Leader of the Pack Ch. 16

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Aislinn has more visions.
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Part 16 of the 26 part series

Updated 10/20/2022
Created 11/16/2007
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secretme
secretme
3,475 Followers

Okay guys, so this is the relative calm after the storm. But don't get too comfortable. This is another set up chapter. The story is still going strong. But I think I know the ending now and should be able to get there in 3-4 chapters. I think. Don't hold me to that… •

*Chapter 16*

Jenna walked down the stairs into what had been a basement wine cellar. But Rafe had turned it into more of a dungeon torture chamber. She was considering having the place burned. It smelled of blood and terror. Along the wall where there had once been numerous wooden racks holding bottles of carefully chosen, rare vintage wines were now rows of naked, battered, whimpering women.

"Let them all go," Jenna said without emotion.

Large lycan's circulated through the room pulling chains off of the tired, beaten, women. Jenna may have been a bitch but even she saw some things as going too. She'd have her revenge but not like this. She still owed Cullen Arnauk for embarrassing her at their mating and the idea that two men had wanted Aislinn over her had Jenna seething with jealousy. Not to mention she felt like she still had something to prove. But kidnap and torture wasn't her style.

The women were given clothes and ushered to the great room to wait for cars to take them back to the Madadh-Allaidh Saobhaidh.

"Mistress," one large lycan said as he approached Jenna and nodded his head respectfully. Maon was burly, even for a lycan. He had a head full of dirty blonde hair that he pulled into a loose pony tail. His eyes were wild green and he always wore a suit coat. Jenna had considered mating with him. But her father had never approved. Still that hadn't stopped her from spending more than one long night in his bed. If she was to remain head of this pack he was one of the ones she would need. "What about the couple cats that were left behind. We've got them locked up for now. Do you want anything in particular done to them?"

Jenna heard the innuendo in his voice. She smiled at him sweetly and reached up to stroke his stubbled chin. "Keep them locked up for now. I may need them later." She walked back up the stairs and he followed her. "Make sure that all of our people who Rafe mistreated are taken care of. I want everyone in this pack seeing me as a savior." Maon nodded and left her side to deal with his orders.

Jenna ascended the main stairwell of her home. She headed straight for the room that Rafe had taken as his own. It had been her father's room. On the one occasion that Rafe had brought her to his bed she had noticed a mess of papers and things on her father's desk and she was curious to see if it was all still there.

She pushed the door open. The room reeked of Rafe, but there was still a hint of her father's scent left and it brought a tear to her eye. She pushed the upset into anger and headed for the large mahogany desk. There were several scrolls laid out and a couple books. It was all written in gaelic and would take some time for Jenna to wade through. She knew the language but only barely. Her father had forced her to learn when she was a child.

Jenna flipped through the papers looking for something to tell her what they were. Rafe must have thought they were important or he never would have kept them. The man had been very methodical.

***

Cullen and Aislinn woke to the sound of a small animal shuffling in the bushes nearby. Aislinn stretched against him and she felt his member slide from her body. Cullen groaned in disappointment at the apparent end of their morning.

Aislinn lay there with her eyes closed for a moment. She felt as though the ground was pulsing beneath her. It was a pleasant sensation. Kind of like a forgotten memory or something on the tip of her tongue. It felt familiar but she couldn't quite remember what it was and she didn't know why. As she felt Cullen move next to her she tuned in to him and reached for the love and pleasure she had felt before. The strange sensation faded away as Cullen seemed to fill her.

Aislinn turned in his arms and eagerly pushed him over onto his back. "If you're upset," she grinned wickedly, as her eyes took on an amber sheen, and she straddled him where he was lying, "I' m sure I could find a way to cheer you up."

Cullen's growl took on a needy sound and Aislinn felt him harden beneath her. She moaned uncontrollably. She didn't understand why she wanted him so badly when they had only just awakened from an incredibly intense round of love making no more than a couple hours earlier. His eyes were glowing already. But he curtailed his desire to take her again. "We don't have time," he growled with annoyance.

Aislinn pouted as he grabbed her hips and pushed her over onto her back. He leaned down and kissed her. "Come on. Before Keith comes looking for me again." He swatted her on the butt and got up.

Aislinn couldn't help reaching out and tugging at his hardon as he tried to move away. Cullen growled at her and grabbed her to himself. Aislinn could see and feel the amount of forced control that he had to use to stop from responding to her touch. She felt her own need and started growling low in her throat as she nuzzled against his neck.

Cullen took a deep breath and forced himself to release her. "I promise you, we will revisit this. But we need to take care of some loose ends first, piseagan." He kissed her forehead. Even that was almost more than he could handle. He growled again. Holding her hands away from him he picked up her shirt from where he had thrown it earlier and put it in her hands. The amount of overwhelming disappointment that emanated from her nearly changed his mind.

Aislinn looked over the mauled t-shirt then pulled it over her head, knowing that there was no point in looking for her bra first. He had totally destroyed that. She smiled. When she was reaching for her torn jeans she noticed that her hands were human. "Hey," she said excitedly. "I look normal again."

Cullen looked up to see her examining her arms and legs. He smiled, but had to look away. It was far too tempting a site. I'm going to have to arrange the ceremony soon. He knew he wasn't going to be able to control his wolf's need for her to the extent that he should. Everyone is going to know, he thought with concern.

"I heard that," Aislinn said. "How much trouble are we really in?"

"You heard that?" Cullen's brow furrowed and he looked at her. He crossed his arms over his chest to remind himself to not touch her.

"Yeah," Aislinn said haltingly. "I thought that was normal."

"It is. When I intend for it. But I wasn't projecting." Cullen's voice was overly serious.

"Is it a problem?" Aislinn asked. Her beast retreated into the back of her mind, grudgingly giving way to the serious conversation.

"Not a problem exactly. Just strange. Is it something druids do?" Cullen asked, trying to make his voice less serious.

"I don't really know," Aislinn said and her mind drifted toward her grandmother again.

Cullen sighed sympathetically and walked up to her. She had been through far too much lately and he wasn't helping. "Mo piseagan," he said softly as he wrapped his arms around her. "I'm sorry," he said softly and hugged her close. "I wish I could give her back to you."

She rubbed her tears on his shoulder and then pushed him away. "I'll be okay. Eventually." Cullen could feel that she didn't want to think or talk about it. So he let it go. "Anyway," she said getting a grip on herself. "I guess if we can pick up on more than we should from each other we'll just have to get used to it."

Cullen was struck by how strong she could be when she wanted to be. He could feel how much pain she was in over her grandmother's death. But that last statement didn't hold a hint of it. "Don't sound like it's such a burden," he teased.

She gave him a visually convincing fake smiled back. "We'll figure it out. When I was told 'bond' I didn't really know what it meant, until now. You know you and everyone else I've talked to have a nasty tendency to explain things to me with terms that you get and I don't. I never know what to ask more about." They went back to trying to get their clothes on. Aislinn pulled her jeans up and fiddled with the destroyed button and zipper. That helped to improve her mood as she thought about how he had torn her clothes off, literally. "Hey, you still didn't tell me why I'm back to normal."

"Okay, first," he laughed, "you're not back to 'normal.' You have three forms all of which are 'normal.' Watch who you say that too or you'll start a fight," he said in amusement. He was staring at his own jeans. The seams were pretty much gone. Really he was holding some pieces of what used to be jeans. There'd be no wearing them. He desperately wanted to make a pretense of decorum when he walked back into the cabin. Oh well. "I'm just going to have to take the pieces back. And as far as being in your human form right now, we had a quite pleasant nap."

He sounded so off-hand about it that Aislinn found it infuriating. Is it so impossible for someone to just give me a straight detailed answer? "Okay, but I was still hybrid," she said with excessive stress, "when I woke up this morning."

He cocked an eyebrow at the thought he picked up on. In conjunction with the obvious frustration, he couldn't help but find her cute. He hadn't realized how frustrated she was getting. It implied that she was looking for a great deal more information than she had actually asked him about and he wondered who she was talking to. "Yeah, but how did you feel?" He returned smugly.

"I guess I was still pretty upset."

"You'll have to learn to control how much you feel. It's an over simplification of the real explanation. But emotion effects the change quite a bit. Really it's about who's in charge at any point in time. The beast or the human. It's like there's two voices in your head. The one who doesn't care much for logic or reason and just wants what it wants and the one who is patient and considering and can deal with what life throws at you and move on. When you start to let things get to you it makes it easier for the beast to have its way. Anger, lust," he said with a smirk, "even happiness. Anything in an extreme can let the beast have more control than might be appropriate. You can also call it to you when you need it. Anyway it happens there's a moment of conflict and submission. Where the two halves of you decide who gets to be in charge for the moment. Human and wolf or cat are pretty straight forward. But the hybrid, well he can sorta go either way. It all depends what the situation is."

Aislinn nodded seriously, obviously thinking about everything he said. "You'll have to give me some lessons I think. I kinda get it. But understanding the explanation and controlling or experiencing it I think will be two different things."

Cullen walked over to her and pulled the neck of her shirt over the bite he'd left. It would need to be cleaned. "I intended to give you some lessons. The bond will help. Keep that covered up for now. When it's healed a bit more it won't be so obvious." He smiled. It would scar pretty badly. He hadn't intended to be quite that thorough. But his wolf probably would have been worse if given the chance.

"What are we going to do? About telling the pack I mean."

"I'll have the arrangements set for us to have a mating ceremony." His smile broadened. "And for you to get a lesson on what exactly will happen with that as well. I don't know when it will be set for yet. Don't worry about it. There are still a number of problems waiting back at the den to be dealt with. We won't have the ability to have the ceremony until after we clean up the mess."

"So when everything is said and done do I go back to sitting in the library bored to tears," Aislinn said. "You know I'm going to need a job or something to do. I can't just sit around all the time waiting to have sex with you," she grinned at him and he grinned right back.

"You sure?" he teased. Cullen thought about it. "Well, there are any number of things you could do now that Rafe isn't a threat. But there are some limitations, seeing as you're mine. Liam probably won't let you wait tables," he added, reading her mind and smiling at her. Cullen nodded in the direction of the cabin. "We'll figure something out if you're determined to do something other than hang out at the den. Maybe you can help Sarah out. That would probably be the most fitting job for you."

They started walking toward the cabin. "I just don't want it to look like I'm not pulling my weight."

"When we run into Keith again you should ask him what he thinks your job in the pack is now," Cullen smirked.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Aislinn asked in bemused concern. He chuckled at her and when they got to the cabin he opened the door for her.

They walked up the path to the cabin. To look around you'd never know that there had been a battle there the day before, save the bloody spots on the floor. Cullen had her by the hand as they walked into the front room. Aislinn hadn't actually looked around before. There had been too much else going through her head.

The front doors opened into a large main room with a vaulted ceiling three floors high. There were doors on all the walls of the huge room and stairs that led to a balcony that circled the room and led to the second and third floor balconies. There were lots of overstuffed couches and chairs arranged around the room so that several groups of people could sit and talk with each other in separate little areas. There was a gigantic fireplace on the far wall and the room as a whole was decorated with a lived-in, worn, comfortable, antique feel.

As they walked through the room to the stairs there was a lot of staring. But no one said anything. Aislinn noticed that everyone seemed to be in jeans and plain t-shirts. It almost looked like they were wearing a uniform. She figured that no one had time to pack a bag before coming out here for the fight. They were all wearing clothes from the closet storeroom she guessed.

Cullen led Aislinn up the stairs and along the third floor balcony. Then they headed through another set of doors and down a long hall. His room was at the end of the hall. Aislinn smiled when they walked in and she found herself in a room that could almost be a replica of his bedroom back at the Madadh-Allaidh Saobhaidh. There was a lot of dark blue. The first room they walked into had a desk and a couple book shelves and a sitting area with a television and a couch similar to the ones downstairs. There were a couple doors. One led to the bathroom and the other to the bedroom.

Cullen headed into the bedroom and over to his dresser to pull out some clothes. "I'm gonna get a shower. I'd bring you along," he smiled at her, "but I don't think we'd get out of here before next week if I did."

Aislinn smiled back and stretched out on his bed. His eyes followed her cat-like movements and he had to force himself to head for the bathroom. Aislinn was so comfortable lying on his bed and cuddling with the pillows that smelled so much like him that she fell asleep almost the instant Cullen was out the door.

***

Aislinn knew the minute the dream turned from a simple walk through her imagination to a nightmare of a premonition. She didn't know if she should be proud of herself for coming to the point where she could consciously recognize it or if she should be terrified. The battle wasn't over yet. She was padding on four feet through the Tairneach manor. The rooms were all dark. Aislinn felt drawn through the building. She was compelled to keep going. The stairwell seemed to be ten times longer than it had looked when she had been there. The white marble floors were ice under her feet. When she reached the top of the stairs there was a long hallway. Again the hall seemed longer than it should have been. By the time she reached the open door at the end of the hall she knew she was too late. Too late for what?

Aislinn walked into the room and she felt as though she was shrinking. Or the room was getting bigger. There was a desk against a wall and there was a light on the desk. She had to jump to get into the chair and then again to get onto the desk. She felt as though she was being watched. She slunk against the desk toward the light at the back of the desk. It was shining down on a book.

Aislinn jumped up onto the book and was walking across the gaelic writing. It was hand written. She stared down at the writing, trying to make out what it said.

***

As Cullen showered he had a strange feeling of fear and fascination fill the back of his mind. He didn't think that Aislinn was in trouble but he knew that something was happening. He cut his shower short and headed out of the bathroom toward the bedroom, grabbing a towel as he went.

When Cullen came back into his bedroom he was rubbing a towel into his wet hair trying not to think about Aislinn in the shower all wet and rubbing herself with soap. Aislinn was curled around one of his pillows. He padded over to the bed and stood there watching her. Something was upsetting her in her sleep. Even knowing that she wasn't really in danger his wolf was feeling rather protective. He wanted to keep her safe even in her dreams. Cullen was in the process of dropping the towel and joining her in the bed when a knock on the door tore through his thoughts.

I'm gonna kill him, Cullen thought angrily as his wolf took over his senses, waking Aislinn up.

She turned groggily to see what was going on just in time to hear a door slamming and then a body slamming. It took a moment for her mind to clear. She had been trying to read the book and was attempting to bring the image of the words back to her mind. But nothing was coming.

When Aislinn got to the door of the bedroom Cullen was in his hybrid form and had Keith by the shirt, back against the wall. Keith's eyes were submissively lowered as Cullen growled menacingly at his friend. Do I need to give you a reminder lesson about how I ended up in charge around here?

Keith bowed his head and raised his hands apologetically. "Cull, I just came up to tell you about the satphone call I just made. I didn't mean to barge in."

Aislinn could feel Cullen's common sense warring with his wolf. Keith saw her at the doorway. He looked up with a warning as if to tell her to stay back. Cullen picked him up higher and bashed him against the wall, regaining Keith's full attention. Keith winced as his head cracked against the wall. "Cull, I'll leave. Really. Just put me down."

Aislinn walked up to them and put her hand on Cullen's arm. "Cullen?" she asked in confusion. Keith seemed to brace himself for something awful to happen. To his surprise Cullen calmed immediately and lowered him to the floor, but had yet to let go.

Aislinn leaned in and nuzzled against his arm. "Are you okay?" she asked softly. She could feel that he wasn't.

It took Cullen a moment to force the wolf back. But even his wolf seemed to be responsive to Aislinn. Cullen felt his wolf backing down like a little kid who'd gotten caught doing something bad. When he had regained his human form Cullen looked back at Keith and then released his friend's shirt. He shot Keith an apologetic look and Keith nodded back indignantly.

"Like I said before," Keith growled. "You need to get the ceremony dealt with. And with how worked up you are you may need a month off instead of a week."

Cullen nodded. "You'd better watch how you come in here for a while." He rubbed his face with both hands. "Maybe we should just announce it. If I'm going to start going off on people like that, it could be dangerous."

secretme
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