Welcome to Chapter Twenty! I hope you guys enjoy this one as well. Thank you for all the reviews, favorites and follows.

Smackdown: February 14, 2014

Edited: 4/10/2020

Chapter Twenty

Angel followed quickly behind Seth, Dean, and Roman as they made their way through the public area and towards the backstage. They had just won their match against Daniel Bryan, Sheamus and Christian and good god where they hyped up.

"Damn that finale was crazy." Seth grumbled through his busted lip that he got from the Brogue Kick that he had caught in the mouth.

"We do our best when things are crazy." Dean stuck out his tongue.

"Speak for yourself." Seth sighed rubbed his jaw.

Laughing, Roman turned and gave Seth a pat on the top of the head. "You're only sour because you got kicked in a face by a big pale man."

Seth pulled himself away and glared slightly. "Next time, you get kicked by the Irish man."

Angel laughed as she watched the boys celebrate. However, when Seth winced again, she went right back into caretaker mode. "I'll go get you something for that headache and that split lip." She gave the man a pat on the back before breaking away from the pack. "Anyone else need anything?"

"A water would be nice." Roman answered.

"Coming right up." She smiled and nodded as she gave a last look at each of the boys.

Quickly, she made her way down the hallway to the trainers' room to pick up something for Seth as well as an icepack for her hand, which was still throbbing from when Dean stepped on her during the match.

After taping an icepack to her hand and stuffing the things for Seth into her pockets; she made her down to catering. She grabbed waters from everyone and started back towards the locker room when a hand hit against the wall in front of her, blocking her path.

Letting out a small yelp, she jumped, and her eyes locked on the arm that was sticking out in front of her. A chill went up her spine as her eyes ran over a tattoo of skulls and what looked like blood smears. There was no doubt she knew who it was.

"Well looky here… We found a lost little lamb." She forced herself not to react to Bray Wyatt's airy voice as it came from right next to her ear.

Swallowing the lump in her throat, she turned towards the man that the arm belonged to and her heart fell. All three members of the Wyatts were standing there in front of her.

Trying to fight the fear that was welling up inside her, Angel bit her lip and looked around; hopping to see someone, anyone. Somehow, there was no one around. No one heading into catering, no one hanging around the normally busy part of backstage.

Resigning in her fate, she turned back towards the three men. "Hello Bray, I can't stay and talk. I need to go check on Seth…"

"So eager to get back to the wolves' den." Bray's blue eyes locked on her while shaking his head. "Don't you know that wolves eat little lambs like yourself." His face seemed to grow darker, more sinister with each word. "In fact, I've already seen one of them eyeing you up for their next meal."

"Eyeing me up?" She drew her brows together.

"Oh yes, little lamb." He gave a smirk. "If you only knew the way he looks at you with your back turned, you wouldn't be so eager to get back." He leaned slightly away from her only to look back at Luke and Erick. "Though it's funny…I don't even think the wolf himself knows that he's hankering for some lamb to devour. At least not yet."

D.D.D.

"What the hell is taking Angel so long?" Roman sighed as he patted Seth on the back. Dean shrugged as he looked around, she never took this long; in fact, they were normally surprised about how fast she was.

They had even been told by some of the crew member that they always knew when the Shield's matches were over because Angel would be racing through the hallways, making sure to grab everything that they needed.

Something was keeping her, and he had a bad feeling about what that was. Make your move.

The thought that ran though his mind, made him instantly stand up. "I'm going to go find out what is keeping our little manager." He said as he pushed his way through the locker room.

When he got out into the hallway, he looked around trying to see if he could see her, but there weren't any signs of the small manager. Sighing, he started down to catering in hops that she was being held up by a really good sandwich or something, but he knew better.

Make your move. Wyatt's voice bounced around in his head with each step, which didn't help the already twisting feeling in his gut.

He had learned at a young age not to ignore his instincts; they were what kept him alive and going most of the time back in Cincinnati. Even back in his indie days when he was way more reckless, he listened to the voices in his head. And right now, those voices were telling him that something wasn't right, and he had a feeling that it had something to do with Angel. What was worse he also had a feeling that it had to do with a certain trio of bearded hillbillies.

He had seen the way that Bray's those sick blue eyes locked onto her, saw the way he smiled at her on Sunday. Bray wanted something with Angel, and he wanted to find out what that was.

As thoughts about what Bray would do to her crept into his mind, Dean picked up pace. He never wished to be wrong as much as he did right now.

However, as he made his way around the corner of the hallway his heart dropped down to his stomach. His eyes instantly locked on the three men that he was dreading to see: Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, and Erick Rowan. They were all gathered around something, which as he got closer, he realized that that something was the young woman that he was looking for.

Anger rose, as he looked took in the scene in front of them; the three hillbillies pinning Angel against the wall. Which she seemed to be trying to blend into. By the time he was just feet away his blood was boiling, and it only got worse when he saw the pure look of fear that was plastered on Angel's face.

Seething, he marched up towards the scene in front of him. With each step his skin began to crawl, his head started to pound and breathing became almost labored. Reading himself for a fight, he cracked his knuckles and rolled his neck.

"Wyatt!" He growled. "Care to tell me what the hell you are doing?"

He could see Bray's shoulders visibly slump as Luke and Erick slowly turn towards him. "We just keep getting interrupted down we little lamb."

Dean frowned. Keep getting interrupted? Little lamb? He shook his head, trying to stay focused on the matter at hand. "You mind stepping away from my manager, Wyatt?"

A smirk came to Bray's face as he pulled his arm away from the wall, though he didn't move an inch other than that. Glancing from Bray to Angel, he saw that she was trying to look over the man's shoulder but couldn't.

"Hello there, Dean." Bray finally turned his attention towards him. "How are you today?"

"Do you really want to ask me that?" Dean stepped forward only to be met by Luke and Harper. He gave a quick look to both Tweedledum and Tweedle-dee before turning back to Wyatt.

"Dean, Dean you really need to work on that temper of yours, it's not healthy." Bray warned him.

I'll show you not healthy. Dean rolled his shoulder. "Thanks for the tip. Now, step away from Angel."

Bray gave in an disproving shake of his head as he did was he was asked and stepped away from Angel. "Listen to you, barking like the dog you are." He smirked. "Angel and I were only having a lovely chat. Weren't we?" He looked back at her.

Dean's eyes glanced to the girl and judging by her face it wasn't just a 'lovely chat'.

"Get moving, Wyatt." Dean gritted his head.

Letting out a sigh, Bray gave Harper and Rowan a smack on the back. "Well, I can see that we're not welcome here."

Not welcome…That's a gross understatement.

Bray started backward down the hall, while his two lackies fallowed behind him. As they walked, Bray's eyes drifted back to Angel who was stilling stand against the wall. Pursing his lips and crossing his arms, Dean moved so that he was blocking her from the man's view.

Bray laughed as he finally turned around and continued to walk away.

Only once he was satisfied that they were far enough away, Dean turned away from them and looked at Angel. His eyes ran up and down the woman's figure. He didn't know what he was looking for, a bruise, a cut or a scrape; all he knew was he was dreading what he might find. His eyes dropped down to her right hand to see an icepack taped to her hand and noticed the purple-ish red tint that was talking over her pinky and ring finger.

When the hell did that happened? He questioned. He had been with the woman for most of the day and he thought he could have noticed that she was hurt. He wasn't that much of a bastard. At least he knew that Bray wasn't the one who caused it, the asshole wouldn't have brought her an icepack after busting her fingers.

"Are you alright?" He leaned down to look at her face.

"Yeah, I'm ok." She nodded as she stepped away from the wall; her body shaking with each step.

He cringed at how shake up she was. "He didn't do anything to you, did he?" I'll kill him if he did. He frowned at his own thought.

"No…He didn't do anything." She shook her head. "He only creeped me out."

He let out of the deep breath of relief. Only god knew what a sicko like Wyatt would do to someone like her. Trying his hardest not to think about the possibilities, he turned his mind to something else. "What did Wyatt mean when he said that 'you keep getting interrupted'?"

Angel blinked at him for a moment before her eyes widened and a look of guilt hit her. "I'm guessing he's talking about what happened on Monday."

"What happened on Monday?"

"About the same thing, only Nikki was the one who showed up."

Dean's eyes widened. "You mean this has happened before? Bray stopped you like this before, and you didn't tell us!"

She bit her lip as she rubbed the back of her neck. "I meant to, but I didn't want to distract you from your open challenge."

"That was like four days ago." He told her.

A confident look appeared on the woman's face. "It slipped my mind after what happened Monday night." She paused. "Besides it didn't seem like you weren't really in a talkative mood this week."

She was right, ever since the photoshoot on Tuesday, he hadn't been a hundred percent and it seemed that he wasn't hiding it as well as he thought he was.

"You could have told Seth and Roman." He said quickly trying to change the subject away from how moody he was being.

"Like I said, it slipped my mind."

"How could you forget someone like Bray Wyatt messing with you?"

"I've had a lot on my mind." She shrugged as people seemed to pour into the hallway out of nowhere. Angel looked around and sighed. "Why don't we head back to the locker room, so we don't make another scene for the second show in a row. Plus, I'm sure that Seth is still waiting for his pain meds."

Taking a deep breath, Dean tried to calm himself down. Angel was right again, they should head back to the locker room before they made another scene and Seth did look like shit when he left.

"Let's go." He gestured down the hallway.

Angel went to step away from the wall when she looked down at the waters she was holding in her arms, like she forgot that she was holding them. "Oh, here." She fumbled around to get one of the waters and handed one to her.

Taken back for a moment, Dean thanked her and took the water. As he cracked it open, he realized that the normally cold drink was now semi-warm, which got his mind running about just how long the Wyatt's must have held her there, pinned against the wall. Trying to stop the anger that was quickly building, he cracked the water bottle and took a swig, however as the lukewarm water touched his tongue it just seemed to fuel the anger more.

By the time they got to the locker room, he was livid. He body was twitching, his head was pounding with each step, and the need to rip Bray apart was so strong that he was almost turned around three times in the short walk. The only thing that stopped him from do it was every time he went to turn his eyes dropped to Angel and instantly his need to protect overwhelmed the need to kick ass.

Stopping in front of the door, Angel brought her hand up to knock on the door. He shook his head at her and reached around her to open the door before anyone could answer.

"Yo, Angel is coming in. If you're not dressed get into the stalls, like now." He yelled through the semi crowded room. "All clear."

A.A.A

Angel blushed as she walked through the door to the locker room that Dean was holding open for her. She couldn't believe the grand entrance that he had just given her, but then again, that was Dean Ambrose.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to ignore all the superstars that were starting at her and started over to the table where Seth and Roman were sitting. She noticed while Roman was sitting comfortable with his feet up on the table, Seth was leaning forward still holding his head.

A feeling of quilt hit her as she quickly walked around the table and stopped next to Seth. "Sorry I took so long." She said even though she wasn't sure just how long Bray had held her there filling her head with nonsense about how the Shield were wolves and how they were going to eat her alive if given the chance.

Little lamb. She shivered at the normally cute words.

"I got some pain meds and water." She said placing everything on the table. As Seth dropped his hand down to take the pain meds her eyes darted down towards to his cracked lip. "How's your mouth?"

"He stopped bleeding." He mumbled as he opened the small packet.

"Where have you been, Babygirl?" Roman asked as he took one of the waters.

Before she could even open her mouth, Dean stepped up and slammed his water bottle on the table. "I'll tell you where she was." She heard him girt his teeth. "Our little manager here, had a run in with the scary hillbilly trio."

Both Roman and Seth eyes snapped up to her. "The Wyatts?"

"Yep." Dean rubbed his peck as he pursed his lips. "Seems Bray has taken a liking to our manager, because this ain't the first time it's happened."

"What you mean?" Roman's eyes snapped to her.

Angel bit her lip and sighed. 'I've had a few run ins with Bray."

"A few times?" Dean's eyes widened as he looked down at her. "So, this happened more than on Monday and today? How did all this slip your mind."

"At first I didn't think it was a huge deal." She answered truthfully. "I didn't think there was anything wrong with running into him at the hotel or backstage, since you know I work with the man. It truly wasn't until what happened on Monday when Nikki stepped in that I even realized that it might be something more than just running into a coworker."

"Angel." Roman sighed. "It's always more than running into a coworker with the Wyatts."

"He's right." Seth groaned as he chimed in. "You should have told us about it the first time that Bray had said anything to you."

She knew that they were right, she should have said something that first time she ran into Bray. The more she thought about it the odder it seemed. What were the chances that Bray had just seemed to appear out of nowhere?

"The Wyatts are dangerous." Roman said his voice changed to what it sounded like when he was talking to JoJo on the phone. "I wouldn't even know where to begin on how bad it is to be alone with them. We made a promise to protect you as part of the Shield and we meant that promise. You need to tell us when shit like this happens."

She couldn't help but nod her head, this felt like she was being scolded by her big brother. "If something like this happens again, I'll make sure to tell you."

Roman seemed happy with her answer as he gave her a smile, that was until his eyes dropped down to her hand. "Did he do that?"

She looked down at the icepack that was taped to her fingers. "Oh, no!" She shook her head quickly as she looked up. "It happened during the match."

"During the match? When?"

When Dean stepped on my hand.

"I got stepped on sometime during the shuffle." She said as she played with her fingers. "It's not that bad, I only got an icepack just in case."

She watched as all three men looked between her and each other as they tried to figure out if they should believe her or not.

Soon their attention when back to Bray and what they were going to do to them. Which she was happy about because she didn't want to have to bring up the fact that Dean stepped on her. She didn't want to make him feel bad.

…

Waiting for the tour bus to show up, Angel curled herself up in the corner of the room, with her laptop and started to work on the Shield's schedule. Tomorrow was a house show where they had a rematch vs Daniel Bryan, Sheamus, and Christian, then they had a three-hour drive to Las Vegas for yet another house show, and lastly they had Monday Night Raw in Denver Colorado, which mean a plane ride.

On Monday, Roman had a match against Mark Henry who wanted revenge for the spear the Roman gave him at the end of him match with Dean. Then right after Raw, they had about an hour drive from Denver to Colorado Springs to tape Main Event where they boys had asked to face Sin Cara and Los Matadores, since the Wyatts fought them the week before.

Then after that, they had two days off before getting back to the grind for SmackDown on Friday, and to top it all off, Sunday was the Pay Per View Elimination Chamber where they had their match against the Wyatts themselves. Another busy week for the boys.

However, due to their match for Main Event and their match on at Elimination Chamber, Stephanie had warned that they warned that they might not have a match next Friday for Smackdown. Which was something she understood, though she knew that the boys wouldn't like it but at least it would give them time to rest before their big match. Which as much as they hated to admit it, they needed it.

"The bus is here." A crew member called into the locker room.

"Thank god." Dean sighed as he jumped quickly up from the table, which made her snicker at the man. She wasn't surprised by the man's outburst; they had been waiting for the last hour and for someone who doesn't like to sit still and do nothing it must have seem like forever.

"I can't wait to catch some Zs." Seth sighed as he stretched his arms over his head.

"You say that, but you'll be on your phone for at least half the ride." Roman laughed at him as he rose from the table.

"Not after the Brogue Kick." Seth slowly shook his head, as he got up from the table. "It's nap time for me."

After packing up her computer, Angel got up from the floor and followed the boys over to the pile of luggage that sat near the doorway. She slung her computer bag over her shoulder before sticking her little backpack purse on the top of her suitcase; which was a little trick that she picked up from Dean and boy was she was glad that she did. It made everything easier.

With everything in hand, they made their way out of the arena and over to where the tour bus was parked and waiting for them. As they walked, her eyes landed on the small group of Superstars that had made it to the bus before them. Nikki and Brie Bella, Cesaro, Ryback and Daniel Bryan, were all standing there waiting to get their things loaded up in the bottom compartment.

"Lookie who it is." Nikki smirked as she turned towards her.

"Hey, Nikki." She waved and gave a smile at the woman, before she realized that there was a strange look on her and her sister's face. "What's up?"

"No much, hound tamer." Nikki winked down at her.

"Hound tamer?"

"Oh, come on we heard about you hollering at Dean on Monday." Brie stood next to her sister. "Good on you."

"Oh that…" She sighed... This was what she was waiting for. "I wouldn't say anything about being a hound tamer."

"We were told that you ripped him a new one and didn't back down when he started in on you." Nikki reached out and gave her a pat on the back. "That's just amazing."

"Yeah, most people are too scared to talk to Dean let alone yell at him." Brie added.

Taking back slightly, Angel glanced over her shoulders towards Dean, who seemed to be in his over little world as Seth and Roman chatted. She could see why someone would be scared of talking to him. Dean gave off this intimidating air almost all the time, his arms were bigger then she was which only looked bigger when he wore his black tank top.

But then again, this was the same guy who stops to help her over the barricade almost every show, the guy who had carried her to her bed twice since they meet almost four weeks ago, and the guy who came to her aid tonight against the Wyatts. As intimidating as Dean could look there was something more to the man.

"I don't think he's that bad. In fact, he can be quite thoughtful." She mumbled almost to herself as she turned around to see both Nikki and Brie looking at her with huge smiles on their faces. "What?"

"Nothing." Nikki shook her head. "It's nothing." She could tell that the woman was biting her tongue about something as she turned to look at her sister. "Though you know what's not nothing is the fact that I heard Bray Wyatt cornered you in the hallway again."

Brie's eyes widened. "Is that ture?"

Angel let out another sigh, she

"Is that true?" Brie's eyes widened.

Letting out another sigh, she gave a nodded as she tried to fight the urge to stare at the ground. "Yeah."

"Ew." Brie's face scrunched up. "Those are not the kind of guys you want to mess with."

"No, there not." Nikki shook her head. "I hope that the Shield did something about it, this time."

She nodded. "Yeah, Dean stepped in."

D.D.D

Dean as he did his best to ignore Seth and Roman as they talked about something that happened on Twitter. He could care less, he just wanted to get on the bus.

He glared at the crew members who were slowly loading up everyone's bag. After cursing at them, his eyes drifted over to where Angel was talking to Nikki and Brie Bella. He drew his brows as he tried to figure out why they looked like they were both disciplining her at the same time they seemed to be trying to cheer herself up.

"What are we gong to do about this?" He heard Roman ask brining back into the conversation.

"Do about what?" He turned back towards his brothers only to get eyerolls from both of them.

"Wyatt." Roman frowned.

"Oh, easy. Kick his ass."

Roman shook his head. "You know what I mean."

Yeah, he did; the man was talking about what they were going to do about the Wyatt's messing with Angel. "And I say again, kick his ass." He knew that with a man like Bray Wyatt there was only one way to get into that stubborn head of his and that was to kick it open.

"We need a plan." Seth sighed.

"And kicking his ass isn't a plan?"

"Dean."

"What." He turned to face Roman who was shaking his head.

"We need a plan to stop him from messing with Angel."

Dean nodded his head. "Yeah. And I'm sure that kicking his ass to the point that he can't mess with her, would stop him."

He seriously thought that that was a good idea; in fact, he wanted to do more than kick the man's ass. Bray had robbed them of their chance to be in the Elimination Chamber and now he was fucking with Angel…. It was time for Bray to see what happens when you mess with the Hounds.

Both Roman and Seth shook their heads at him before turning towards each other. "We need to make sure that he doesn't catch Angel alone again." Seth sighed.

Dean blinked as he hoped that he heard his brother wrong. "You're not saying that we should follow her around everywhere, are you?"

Seth sighed. "I mean, only until Elimination Chamber and only when she's working." He tried to justify the idea. "Which we only have this weekend, Monday, Main Event and Smackdown to worry about." Even as he shook his head, he could see the gears in Seth's head working, like it they always did when the Architect of the group started to come out. "And Angel said that we might not be need for Smackdown this week."

"What happens if this goes on after the Elimination Chamber? What happens if this has nothing to do with us and Bray is just trying to fuck with Angel?" Do you want us to follow her around forever?"

A cold chill shot though is body has he actually thought about what he said. What if this has everything to do with Angel? "We need a more finite plan, and I feel like beating him into a inch of his life would stop him."

Seth shrugged his shoulder. "We'll have to deal with that if and when we do." Dean could hear his frustration in his voice. "Right now, we have to worry about this week."

"I agree." Roman sighed. "We can find a more finite answer if we need to."

"Fine." He gritted his teeth. He would rather deal with them now, that way there was no way that the Wyatts could do anything, but he wasn't going to fight his brothers about it.

"Hey!" Angel's voice traveled across the parking lot. "Are you coming?" The three of them looked over to see Angel waving her hands over her head.

Without another word between the three of them, they started over towards the bus were Angel were standing there with a huge smile on her face. The woman looked like she didn't have a care in the word, like there wasn't a creepy hillbilly cult leader after her.

"Ready for our five-hour ride?" She asked as they made their way up to her.

"Oh yeah." Roman sighed as he handed off his bag to the crew member. "Can't wait." He gestured for her to head up into the bus.

After handing off their stuff to the crew members, Dean followed Roman and Angel up the four small steps that led to the main bulk of the bus. Slowly they made the way towards the back of the bus, until Angel picked a seat.

Without thinking or talking about it, each of them sat around her. Roman sat across the aisle, Seth in front of her and he took the only other seat around her which was behind her.

For the first time they were using their pack mentality that they liked to use to do in the ring for the propose protection and it felt so weird.

Groaning, Dean got himself comfortable in his seat; cracking his neck and stretching out his legs as far as they could. As he shifted around, his eyes got caught on the girl sitting in the seat in front of him.

Angel had gotten made herself at home, she had placed her small backpack against the window and was using it as a pillow, as she curled herself into a ball that just made her look smaller. Somehow.

Looking up, his eyes caught both Roman and Seth who were both looking down at Angel as she snuggled up to her backpack. Their eyes locked and a silent nod was exchanged.

Bray picked the wrong manager to pick on. The Shield protected what was theirs. He took one more look at Angel before settling back in his seat.

Skovko: Lol that would be so funny. I love that!

Labinnacslove: I think that Dean and her are going to a lot of fun. And she's going to let loose, she just needs that push

Wolviegurl: Thank you! I'm so glad that you enjoyed the chapter.