Wolf or Love

Just as she had each morning over the past week, Danica was on the kitchen counter sipping her coffee while engaged in a staring contest with dear old Lindy. It was practically ritualistic for them to partake in a battle of wills whenever they were in the same room. Each and every time, Danica would leave the room smiling while Lindy was purple in the face and. growling. Once Lindy had realized that she wasn’t going to scare Danica off,

she had taken to simply insulting her and generally being difficult. In truth, Danica found the whole thing just as entertaining as everyone else did. As usual, they were all eating quietly as they waited for the verbal spar to begin.

“What are you looking at, hussy?” Lindy finally spat.

“I haven’t figured that out yet.”

Huffing, Lindy drank down more of her green herbal tea. “I hope you’re not getting comfortable, you won’t be here for much longer.”

“So you’ve said. Repeatedly.”

“You might have some of the others fooled, but I see you for what you are.”

“Is that right?”

“I warned my boys all about females like you.”

“Oh come on, your imagination was never this good.” Hand over her heart, she said with fake misery, “My daughter is probably turning in her grave now. You’ve got tattoos for God’s sake!” A

cruel smirk suddenly curved her lips. “I suppose I shouldn’t have expected much better, what with your wolf basically being disabled. What does it feel like to be latent? To know your wolf will forever be trapped?”

“I don’t know. What does it feel like to be so old that your birth certificate is in Roman numerals?” The smirk quickly fell from the crone’s face and Danica smiled.

Entering the kitchen, Gio wasn’t surprised to find his mate and grandmother glaring at each other. Neither even spared him a glance. Given that Danica seemed cheery while Lindy looked like she was chewing a wasp, Gio could guess who was on top of the situation. His grandmother was

doing her best to intimidate Danica, however his little mate was holding her own, making it clear that she didn’t take any shit from anyone, especially one who was ‘old and senile’.

His wolf didn’t like that Danica’s attention hadn’t immediately shot to him and, before Gio knew it, he’d yanked gently on her hair to make her look at him. Restraining himself from nipping her lower lip, he simply gave her a nod. A growl of approval built in his chest as he saw that she was wearing a black tight fitting t-shirt that showed off some of his marks that were fading, he then noticed. His wolf growled angrily inside his head.

“Morning son, come sit down and get something to eat.” Lindy’s voice was now sugary-sweet.

“How long before your friends get here?” he asked Danica as he took his seat.

“They should be here any minute now. Remember what you promised.”

“I’ll give you some time to talk with them alone,” he assured her, though it would nettle his wolf to know there was a strange male wolf around

her. He told himself it wouldn’t bother Gio the man so much, and if his wolf could have snorted, he would have. “At some point I’ll come over there so we can act the mated couple, totally devoted to one another and completely smitten and all that.”

Again Danica was struck by the feeling of how unfair it was that she would never have that, especially that she would never have it with Zan. And now here she was again about to commit the ultimate blasphemy and claim that the one person created for her had never been her true mate at all. God, this sucked big time.

At least she and Gio were exchanging a few words. Occasionally he wouldn’t speak to her at all. Or there were the times when she would enter a room and he would immediately leave it. He spent most of his time cooped up in his office. She knew he had to keep an eye on his investments, he actually had a pretty good head for business but surely he didn’t need to spend that much time in there. Making the whole thing even more annoying was that Theresa had picked up on the huge divide between them and tried clinging onto him as much as she could just as she was doing right now at the table. The only thing preventing Danica from reacting was that Gio was growling, warning the female away from him. Still, it pissed her off to no end, but damn if she would let either of them know that.

“Morning,” drawled Chris as he strolled into the room. He play-punched her shoulder before joining the others at the table.

“Ass,” she snapped, smiling.

Gio knew he shouldn’t have the urge to growl at his ex-Head Enforcer.

It was just a play punch; it wasn’t sexual, it hadn’t hurt her, and it had only been the briefest touch. But Gio was honestly considering stabbing the wolf with his fork. It might not have annoyed him so much if Chris wasn’t always touching her. The guy had taken his role as ‘bodyguard’ a little too literally. Gio couldn’t understand how he hadn’t noticed before the way Chris looked at her. Mixed in with admiration and respect was a deep longing. And Gio didn’t like it one bit. His wolf was urging him to take a swipe at his enforcer and warn him off. Perversely, Gio the man liked that others wanted what was his, and that gave him strength against his wolf’s drive to separate her from the other male. Also, Gio knew that no matter how much Chris might want Danica, he would never encroach; he was too good a guy for that. Nonetheless, his wolf wasn’t particularly interested in whether or not Chris was a good guy, he didn’t

want him around Danica so much. Gio inhaled deeply, reminding himself that he was in control not his wolf, not those primal instincts. The smile on Duda’s face said he knew what inner struggle Gio had been going through. The ringing of his cell phone distracted him from thoughts of flicking scrambled egg at his Beta. “That was Max,” he announced on ending the call. “They’re here. He just let them through the gate. Should only be a minute before their car pulls up outside.”

Danica hopped down from the counter and stretched. “Time for Scene One: The Alpha Pair’s Welcome. Make it good, Gio. These guys won’t be easy to convince.”

“I noticed that at the club.”

“They won’t be trying to separate the two of you like they did that night,” stated Duda.

Hearing the fierceness in his tone and watching the way his body language became confrontational, Danica pointed hard at him. “You are not going to spend the next few hours trying to intimidate them. They’re already scared half to death by Gio.”

“Are you going to tell me they won’t try to convince you to leave with them?”

“Of course they will.”

“Let’s hope our luck stretches that far,” muttered Theresa. Cindy and Max chuckled. Everyone else ignored them.

“They won’t dare ask you to leave if a few of us are sitting with you,” said Duda.

Danica shook her head. “Not a chance, You all stay the hell away and give us some privacy.”

“It’ll only be until Gio comes over.”

“No, I’m not having any of you hovering around us like parental supervisors. Not even Chris , Chris frowned. “But I’m your bodyguard.”

“They’re not a threat to me.” As all three males opened their mouths to say something she held up her hand. “I don’t want to hear it. Now let’s do

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Seeing the resolve in her expression, Gio sighed and took her soft hand in his large one as they walked together to the main door.

Donny was holding it open, watching with his usual grin as their visitors hesitantly exited the car and, with a slow nervous stride, made their way up

the stairs.

Gio locked his arms around Danica’s waist, keeping her back against his chest, and allowed himself the luxury of burying his face in her neck to drown in that scent that could so easily make his cock hard. He shouldn’t have been surprised when he woke up that morning and found himself curled around her with his face nestled in the crook of her neck, taking comfort in the exotic smell of his mate as he slept. At some point in his sleep he had covered that huge space between them and fed the hunger that he had ignored for the past week. Then he had snuck out of bed before she realized. Had she not been such a deep sleeper, he would never have gotten away with it. As Suza and Rick finally came to stand in front of them, shuffling from foot to foot and completely avoiding eye contact with Gio, Danica had to refrain from groaning. She knew he had an intimidating presence, but she didn’t think he was that bad. Okay, maybe he was. “Thanks for coming.”

“It’s been weird not seeing you every day,” said Suza.

Danica discreetly pinched Gio’s arm, urging him to do his part. Flinching a little, he said, “Welcome. have a few things to do, but Danica will take you down to the lake, won’t you, baby?”

“Yep.”