'She was a monster, after all', I thought with a frustrated grumble.

"Whatya wanna do know, Dean?", Benny whispered, leaning toward me. I turned and stalked back toward the trees without looking at either the woman or Benny. Benny kept by my side.

"We find Cas!", I growled angrily. I only made it about half through the open field when I heard leaves rustling and twigs snapping behind me. I tried to ignore the woman moving around back on the other side of the clearing when I suddenly felt something grab my ankle. "Fuck!", I muttered under my breath. I knew who it was. I turned and saw the naked woman curled up at my feet, trembling. "Go! You're free now!", I said more angrily than I had intended.

"P-please, Alpha...", the woman whimpered. My eyes went wide and I looked down at her in disbelief. She just crawled up closer and pressed the side of her face against my leg submissively. I looked over at Benny, confused.

"I think this makes you her new Alpha, Chief!", Benny said with a bemused chuckle.

"WHY ME?!", I shouted at him. He rolled his eyes at me and then looked down at the woman trying to wrap herself around my legs.

"You killed her Alpha, Dean." Benny smirked like the answer to my question should be obvious to me.

"SO?!", I barked at my friend irritably. I really wished he'd get to the fuckin' point already!

"SO!", he barked back at me. "I think it's kinda like when a lone male lion kills the male of a pride. He gets to keep the lionesses."

"OH, GREAT!", I snapped. Benny just snorted and covered his mouth with his hand, trying to stifle the laughter. "Oh, ha-ha! Keep it up, Chuckles, and I WILL separate you from your important bits!" I waved my obsidian blade in his direction and Benny straightened, clearing his throat.

"Oh, sorry about that, Dean!", Benny said, still trying to control his laughter. He was silent for a moment and his face became more serious. "I can take care of it for ya... if ya want." He started toward the woman, gripping the handle of his weapon tightly. I just held my hand up, stopping him.

"No, that's ok, Benny.", I croaked. I couldn't bring myself to let him kill her and I didn't know why. She was a monster and God knows how many innocent people she had killed before she got herself ganked(probably by another hunter) and ended up in purgatory. But ending her just seemed wrong somehow. And it was annoying the shit out of me. Women...

"Do you have clothes?", I muttered at the heap at his feet. When she didn't respond, I nudged her head with my leg. "Hey! You! Girl!" She slowly raised her head but refused to look me in the eye. "Do...you... have...clothes?

"Yes... Alpha", she whispered without looking up.

"Go get dressed. We have to go." She jumped up and scurried to a tree on the far side of the clearing again and found her clothes. A grimy pair of shorts and a ratty t-shirt. When she was dressed she ran back and fell at my feet again. I rolled my eyes at her, grabbed her by the arm, and hauled her back up to her feet. "What's your name, Sweetheart?"

"L-Lydia", she breathed. She was trembling with fear and I stuck a finger under her chin and lifted her face up, but she kept her eyes downcast.

"Look at me, Lydia", I said softly. I could see that she was terrified and I was trying to remain calm even though I was itching to get back on track and find Cas. She raised her eyes agonizingly slowly and a single tear let loose from her eye. She looked like she might start sobbing again. Please, God! Don't let her start sobbing again!

"Alpha...?" I raised my hand and shook my head to stop her.

"Please, don't call me that", I said firmly. "My names Dean." She started trembling again and I sighed, more than a little frustrated. "You don't have to be afraid of us... of me. And you don't have to cower at anyone's feet ever again, ok?" She lowered her eyes again and I grumbled to myself. "Hey, Lydia." Her eyes flew back up to mine again. "I am not your master and you are not my slave! Got it!" Lydia's eyes grew as wide as dinner plates and she nodded frantically at me. She was still scared shitless of me. I knew it was gonna take me awhile to break her of whatever that prick had done to her.

"We need to book it outta here, Chief", Benny whispered, looking around nervously. "We're gonna have company! And soon!"

"What is it?", I asked, looking towards the trees, but not seeing anything.

"More of her kind. Probably the rest of her pack." Benny sniffed the air and nodded to himself. "Big one too."

"How many and how long we got?" Benny raised his face back up to the sky and took a heavy drag of air in through his nose.

At least 10 big bads by the smell of it. And we got 5 minutes, tops, to get our asses outta here before they catch our scents." I grabbed Lydia's arm and took off through the trees with Benny bringing up the rear, watching our backs. I hated running, but I knew that just me and Benny wouldn't be able to gank that many pissed off werewolves, especially when they saw what I did to their boss. I just had to hope that they didn't care enough about this girl, to come looking for her. I was afraid that she would become an albatross around my neck!

By the time we stopped running I could hear the stream babbling up ahead. And even though my lungs were burning and my muscles were screaming from exertion, I took off running again. I had to find Cas and soon. When we finally found the stream, I looked around but didn't see my lost angel. Shit! Which way should I go? I had a 50/50 shot at getting this right.

"Hey Lydia", I called, looking over at her with a soft smile. "Left or right?"

"W-what?" Lydia looked up at me in confusion.

"Pick a direction."

"Left?", she whispered timidly. I looked down at her with a raised eyebrow.

"You askin' or tellin'?", I chuckled at her.

"Left."

"Well, ok then", I remarked, striding off to my left. I had only walked a few feet before warm fingers wrap around my hand and I stopped. When I looked into Lydia's eyes, she was looking back at me with concern before looking away quickly.

"Where... where are we going?", She stammered, staring at the path ahead of us.

"We're going to find my friend", I said matter-of-factly as we started walking again.

"Oh." She didn't speak again as we walked next to the stream. She just kept her eyes on the path ahead, never letting go of my hand. She never questioned my actions or why I asked her to pick a direction. She appeared to have more faith in me than I did at this moment. But I just kept thinking... 'I sure as hell hope she knows where I'm going!' After walking for a few hours, I was beginning to think we should have gone right. But just as I was about to turn around and go back, there he was, like he had been waiting for us. Cas was crouched down beside the stream, washing his face in the cool water. I looked at the dirty face of the young woman next to me and grinned at her.

"Looks like you're a good luck charm after all!"