Here is chapter 2. Since this fic all written and betaed, I'll be sticking to my usual posting schedule of Monday, Wednesday and Friday. There are 9 chapters total.
I want to thank everyone who reviewed chapter 1. Unfortunately FF is glitching again, and I am unable to respond to several of you. Some of you may have noticed your reviews have not posted to the site, I am getting the email alerts so I am able to see your reviews that way. As soon as FF allows me to, I'll be ale to PM and thank you properly.
Chapter 2:"She's dead"
"If she ever saw Pam Barrett again, it would be too soon…"
Unfortunately, Joss was destined to see Pam again very soon. When she and John arrived at the next Pack Night, they found Pam already at the park cheerfully introducing herself to the pack members and deftly inserting herself into the pack.
Keeping a smile plastered on her face as they approached, Joss hissed at her mate, "I didn't know Pam was going to be here!"
"I didn't either," John snarled. He didn't bother with a smile or pretending to be happy to see her, much to Pam's amusement.
"John! Joss! How nice to see you!" Pam greeted them with fake enthusiasm and a very real smirk.
John simply stared at her, his face a neutral mask. This seemed to amuse Pam.
"I've been without a pack too long," she explained, her smirk not fading in the least. "You have such lovely people here, I want to join you."
"Stay here," John said to Joss. Joss nodded and let go of his arm as he moved forward so he was very close to Pam. "What are you up to?" he whispered so softly only Pam and Joss could hear him.
Pam was all wide-eyed innocence. "What do you mean? If I'm going to be a civilian now, I just want to join a pack like any good Wolf."
John stepped back and looked at her with a hard expression on his face. "Alright," was all he said before he walked away and returned to Joss.
Joss saw confusion briefly flick across Pam's face before she resumed her friendly smile for the benefit of the pack members. She had obviously expected more resistance from John and was confounded by how quickly he caved in. Joss, however, knew exactly what her mate was doing.
"Keep your enemies close?" she queried in a low voice as she took his arm again.
John growled. "She's up to something. Keep an eye on her and ask Shaw and Fusco to as well."
However, Pam behaved just like a Wolf joining a new pack all night long. She behaved so well that as the evening drew to a close Shaw asked John, "Do you think she might just want to join the Pack?"
John shook his head. "No, this is just the calm before the storm. Keep watching her."
John had no idea how right he was. Pam had set a goal-to be his mate and an Alpha-and Jocelyn Carter was in her way.
John had never understood that to Pam their little assignations were more than just sex, John was Pam's designated Prince Charming.
Pam had been raised in the Navy town of San Diego. Her father was a Navy SEAL and in Pam's mind, the perfect Wolf. He was tall with the build of a champion swimmer and the distinctive silver blue eyes of a Wolf from the Old Bloodlines. Pam thought he was the most handsome man she had ever seen, and she looked up to him like the Daddy's Girl that she was. She was his little princess and he told her that at every opportunity. Pam's mother would often have to stifle a laugh as she would walk by Pam's room and see the tough Navy SEAL folded into a tiny chair, wearing a sparkling tiara and having a tea party with Pam and her Barbies.
As Pam grew, her father taught her other, less lady-like skills. He would take her and her two brothers out in the woods to hunt and fish. They learned to gut fish and skin a deer with speed and efficiency. Pam learned to stalk and kill her prey in both human and Wolf form. She was very good at it and basked her daddy's praise. She lived for her daddy's praise.
Pam's father was also an excellent mate to Pam's mother. They were said to have had an extremely strong bond and they often showed their deep affection for other, even in front of the kids. Hugs, pecks on the cheek and nose rubbing were frequent sights in Pam's household. Aside from her father's frequent deployments to on secret mission to secret places, it was a wonderful way to grow up.
That all came to an end when Pam's father was killed on a mission in some faraway land when she was just thirteen. The details were classified, but they didn't matter anyway, he was gone and that was all the really mattered. They buried him will full military honors in Arlington, hung his posthumous Silver Star on the wall in their tidy living room and tried to go on with their lives with varying degrees of success.
Pam's mother retreated into bitterness and racism. Rumor had it that her mate had died because another Wolf on the team, a recently turned new recruit on only his second mission, had made a crucial mistake. The rumor was never confirmed, and actually seemed to proven false when that new recruit went on to a distinguished career in the SEALS, but Pam's mother needed someone to blame for the loss of her beloved mate. She poisoned Pam's mind with bitterness towards "mongrels." "You can't trust them Pam," her mother would say. "They're not 'real' Wolves." She became a rigid follower of the Old Ways, and so did Pam.
Pam's brothers went on to notable careers in law enforcement and the Army, but Pam decided she was going to follow in her father's footsteps and become a Navy SEAL. Unfortunately for her, women were not allowed to become SEALS, but her bold application to SEAL training came to the notice of the CIA. Pam decided that if she could not be a SEAL, the CIA was a good substitute.
Throughout her career in the Navy and the CIA, Pam had looked for that perfect Wolf, the one who reminded her of her heroic father. She was disappointed time and time again, no Wolf could live up to the idea she had built in her mind of her beloved daddy.
Until one day John Reese strode into the room for a mission briefing and Pam knew her search was over.
John was the perfect Wolf. He was tall with the build of a champion swimmer and the distinctive silver blue eyes of a Wolf from the Old Bloodlines. It was her father all over again, and Pam was determined to make him hers. This was her chance to reclaim that ideal life that fate had snatched from her all those years ago. She began a relentless campaign to make John her mate.
It seemed easy enough at first. John's partner Kara was crazier than a wolverine on meth, so it was very easy to woo him from her side every chance she got. The sex with John was off-the-chain good, but John would never take it any further than casual sex. Despite her best efforts, he never opened up to her, nor did he ever show her any affection outside the bedroom. Pam has repeatedly tried to get him to leave the CIA with her, but he would never even discuss the possibility. All of Kara's prattling about being "The Dark" had messed with his head and he thought a happy life with a family and a pack was not for him.
In desperation, Pam allowed herself to become pregnant the last time she and John were together. She knew that the honorable John Reese would feel obligated to mate with her when he found out about the baby. She just knew they could make a happy life together if John would just let it happen. She just had to force his hand.
But again fate denied her. Her jealous partner found the positive pregnancy test in the garbage and secretly slipped her a cocktail of drugs designed to force her to miscarry in a drink. Pam killed him on their next mission in revenge and left his body behind, but the damage was done. John and Kara were sent to Ordos before Pam could contact him, and Pam thought John was dead until he had rescued her from her "retirement."
Fate had handed her a second chance with John Reese and she was going to seize it in both hands. All she had to do was get rid of Joss Carter. Pam began stalking the female Alpha, waiting for an opportunity to remove the person she viewed having her rightful place in the pack and in John's affections.
Pam was very patient; she knew if anything happened to Joss too close to her joining the pack it would arouse suspicion. John was smart and that Finch character was smarter. They'd put two and two together if she moved too quickly. She had to strike at the right time and make it look like an accident. So she carefully stalked her prey with all the cunning she had learned from so many years as a covert operative. She followed Joss to work, she followed her home, and she followed her all over the city as Joss investigated cases with both John and Fusco. She watched with a sneer on her face as Joss dropped Taylor off at school, and she barely surpassed her gag reflex every time John kissed her in public.
Pam observed Joss's habits; how she stopped at the same little coffee shop by the precinct on her way into the office every morning and that she took her hot dog from the cart in front of the station with mustard and sauerkraut.
While Pam was stalking Joss she was disgusted to discover that the Carter/Reese mating was very much a love match. John and Joss would often exchange loving glances. John looked at Joss like she had hung the moon, the sun and the stars. Pam would grind her teeth every time. John had never looked at her that way.
John even brought Joss flowers. Flowers! A bouquet of rather pedestrian flowers he bought off a down on his luck looking street vendor. Pam watched through the window as John shyly presented Joss with the bouquet. Joss squealed with delight and they shared a deep loving kiss that lingered for far too long in Pam's opinion.
Of all the things Pam had to watch while she was hunting Carter, the hardest thing for her to see was John and Joss talking. Pam had never been able to get John to say more than few words to her at any given time. In the way of most Special Ops soldiers, the reserved ex-Ranger never seemed to have much to say. However, when John was with his mate, he opened up to her easily and the emotional intimacy between the two Alphas was like a knife in Pam's gut.
This revelation had hit Pam one night as she watched John and Joss on some sort of stakeout. She wasn't entirely sure what exactly her prospective mate did for a living, but it seemed to involve protecting a lot of losers; Pam had been too busy following Joss to spend much time thinking about John's current job. That night John and Joss were together on stakeout and she had her first chance to observe the Alpha pair together for an extended period of time.
Pam watched from her hiding place as Joss, carrying two coffees, slid in the passenger seat of the car where John was waiting. She handed one to John who gave her a fond smile in return. As Pam continued to observe them, the man she had known as taciturn and reserved conversed easily with his mate the entire time. John laughed at Joss's jokes, he talked seriously with her,and he listened carefully to anything Joss said. During the three or so hours Pam watched them, John probably said more to Joss than he had said to her during their entire week in Vienna. Pam burned with jealousy that he had opened up to the mutt and not to her.
To make matters worse, she could tell by the positions of their arms that they were holding hands. John had never held her hand in public or private, not even during the magical week in Vienna. Pam's insides twisted with this discovery. Jocelyn had what Pam had longed for and been denied for so many years.
Jocelyn had to die. Jocelyn had Pam's life, the one she had wanted with John. The life Pam tried to convince John to leave the CIA and build with her. She was not going to let Joss have HER life dammit. Pam was from the Old Bloodlines, she was royalty. Joss was just a mongrel. Pam has spent her entire life as a Wolf while Joss had only been a Wolf for less than a year.
Pam's loathing of Joss grew and grew until it threatened to consume her, but her time in the CIA served her well. She channeled her hate into action and doubled her efforts to rid herself of the object of her animosity. Joss hardly made a move that Pam didn't see.
Unbeknownst to her, Pam herself was being observed. The Machine watched her carefully, puzzled by her motives. With no emails or phone calls to help it unravel Pam's intent, it wasn't quite sure how to handle this situation. Pam had followed other people since she had been in New York, but she had only blackmailed them for large sums. While Pam's actions were despicable, they were not a threat to life, so her activities were outside the normal area of the Machine's interest. However, the Machine's programming told it that Joss was different from Pam's other targets, so it watched and waited.
During her extensive surveillance over several weeks, Pam realized what Joss's biggest weakness was; Joss consistently put herself in the line of fire in dangerous situations. She never backed down from dangerous suspects and was almost always one of the first cops into the building during busts. Joss was brave to the point of recklessness.
Pam knew this was the opening she needed to rid herself of the she-wolf who held the position in the Pack and John's heart she felt rightfully belonged to her. All Pam had to do was be patient and wait for the right opportunity.
Multiple times during the time Pam was stalking her, Joss would feel a malevolent presence that fluttered at edge of her Wolf sense like a ghost. Joss would often try to focus on it to try and identify it, but her inexperience with her Wolf sense prevented her from doing so. She was beginning to wonder if she was imagining it, so she never mentioned it to John or any of her friends.
The opportunity Pam had been waiting for came one hot and humid night in mid-summer. Joss and Fusco had been invited by the Narcotics squad to participate in a raid on a drug warehouse one of their most elusive suspects was rumored to frequent. Happy to be so close to bagging their man in series of vicious murders, they eagerly agreed to join the bust that was scheduled to go down at 11 pm that night.
The plan had been to swoop down on the warehouse and try to take the suspects inside by surprise. Unfortunately, they had stationed a lookout on the corner who tipped the suspects off when he saw the line of police cars flying down the street at high speed. The drug cartel only had a few minutes warning, but it was enough. A furious gunfight followed; the kind of firefight that reminded Joss of her tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. The cartel was well-armed and bullets flew indiscriminately through the air. The police called for more back up and several ambulances were also ordered to the scene in anticipation of casualties.
Pam watched the entire thing unseen from her hiding place. Only the Machine was aware of Pam's presence, and deducing Pam's intentions, it immediately sent Finch Joss's number, but it was too late. Pam was already creeping towards Joss with murder in her heart.
Joss had taken refuge behind a large, heavy duty packing crate that was partially in a shallow puddle on the floor. Forced to crouch in the puddle to take advantage of the cover the crate offered, she ignored her wet shoes as she returned fire. After her tours in the Middle East Joss was used to discomfort far worse than this.
Slowly, carefully, relying on all her covert skills to remain unseen, Pam slunk through the warehouse towards Joss. Ruthlessly, Pam tamped down the adrenaline surge that coursed through her veins at the thought that tonight would be the night she would rid herself of the mongrel who stood between her and her destiny.
In all the confusion and sensory overload, Joss's hyper-sensitive Wolf sense did not pick up on Pam's approach until the other woman was right behind her. By then it was too late. During her stealthy approach, Pam had spotted a heavy duty cable with an exposed end sparking only a few feet from where Joss was crouched. Joss turned and saw Pam just as she dropped the cable into the puddle where Joss was squatting. Then Pam melted back into the shadows as quietly as she had come, smiling with glee as she saw Joss jerk and convulse as the electricity coursed through her body.
Across the city, John and Shaw were conducting surveillance on their latest number from a rooftop. John leaned on the railing in front of him as he watched their number look around before he entered the store that served as a front for his bookie operation.
Shaw growled next to him, "Why are bookies always little weasely guys? Ever see a tall, built bookie?"
"Can't say as I have," John grunted. His thoughts were far away with Joss, knowing that she and Fusco were taking part in the raid. He checked his watch; 11 on the dot. He smiled as he felt the surge of Joss's excitement through their mating bond as she and the rest of the task force stormed the building.
"You think this guy ran afoul of Elias or one of the other dons?" Shaw asked idly.
John shrugged, his attention still mostly on his bond with Joss. "Hard to say, but we're in Grifoni's territory here, not Elias's. But you can never tell with bookies since they take bets from anybody."
"Yeah, you're right," Shaw grumbled. She pulled out a bag of chips and offered it to him. John waved it away, and Shaw shrugged and began munching on them noisily. John rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to their number.
Suddenly, John was hit with what felt like a building falling on top of him. He fell to his knees with an inhuman wail of pure pain.
Horrified, Shaw crouched down next to him. "John? John, what's wrong?"
John buried his face in face in hands, rocking back and forth for several minutes before he could answer. He finally looked at Shaw and she was struck by the sheer devastation on her partner's face. "She's dead, she's dead! I felt Joss die!"
Shaw rocked back on her heels, stunned by the news. For once she was too shocked to move or say anything for several seconds. She could only stare at John with her mouth open before she finally hit her earpiece. "Shit, Finch did you hear that?"
Finch had indeed heard that, but it also took him some amount of time before he was able to get over the shock enough to reply. "Um, yes, Miss Shaw, I did hear that. I'll get back to you as soon as I can."
Frantic, Finch tried to get a hold of Fusco or Carter while he was thinking, Please let it not be true! Oh God, no! Please! It will kill John!