argument, explanation, or the time of day for that matter.

"I'm sorry okay!" he called after me.

‘What for?' I wanted to know. What in the world was he sorry for? Was he admitting he was wrong? Did I win? Don't say a word, don't say a word.

"For what?" I asked defiantly turning around against my rational brain.

"I don't know, for all of it I guess." He said waving his hands in front of him gesturing forward as if to say everything between us. It was too general, he was just saying it, he wasn't sincere and he didn't understand where the anger was coming from.

I spun back around shaking my head and started to run. Not from fear but to get away from him faster so I could allow my tears to finally fall without anyone seeing me. He couldn't know how he had actually hurt me. Anger was much safer, anger didn't mean I was emotionally invested. Or did it? Not the time for this debate.

I felt him behind me and immediately the tears disappeared from my eyes, I ran faster and prayed that the amount of training I did everyday was enough to outrun his pursuit. I focused on the rhythm my feet made on the gravel road a steady quick beat and I urged my feet faster into a sprint. I listened to the sound of the gravel kicking up under my feet as I ran on.

I don't know why I ever thought I could outrun an alpha male. His hands came down on my shoulders and caused me to lose my balance. My feet came out from under me and I started to fall backwards. I waited for the impact to hit my bottom, but it never happened. Instead Stefan had managed to scoop me up in a bridal carry.

"Put me down you Neanderthal!" I growled angrily, desperately trying to mask the desperation and sadness threatening to pull tears from my eyes. I forced my body straight and attempted to flip over and out of his grip but when I flipped over he only heaved me over his shoulders in a fireman's carry.

I hit his back with the heel of my hand in contempt and complete frustration. I forced my knee up into his chin quickly and he flipped me and upright with my arms forced behind my back as he forced my elbows together. I fought the pain and wrestled us toward a tree so I could use it as leverage to flip over his head. With a practiced flourish I put one foot over the other and flipped over him and simultaneously forcing his arms up and behind him too far so he landed on his back, but his stubborn grip took me with him and we ended up in a tangled heap. He wouldn't let go and I wouldn't move. We couldn't even be in a closed space with one another for five seconds without the two of us fighting, well at least when both of us are conscious.

Why did I get a mate that I couldn't get along with? I would never find happiness as long as life kept doing this to me. I stopped myself there. Those were dangerous thoughts.

"Look, I just wanted to step away from the argument to get a cool head. Not to mention the fact you embarrassed me in front of my team." I said sternly, trying to keep my voice even and rational.

"I am sorry about that, I thought you were running away again." He said sheepishly.

"Running away, toward your pack house?" I countered.

"Okay, maybe I didn't think it through." He chuckled.

My heart skipped a beat at the throaty sound and my wolf barked happily.

"Let me go please?" I asked, managing to keep the flooding emotions from overtaking my tone.

"Oh, yea, sorry" he mumbled as his grip loosened and then disappeared. I stood up and stretched my shoulders as I felt his warmth behind me, threatening to press against my back. I looked around and realized that we were completely alone and could have a few moments of fun before we would be missed terribly.

My breathing became a bit shallow at the thought and I felt Stefan get closer, just a breath away from touching me. His head bent over my neck and his breath tickled me lightly over my chest, neck, and shoulder. His fingers traced my arm so lightly, he only grazed the tiny hairs on my skin sending a shiver through my body, he made me wet without even touching me. I fought the hazy arousal and every part of my body telling me to go fulfill my primal desires, I filled my head with images of his terrorized pack. That is why I was here.

I walked forward and felt the disappointment in Stefan. I wanted to console him and tell him that I was just as thwarted as he to reject the potential actions we could partake in, but there were more important things to do. We had business to discuss and our personal qualms could be postponed before being managed at a later time. As an alpha he should be able to control himself.

"You cut your hair," He said attempting to make small talk.

"Yea, it gets in the way in hand to hand combat and its harder to wash blood out of long hair." I said not thinking, he didn't want to hear about that, "Plus it's all the rage in Russia."

"Makes sense," he said swiftly, not wanting to talk about my short hair anymore.

"You don't like it?" I asked. I didn't want to care that he liked my appearance or not but I did and I couldn't change it.

"You could be bald and I would still think that you were the most beautiful creature in the universe." He stated with unquestioning finality.

I forced myself not to blush by thinking of the business at hand. If I blushed it would tell him how I really enjoyed that he said things like that to me, and that wouldn't be efficient for his pack.

"The look on your face betrays the color in your cheeks," he commented lightly teasing.

I couldn't stop the tiny smile that spread across my lips.

"Please, Stefan, Let me do my job, and then we may discuss our private business later." I knew that I was going to get my way as soon as the tone of my voice alone reached his ears. The graceful, controlled lilting of my words floated to him and eased his will to bend to mine like a form.

"Very well," he mumbled gruffly.

I smiled inwardly as we made our way into the pack house yard. It was bright and green, but darkness stretched over the place. A sullen air was trapping the vibrancy this home used to produce. The large mansion was not crawling with life the way I had remembered it. No pups played in the yard, no one sat outside talking and watching the pups to make sure they didn't wander too far. The wind even seemed to be stilled. It was silent and eerily so. No birds made a sound, there were no rustlings in the forest and the only movement I saw were my team gathering their bags to take inside.

"How often do the patrols run?" I asked Stefan, surveying the situation.

"Constantly, every hour another team leaves to relieve the one before." He stated confidently, "Erik normally takes the status reports and he reports the ones of interest to me, since he has been out of town, my third in command has been overseeing such.

"What do your patrols run? Grid patrol or borders?" I asked.

"Borders"

"How many days since the last attack?"

"Three,"

"And the time before that?"

"A couple days."

"Everyone is holed up in the house now,"

"Yes,"

"Do you have a soundproof meeting room?"

"Of course."

"Let's go."

"I thought we were going to take care of business first." He chuckled deviously.

I just gave him a pointed stare.

"It was worth a try," he laughed shamelessly.

"Yes I am," I teased back, showing him a taste of my own shamelessness.

"Oh, darlin', don't tease me unless you are planning on backing up what your putting out." He said with a lightness in his eyes, but if you looked for it, the plea for my acceptance and sincerity in my statements was there too. He wanted this flirting banter to be more than just words. He wanted my words to be truth.

I could accept that, I wouldn't toy with him unless I expected to take what I doled out without a fight or second thought.

"Fair enough, hon, but can you handle what I put out?" I said walking toward the house with a confident sway in my hips, knowing he was watching my backside with those smoldering eyes of his. I had the full intention of getting my fill of Stefan before I left for good. I had wondered for years what it would have been like with him, but I never expected to have the chance to find out.

I only hoped I could keep the relationship superficial and only about the physical. I knew he was going to want the relationship. He would want me completely, but he couldn't have all of me, I needed to be my own ruler and I don't think he could ever understand that completely.

He had to have control over it all, which wasn't his fault really, he was an alpha and he had every wolf in his pack looking to him for answers. He had to be stern, and he had to have the attitude of my way or the highway or nothing would ever get done. That is what is efficient to run a pack and I understood that, but he could give in to me if he wanted to.

"If you don't mind gather your best fighters that aren't on patrols, your pack higher ups, and we will discuss what we are going to do to help you and find the best plan to get this problem under wraps." I stated as I stepped onto the porch.

"Sounds good, Erik can show you to the meeting hall." Stefan answered.

I nodded as we parted ways and went to our own inner circles.

"Everything go okay?" Jason asked me. "We kinda got the feeling some mixed emotions are going crazy."

"What would give you that impression?" I asked lightly.

"Well…" Dean said looking down as if he was not looking forward to telling me something.

"Spit it out." I commanded.

"I don't know how to explain it right." He said looking like a little boy afraid he is going to get sent to his room for swiping cookies from the kitchen before dinner.

"Just say it the way it sounds." I said patiently, but an edge of unease settled into my stomach as I watched his eyes rise to meet my own.

"When you healed me, something happened." he explained.

"What happened? Did something go wrong? Are you in pain?" I asked frantically checking his torso for signs of blood.

"No, nothing like that," he waved it off, then put his hands on my shoulders and forced me to look him in the eye, "A part of you is in me."

I looked at him stunned and with a questioning stare.

"What exactly does that mean?" I asked pointedly. "What happened after I got out of the limo?"

"I can feel every strong emotion you have, I feel your arousal as if it were my own, I feel your sadness that you try to hide from Stefan, I feel your anger at his ignorance," he ranted. "Must I go further?"

I felt the color drain from my face and the embarrassment set in like a traitorous disease in the pit of my stomach.

"What does that mean?" I whispered. My eyes were now focused on the floor but I wasn't actually looking at the wooden deck, I was seeing through the deck and thinking of how when my plan to have at least one good romp with Stefan, was going to be felt by Dean. He would be crushed, if Stefan knew he would be furious and hurt. "What do we do?"

I was at a loss and I needed to focus at the moment. I had a job to do, and it didn't matter, all of the personal stuff could wait until everyone else was safe and the hunters were finis.

"Well, we have a meeting to conduct, Erik would you be so kind as to show us the way to the meeting hall?" I asked in my gracious lady-like manner that seemed to get the attention that was necessary. "We will discuss this later, and we won't speak of it until then. That means you can't say anything to Stefan until I talk to him Erik." I commanded.

Poor Stefan, he just can't have the mate he wants.