Disclaimer: I am not the owner of these characters. The original story and the characters belong to Charlaine Harris. I am only borrowing them for a little while.

Chapter 21

Sookie's POV

We approached the group who was now silently staring at Eric and me. This was so embarrassing. It looked like we were the last ones to arrive. Where we late? I didn't have my phone, so I couldn't see the time.

"Welcome," Alcide said from the far end corner which made everybody snapped out of it and turned to face him. I must remember to thank him for it. "Now that we're all here," Alcide continued, "please follow me."

And that confirmed my suspicion: we were not only the last ones, but we were also late.

Instead of walking into the house, he actually went around it towards the back. He then continued passed the backyard and into the bushes. We just followed him quietly.

To call this property "remote" was an understatement. Though there was more cleared land around it that there had ever been at my place, it was even more private. No one lived here full time any longer.

We crossed a large piece of dense overgrown forest area until we reached a meadow which was big enough to fit all of us. There were some lights set up to illuminate the perimeter. Alcide stood in the middle while everybody else circled him.

Eric was right next to me. I noticed people giving me side looks from time to time and I didn't know if it was because my special smell tonight was making them horny too or angry because a vampire was the reason for my current situation.

Just ignore their looks and block any type of communication coming from their brains I told myself.

It was interesting to look at the entire scene instead. Tonight, Alcide stood up among his people as much as Niall did among his. Alcide looked like a king; a king in jeans and a T-shirt; a barefoot king. He looked dangerous. The power gathered around him. The air was humming with the magic of the pack.

Good. We needed more tension.

I wondered how were they able to set up the lights in this area that was so far from the house. I wondered if this meadow area was here before or if it had been created for tonight's trial. I wondered what was going to happen tonight, and I wondered how Sam was handling all of this. I was anxious, so I wondered too much to keep my mind occupied.

I scanned the crowd until I spotted Sam. He was alone, with a large empty space around him.

I felt Eric's eyes on me, and when I turned to him, he was staring at me without saying a word.

"Do you know what's going to happen tonight?" I asked him in an attempt to break the silence. Something was just off tonight.

"I don't know what we're here to see," he said. "An execution? A duel? With the wolves, I can't predict."

Right when I was about to ask him more questions I spotted Pam walking in our direction. When she got to where we were at, she stood in front of Eric without saying a word for a few seconds, and then produced a set of keys and a cell phone.

"Queen Sophie Anne has been trying to get in touch with you. She has called me three times already wondering about your whereabouts. I told her about Sookie's text. She needs to meet with her Sheriffs; establish her kingdom again."

"What did Sookie's text say?" Eric asked Pam.

"Not to worry. She's in possession of your body," Pam said with a devilish smirk.

"Sookie kidnapped me. I can't escape tonight. You haven't seen me tonight."

"Eric overpowered by Sookie. I never thought I would live to witness this moment."

"I can't do anything about it. Queen Sophie Anne will hear from me tomorrow."

"Very well," Pam replied to him and turned to me, "you smell especially delicious tonight," she told me showing the tip of her fangs.

Of course she could smell me too!

Eric glared at her and she turned around and left without saying another word.

A sudden silence took my attention away from Pam and back to the trial. Alcide went up to Sam and spoke, and Sam shrugged, and then nodded. He then stepped out to stand by Alcide.

I looked around at the faces of the pack members. There were all restless because of the night and because of the promise of violence in the air. There was going to be bleeding tonight.

Alcide raised an arm, and a figure was led from the house; her hands were bound. It was Jannalynn. I didn't know where they'd caught up with her, but her face was bruised. She'd put up a fight, which was no surprise at all.

Then I saw Mustapha. He'd blended with the darkness. He was magnificently nude. Warren was in the shadows behind him, huddled in a folding lawn chair. He was too far away for me to get a good look at him.

Mustapha had a sword. Too many of those in my life these days, I thought, feeling Eric's cold hand tightening on mine.

"We are here to judge tonight," Alcide said. "We've had to judge members all too often lately. The pack has been full of dissension and disloyalty. Tonight I require all of you to renew your oaths, and tonight I say that the penalty for breaking them is death."

The werewolves drew in breath sharply, collectively, like a single quiet scream. I looked around. Werewolfism manifests itself along with puberty, so none of the faces were younger than early teens, but that was young enough to make their presence shocking.

"After the judgments are rendered tonight, anyone who likes can challenge me on this spot," Alcide said. His face was savage. "No candidate has announced against me, but if anyone would like to win here and now, without a ceremony, you're welcome to try single combat. Prepare yourself to fight to the death."

Everyone was frozen in place now. This was not at all like the packmaster challenge I'd seen before, the one in which Alcide's father had died. That had been a formal, ceremonial contest. Alcide himself had succeeded to the position when his father's challenger, Patrick Furnan, had died fighting side by side with Alcide against a common enemy. Packmaster by acclamation, I guess you'd term it. Tonight Alcide was throwing down the gauntlet to every wolf present. It was a big gamble.

"Now for judgment," Alcide said when he had looked into the face of every pack member.

Jannalynn was pushed forward to land on her knees in the middle of the circle. "Jannalynn hired the assistance of three rogues, which I had turned down for admission into the pack too, to do her bidding. They abducted Warren, the friend of Mustapha, who in turn is a friend-though not a member- of this pack. If he had not been found in time, Warren would have died," Alcide said in a voice that carried across the area.

Everyone moved in unison, turning to stare at Jannalynn. "Those rogues were incited by Jannalynn Hopper, not only a pack member, but also my enforcer. Jannalynn couldn't subdue her pride and ambition. She couldn't wait until she was strong enough to challenge me openly. Instead, she started a campaign of undermining me. She looked for power in the wrong places. She even accepted money from a fairy in return for finding a half-bitch who would try to get Eric Northman arrested for murder. When Eric was too smart to act the way she thought he would, Jannalynn stole into his yard and murdered Kym Rowe herself, so Kym wouldn't tell the police who'd hired her. Some of you remember running with Oscar, Kym's father. He's joined us tonight."

Kym's father, Oscar, was skulking behind Alcide. He looked oddly out of place, and I wondered how long had it been since he'd come to a pack meeting. What regrets did Oscar have now about his daughter's life and death? If he was any king of father, any kind of human being, he had to be thinking about how she'd lost her job, how she'd needed money so badly that she'd agreed to be bait for a vampire.

But maybe I was just projecting. I had to keep my mind in the here and now.

"In addition to Kym's father, we have Jannalynn's parents joining us tonight," Alcide announced and I was in shocked. Jannalynn's father came forward and stood next to Alcide, opposite to Sam. His long, angry face spoke volumes about his disappointment on his daughter. I had to say that their resemblance was unique. Like father like daughter, at least physically.

"Jannalynn was willing to sacrifice Were blood to serve her own interests and those of the fae?" Roy said. He was the Were that was dating Palomino, and tonight he seemed to be in charge of Jannalynn. I was pretty sure Alcide had prepped him to ask that.

"She was. She admits it. She has written a confession and mailed it to the Shreveport police station. Now we're going to ensure it's taken seriously."

Alcide dialed a number. His cell phone was on speakerphone. "Detective Ambroselli," said a recognizable voice.

Alcide held the phone in front of Jannalynn. Her eyes closed for a moment as she was reading herself to step off a cliff. The Were said, "Detective, this is Jannalynn Hopper."

"Uh-huh? Wait, you're the bartender at Hair of the Dog, right?"

"Yeah. I have a confession to make."

"Then come on in, and we'll sit down," Ambroselli said cautiously.

"I can't do that. I'm about to vanish. And I've mailed you a letter. But I wanted to tell you, so you can hear it's my voice. Are you recording this?"

"Yeah, I am now," Ambroselli said. I could hear a lot of movement on her end.

"I killed Kym Rowe. I came up on her when she was leaving Eric Northman's house, and I snapped her neck. I'm a werewolf. We're pretty strong."

"Why'd you do that?" Ambroselli asked. I could hear someone muttering to her, and I guessed she was getting advice from the other detectives around her.

For a moment, Jannalynn's face looked blank. She hadn't thought of a motive, at least not a simple one. Then she said, "Kym stole my wallet from my purse, and when I tracked her down and made her give it back, she disrespected me. I …. Have a bad temper, and she said some stuff that made me sick. I lost it. I have to go now. But I don't want anyone else blamed for something I did."

And Alcide hung up. "We'll hope that will clear Eric. That's our responsibility," he said, and nodded at Eric, who nodded back.

Jannalynn made her face hard and looked around, but I noticed she didn't actually meet anyone's eyes. Even mine. Except her dad. She stared at him, but didn't say a word. Her dad's face was of an angry, broken, humiliated man. Jannalynn had done this to him.

"As it is written in the pack's law, as of tonight, Jannalynn's property and all her assets are now mine. Her parents, who are here witnessing tonight, have already handed over her assets to me," Alcide said.

Oh snap! Now this land belongs to Alcide's too. I looked at Jannalynn's father and his disappointment was deep. He nodded to Alcide, accepting the loss. Jannalynn's mother stood away from Alcide and her husband. She was holding her tears, but they still escaped her puffy eyes.

Alcide then gestured Roy, who then untied Jannalynn's hands and she stood to her unimpressive height, rubbing her wrists and stretching.

It was a windy night even though it was still warm. However, out here in the middle of nowhere the wind felt a little bit too cold for my taste. A sudden move drove my attention when Jannalynn looked my way and without hesitation she rushed to attack me.

Several things happened at the same time. First, Eric jumped in front of me and held her back by her neck. His large hand curled around her neck with ease. She attempted to make him let go, but he didn't. Roy and two other wolves rushed to get her off Eric.

"I'm here fighting for my life and you're horny over Sam?" Jannalynn yelled as Roy and the two wolves dragged her back to the middle of the circle.

"I'm not with Sam," I yelled back at her. She wasn't making sense. She saw Eric right next to me, yet she was still accusing me of being with Sam.

"You're throwing it right on my face bitch," Jannalynn continued.

She tried to come at me again, but they forced her to stay in place. "If she tries to touch Sookie one more time, I will kill her and your trial will be over," Eric warned Alcide, and that pissed Alcide off because, once again, Jannalynn was diminishing his position of power.

Mustapha stood to face her, both of them surrounded by all of us. Roy and the other two Weres stepped back and left Mustapha and Jannalynn facing each other.

"I will kill you," he said in his deep voice. He was not even wearing the dark glasses.

Jannalynn switched her attention to him, just as easy as I turn on and off the light bulb in the living room of my house. How could she do that?

"Try, jungle bunny," Jannalynn said, and held out her hand. She got a sword, too, handed to her by Roy. I was a little surprised; execution seemed more in other than the right to fight. But nobody had asked me.

She was trying to make Mustapha angrier with her insult, but the epithet didn't have any effect on him whatsoever. Some of the pack looked disgusted. The rest looked like people waiting for a sporting event to begin. I looked up at Eric, and he was in full alert, ready to kill her if she dared to get anywhere near me.

I looked back to Alcide's direction and Jannalynn's father looked like a ghost. He stood next to Alcide quietly. His embarrassment was too deep to even care what would happen to her at this point. Alcide was angry, nobody dared to defy his authority tonight and lived to tell the story. Then there was Kym's dad whose face was a mixture of emotions. Her daughter's killer was about to die, but that didn't help with his sense of guilt for not being there for Kym to prevent her death. I wondered if he actually felt guilt, or if it was me trying to humanize him.

And then, there was Sam, who was trying to put an I-don't-care face, but his anger was noticeable. His face was rigid with the effort of holding in his feelings. Right at that moment Sam looked at me, and I felt his anger as if he was projecting it against me.

I changed my attention back to Mustapha and Jannalynn.

The two combatants circled each other for a moment, and suddenly Jannalynn executed one of her flying leaps, hoping to come down on top of Mustapha. The lone wolf pivoted, and his sword blocked hers. She went spinning to the ground, but she was up in a second and back on the attack. Mustapha had told me he wasn't sure he could win a fight with Jannalynn, and for a few seconds she had the advantage. Not only did she hack away at him, but she shrieked, she screamed, she did everything she could to confuse and distract her opponent.

I noticed that she was working gradually closer to the edge of the open area. Closer to Alcide.

She might be a Were, but some intents were so strong I couldn't miss them.

"She's after you," I yelled in warning, and just as the words left my mouth Jannalynn leaped, spun, and came down on Alcide, who leaped aside at the last fraction of a second.

She got her father.

He crumpled to the ground as his blood spurted. Jannalynn paused in shock at having cut her own father, and in that moment, Mustapha grabbed her by the hair, threw her to the ground, and beheaded her. I'd seen beheadings before, but they're pretty spectacularly horrible.

A horrifying, painful scream echoed the night. Jannalynn's mother rushed to her husband whose eyes were wide open and desperate. He knew the severity of his wound. I considered asking Eric to give him his blood, but I remembered that it would be an insult to both, the Were and my Vampire. Alcide crouched down by Jannalynn's mother and reached out to touch him. Alcide then stood up and shock his head; he was gone. Jannalynn's mother cried loud and hard. Her scream echoed the night. In one night she had lost her daughter and her husband. My heart hurt for her.

I could barely stand watching the scene that folded in front of my eyes. Her pain was deep; I could only imagine her anger against Jannalynn. The magic in the air got heavier and it made me uncomfortable.

I looked up at Eric, and without saying a word, we walked away from there. We just left. There was nothing else left for Eric and me to do there.

On the way to his car I remembered that I had to return the car that Alcide's pack member let me borrow, but I didn't want to go back there to find him. We got in Eric's car, and on the way out of the property, we stopped by the guard to give him the car keys with a thank you message.

Tonight had turned out to be an awful night with a tragedy that could had been prevented; only if Jannalynn have had some common sense. Now, she was dead, she killed her own father, her properties were now Alcide's, and Sam was single again. So much loss.

We went home in complete silence. I couldn't stop thinking about what happened there, and by the time we arrived to my house, all the sexual desire had vanished.

"We could have saved all of that drama by just staying here all night. Let the wolves do whatever they wanted to do," Eric said while we lay down in my bed.

"Maybe, I should have listened to you," I replied.

"Maybe, I could put you in the mood again," Eric said mischievously.

"Maybe, this is the best time to have the talk that we have been procrastinating for the longest."

"There're many things that we could do with our time."

"Like talking. We need to talk and you know that," I stated as a matter of fact.

He nodded, "Let's talk. Why was Sam staring at you with so much anger?"

"That I don't have an answer. He has been contradicting himself lately which is confusing me, but that will be a conversation that I'll have with him."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, first, Sam made me his partner; now, I'm partial owner of Merlottes. Then, he closed Merlottes so that I could hold a meeting there in preparation to the big war against Felipe de Castro. However, he disappeared during the fight after he told me that he was going to be there for me. And then tonight… but I can't really blame him for tonight because his girlfriend got killed for treason."

"So I need to compensate him for closing his business."

"Yes. How do you feel about me being partner with Sam?"

"I'm not sure how I feel about it. I was hoping eventually you were going to join me in Fangtasia."

"But you were about to divorce me and marry Freyda."

He took a deep breath and put his hand on the bridge of his nose for a few seconds. "Yes, I was," he said as he looked me in the eye and continued, "Felipe de Castro hurt Pam. He was going to hurt you. I could not let that happen. You are my weakness. If hurting you means to keep you alive, then I will do it."

"I can defend myself," I replied softly.

"Not really. He was a sadistic psychopath with a god complex. You would not have survived."

I was going to let that sink in for a while. "Things should be different now that Queen Sophie Anne is back."

"Yes, they will be. What deal did you make with her?"

That answer was going to take some time, so I decided to tell him the entire story to make sure that I won't forget anything detailing the deal with her. "Of course, I also added that you will be adding terms to the deal for both of us."

"She agreed to all of that without hesitation?" Eric asked cautiously.

"Yes, she did."

"So your deal was an open deal where we can add things to it and she was ok with it?"

"Yes. Why are you suspicious?" I asked him.

"Because that type of deal is too dangerous to make. She risked too much by allowing me to add terms to the contract. Something does not sound right."

Suddenly things weren't as clear as I thought. "We need to be careful," I thought out loud.

"Yes," Eric replied. He remained silent for an entire minute and then he continued, "How is she going to give you the 200 acres of land right next to Fangtasia? How is she going to get that amount of money? What's in it for her?"

"At that moment I didn't care where she got the money from. That's her problem. But now that you mentioned it, I realize that I should've been more careful stipulating my demands."

"It's done now. We need to be careful now. Wait to see what will be her next move. Maybe she is eyeing Oklahoma in return," Eric said.

"What's going to happen to Oklahoma?" I had to ask since I killed their Queen.

"In my one-thousand years I never heard of a non-vampire kill a vampire King or Queen. I do not know what is going to happen. I know this, vampires will not allow a non-vampire to be their Queen."

I didn't like the sound of that. Time to change topics. "What about us?" I asked.

"You are still my wife, but because of Oklahoma, maybe you might want to consider becoming a vampire." I was about to say a lot of things to that statement when he continued, "Before you argue, I already know how you feel about it, but now things are about to change. There could be powers above me and Queen Sophie Anne that will want you dead."

His statement shocked me to the core. "Like who?" I asked, scared of the answer.

"We need to continue this conversation at a later day. Sunrise is fast approaching. Tomorrow I must return to Fangtasia to help our new Queen establish her kingdom before somebody else takes advantage and tries to do another take over."

He stood up, left the room abruptly, and then returned a few seconds later with my cell phone on hand. He gave it to me following a kiss that only Eric Northman knows how to give, and then he rushed to get in the closet in the other room. I got out of bed and went to the window; the first rays of sunlight were showing in the horizon. A sense of loneliness followed knowing that Eric was now dead to the world. I went back to bed to join him in my deep sleep. Hopefully I'll dream good things with Eric and our future together.

Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thank you for waiting for this chapter! For those of you that are wondering why was Sookie feeling so uncomfortable with the magic in the area… remember she had the cluviel dor in her pocket? Well, Sookie's anxiety was stirring the magic in it. The magic is waiting for Sookie to use it. The question is: what will she use it on!