Juniper was outside of the house, searching for Bear.

Her brows were furrowed worriedly. He usually didn't go far, with Raphael at a meeting with the Court she couldn't send him to go looking for him.

"Bear!" she called while crossing her arms tightly.

She'd been following his scent through some wooded areas. It wasn't a dense jungle around Raphael's home but there wasn't a clear path either.

"I swear to the gods, I'll take away your treats Bear!" The woman yelled frustratedly as she clambered through the nature begrudgingly.

"I'm just kidding though, please come back," Juniper whined quietly to herself.

Swatting at bugs, "This is not my element. I'm not leaving you out here so I need you to get your ass over here now." Her tone grew more nervous. Even the stubborn Juniper knew she shouldn't be out this far from the house without anyone nearby. No matter how big and bad she liked to pretend she was.

She was not as indestructible as her mate.

Her gray eyes perked up as her dog came running over, Juniper released a sigh of relief.

"Thank god," she mumbled while petting him.

Bear lurched back towards where he came, panting while running a few steps behind and then coming back eagerly.

"Alright, alright what did you find? Then we have to go home, if daddy finds out we went this far out we're in trouble," Juniper grumbled.

A few more yards in, Bear ran to a tree and barked at it while resting his front paws against the trunk.

Juniper's eyes widened as she saw what was stabbed into the tree.

~

Across the island, Raphael rubbed his face in irritation.

In total, it was seven berserkers. Himself, Phoenix, Zane, and Felix. The other three could be considered friends of his.

Kieren, Grimes, and Arlo.

However, there was a reason he was closer to the other three rather than those berserkers.

He formed the Court to help delegate work towards their demon race. He made the final decisions while taking in their own perspectives but often Kieren, Grimes, and Arlo simply got on his nerves.

"So you're telling me this blue haired chick shows up randomly- we don't see you for weeks and you expect us to believe it was nothing?" Arlo scoffed.

Kieren leaned back in his chair, "Yeah I don't buy it."

It wasn't that Raphael didn't trust them, no the seven of them all held sensitive information that would go with them to the grave. He trusted all six of the men here, but damn it couldn't he have something to himself for once.

Phoenix looked nervously between the annoyed Raphael and Zane and Felix who sent knowing looks as well.

"Guys-" Zane piped up. "Drop it."

Grimes threw his hands up, "We're not done with this topic. We'll get it out of you bossman. You've been acting' funny and we'll get to the bottom of it."

Raphael glowered as they all went back and forth, in his desk going unheard was his phone that was blowing up.

"But onto something more important- you were serious about closing the gates?" Arlo's brows were raised up.

"We need to weed out the snakes we have here before we attack outwardly," Raphael crossed his arms. "I can't do that if I'm continuously letting in more liabilities. I've already set up bait for whoever we have left to deal with."

Everyone went back and forth, "So are we following the asshole or we're interrogating straight up?" Zane asked over the chatter.

Raphael shook his head, "Strictly following until absolutely necessary. We aren't exactly the most subtle group so we need to stay on top of this, I need this to go smoothly." He stressed as he thought back to his mate. He thought about the constant target on both of their backs.

They all nodded at the orders.

Just as a moment of silence rang through the group, Raphael sat up straighter at the sound of a commotion outside of the office. They all did.

Raphael paled as he recognized a familiar, sultry voice yelling down the corridor.

Just as he stood up quickly he heard his mate- "Get the fuck off me!"

Juniper shoved the door open with a wild look in her eyes, a guard was behind her that she'd obviously given a hard time. The man looked haggard with a harsh red mark on his cheek. Seeing the look his boss sent him, the guard swiftly left.

All of the berserkers eyes were on her. And Juniper would usually be uncomfortable with this but she was laser focused on her mate. Bear slunk behind her as she held shoe box in her hands.

"Juni-" he started as he rest his hands on his desk.

The woman stormed towards him, all of the other men watching. The three berserkers that hadn't been officially introduced to her felt like they should get a bag of popcorn.

"Does your phone work?" she hissed.

"Baby-" the other berserkers gasped at the pet name.

"Because mine does and it says I called you ten fucking times! So while you ignored my calls I had to deal with this-!" Juniper slammed the shoe box onto his desk with a disgusted look on her face.

Raphael eyed her warily and he opened the box. He frowned a little as he saw it was a dead blue jay in the box- a dagger sent through its small body. A note attached to it.

Times ticking blue bird~

His eyes blazed with anger.

"I had to touch that! It's dead! I-I don't even eat dead animals let alone touch them!" she shrieked as Bear had his ears pinned back. The dog pressed against her leg.

Juniper did a double take at her dog and huffed frustratedly, reaching down to coo at her poor dog that felt guilty for finding what made his owner so upset.

"Where was this?" her mate snarled lowly.

The woman shut her mouth tightly, rolling her lips as she stalled answering.

"The woods.."

"Damn it Juniper! I told you stay at the house!"

She stood up again as Phoenix and Felix both winced at how angry she looked.

"Our freaking dog went wandering off and I had to find him and you weren't answering the phone!" If her skin wasn't brown her face would be bright red.

Raphael pressed his hands to his face in irritation.

No one spoke for a second, before Kieren stood up with his hand out to Juniper.

"Hi, pretty lady. I don't think we've properly met... I'm Kieren."

Juniper looked at him unamused as his boss snarled lowly at him.

"Watch it Kieren," the head berserker sneered as he rounded his desk. Shoving the other demon out of the way he tugged Juniper closer.

"Why the hell would you go out that far?" he hissed quietly.

Juniper crooked her jaw at him while staring up at him unamused.

"You're pissing me off." Juniper husked, "I already told you! Our dog! And you didn't answer the freaking phone!"

"I'm sorry!" he barked.

Juniper broke out of his hold to pace around. "Leave please," she gestured to the other berserkers in the room.

They all looked at him to which he waved them off.

"You're sure we can't watch-"

"Out!" Raphael roared.

Juniper was mumbling to herself even while they were all gone.

"I had to touch it with my hands!" she stressed to herself. Her face scrunched up at the though, looking ready to gag.

Raphael had to stop himself from laughing at her. If the situation wasn't more serious he'd find it amusing.

He reached into the drawer besides him, grabbing his phone as well as hand sanitizer.

Snatching her hands into his chest, he began rubbing them clean with the sanitizer.

She still glared up at him.

"I'm sorry," he stressed his words.

"I know you are, I'm still annoyed-" she huffed.

"I'll keep it on me. It was stupid to have it off, something bad could've happened," dread sunk in as his thoughts spiraled.

Groaning lowly, she bit her bottom lip. "You're so annoying. Shut up," she tugged him down to kiss him passionately.

Raphael's eyes widened before he quickly reciprocated. Between kisses he spoke, "I've got," he sucked on her lip. "Got cameras."

"Are you asking me to make a sex tape?" she suddenly wrenched he lips away from him as he spluttered.

"No, I have cameras around the house!"

"Hm. I would've said yes."

Raphael's eyes widened but the door was pushed open once again, Arlo peaked his head in.

"So... we'd like to be filled in now?"

Raphael rolled his eyes, gripping Juniper's bottom as if it was a stress ball.

~

new chapter happy friday :))

i'm going to post the next chapter too just because i liked writing it