Slave of the Alpha's Heart

Chapter 9

I know you want me to go," Sam said, "but this is important. I'm sorry, but-"

"Sam." Dean shook his head, a frown crossing his face. "It's fine. This is important too, alright? We'll just have to work through this later." Sam gave him a tight smile in return, then hung up. Dean stared after the screen as Sam slipped out of sight and sighed. He didn't understand why Sam had wanted to leave. Sam had always been more willing to do things Dean hadn't really approved of when they were little. But Dean couldn't say no now. Not when Sam looked like that, and with those puppy dog eyes... Dean shook his head again. No, he wasn't going there. They both had their reasons, and he trusted that they'd come together soon enough to make sense of everything.

The phone rang again, and Dean jumped. He picked it up almost automatically. "Hey, Cas."

"Hello," Castiel said pleasantly. "Is something wrong?" There was an awkward pause before Dean realized that Castiel meant something other than "are you alive". He laughed lightly at himself.

"No, no. What makes you think that?"

There was another silence, and when Castiel answered finally, there was a note of worry in his voice. "You're breathing heavily, for one," he pointed out. "And you were speaking very rapidly."

Dean bit his lip. It had sounded urgent, if he was honest, but he couldn't explain that. He didn't think Cas would believe him anyway; Dean didn' know much about angels or magic, and he knew better than most people how dangerous magic could be even without supernatural help. And what if it did turn out to be supernatural? Then what? Even if Castiel accepted that Dean wasn't crazy, who would ever believe it? Who would believe a story like that? Dean' s life was bad enough already. It was safer not to mention anything magical or supernatural, and keep quiet while he learned what he could.

"Nothing's wrong," Dean said quickly. "Really."

"Are you sure?" Cas asked, though he seemed unconvinced. "Because there are several people here right now who don' think so."

Dean groaned softly. Now who had to deal with that? He glanced over at the door to the library where Raphael, Michael, Gabriel, Lucifer, and Uriel waited. They all shot him questioning looks. The last thing anyone needed on top of a week filled with trouble was Dean snapping at random people. Well, probably nobody else would snap, but Dean doubted that he'd be exempt. "Sorry. It's nothing." That wasn't quite true, but Dean thought that maybe he should avoid snapping at everyone until he got used to everything that happened around here. "Listen, Castiel, I'm actually glad I caught ya'. I have a favor to ask you."

"Anything," Castiel replied instantly. "What would you like done?"

Dean hesitated. Was it really necessary to involve someone who might turn them into toads? If someone found out, the whole town would know about them, and that wouldn't do anyone any good at all. But on the other hand, he wasn't sure that this particular favour could wait. "Could you keep my secret? Please?"

Cas hesitated, then nodded slowly. "Of course." His tone said as much as his words. Dean exhaled sharply in relief.

"Thanks." He paused again, biting back his next question. Did he really need this favor from a guy he barely knew? But, hey, there was no turning back now. He needed to know. "I uh… need to stay somewhere tonight. So can you please take care of Sammy for me while I'm gone? Just give him a hug and let him know that I miss him." He smiled despite himself. "He gets real moody whenever I leave him home alone."

"As you wish, Dean Winchester." Castiel's tone remained soft and friendly. Dean relaxed slightly, but only for a moment, since it felt strange leaving Sammy with someone who wasn't family, and he was pretty sure he' d seen Castiel in action enough times during this week to know that he' d be watching Sammy just to make sure nothing happened to him. "I will see you shortly."

Dean ended the call and slumped down into his chair, wondering exactly what had gotten into him this time. Of course he liked having Cas around the bunker! The angel didn' t mind when he was gone. It was just that… well… He shook his head and forced his thoughts away. That wasn' s gonna get him anywhere. It wasn' s the angel fault that he kept coming back to the bunker with more questions every time they met. It didn' t matter. He just had to figure out how to ask without sounding weird or creepy. Or, y'know, giving him too many details.

* * *

Castiel was lying on the couch, idly flicking through Netflix channels as he tried to decide whether it was worth watching something that wasn' t currently playing. He' d seen it all before, and it really wasn' t that interesting. Maybe he would just watch another documentary.

But before he could get off the sofa, the front door opened, and Sam entered. Castiel glanced over as Sam closed the door behind him. For a minute, the brothers stared at each other. "Uh, hi," Sam said awkwardly.

"Hi," Castiel replied. "How was your day?"

Sam shrugged. "Fine. You?"

"Same old same old." Castiel turned back to the TV, hoping that Sam would take the hint and leave.

"Oh." Sam sat down on the couch beside him. "So, um…" Castiel raised his eyebrows curiously, waiting for the question he knew was coming. "Who's the person who called?"

"A friend of mine."

"Your friend?" Sam frowned slightly. "Doesn' t sound right."

Castiel ignored the comment, instead asking, "Why do you care?"

"Um." Sam hesitated. "I suppose I was just curious. Is he nice?"

"Yes."

"Cool. Good. Awesome. Whatever."

Sam looked away and stood up abruptly. "Well. Uh, thanks for dinner."

"You're welcome." Sam left the room, and Castiel watched him go. He sighed and leaned his head against the back of the couch. Sam was acting weird, but the angel couldn' t tell whether that was because Sam didn' t like Castiel, or if something else was bothering him. Either way, it made him wonder exactly what he was supposed to do now.

* * *

Later, as Castiel lay in bed, unable to sleep because he still felt unsettled, Dean knocked on his bedroom door. Castiel rolled over and sat up, frowning slightly. "Yeah?"

Dean stepped inside, closing the door behind him and flopping down onto the end of Cas' bed. "I dunno what to do."

"About?"

"About Sammy." Castiel tilted his head slightly. He knew that Dean's feelings towards Sammy were complicated, which was why Castiel had been so careful not to interfere when Sam first started spending time with Dean. But Dean hadn' t really spoken about it before, and Castiel suspected it was because he didn' t want to talk about it.

"Do you want me to talk to him?"

"No!" Dean snapped, sitting up straight. "That's not what I mean. I just… I don' t know what to do."

"Maybe you should try talking to him."

"I tried that. Doesn't work. We haven' t even been dating for two weeks yet, and Sammy is being totally weird."

"Perhaps you should try listening to him, instead of just assuming he is being weird."

Dean fell silent. After a moment, he sighed. "You're right." He pulled up his sleeve and glanced at his arm. "Damn," he muttered quietly. Castiel frowned at the sight of his brother's mark. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Dean insisted, hastily pulling his sleeve back down and covering the red tattoo. It looked odd, Castiel mused, as Dean rubbed the mark absently. It was a small red circle, with a star surrounding it and lines running across the edge of it, leading toward a black center. It reminded Castiel of the symbol on the side of an angel blade - an arrow, or a cross - and Dean's explanation of it earlier confirmed it, as well. Castiel' s suspicions had never been proven false.

Still, something inside Castiel's chest tightened uncomfortably at the thought. There was something about seeing the marking that seemed vaguely familiar, and Castiel couldn' t quite put his finger on it. He was beginning to doubt that he'd ever see it on Dean again after seeing the mark. Castiel decided to drop the subject and try to forget it for now.

"It must have hurt when you cut yourself yesterday," he commented instead.

"A little bit, yeah." Dean grimaced slightly. "I guess my body's just sensitive, like yours."

There was one small scar above Dean's wrist. Castiel remembered seeing it once upon a time. He'd been standing right behind Dean and Dean had reached up with both hands, cutting himself just above his wrist. Castiel was certain he could remember what had caused the wound - he also knew how the blood had dried on Dean's skin and clothes. A sudden realization struck him, causing Castiel's eyes to widen slightly. He remembered now exactly what the symbol on Dean's arm meant and why. A smile broke out across his face. "This marks you as mine," Castiel stated proudly. He wanted to kiss Dean then and there. But unfortunately, that wasn't possible now. He'd have to wait until they were alone again. Dean was blushing slightly in embarrassment, while Cas just looked confused and a little happy that Dean felt this way about him too. It didn’t matter what it meant, he would always be Castiel’s and Dean would never leave him behind again.

Sam cleared his throat. The brothers were sitting in the car, waiting for Gabriel to arrive. After he left them at the house, he went off to look for more information and came back with all of their phones. Sam called Gabriel right away. The phone rang a few times before someone answered and Gabriel’s voice filled the car. “Hey, Sam! What’r u need?”

“Gabriel, I need your help.”

Chapter 2

Dean couldn’t believe that he’d managed to get drunk enough to go through with all of this nonsense. They’d come across some demons in Hell and decided to take care of them instead of doing something more normal like fighting them. Well that was before Sam got involved, anyway.

Cas had been acting strangely ever since they’d gone into Hell. Whenever Dean tried to question him about where things stood between the two of them, Cas avoided answering any questions and would run from Dean when Dean tried to catch him.

Dean knew Cas well enough to know that he’ d be hurt but not that badly. Still, he thought it would be better if they just talked everything out and sorted things out.

When Dean suggested this idea to Cas, Cas agreed, but he insisted that he could handle it himself. Dean didn’t like the tone in Cas’ voice so he took the other man aside.

“You’re my boyfriend and you know me better than anyone else does. If there’s anything bothering you, we need to talk about it.”

Cas seemed surprised by Dean’ s words before replying, “I’m fine.” He sounded unconvincing however and even if Cas hadn’t been looking so serious, Dean would’ve known that something was wrong. “Look, Cas, I don’t buy it. There has to be something going on. Please tell me what’s wrong.”

There was a long silence following Dean’ s comment before Cas finally replied quietly, “Nothing is going wrong, Dean. There is nothing for us to discuss.”

The brothers sat down on the couch in the living room and faced each other. The atmosphere was tense and neither one dared to speak. When no answer came for almost ten minutes, Cas finally broke the silence. “Would you like to watch a movie? We could order pizza, or maybe we could make dinner?” He seemed nervous at his offer but also trying to hide it from Dean.

Dean smiled softly at the younger man. Of course he loved spending time together. But he also wanted to know the true cause of the tension that was slowly taking over. So, he nodded. “Sure, let’s do the first one. What kind do you want?”

As Cas went into the kitchen to put away the ingredients he needed, Dean walked over to the TV to find something that wouldn’t be disturbing the angel. He opened Netflix up and found something good. After settling down in front of the TV, he put the remote into the bowl and turned it on. Once the television started playing music, Dean looked over at Cas who was watching him carefully. He smiled at the older man and then reached for the remote to turn the volume down low so Cas could hear him.

Dean noticed as the music started that Cas seemed calmer once he was listening to the music and watched him intently. As much as Dean wanted to sit and watch TV with his boyfriend, he also wanted answers. Before Dean could think anymore about how nice it was to spend time with Cas and enjoy the show together, he made himself say something that he had meant to say earlier.

“Can you please explain why you won’t tell me what’s bothering you?”