Wolf or Love

Gio looked up from an old photograph of his dead mother when he heard the knock on his office door. “Come in.” As he expected, Chris strolled

inside. He had also anticipated Duda tagging along since he was a nosy bastard. Both wolves took the seats in front of Gio’s thick desk. Shoving

the photo underneath the slip of papers beside it, he focused his attention on Chris.

“I’m electing you as Danica’s personal bodyguard.” The Head Enforcer nodded agreeably, which sort of stunned Gio. “You know what this means, don’t you? I’ll need to pull you away from your usual duties because your main priority will be Danica’s safety.”

“Someone else will become Head Enforcer, I know,” said Chris with a nod.

“I was sort of expecting a protest.”

Chris shrugged. “I considered it an honor when I was made Head Enforcer and I enjoy that position, but it will be just as much an honor to be my Alpha female’s bodyguard. Besides, Danica’s interesting to be around,” he added with a smile.

Gio arched his brow. “I hope that’s all you find her to be.”

“Isn’t it going to be a bad idea for you to have someone else looking out for her?” Duda asked rhetorically.

“Why would it be?”

He sighed. “Because it’s your job as her mate to be her protector and it will nettle your protective instincts, not to mention your wolf if you ignore

that.”

“I’m not ignoring it. I’m assigning someone to watch over her which means I’m addressing the issue of her safety. Protective instinct covered.”

Gio had kept his tone cool, but the way Duda narrowed his eyes told him that he was seeing more than Gio wanted him to.

“Speaking of Danica, you might want to come see what her and Jeremy set up.”

“Set up?”

“On the computer. Come see.”

Minutes later many of the pack were crowded into Jeremy’s bedroom as he showed them their pack web and explained everything about how it worked and how it would benefit the pack. He then showed the others how to use it and introduced them to the public blog for their pack.

“Well, what do you think?” asked Jeremy.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“This was your idea?” Gio asked Danica, impressed.

“And Jeremy’s. It was a joint project.”

“I had no idea other packs had this kind of stuff,” said Duda, sounding a little awed. “How long ago did your dad set his web up?”

Danica jiggled her head as she thought about it. “Four years ago, maybe?”

“It’s good,” said Gio, “really good.”

Chris draped an arm over her shoulders. “Guess who’s been assigned to you as your bodyguard?”

“I need a bodyguard?”

“No, but most Alphas have them. In reality, bodyguards are more like hovering slaves.”

“And you’re happy to be a hovering slave?”

“I’m happy to be your hovering slave.”

At this moment Gio was very much regretting having made Chris her bodyguard. He didn’t like Chris’ flirtatiousness, didn’t like how easily Danica

had taken to the other male’s touch. He wanted to grab Danica and pull her to him, wanted to lick over his mark to remind her she was claimed. Claimed by Gio.

Jeremy’s voice broke into his thoughts. “I checked to see if Kevin had set one up, but he hasn’t. Shame. We could have gotten an idea of who has

what position within the pack nowadays.”

“Oh by the way,” began Danica as she went to stand directly in front of Gio. “Remember the female who kept trying to get me to walk away from you while we were in the club?”

“Yeah,” he replied, hiding how content he was that she was away from Chris. It was a struggle not to touch her, but he wouldn’t let those instincts rule

him. “Her name’s Suza, she’s my best friend. Well, her and Rick.”

“Rick?”

Rolling her eyes at the amount of jealousy coating that one word, she continued, “I’m going to need to meet up with them. They’re not buying that

this mating’s real, they need to hear it from me, face to face.”

“Then we’ll meet up with them somewhere public”

“No, no, no, you can’t be there when we talk.”

“What do you mean I can’t be there?” He had meant to sound affronted but it came out petulant.

“Not the whole time anyway. They’re worried about me, they think you might be hurting me or that you’re forcing me to stay. It’s why they’re so

desperate to speak to me alone. I want to see if I can get them to come here, to see that I’m alive and fine and that you and I are ‘happily’ mated.”

He folded his arms across his chest to stop himself from reaching out to her. “Why exactly weren’t they so worried when Cody forced his claim on you?”

“That was different. Unlike you, Cody wrapped his meanness up in charm and managed to fool a lot of people with it.”

“You’re saying I have no charm?”

She gave him a bright, mocking smile. “Why of course you have charm, you practically ooze it. Ego better now?”

He sighed. “Call them, invite them to come here sometime this week.”

“The weekend would be better because they work through the week.

I’m thinking about Saturday morning.”

“Fine.”

The way he so abruptly left the room had Danica frowning. It was as though the guy was desperate to get away from her or something. It wasn’t until later that evening when she found herself lying in bed very alone that she began to think about it a little more. Gio had been different with her since the confrontation with Cody that morning. Or, more accurately, he had been indifferent. There had been. no more heated looks, no more whispered promises, no more licking the marks on her neck, no more taking the odd moment to inhale her scent. But it wasn’t just that. He was barely speaking to her. And now here she was alone because he had ‘things to do’ in his office.

Well it seemed like the very sexual male from the past two days had retreated, or had retreated from her at least. It occurred to her then that maybe it had only been his wolf’s insecurity in the mating that had been behind his fevered urge to be inside her and mark her. Maybe now that the threat of

Cody was gone and his wolf was more settled Gio would no longer have that urge. Hell, maybe without the mating urges he would never have wanted her at all. The idea of that shouldn’t have sparked a dull ache in her chest and it shouldn’t have made her have the sudden desire to cuddle herself. Yet it did.

But what had she expected? Gio was a big guy with a lot of pride and probably didn’t have a thing for tiny females who would challenge his dominance. Her body wasn’t exactly model material and then there was the fact that she was latent. He acted as though it didn’t bother him, but it was likely that in truth he saw the latency as a weakness and it made her very unattractive to him. A noise penetrated her thoughts and she realized that someone had entered the room. The scent flowed over her, stroking her senses and stirring her wolf who was anxious for some contact with her mate. But Danica hadn’t begged for scraps from her dad’s table and she wouldn’t be begging for scraps from Gio’s table either. So she remained on her side facing the wall, faking sleep, ignoring her wolf’s growling protests.

Gio took one look at Danica’s still form and sighed in relief. She was asleep. He hadn’t woken her. He had been fighting his wolf he’d been fighting himself for hours on the subject of going to Danica of getting insome physical contact, social or sexual. He was literally starving for it. Had he known that mating would be this bad with all its urges, instincts, and needs, he probably wouldn’t have mated at all. After quietly using the bathroom and stripping down to his boxers, he slipped beneath the covers and resisted the desire to snuggle into her. Instead, he rolled to his side so that his back was to hers and there was enough space between them in the large bed to fit another person. His wolf growled at that idea, but Gio ignored him and ignored his instincts. And he closed his eyes, completely obvious to the fact that the eyes of the women behind him had opened and had a haunted look in them at the realization that she was now of no interest to a wolf she was bound to.