Jen put her hands on her hips and pinned Sally with the famous “you're going to spit it out or I'm going to rip it out of you”.

"You talked? Sally," she cleared her throat, "you have a mate. A guaranteed husband. A sure thing. Not to mention, he's hot, funny, sweet, and he has a dimple. You talked?" This time, Jen's voice was skeptical.

Before Sally could defend herself, her door opened slowly, calculatingly.

"I know you weren't describing me, Jennifer. So who is this male that has caught your eye so descriptively? Please do tell so I can rip him to pieces." Decebel's power filled the room and Sally took an involuntary step away from the very angry Alpha.

Jen watched her mate cautiously. He was angry. Really angry.  His eyes were glowing, revealing that his wolf was at the wheel. She knew that was her fault because she'd challenged him by running. She needed to calm him down, however, for the first time wasn't sure how to go about doing it. Usually her humor and sarcasm came to the rescue, but at the moment she felt like if she spoke at all he would go feral. Not that he would hurt her.

She opened her mind to him slowly. She had been blocking him in order to hide from him, not to hurt him. That's when she saw the flash in his eyes that showed her the feelings below the anger. With that knowledge she knew what to do.

"I was trying to help Sally, not hurt you. I wouldn't have taken off any more clothing than what I had. Everything was covered, Dec. Baby, please. You're scaring Sally."

Decebel took a slow step forward, but Jen held her ground. He was hers, she was his equal and she would not back down.

"Do you understand how crazy you make me?"  Decebel's voice was a growl in her mind.

"I imagine it's close or surpasses how crazy you make me,"  Jen answered his question, though she knew it was rhetorical.

Decebel shook his head and rubbed his hand down his face, trying to regain control.

"I love your spirit, but I'm designed to protect, possess, and my wolf doesn't understand your need to constantly push the boundaries. I need one thing, Jennifer, one thing that I won't compromise on. I think we've already discussed this, but I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt that you didn't understand."

Jen snorted a laugh as she spoke out loud. "Gee, thanks. So kind of you to just toss it off as me being a dumb ass."

Decebel chuckled and his eyes began to get lighter. "You will stop undressing in front of other people."

Jen put a hand on her hip as she tipped her head to the side. She narrowed her eyes at her mate and tapped her lip with a finger.

"Now, I'm going to need you clarify that." When Decebel didn't respond, just continued to stare at her, Jen rolled her eyes. "Clarify, elucidate, enlighten. Do. You. Understand.The. Words. That. Are -" she emphasized each word.

"Jennifer," Decebel growled.

"Comingoutofmymouth," Jen finished quickly, making Sally giggle.

"Only undress in our bedroom."

"Nope, na-ah, there's waaaay too many loopholes in that little decree. Seriously, Dec, you can do better than that." Jen raised a single eyebrow.

Decebel growled at the challenge in her words and at her tone of voice.

Damn, when am I going to learn not to poke the angry wolf? The thought ran through her mind before she could censor it from a now wickedly smiling Alpha.

"I have to agree. Jen could run wild -" Sally began, but stopped abruptly when Decebel's head snapped around and he pinned her with his amber eyes.

"Sorry, shutting up now," Sally squeaked.

Decebel looked back at his mate, then glanced down briefly, trying to think of how to beat her at her own game.

"Okay." Decebel smiled smugly.

Jen did not like the look of that smile, one that said the cat had the mouse by the tail.

"You set the boundaries. You tell me exactly how to word that I don't want your clothes coming off in public."

Jen huffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Fine, Ricky," she blurted out in her best Lucy voice. "You want me to esplain it, then I will." She walked toward him and began slowly circling him as she spoke.

"I'm not to disrobe myself -" Decebel chuckled at her choice of words. "- in front of any person of the male persuasion, in any location, at any time, for any reason." She paused and looked at Sally. "Would you say that covers all the possible ways I could wiggle out of his decree?"

Sally thought for a moment. She knew Jen, knew how good she was at working around the rules. "'Any person'," Sally started. "That doesn't necessarily cover the Canis lupis species. It could be argued that they are indeed not persons because they are not human."

Decebel looked back and forth between the two best friends and ran a hand though his hair. "Did you two take a law class of some sort in school?"

Sally shook her head. "No, Jen has just learned over the years how to get around certain questionable details of any incident." Her eyes brightened as she continued eagerly, "Like this one time -" Sally stopped as she looked back at Jen, who was admittedly making a cutting motion with her hand, telling Sally to shut up.

Decebel looked back at Jen, who quickly put her hand on her chin as if she were thinking about Sally's words.

"I can agree with that." Jen nodded. "So we will change 'person' to 'species'."

Decebel took another step toward her so that he was standing only a breath away.