Wolf or Love

Danica sat up and wrapped her arms around the neck of a growling Gio who clearly remembered James and was in an overly crazy protective state

after her being attacked. Her own wolf wasn’t too happy to see him either.

“Gio,” she whispered into the wolf’s ear, knowing Gio would be aware of what was happening and would hear her. “I need you to come back to me

now.” Unfortunately, Gio wasn’t in any rush to retreat and let his human half have control. Had she recalled arranging her uncle’s visit, she would

have postponed it for another time. It’s too late now.NôvelDrama.Org holds text © rights.

Looking up at James, she said, “If you could all just take a seat over there at the oak table we’ll be over in a sec.” Turning to the six wolves around

her , she ordered, “Change.” Not looking all that happy about it, they shifted back to their human forms and not moving their gazes from their visitors each retrieved their own pair of jeans and t-shirt from the ones that were scattered around. Duda then brought over Gio’s clothes and handed them to her. Focusing back on Gio, she whispered, “Come on, Gio. Come back.”

Seconds later the change began and Gio was sat in front of her, his gaze still drilling into her uncle. She handed him his clothes and, without a word, he stood and pulled them on. Obviously sensing the precariousness of the situation, each of the visitors had their heads lowered slightly, communicating that they had no intention of challenging him, that they were no threat.

Once Gio was dressed he held his hand out to Danica and gently pulled her to her feet. He kissed her softly, letting her touch and closeness reassure his wolf. Never had his wolf liked strange wolves around his mate – hell, he’d never liked any males around her – but as their mating bond hadn’t fully clicked into place, his wolf was even worse. The fact that she had been attacked yesterday and that one of the males here had once wanted to take her from him worsened his mood.

“Okay?” she asked, combing her fingers through his hair. He nodded and nipped at her mouth. “Just stay close.” If his wolf felt confident that Danica was nearby, safe and protected, they might just get through this without him going for James’s throat. As Gio and Danica approached the oak table, the visitors lifted their heads to reveal nervous expressions. Gio gave them a nod of greeting and took a seat opposite them, pulling Danica onto his lap who snuggled into him the way he liked. Duda and Chris took a seat either side of him and Danica. He knew without looking that both their gazes were on a gulping James.

Mike broke the silence. “Thank you for granting us permission to visit.

You already know James. This” – he gestured to the wolf on his right who was stroking his face – “is my bodyguard, Asher. I asked my Beta and my enforcers to remain in the car.” Well that had been wise of him. If Mike had arrived at the lake surrounded by a large number of strange wolves,

Gio would have pounced on them without a doubt.

Gio nodded curtly. “On my left is Chris, my Head Enforcer. On my right is Duda, my Beta. Behind us are Andrew, Donny, Ray, and Hudson.

And you’ve met my grandmother, Lindy.”

Mike smiled. “Yes. She’s, um, charming. She has good reason to be unhappy to see us.”

James cleared his throat. “Yes. I realize I was very rude at the mating ceremony. And, well, I made judgements about you based on what I’d heard

from others. It’s simply that -”

“No,” interrupted Danica. “There are no excuses. An apology we can work with. Excuses – hell, no.”

“Fair enough.”

Hearing her again defend him caused another pang in Gio’s chest. Massaging her nape, he said, “That’s not to say you weren’t right about me.

I’m not a good person. If I thought someone deserved it, I’d kill them without blinking and I’d think nothing of it. I am, by my own admission, a hard, selfish, ruthless bastard. There’s only one person in this world who’s guaranteed to come to no harm from me, and that’s Danica.”

After a moment of silence, James nodded once.

“Ray,” drawled Danica in her sweetest voice. “Is there any chance you could go ask Michey to fix us all some coffees?”

With the offer of hospitality, the visitors seemed to visibly relax and James exhaled a sigh of relief – probably relieved that he was still alive. “How’ve you been, Danica?”

“Fine, thanks,” she practically purred. She loved it when Gio kneaded her nape, even though she knew he was mainly doing it just to take comfort

in touching her. Her wolf was just as contented. “How’re the pups?”

“Still little beasts. They wanted to come and see you but well…”

But well he wasn’t sure if things would be amicable or if Mike would be scooping him from the floor with a spoon. “Next time, make sure you bring them.”

James smiled a little as he asked, hopefully, “There’ll be a next time?”

“If you’re good.”

“She doesn’t give an inch, does she,” he said to Gio.

Gio smiled down at his mate. “I kind of like that about her.”

Lindy hmphed, hands on hips. “Duda, shove over son.”

Grinning in amusement, Duda shuffled along to the next chair so that she could take his. Her posture was both regal and confrontational.

Mike folded his arms across his chest, but not in a manner that was confrontational. “Well, I hope – in spite of what happened – you enjoyed the mating ceremony.”

“It was real nice,” said Danica. “It’s been a while since I went to one.”

“You and Gio haven’t had one?” asked James, surprised.

Not liking this subject because she knew full well that Gio wouldn’t want one, she simply gave her uncle a bored look and a dismissive wave of

the hand.

“You’re not one of those girls who dreamed about it all your life?

Wow, my Naomi already has hers planned and she hasn’t even found her mate yet. Not to mention she’s only seven.”

“What about you, Gio?” said James. “Don’t you want a mating ceremony?”

Being the least romantic person alive, Gio hadn’t even thought about it before now. He’d never even wondered if Danica would want something like

that – which she did. And she didn’t. He couldn’t sense any more than that so he wasn’t sure what was behind her indecision, but it was something they would definitely be discussing in private. He just shrugged. “If Danica wants one, we’ll have one. If she doesn’t, we won’t.”

Mike tutted. “You don’t want to be giving your mate her own way all the time.”

“Yes he does,” stated Danica.

Lindy huffed at Danica. “In my day mates weren’t allowed to live together until after the mating ceremony.”

“In your day a guy named Noah was building an Ark.”

“And they had more self-control than to fornicate twenty three hours of every day.” She didn’t enunciate the word ‘fornicate’ properly as though she thought even talking about it was immoral and would get her sent straight to hell.

“There’s nothing depraved about sex. Of course with a little creativity, some toys and a whole lot of dirty talk, you can change that.”

Gio laughed into Danica’s hair as he saw the horrified look on his grandmother’s face. God, he really did love his mate’s spunk. Lindy looked at

him expectantly, obviously wanting him to berate Danica for talking to her about – heaven forbid – ‘intimate relations’. Although shifters were easy about sex, Lindy had always been, as his mate often called her, a prude. It was obvious, however, that the real reason she was berating Danica was because she got a kick from it, and that was why

Gio would never interfere on Lindy’s behalf. Well, that and the fact that he liked sex with Danica too much to risk angering her. “You shouldn’t be using that word in front of your own uncle,” chastised Lindy. Danica played dumb. “What? Oh you mean sex? Well I suppose there are other terms I could use. Gio likes to call it ‘Journey in Cloud nine.

“Enough, enough, enough,” insisted Lindy, but she was barely heard over the laughter that spread around the table.

“So sorry, my halo slipped for a second there.”

Conversation seemed to flow a lot easier after that. However, even though the atmosphere became more relaxed, Gio still had to concentrate

hard on keeping his wolf suppressed. Although James had apologised, that didn’t matter to his wolf. Nor had he been satisfied by James’s submissive behaviour. His wolf didn’t want his submission, he wanted James to challenge him so he could attack and rip his throat out. Maybe he wouldn’t have been as overprotective and prickly if Danica hadn’t been attacked only yesterday, or maybe he would always be that way where his mate was concerned.