Wolf or Love

“You already knew that.” He groaned again as her body shook against his chest as she laughed, sending all kinds of interesting vibrations through

him and his very hard cock. He combed his fingers through her hair. “I love the way it has all those different shades of blonde in it and even a little bit of red.” Another truth.

“It annoys me. It can’t seem to decide what color it wants to be.”

“It has me curious.”

She lifted her head, resting her chin on his chest. “About?”

In a voice too low for anyone else to hear, he said, “Well as much as I like you bald down there, I wouldn’t mind knowing if the color of the carpet

matches the curtains.”

She slapped his chest. “Gio!”

“Oh look,” snickered a familiar, annoying, witchy voice. Lindy. “Not only is she lounging all over you like a slut, but she’s flashing her underwear

to all and sundry.”

Glancing back, Danica saw that the top of her red lacy thong had ridden above her jeans. “Do you like it? I quite like your blouse, Lindy. Wouldn’t

you like to slip into something more comfortable, though? Perhaps a coma?”

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you sarcasm’s the lowest form of wit?” Lindy turned to Suza and Rick. “Do us all a favor and take this hussy with you when you leave.”

Danica sighed. “How about we play fetch with a twist, Lindy, I’ll throw the ball for you, but just don’t come back. What do you think?”

Huffing, the old woman marched off. Danica smiled at a chuckling Gio before laying her head back on his chest, facing Suza and Rick. She

wondered what their odd expressions meant. She finally found out an hour later as she walked them to Suza’s car.

“I told you that what really matters is that you’re happy,” said Rick.

“And it seems like you are.”

“Is that your way of saying that I have your blessing?”

“I’m still having trouble getting my head around him being your true mate but well you act like true mates and he obviously adores you. That’s enough for me. I have to admit I’m kind of jealous that everyone around us seems to have mated.”

She patted his arm. “Don’t worry, I’m sure your own true mate is somewhere just waiting for you to find her, and I’m sure she’s the next model

up from the inflatable one you already have.”

“Bitch,” he said affectionately.

Suza had her palm pressed against her forehead, looking stressed and confused. “I don’t know how anyone can not be terrified of that wolf but his true mate wouldn’t be, mates never fear each other. And clearly you don’t so. Look, just promise me that if you suddenly think you’ve made a mistake

or he ever hurts you, you call me and you get out of here.”

Danica smiled. “Aw, Suza, if he ever hurt me he’d be dead before I made that call.”

A grin spread across Suza’s face. “That’s my girl.”

It hadn’t been a surprise to discover that Gio had disappeared into his office before the car had even moved out of sight, acting time was over. She turned to Chris who had been waiting a few feet behind her. “Hey, fancy going out somewhere?”

“Where?” He sounded a little suspicious.

“I’ve gone ten whole days without pizza and that’s just not right.”

He grinned. “Pizza definitely sounds good. Let me just tell Duda we’ll. be out for a while.”

She hadn’t realized just how much she had missed her Lamborghini until she was driving it en-route to town five minutes later. Chris, apparently not content enough with being her bodyguard, had wanted to play chauffeur too,

but she easily got her way because he was smart enough to know that she wouldn’t give in.

“Did your friends buy the act?” asked Chris about fifteen minutes into the journey.

She shrugged. “They’ve accepted it, but I don’t think anything will ever completely convince them.”

“They don’t think you and Gio fit?”

“It’s not so much that. They saw how close Zan and I were, and then they watched me deal with his death pretty badly. For me to suddenly claim

that Zan was nothing but my best friend…” She let the sentence trail, knowing he’d see her point. “I think if it had been anyone other than Gio, I might have had more luck with getting them to accept it.”

“Gio’s not your type?”

“I meant because he’s psychotic. Although it’s true that I’ve never been with a guy built like a highlander before, but I don’t really have a type either like someone or I don’t.”

“And you like Gio.”

“To an extent,” she said with a smile. “Theresa made it clear that I’m not his type.”ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

“Gio’s always gone for, what do you females call them, hourglass figures or something like that?”

Noticing he hadn’t sounded so fond of them, she prodded, “You’re not such a fan?”

He shrugged. “I wouldn’t say no to one. Plenty of times Gio and I have shared one of his women -”

“Really?”

“- but I prefer my women to be more…athletic, I guess. And I have a thing for blondes.”

“Ooh, please don’t say that line – that was the first thing Cody ever said to me. Makes me shiver even now.”

His words were both consoling and sympathetic. “It has to have pissed you off that you had two guys wanting to mate with you but neither really wanted you for you.”

“Yeah, but I don’t think I’ll make a good mate anyway.”

“Why?”

“My natural reaction is to hold back from people, especially guys. It’s something I honestly can’t control. When Zan and my mom died, I had this

big hole and it’s as if when I taped it up, I did it too tight. I don’t know if I could ever really make myself completely vulnerable to another person again. And when you mate with someone, really mate with someone, there can’t be protective walls.”

Chris’ smile was a little sad. “The right wolf will hammer them down.”

“It might take more than a hammer. Anyway, let’s talk about something more interesting. What’s this thing about you and Gio sharing women?”

Ménages weren’t exactly unusual among shifters, but she wouldn’t have had Gio down for someone who shared.

“Before you, Gio’s never been possessive with women. Plenty of times we’ve shared. The invite was always open to Duda, but he just likes to watch with Donny, Andrew, Hudson, and Ray.”

“They watch?” she chuckled, not finding it difficult to believe, especially since many shifters had voyeuristic tendencies.

“Oh yeah, if Gio’s feeling in a good mood he doesn’t mind. You ever participated in a ménage?”

She snorted. It was hard enough making things work out with one guy, let alone two. “Having a sex life isn’t as easy for an alpha female as you

might think.”

“In what way?”

“Guys say they like a woman who’ll take charge in the bedroom but most of the time they’re talking out of their ass.” Finally they pulled up in the

parking lot of the pizza place and Danica couldn’t stop a joyous smile from taking over her face. She really had missed the taste of pepperoni pizza. She gestured to the pizza delivery guy who was exiting the restaurant with a pile of boxes. “I’ve just never worked out why they put pizza in a square box.”

Intending to seem as though he was only leaving his office to refill his coffee mug, Gio left the room and began walking toward the kitchen, wanting to discreetly check on Danica. Two things quickly became apparent. One, it was a lot quieter than usual. Two, although Danica’s scent was everywhere he turned, it was faint…as if it was simply what lingered in the air.

In the kitchen Duda, Lindy, Donny, Andrew, Michey, Lucy, Theresa and Cindy sat at the table, laughing and joking. It looked as though Theresa and Cindy were having a separate conversation, unsurprisingly. They had made themselves pretty unpopular with their refusal to accept Danica. After refilling. his mug Gio asked, ensuring his voice was casual, “Where’s Danica?”

“Out,” replied Duda.

“On another run with Chris?” Although she was latent, she was just as fast as any shifter.

“No, she went into town.”

Gio had to have heard wrong. “What was that?”

“She went into town.”

Dumping his mug on the counter, uncaring of the scolding hot coffee that had splashed onto his fingers, he demanded, “Where? With who?”

“She and Chris went for pizza,” said Lindy, her voice full of implications.