Another chapter!

I'm still not very good at introductions, but once again I do not own anything Bitten related but Rose is a character from my imagination as is the beastly boy from this chapter.

Thank you for reading! Enjoy!

Chapter 10

"Jeremy. Marsten is missing."

Rose gasped, and I could smell tears threatening to fall. I opened the door and Rose climbed over my lap to get out of the Jeep. "For how long?" She asked.

"He called Kane to pick him up from the gala and when Kane got there Marsten was gone and there was another wolf scent. It was the scent of the guy who bit you, Rose." She exhaled loudly and I growled. How dare this man come against my pack?

"Let's go look for him! What are we doing just standing around here?" Rose exclaimed.

"We were waiting on you, Jeremy." Nick stated.

"We do this carefully. Marsten hasn't been missing too long."

"If this guy knows I'm here, and he must if he's attacked Marsten. Why else would he attack The Pack unless they had something he wanted, which is me in this scenario. He would take Marsten somewhere that would offend us," she gasped, her eyes wide, "like killing him on our land."

"Are you sure?" Nick asked.

"He's cocky, he smirked when he bit me, I am certain he would do something to piss off the pack that took me in." I looked at her and she was stern and serious, her face hard.

"Gather everyone. We need to discuss the plan." Nick nodded and ran inside. I quickly pulled my destroyed shirt off and pulled on a spare I kept in the car for when I needed to Change. I hastily kissed Rose and she eagerly returned it. "We will find him. I promise." She nodded and got out of the car, kicking her heels off.

Everyone came outside and I saw several of them flare their nose at the Alpha lust that was still coated over me. I ignored them. "Elena and Rose will go together, combined their tracking abilities should find Marsten or his attacker first. Sasha will go with Kane and I will go with Clay. Nick, you and Aleksei stay here in case he heads to the house. Spread out and keep together."

. . .

I was surprised that Jeremy wanted me to go with Elena and not himself but his strategy was sound so I nodded and Elena and I were off, running through the woods. It was dark, nearly midnight and all I could hear was our feet crunching the leaves below our feet. We were running for several minutes when I finally hear something, a moan it sounded like. I stopped and twisted my head in that direction.

"Do you hear something?"

"Yes, I think so." I heard it again. "Yes, this way."

"I can't smell anything. I don't know what direction he could be coming from." She quickly texted Clay about our location and then we were off, running over fallen logs and crevices. I knew we were close when I could smell Marsten. I could barely make out his shape, slumped near a tree. I knelt by him while Elena took watch over us.

"Marsten." I touched his shoulder and he coughed out blood.

"It's a trap." He gurgled. As if on cue, a giant figure encompassed Elena, throwing her away from him. She was a scrappy fighter though and was back on him with a yell. I tore off a piece of my dress to bind a bleeding wound on his leg.

I heard Elena get thrown again and she wasn't able to get up. I slowly stood and faced this giant of a man. His scent was all over the air, choking me. The moonlight reflected off of his teeth as he grinned.

"Hello, again, princess."

"Fuck you." I looked at him and tried to calculate any moves I could make. I could vaguely hear footsteps running our way so all I had to do was distract him until Clay and Kane could get here. He was big, so he was most likely slow as well. I would not let him get to Marsten so I couldn't sidestep this giant. I wanted to rip his throat out for what he did to me but I would not fight in anger. So I would fight to protect. So I did what any girl who has taken a self-defense class would do.

I kicked him in the balls. Hard.

He keeled over just enough for me to wrap my arms around his neck and jump on his back, using my legs to cross over his arms and then lock behind his back, immobilizing his arms. I had my arm around his throat, squeezing. He backed us into a tree, hard and I yelled out but I did not release him. He was gasping for breath as he stumbled around trying to get me to lose my balance. The pack came into the clearing, Clay and Jeremy first and then soon after Kane and Sasha who looked at me in surprise. But the giant wasn't down yet.

"You took my old life from me, but you will not take this one from me." I whispered to the hulk of a man who I was trying to choke out. He backed us into a giant tree and I felt the bark rip open parts of my shoulders but I choked back the scream and tightened my grip on his enormous throat. Kane came over to us and knocked his knees out sending me and this colossus tumbling onto the ground, me underneath him and I arched my body up to offer me leverage. I finally felt him slump against me but I kept holding on for good measure. When I finally loosened my arms, Kane moved the guy off of me and then Jeremy had me in his arms.

"Kane, you and Clay carry him and put him in the cage. Sasha, help Elena home, Rose and I will help Marsten." I looked over and saw Elena sitting up, rubbing her head. Clay kissed her before moving to help Kane pick up the man that turned me. Sasha had Elena wrap an arm around him so he could help her limp home.

I knelt back beside Marsten, near tears. "I thought-"

"Me too, love, me too." Marsten coughed out. "But you found me. He didn't expect you to find me so soon." Jeremy picked his torso while I carried his legs.

When we arrived at the house, we placed Marsten on the kitchen table, and immediately began cutting a slit in his pants so we could get at the wound.

"Good thinking about binding the leg when you did. Otherwise he would have lost consciousness and could have very easily lost too much blood." Jeremy said. He tore open Marsten's shirt and started poking at the ribcage. Noticing that Karl hissed at the pain, he bound his torso and then moved onto his thigh where it looked like the guy had stabbed him with a stick. Jeremy picked out pieces of wood for several minutes before pouring alcohol into the wound causing Marsten to scream out.

"That bloody hurts, damnit!" he yelled.

"Sorry." Jeremy muttered. He bound that thigh and then began asking Marsten what happened. While this was happening, I was dampening a wash cloth and wiping away the blood on Marsten, knowing that he absolutely wanted to look his best 24/7.

"I was waiting on Kane, I had already called him, when I smelled the wolf. He walked right up to me. He said that if I didn't want him walking in there and killing everyone he could get his hands on then I would follow him. I knew he would do it, I could practically smell the crazy rolling off of him. So I followed him into the woods and he started to beat me senseless saying that he saw me with Rose. He didn't know if you had survived. He said he followed your scent all the way here. He wants you for himself."

"In what way? He can't start a pack." I asked.

"When he was taking a breather from assaulting me, he was talking about Elena and how he had heard there was a female wolf. Since he couldn't get to her, he began biting dozens of women, hoping they would survive. None of them did, of course, but then you survived. He thinks you are his right since he bit you." He swallowed thickly so I gave him a drink of water. "He thinks you are his rightful mate." Jeremy's face was tense and hard and I held his hand in comfort.

"Well he was wrong."

"Obviously. But he isn't going to give up on you, like I said, he's crazy. You'll have to kill him."

"Yes." I said, surprising myself. Jeremy looked like he was going to oppose me. "I want him dead. For what he did to me and all those other women. We can't have a wolf garnering attention." Jeremy nodded.

"We let him sweat it out, Clay will interview him tomorrow."

"I hope that cage can hold him, Jeremy."

"It has held stronger." He patted Marsten's hand. "Clay and Kane will be in momentarily to bring you up to the infirmary." Marsten nodded.

"I'm glad you're okay, Karl."

"We've talked about this." I smiled and kissed his mouth, softly and gently.

"Don't scare me like that again."

"I will do my best, love." I smiled at him again and walked out of the room, holding tight to Jeremy's hand. He kissed me in the hallway, his hands gentle as they touched my face. I looked into his eyes when he pulled back and I saw, even though I knew he wouldn't say it, how scared he was for me earlier. I kissed his forehead and told him I was going to go take a shower. He nodded and I knew he was going to do the same.

I could hear Elena and Clay upstairs and I tried to tune them out as I got out of the shower. After I got dressed, I tiptoed to Jeremy's room next door and gently rapped on the door.

"Come in." He called.

I walked in and closed the door behind me. His room was a lot like him I guess, simple and comfortable. There were several paintings around the room that I knew he did himself. He had just come from his shower from the look of him. He was shirtless with a pair of blue pajama pants sitting low on his waist. He had a first aid kit in his hands and sat me on his bed between his legs as he worked about cleaning the various wounds on my shoulder from being rammed into a tree a couple times. I hissed when he cleaned them out with alcohol but otherwise, he said there was nothing he could really do.

I turned around, placing the kit on the floor and took his hands. "Is this what your life is like, on the edge, scared for your family all of the time, worried that they may be kidnapped if they are out of your sight?"

"Yes, that fear has lessened over the past few months but it seems like I will be back to worrying over my pack every second of the day."

"We'll worry together."

"When I saw you onto of that man's shoulders, I was unsure that you would be able to knock him unconscious, I didn't think you were that strong, but I was wrong. You are stronger than even I know." I scoot closer to him, my legs going on either side of his hips, my knees propped up since his legs were underneath me. I curl the hair at the base of his neck around my finger and his hands rest on my hips, slowly pushing up my shirt to feel my skin.

"Let's not talk about the guy in your cage in the basement."

He swallowed and leaned forward, his nose brushing my cheek. "I agree." His lips brushed my throat and I leaned my head the opposite way so he could have room. His mouth scanned upwards, gently nipping at my throat along the way. When his mouth finally met mine, our kiss was slow but deep, his tongue immediately demanding access to mine. I leaned up on my knees to push him down on the bed, and his hands searched lower than my hips, cupping my ass as I hovered over him, my hair creating a curtain. I sat up on his hips for just a moment to relish in the sight of the North American Alpha below me, his mouth slightly open, waiting on me to kiss him again, his eyes dark and lustful.

I smiled as I came back down to him, kissing him until my lips felt swollen and then kissing him some more. He rolled us over at one point, my knees on either side of his hips where he rested between them, his hand rubbing my exposed stomach. Neither one of us pushed anything, and when it came time to sleep, he got up to turn the lights off but then came back to bed, pulling the covers over us as he held me close, and I found that I fit perfectly the crook of his neck.

Another chapter bites the dust!

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