15

Decebel watched as Jennifer left the dance floor at a brisk walk. It was obvious to him that she really wanted to sprint but was trying to be inconspicuous, and failing miserably. He stepped away from Sasha, the female who had asked him to dance.
"I'm sorry, Sasha, but I need to be excused." Decebel turned before she could say anything in return.
He was cut off from following Jennifer when Sally and Jacque stepped in front of him, hands on their hips and eyes narrowed. They were not happy with him.
"I need to speak with her," he told them, knowing they'd watched the whole scene on the dance floor.
"Why?" Sally challenged, and it made Decebel's wolf perk up. "So, you can tell her how you don't want to pursue these feelings between you? So, you can flirt with her only to tell her you aren't interested? So, you can tell her not to look elsewhere even though you don’t want her!" Sally was fuming by the end of her speech.
"I WANT HER!" Decebel growled. Everyone around them got quiet and Decebel realized his canines had lowered. He took several deep breaths and pulled himself together.
Fane walked up and looked at Decebel and then the girls. "I think we should step out." He motioned towards the door and all of them filed out.
Once in the entry way Decebel turned to Sally. "I apologize for raising my voice at you, I just -" Decebel didn't want to bare his soul to Sally or Jacque or Fane. He wanted Jennifer. He wanted to tell her that she nearly ripped his heart out when she looked at him like he had betrayed her when he took Sasha in his arms. He wanted to tell her that his skin crawled at the contact of another and it took everything in him not to push Sasha away. He wanted to make her understand that he was going mad seeing her touching other males. But there were no mating signs. The Alphas would consider them unmated and that made them both fair game.
Most Alphas did not allow pack members to fraternize with someone who was not a true mate. They saw it as purposeless. So, their argument would be that if he and Jen pursued each other with no signs that they were true mates then they might be keeping the other from meeting their mate.
Decebel hadn't been at The Gathering for twelve hours and already he knew he wouldn't be able to do this.
"Decebel, maybe you should just give her some time," Jacque was telling him, pulling him from his thoughts. But he knew that if he left Jennifer to think on this all night she would not cool off. No, he had to talk to her. Now.
"I'm sorry, Jacque, but I have to disagree. She needs to hear what I have to say." Decebel walked around the baffled Jacque, and past Fane and Sally. He took the stairs two at a time, moving silently towards Jennifer's room.
He didn't really know what he was going to say to her. All he knew was that somehow, he had to smooth this over. He arrived at her door and didn't bother knocking, he figured she was used to it by now and loved to see the spark in her eyes when she got irritated with him about it.
However, when Decebel stepped into her room Jennifer was nowhere to be seen. He walked over to her closet and gently knocked on it, there was no response. He pulled the door open to find it full of clothes, ones that even at first glance he could tell he wasn't going to like her wearing out in public, but Jennifer was not there. He stepped back and debated on whether he should wait or go looking for her. He decided he was going to go look for her when her door opened and in she walked.
They both froze when their eyes met, and Decebel swore his heart was going to beat out of his chest.
"Dec," she began.
"Come take a walk with me," Decebel interrupted her and surprised himself by his invitation at the same time.
"What?" she asked, clearly confused by his request.
"Please." Decebel took a step towards her. He thought it a good sign that she didn't take a step back, so he continued to move towards her.
When he reached her side, he gently took her arm and tucked it into his.

They walked in silence, neither really knowing where to begin. Decebel led her to the indoor garden room that he was sure she didn't know anything about, but felt she would really like. He opened the door and gestured for her to enter. He wasn't disappointed by her response.

Jen stepped into the room as Decebel held the door for her. She didn't know why she had accepted his invitation to walk with him. Yeah, Jen. Just keep lying to yourself if it helps you sleep better at night, she chided herself.
Jen couldn't help the breath that escaped her lungs as she entered what felt like a whole other world. There were plants everywhere – tall plants full of big leaves, small plants with delicate flowers blooming in every color you could imagine. There was even grass, thick, plush dark green grass. There was a pebbled path that wound through the indoor garden and she lost sight of it as the vegetation swallowed it up. She continued on down the path, curious as to where it would lead. She could feel Decebel's eyes on her from behind as he followed her but she didn't bother to look back at him. Jen felt like a kid in a candy store. Her head turned from side to side, trying to absorb every little thing. She saw that along the right side of the garden a small brook bubbled and water flowed gently down over rocks and plants. She came around a curve and there in the center was a gazebo with a swing hanging in the center of it. There were deep green vines growing all around the gazebo, holding it like a lover's embrace.
She followed the path to the steps of the gazebo and climbed them. Finally, she turned and faced Decebel as she sat down on the swing. Decebel slowly climbed the stairs and the look in his eyes made Jen feel like prey. She shivered and noticed his lips quirk up ever so slightly. Cocky fur-ball, she growled inwardly.
He sat down on the swing and the next words out of his mouth took her breath away.
"I want you."
Jen stopped breathing. Not by choice, she just couldn't. It was like his words had flipped a switch in her and everything that required her brain to run just shut off.
"Jennifer." Her name on his lips, the intensity in his voice had her looking up at him. "Breathe, Jennifer."
"I don't understand, Decebel."
"I don't either," he admitted. "I'm sorry if my dancing with Sasha hurt you."
Jen's mouth tensed at the name of the other female on his lips.
"I don't have any right to be hurt." Jen tried to act like she didn't care but then decided she wasn't going to do this. She wasn't going to play games, not with Decebel. "Okay, it hurt." She angled her body so that she was more fully facing him. "In my mind I know that it shouldn't matter who you dance with. In my mind I get that I have no claim on you, okay? Honestly, I do. But damn if my heart could care less what my mind is telling it." Jen knew she was running the risk of sounding like a needy girl, but it was day one of hell week and if they were going to make it to day seven in one piece, then it was time to lay it on the line. She started to continue but Decebel stopped her with a finger to her lips.
"I need you to know this because when you see me touching, dancing, or talking to another girl, I need you to remind yourself that I've told you – I want you." Decebel paused and took a breath. He had decided during the walk from her room to the garden that he was just going to be honest, no more holding back, no more trying to deal. He was too old to leave things to chance and regardless of his fears he knew that he wouldn't leave Jennifer's safety in the hands of another, "Despite how we feel towards one another, the Alphas are looking for mating signs. The closest thing we have to that is the strong pull we both feel and the way you smell."
Jen jerked. "I smell?"
Decebel chuckled. "Not bad, I assure you." He sounded slightly disappointed by this fact.
"You want me to smell bad?" Her brow furrowed. She really didn't know where he was going with this.
Decebel leaned towards her and pressed his nose to the flesh of her neck and took a deep breath. Chill bumps broke out all over Jen's skin and she was trying, mildly unsuccessfully, not to hyperventilate at his close proximity.
"Your scent is intoxicating to me," Decebel growled as he drew away from her reluctantly. "Mates have a certain scent that they only smell on one another. I only just noticed that your scent changed, became stronger. Do I have a scent to you?" Decebel asked curiously.
Jen could have stopped the blush that seeped into her cheeks about as well as she could stop a freight train with her bare hands.
"Woodsy and spicy," she admitted.
Decebel looked thoughtful. "Hmm, interesting."
"So, you're saying the Alphas won't allow us to opt out of The Gathering just because of our attraction to one another?" She asked.
"Right." Decebel leaned back against the swing and draped his arm over the edge. His eyes were drawn to Jennifer's bare back and his mind couldn't help but imagine his markings on her beautiful, pale skin. Before he knew what he was doing, he was tracing a pattern on her back gently with the tip of his finger.
Jen froze as she felt Decebel's warm fingertip on her back. He's trying to kill me, she decided. He figures if he just tortures me to death then I'll be out of the picture and poof, problem solved…although death by Decebel doesn't sound too bad at the moment. Jen snorted at her thoughts, but thankfully Decebel didn't stop the swirling stroke of his finger.
"So, what I'm telling you, Jennifer," Decebel's voice was deep and raspy, "is that I want to see where this goes between us. I want to get to know you better and spend time with you. But we are both going to have to endure the other being in the company of more than one suitor. As it is, we have both demonstrated that it is more than difficult for us."
Jen closed her eyes. The combination of his deep voice and finger making swirly patterns on her back was pure torture. Exquisite, perfect, wonderful torture. She heard his words but couldn't bring herself to acknowledge them at the moment.
"Jennifer?" Her name was nearly a whisper on his lips.
"Hmm?" Her head lulled around on her neck until she had swung it around to look back at him. "If you want me to be able to hold any semblance of an intelligent conversation with you then you are going to have to quit that."
Decebel's smile was as wicked as any she herself had dished out to him. "Quit what, micul meu lup?" he asked as he continued to touch her.
Jen growled and jumped up. She turned to look at him, but she wasn't angry. "So, what do we do?"
"I think you Americans call it hooking up." Decebel raised one eyebrow at Jennifer.
"Do you really want to go there again?" she teased. "It would be more like hanging out, B. Hooking up tends to imply a more physical involvement, if you catch my meaning."
"Consider it caught." He winked, which only succeeded in causing her heart to nearly stop.
I have got it bad, Jen thought to herself.
"So, we just hang, talk, and see what happens?" she asked him as she leaned back against a post on the gazebo.
"Sounds about right." Decebel stood and walked up to her. He left a little space in between them. A little more would have been better for Jen's comfort but she tried to act as if it didn't bother her.
"I'm going to ask something of you, Jennifer," he told her seriously.
"I'm listening." Jen tilted her chin up and gave him her full attention.
"My wolf is not coping well with the idea of others near you, touching you. I realize that there is no getting around it, but he doesn't. For all intents and purposes, he has claimed you, mating signs be damned,"
Jen's breath caught at his declaration.
"So, what I'm asking is, for lack of a better term, reassurance in your -" Decebel searched for the right word. Jennifer beat him to it, as she often did.
"Intentions, interest, attraction?" Jen grinned, she tended to go overboard on the vocabulary when she was nervous, which she was. Nervous, that is.
"All of the above."
"Okay. So, I scratch your back, you scratch mine, right?"
Decebel's head cocked to the side as he drew even closer. Jen realized that she had unleashed a monster with her unabashed flirting. The question was no longer could he handle what she dished, but would she survive what he poured out on her? If she were honest with herself, she would say she didn't yet know the answer to that question. But where's the fun in being honest with myself?
"I take that this saying means that you will need the same reassurance from me." Decebel placed his hands on her hips and pulled her away from the post and close to him. Jen gasped as her hands came up to his chest. Her breathing quickened and she watched his eyes follow her movement as she licked her lips.
Is he going to kiss me? Am I ready for him to kiss me? Jen laughed at that question. Has Joan Rivers had enough plastic surgery to qualify as a plastic figurine? Enough said.
"I wish the answer to that was no," she told him. "I don't like being the clingy, insecure chick."
Decebel chuckled and she felt the rumble vibrate through her hands clear to her soul.
"You are anything but clingy and insecure, Jennifer. Mysterious, confident, playful, beautiful, too sexy for your own good? Definitely. But never clingy or insecure."
"Are you trying to rack up brownie points, wolf?"
"Is it working?"
"I'll never admit it." She winked at him.
He squeezed her hips one time with his strong hands and looked into her eyes. "You will not doubt at any moment my intentions or interest in you. Are we clear?"
"Crystal," she said absently as she watched his amber eyes begin to glow. It took everything in her not to grab the front of his shirt and pull his lips to hers. Decebel must have seen it written all over her face. He lifted one eyebrow in a silent challenge. She wouldn't be the one to make the first move, not with her wolf. Decebel chuckled, and much to her disappointment dropped his hands and stepped back.
"I suppose I should escort you back to your room," he told her as he once again tucked her hand into his arm and began walking down the steps.
Jen grinned. "You don't want to go back and dance?"
Decebel looked at her from the corner of his eye. "I think we've both endured enough for the night. Don't you, micul meu lup?"
"Oh, come on, B. Surely you aren't one to run away from a little excitement?" she taunted.
"Being close to you is quite enough excitement for me, I assure you."
Jen blushed. Okay, that is just going to have to stop. I am not some fainting violet, she growled in her mind.
Decebel chuckled as if he could hear her inner monologue. The crazy thing was that she wanted him to hear her inner dialogue as bad as she wanted him to finally pull her to him and kiss her senseless. Oh, how the mighty have fallen, Jen laughed at herself.
Decebel dropped her off at her door, but before he left, he pulled her to him, wrapping her up in a snug embrace. He tucked his head into her neck and took a deep breath. She let out a contented sigh. If this was what Jacque experienced when Fane held her, she didn't know how she ever let him let her go.
"Are you planning on taking a shower tonight?" he asked her, taking her completely off guard.
"Moving a little fast, aren't we?"
Decebel actually blushed. "I'm being selfish and a little underhanded, actually," he explained.
"And what does me taking a shower have to do with it?"
"Have you noticed how much Fane touches Jacque? Especially before they were bonded?"
"How could we not? They were attached at the hip. Well, when she wasn't being fought over or abducted, that is."
"Remember, we aren't human, Jennifer. When I touch you, because there is a certain amount of attraction between us, and because my wolf has claimed you, I leave my scent on you. It's kind of like a calling card to other males. I hugged you that close to put as much of my scent on you as possible without," he cleared his throat before finishing, "getting more physical."
Jen made an "ahh" motion with her mouth. Then her head cocked to the side. "Do I leave a scent on you?"
Decebel grinned. "Like my own personal perfume," he teased.
"So, you want to know if I'm going to take a shower because it will wash your scent off?"
"That's correct."
"I really would like to," she admitted reluctantly, because truth be told she liked the idea of having Decebel's scent surrounding her.
Decebel released her. He placed two fingers under her chin and lifted her face to look at him. "Then I will come see you early before we go down for breakfast. We can't be seen as being overly interested in one another. Although Vasile understands, the other Alphas do not."
"Gotcha. So, I'll see you in the morning, then?"
Decebel nodded. "Sleep well, Jennifer," he told her as he raised his hand and gently ran his thumb across her lips, almost as if he were imagining what they would feel like if he kissed her. She wanted to dare him to find out but instead she smirked. Fat chance of that.
Decebel smiled as he left her staring after him like a love-struck teenager. "That's what you are, dummy," she muttered as she turned and went into her room.
Sally and Jacque were lounging on her bed. No surprise there.
"Spill the goods, Jen. Where have you been and why do you have that goofy ass grin nearly splitting your face open?" Jacque quipped.