Wolf or Love

She shook her head. “I’ll do it.”

“No,” they all objected at once.

“It’s my car.” Hers, it was her baby…and someone had vandalized it. Sure it was only a little paint, but dammit that wasn’t the point. Her shifter territorial nature made it even harder for her to keep calm. Rage was coursing through her, making her grind her teeth and ball her hands into tight little fists. “I’m going to kill them.”

“Get in line,” said Hudson.

Chris took one of her fists and uncurled it. “Come on, come inside.”

“Go,” said Gio, “we’ll take care of this. Go inside.” He knew he’d probably sounded a little sharp with her, but he didn’t like seeing another male’s arm around her. In fact, he wanted to snap it off.

She sighed. “I -”

“No.”

Her wolf calmed a little when he came close, but he didn’t touch her just like Danica knew he wouldn’t even though she needed it, even though he would feel that she needed it. “It’s my car,” she repeated, knowing that it didn’t really have any bearing on the matter of who cleaned it. She was

simply pissed off to think right.

“You don’t need to see this. Whoever did this did it to upset you, don’t give them what they want.”

“Says the world’s worst brooder,” she couldn’t help muttering through clenched teeth.

“Danica, we’ll take care of it.” He raised his hand to touch her face, but then he dropped it again. More than anything he wanted to comfort and calm her with his touch, and that was exactly why he didn’t. “Go,” he urged softly.

Relenting, she allowed Chris to lead her inside, but she didn’t go into the living area to relax the way everybody was advising her to. No, she went

straight back to the kitchen and over to the onions to continue dicing them. Michey opened her mouth as though to object, but a warning look from Danica kept her quiet. Danica didn’t want to relax, didn’t want to talk, didn’t want to be alone with her thoughts and her anger, she just wanted a distraction. The entire time that she and Michey had been working on the evening meal, Donny and Andrew had been speaking to every member of the pack trying to establish each person’s whereabouts over the past few hours. Richard, Jeremy and Gary were the only ones who didn’t have alibis for their story, Donny informed her as they ate the evening meal. Of course everyone was straining to listen to their conversation and she got the feeling that that was the whole idea, that the guys were closely monitoring the expressions of the others as Donny told her everything they knew. Danica still wasn’t convinced that Theresa didn’t have something to do with it, but apparently Max and Cindy

stated that she had been with them the whole time. She wouldn’t put it past Max and Cindy to lie for her though. It wasn’t a surprise that in spite of how Gio had to sense how much her wolf was craving comfort from her mate, he barely spoke to her through the evening meal, let alone touched her. Nor was it a surprise that she went to bed alone or that he didn’t lay beside her when he finally did join her. But it still burned. Not just in a physical sense, but in an emotional sense. She hated herself for that. Her and him, in fact. Instead of the burning easing over the next few days as she resigned herself to the way her mating with Gio was going to be, it only worsened. It wasn’t just because of her wolf’s hunger for contact with her mate. Danica the woman wanted Gio the man which made absolutely no sense given that they

barely interacted or touched. But when they did interact and they did touch… Ah, hell.

None of this was good. Not a damn thing about this mating; other than her having escaped Cody was good, but she wouldn’t back out on a deal.

That wasn’t who Danica was. It wasn’t like she had anywhere to go even if she did leave. Her uncle still hadn’t gotten back to her, if he even intended to. And so the burning stayed and worsened as more days and nights passed with absolutely no change. Sure there had been moments where she had been tempted to just jump on him and be done with it, but she didn’t

want scraps and neither did her wolf. It was extremely annoying that Gio didn’t appear to be going through the same struggle but she ignored that annoyance, she ignored her urges, she

ignored her wolf’s pining and she continued on as usual. But then one really shitty day came a few weeks later and she was seriously at risk of exploding with it all…the anniversary of her deceased mother’s birthday.

Gio jumped to his feet as the door to his office suddenly burst open. Thinking that there must be some sort of emergency and feeling a spike of

fear that something might have happened to Danica, he walked around the desk toward where Duda, Donny and Andrew stood, scowling. His wolf had snapped to alertness and was pacing within him.

“What the hell did you do?” demanded Donny.

Surprised by not only the question but Donny’s insubordinate behaviour, Gio frowned. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Danica. What did you do to her?”

His wolf went still. “What about Danica?”

“You’ve been holed up in here all morning so you wouldn’t be aware that she’s got the personality of a zombie right now. We can barely get any conversation out of her. She’s not even responding to Lindy’s taunts; just looks through her like she’s not even there. That’s not Danica.”

No, it wasn’t and he had the sudden urge to go see her and find out what was wrong. Instead, he simply shrugged. “She seemed kind of quiet

earlier but other than that…”

“Yeah? Well now she’s really quiet. As in mute. That’s when she’s not telling us to get out of her way while she cleans every room.”

“Cleaning?”

You know the way women do that fast forward cleaning when they’re pissed off.”This content provided by N(o)velDrama].[Org.

“It’s not just that,” said Andrew, looking more worried than agitated. “It’s like, I don’t know…like one wrong word would break her. I’m not sure if

she’s angry or just trying to distract herself from something.”

“What did you do to her?” repeated Donny. “What did you say to her?”

“Maybe it’s what he hasn’t done or said,” said Duda as he folded his arms across his broad chest.

Gio glared at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You don’t talk to her, Gio. In fact, you don’t bother with her at all.

You claimed her, brought her here, solidified the mating, and then handed her safety over to Chris. Look, I get that this is only supposed to be a temporary thing and so there’s no need for you both to build a bond, but it’s more than that Gio. You purposely avoid her. You never touch her don’t try to tell me that’s not driving your wolf crazy. And unless my hearing’s suddenly gone to shit, you’re not sleeping with her either.”

“That’s none of your business,” snapped Gio.

Duda held up a placating hand. “With all due respect, this is our business because you’re our Alpha male and, whether it’s temporary or not,

she’s our Alpha female. Your relationship affects the rest of the pack. And we like her, we respect her, it’s in our nature to protect our females. Right now, there’s something wrong with Danica and you need to do something.”

“You know, I hear you all whining but look who’s not here. Danica. If she had a problem with me, I’d know about it. If her wolf was riding her too hard she’d have come to me whether she wanted to or not.”

Duda laughed, but there was no humor in it. “Is that what you think?

She’s not like the women you’re used to, Gio. She’s an alpha. Her wolf’s probably going just as crazy as yours is, but neither Danica nor her wolf will ever come to you begging for some attention. Not ever.”

“Maybe this isn’t about you,” said Andrew, “maybe it’s something else eating at her, we don’t know. We’re worried about her and thought you might have some luck reaching her.”

The urge to find her was fierce now, but again Gio shrugged. “She could be just having a rough day”

“Christ, Gio,” interrupted Duda. “She was there for you when you were in a bad state. She reached you while your wolf was wild, and you’re going to ignore this?” He waved his hand dismissively at Gio and headed for the door. “Forget it. Hide some more, whatever.”

Looking both disappointed and disgusted, the three males walked out of his office and left Gio alone with his thoughts, thoughts that revolved around Danica. He had noticed that she seemed off her odd mood had unnerved his wolf and had him clawing at Gio, wanting to get to her. But, as always, Gio had acted against his wolf’s wishes and his own instincts and simply shrugged off his concern. He wanted to do the same thing again now, but one thing was stopping him; as he had reached out through the pack link to sense her emotions, he’d hit a wall. She had somehow erected a big enough barrier around her that her own mate couldn’t reach her. A person didn’t do that unless a strong emotion was eating at them and they were trying desperately to hold themselves together. With a determined stride he strolled out of the office and made his way to the living area where the majority of the noise was coming from. The fact that her scent was stronger the closer he got told him that that was where she was.