Skender growled at his Beta.

"Save it for the fight, Skender. You wouldn't be growling at me if you didn't know I was right." Decebel stepped into the sparring circle that was painted onto the gym floor. "Take a break for a minute," he told him, then turned to the young wolf known as Stelian.

Decebel grinned wolfishly. "Ready for a real challenge?"

Before the pup could respond, the Beta attacked.

Decebel taught mixed martial arts to all of the wolves, even the females. It was imperative they all know how to defend themselves in case another pack ever attacked. Granted, it had been over a century since the last pack battle, but Decebel was a firm believer in “better safe than sorry”.

He delivered a series of strikes and kicks practiced in Muay Thai. It was a form of kickboxing, and the predominant mixed martial art he taught along with Judo – ground fighting.

Stelian tried to counter Decebel's moves, but no matter what he did he couldn't keep the strikes from hitting their target. After only five minutes Decebel took Stelian to the ground.

Decebel didn't bother holding the pup down. He jumped to his feet and stepped back, indicating the sparring was done.

Decebel checked his watch and saw that he had only twenty minutes until he had to be in the meeting with Vasile and the other Alphas.

"That will be all for today," he told the younger wolf. "You did a good job.”

Decebel grabbed his towel off the floor and headed back to his room to take a quick shower. As he walked, his mind wandered back to where it always seemed to – Jennifer.

He remembered walking through the wing of the mansion that housed the unmated males and catching her scent. Decebel could admit now that maybe he had slightly overreacted when he tore into the room and found two males rifling through her suit case. So maybe he didn't have to throw Dragos through a wall. And, yeah, he could've kept from tossing Dorian right on top of Dragos. But in that moment his wolf had taken over, and all he could think was that her scent was around unmated males, that they were touching her things – things only he should know about. Decebel had glossed over that little tidbit, about why on earth he thought he had a right to know about her underwear.

He'd felt that if he didn't get her things and her scent from their room he was going to kill someone, no doubt about it. One of those pups would have died that night. Thankfully, they had been somewhat intelligent and immediately submitted. When Decebel questioned them about how they had gotten Jennifer's things they had told him about how a suitcase had fallen out of a window from the mansion. Being stupid twenty somethings, they saw women's lingerie and just had to check it out…. Stupid young wolves.

Decebel had somewhat calmed down before he returned the suitcase to Jennifer's room, but he hadn't really been prepared to run into her. He had to say,though, that seeing her alone – or without other males around her, rather – calmed his wolf down immensely. It was something else he didn't want to examine. After all, why should she calm his wolf? There were no mating signs.

The Beta let out a low growl as he entered his room and headed for the shower. He had to stop thinking about her, it was only ticking him off. He called the twenty somethings stupid, but at the moment he made them look like geniuses.

Decebel walked into Vasile's office. A large screen had been set up for the video conference with the other pack Alphas. Vasile was sitting at his desk and Fane and Skender were sitting directly in front of the screen.

"Fane, what time did Sorin say he would be returning with the girls?" Vasile asked his son.

Decebel watched curiously as Fane's head snapped up. "He didn't," he ground out.

"Well, what club did they say they were going to?" Vasile continued, very obviously ignoring Fane's irritation.

"They didn't say."

Decebel smelled the lie Fane had just spoken and that was enough to tell him something was going on.

"Excuse me, Alpha, but when you say Sorin and the girls, do you mean -"

Vasile cut him off before he could finish. "Jen, Jacque, and Sally, of course."

Decebel felt his wolf perking up and had he been in wolf form his hackles would have risen. "You say they went to a club?"

"Yes. Sorin said they came to him and begged him to take them out for a girls' night. Something about getting Jen and Sally hooked up with – I think they used the words 'hot Romanian mojo', or some nonsense.” Vasile rolled his eyes. “You know how those three talk. It's like a foreign language all on its own."

Decebel had stopped listening after the words “hooked up,” and before he realized what he was doing he was headed for the exit.

"Decebel, stop." Vasile's voice dripped with authority and Decebel had no choice but to freeze. His Alpha had given an order and used his power. Decebel could not disobey.

"Alpha, you have to know those three are going to get themselves into some sort of trouble. They are like magnets for mayhem," Decebel tried to reason with his Alpha. He felt Vasile's power ease up and he was able to turn and face the other wolves. He made eye contact with Fane and growled. "You knew this was their plan and still you let your mate go?"

Fane chuckled. "Wait until you have a mate, brother, then tell me how you let her do things or don't let her do things, and while you're sharing I'll laugh as you are pulling her shoe out of your ass."

Decebel was not amused, and even though he understood that being mates was a partnership there had to be times when, as her protector, you had to put your foot down.