Chapter ten, y'all. Chloe's gathering the others!

TEN

Felina snarled at the two guards that were, once again, flanking Chloe. It was like they were intentionally trying to keep Jasmine and her from protecting Chloe.

No matter, the cat woman thought. Because they won't be able to guard her for long with so many Mai about to come into view. But first, we need to make it through these rounds. As they walked through the streets of New York, Felina looked around for the Jackals or the Mai, but all she could find were humans.

At last, the smell of dog hit her nose at the same minute that Chloe shouted, "Laurence!"

She rushed forward to catch up with the Jackal that had been walking away from them. He stopped and waited for her to catch up and Jasmine and Felina took this as an opportunity to reclaim their spots beside Chloe, so they sped after their friend as well, sliding into place beside her seconds later. Veronica and Laurent came up moments later, huffinf and panting heavily. Laurence looked at them for a second before shooting a questioning glance at Chloe.

"I saved their lives so they decided to come along to help out." Chloe explained. "Is Josef ready to go?"

"Yeah, I was actually just about to go get him to wait for your arrival. Come on." Laurence led them to a different building than the one the Mai had been hiding in; this one was somewhat larger than the other building and less rundown. Laurence knocked on the door and Gregory opened it slowly. He smiled when he caught sight of Chloe and welcomed them in.

"Good to see you again, Chloe." He greeted her warmly. "Josef should be down-."

"-within seconds." A voice said from the staircase.

Everyone turned to see Josef making his way down the stairs with an overnight bag in his hands. "Ready to go." He said with a smile, setting down the bag and extending his hand to Chloe. "Good to see you back, your Majesty." He told her. Chloe smiled at him and gestured to the bag. "It has all our stuff in it. We didn't know how long we would be there."

Chloe nodded. "Let's go, we have six more countries to hit."

The three men followed Chloe and her group accompanied by five Mai and three Jackals. Veronica and Laurent looked around at them nervously for a moment before moving closer to Chloe. Felina and Jasmine shot them looks before glancing at each other. Everyone boarded the jet and set off for Spain. Chloe called together her pack as Alfred and three other Mai came forward with some of their belongings. Chloe took with her a few Jackals from her own Pack and everyone was on the jet within minutes. Chloe watched the window for awhile before returning her gaze to the seat in front of her. Landing in France, Chloe called together all of the French Jackals as Sébastien and some of the Mai came forward.

"Let's go, your highness." they all murmured, bowing their heads to her as they entered the jet.

Chloe chose a few of her French Jackals to come with them and everyone entered the jet. An argument immediately broke out between the French and the Spanish Jackals while some of the New York Jackals snarled at both Packs. Chloe looked around at them and noticed that some of them were already beginning to throw punches.

Taking a deep breath, Chloe blew a whistle and everyone stopped, turning to her. "I don't want any fighting unless we are battling the Order." Chloe said firmly, staring at all of the Jackals and leveling stares at the Mai as well, who had begun hissing at each other. "We are not animals no matter who we are descended from. We need to keep it together and get rid of the Order so that we can live safely from now on. We can't have a working operation if you're all fighting. Sit down and stay quiet unless you are discussing battle strategies that could help us against Whitley and his people."

Everyone stared at her in shock for a moment before one by one they all bowed and sat down in their seats. Chloe huffed and sat down between Felina and Jasmine. Felina chuckled and muttered, "Told you your name was wrong."

Chloe shot her a smile and relaxed back into her seat, going into deep thought again. She only came out of her trance when Jasmine tapped her shoulder to tell her that they had made it to Ukraine. As they left the jet, they saw all of the Jackals looking at them oddly and Chloe could only guess at what they were staring at. At last, they arrived at the headquarters and found Orlando, Nikolas, and a tall, dark-haired, muscular Jackal waiting for them.

The Jackal stepped forward and extended his hand to Chloe with a gracious smile. "You must be the Uniter and Queen."

Chloe smiled and shook his hand, replying, "Yeah, that's me. I'm Chloe."

"Pleasure Chloe. I'm Dominic. What's this I hear about a meeting?"

"We're deciding a plan of action against the Order."

Dominic nodded and glanced at the two former guards that were now surrounded by Mai and Jackals to make sure they didn't hear too much. "Who are they?" he asked, turning his gaze back to Chloe.

"They're two guards that I saved from dying at the hands of the Order." Dominic nodded and gestured to the small pile of bags beside him. "We're packed and ready to go then, Your Highness."

Chloe nodded as a handful of Mai carried the bags to the jet. Boarding, Chloe let out a sigh of relief when the Ukraine Jackals made no quarrels with the others. "Russia's going to be a hard time." she murmured to Jasmine.

"I believe it." Jasmine sighed heavily.

"Let's just hope Nikolai is understanding enough to get what we're talking about."

"Well, she was better than the Russian Order so it shouldn't be too hard to convince her to join us." Felina pointed out. Chloe nodded and sighed, deciding to sleep until they got to the Russian city again.

"So what you're telling me is that you want to get rid of this Order guy altogether?" Chloe nodded as Nikolai stood from her desk and came around to the front of it. "Well, I'll come as long as you have a logical reason for wanting those humans dead."

Chloe sighed in relief and turned to Anton. "I am already one hundred percent behind you, Chloe. You are intelligent enough to know what you are doing and I trust that."

Chloe smiled at him and ducked her head at the praise. "Let's go, we need to pick up Hei-Ting, Sheng-Hei, An-Mei, Aniche and some of the Nigerian Jackals."

"You killed their Alpha didn't you?" Nikolai smirked.

"She provoked me and attacked me first anyway."

Felina and Jasmine chuckled as Nikolai's smirk grew. She and Anton gathered two small backpacks from the corner of the room and followed Chloe out to where many of the Mai were waiting. Five or six stepped forward and bowed to Chloe.

"We would like to accompany her majesty on her quest to assure her safety." The tallest one said. Chloe nodded and led everyone back to the jet with Jasmine and Felina flanking her. "It's like having your own royal guard and advisors." Felina observed. Chloe giggled at that and sat in her normal seat as everyone found places to sit or lean. Chloe glanced around and found that Laurence, Dominic and Nikolai were gazing at her intently.

What's wrong? Chloe asked them telepathically.

Aren't you hearing the orders in your head? Nikolai asked.

Chloe raised an eyebrow questioningly. What orders?

The orders our main Alpha—the one you call Whitley—is sending us, telling us to finish destroying the Mai Prides and come to San Francisco. Laurence explained.

No, I don't hear anything but my own thoughts and you guys.

How strange indeed. Dominic mused. What do you think could be keeping him from ordering you?

Chloe shook her head. I don't know, but I'll think on it for a bit.

All three of them nodded and Chloe went back to staring at the back of the seat in front of her. He can't hide forever and that's definitely not his plan. He might know by now that the Jackals haven't completely destroyed the Mai Prides and have no intention of doing so. But can he possibly be the leader of the Jackals? No. You can't have more than one Alpha.

Chloe's eyes narrowed. But you can have little subdivisions in which other Jackals step up and become Alphas of the Packs for him. Meaning he can tell what they're doing and give them orders. But then, why hasn't he given ME an order?

Chloe mused on this some more before something struck her. Because I'm the true Alpha of all the Packs. He can't give an order to me because I hold a higher position than he does. Whitley must not realize it though, which will only serve to help us.

A slow smile made its way onto Chloe's lips as she leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms.

"What's up?" Jasmine asked, noticing the sudden change in Chloe's demeanor.

"Whitley doesn't have a lead on what we're doing because he can't reach my mind. I'm the Alpha of all the Packs and he obviously doesn't realize this because he's giving orders to Nikolai, Dominic and Laurence. I wonder if An-Mei is getting orders as well."

"We'll find out when we get there." Jasmine smiled down at her and Chloe nodded, leaning back in her seat to await the arrival in Hong Kong

A little over an hour later, the jet was landing in Hong Kong and Chloe was un-boarding to make sure everyone else was ready to go. An-Mei greeted her at the bottom of the stairs with a few of her Jackals while Hei-Ting and Sheng-Hei weren't far behind with some of their Mai and a few humans.

Chloe greeted them with a smile and asked, "All ready to go?"

"Indeed your Majesty." Sheng-Hei nodded.

"Let's go then." Chloe grinned, jumping back up the stairs and into the jet. Chloe looked around and noticed that the jet was getting a little overcrowded; people were sharing seats or packed against the walls and Chloe sighed.

"This is a lot of people." She murmured.

"More people means more protection for the Queen." Nikolas pointed out, to which Chloe nodded thoughtfully. Taking her seat, Chloe leaned into Jasmine as the jet took off again.

"Next stop," Chloe said.

"Nigeria." Jasmine finished.

"We are ready to go, Your Majesty." Chloe smiled up at Ichemefuna warmly as he carried a few bags over to her. "Aniche is getting the last bag and then we should be off."

"Thanks, Ichemefuna. I'll get some of the Jackals to come with us and you can put those in the storage compartment of the jet."

Ichemefuna nodded and began carrying the bags toward the jet where some of the French Mai and Spanish Jackals began helping him unload it into storage. Chloe smiled at the teamwork and turned to see Aniche striding forward with a small bag in her hands.

"All ready?" Chloe asked and Aniche nodded with a bow and a smile.

"We are going to Brazil, yes?" Chloe nodded. "I have brought an offering for Francesca in thanks for letting us use her territory."

Chloe beamed up at the older woman. "That was nice of you. I'm sure she'll appreciate it."

Aniche nodded, her smile growing, and followed Chloe onto the jet. Now people were standing in the aisles as well and some were sitting on the floor. Chloe held her tongue on it and returned to her seat between Felina and Jasmine.

"Now we can finally fly to the last Pride and unload these people from this cramped jet." Chloe muttered so only they could hear.

Jasmine nodded, looking around at all of the others on the jet; none of them showed signs of being uncomfortable, but Jasmine knew they were only doing it so that Chloe wouldn't feel worse about the situation. Jasmine had to admire them for that; they really were willing to do anything for her. Within two hours they were flying over the Amazon Forest and Jasmine shivered at the thought of going through the Amazon River again, hoping she wouldn't have to re-experience that anytime soon.

At last, the jet touched down in Manaus and everyone stood. Chloe and Jasmine were the first ones off followed by the members of their original group and the other Pride, Pack and former Order leaders with everyone else coming behind. As soon as they were off the jet, everyone raced for the storage compartment to get their belongings. Chloe and Jasmine stared as everyone pushed and shoved to get their bags and Chloe sighed.

Whistling to get everyone's attention, Chloe, Jasmine and Felina strode over. "You're going to break or tear something if you keep doing it like that." Chloe told them wearily as she jumped into the storage compartment. "Gather round and we'll go about this in a calmer way." Chloe picked up a leather bag with rhinestones on the front. "Whose is this?" she asked loudly.

"Mine!" a French Mai called, raising her hand.

"Can you catch?" Chloe called. The Mai nodded and Chloe tossed the bag to her.

Jasmine, Valentina, Felina and Nikolai jumped up to help so that it went faster and soon, there were only a few items left. Chloe went to go get a large suitcase from on top of a few smaller ones, but her hand slipped and the suitcases all began to fall. Quickly jumping up, Chloe avoided being crushed, but her landing wasn't pain free. As she was landing, one of the suitcases made her fall uneven and she crashed to the ground. Jasmine and Valentina hurried over to help her up while Felina and Nikolai picked up the suitcases.

"Are you alright?" Jasmine asked, letting Chloe stand on her own.

"Yeah, I'm fine." The blonde shook her wrist and felt a twinge. "My wrist hurts a little. It should be fine though."

Jasmine nodded and went over to take a few of the smaller suitcases while Felina got the larger one and Nikolai and Valentina grabbed the rest. Chloe smiled at them in thanks as the last of the bags were distributed and they grabbed their own luggage.

Hopping out of the compartment, Felina shut the door and Chloe walked over to where Francesca was watching them. "So, where will we be able to stay?"

Francesca gave her a smile and bowed before motioning for them to follow her. "Come with me."

I know, an excessively long chapter (at least from my point of view) but you guys tell me what you think of this development. Chloe's beginning to act more like a ruler now. Not one of those snobby queens that books give you and not a sappy, too nice Disney© princess, but a concerned, authoritative leader. Next chapter coming soon. Review and tell me what you think of this one while I'm posting it.