Wolf or Love

Anyone else might have been very careful how they spoke to the mate of someone like Gio Wright, but one thing Elsa always loved to do was make herself look the big strong female in front of big bad alphas. Well there were plenty of those in this place, and for some reason this woman still hadn’t realized that Danica wasn’t quite the easy target that Elsa thought she was. “I see your nose healed a little crooked. Shame that.”

“You broke her nose, baby?” Although Gio really didn’t like that this female was confronting his mate, he knew not to interfere. To do that would be to undermine her own ability to take care of herself.

“She wouldn’t let me pass and then she called me a freak, what was I supposed to do? Yeah, okay, I suppose I could’ve just ignored her, but there

wouldn’t have been any fun in that.”

Elsa snickered. “You only hurt me because I didn’t fight back,” she stated loudly, drawing the attention of everyone within the diner as they

recognised her confrontational posture. “It would be like picking on a disabled person, and I was raised not to do that.”

Danica glanced around at all the onlookers and sighed. “So you’ve decided to schedule some time to make a spectacle of yourself.”

“Honey, the person who should be embarrassed here is you. You’re nothing but vapour to people like us. It’s laughable that you even walked through the door.”

“You know, Elsa, you’re like an STD: No one wants you, everybody hates you, and you’re a reminder of the devastating consequences of not

using protection during sex.”

Elsa’s over-tanned face flushed. “Very funny aren’t you, little freak.”

“As it happens, I have my moments.”

“Want to know what’s even funnier?”

“Not really.”

“The idea of you as an Alpha Female of a pack. I honestly don’t think I’ve heard anything as ridiculous as a latent running a pack. Except maybe for this rumor of you calming a wild wolf. We all know that was a nice little story you spread just to make others think your own strength matched that of your mate – if he even is your mate, which I’m not buying at all.”

A growl escaped Danica which had Elsa jumping in surprise. “Frankly I couldn’t give a shit what you think, but disputing my claim to Gio – that I won’t tolerate.” Her wolf was in full agreement.

“Won’t tolerate?” said Elsa, sounding amused. “What’re you going to do? Insult me to death?”

“Too slow a method. Challenge me to a woman to woman fight,

Elsa, I dare you.”

“You don’t know what you’re asking, latent. How about I give you a taste of what you’re dealing with.” She flung her alpha vibes at Danica,

intending for them to oppress and intimidate her. Instead of lowering her gaze submissively, Danica retaliated by clotting the air with her own.

As Danica’s alpha vibes smothered them all like humidity in summertime, Gio realized something. That night when she had hit his grandmother with them, she had held back. All she’d been doing was giving Lindy a small demonstration of her strength just to shut the woman up. This

demonstration here and now was different. She was unleashing the full force of her wolf’s alpha strength on Elsa, making it perfectly clear that although she couldn’t shift, her dominance, strength, speed, and power exceeded that

of Elsa’s. In a woman-to-woman fight, Elsa would be overpowered within seconds. Shit if Gio wasn’t hard as a rock right now at her display of dominance.

“Come on, Elsa, challenge me,” urged Danica. “You’ve always liked an audience. Shall I kick your ass in front of one?” The terribly fake female

let loose a low whine as she ducked her head, averting her gaze as a gesture of submission. “No? Then it might be best if you back the fuck off and scarper, don’t you think?” Danica’s wolf was extremely disappointed when Elsa did exactly that.

Gio kissed her temple and ran his hand through her hair, hoping to calm her wolf.

“I’m surprised you didn’t throw her at the wall like you did Theresa.”

Reining in her alpha vibes, she smiled at Gio. “Elsa isn’t one of your mistakes so she gets to walk away without a cracked skull.”

“How did I miss it?” asked Carrick.

Danica arched a brow. “You mean the fact that the female you’ve been sleeping with is about as smart as your toenail?”

He cast an annoyed look in Elsa’s direction, obviously unhappy about her making their sex life common knowledge. “How did I miss how strong your wolf is? Or I suppose a better question would be…why did you hide it?”

“I didn’t hide it, I just didn’t care to show you.” He seemed genuinely confused that she hadn’t wanted to impress him. “I’m not interested in having the approval of people I don’t respect. And I’ll never beg for scraps from anyone’s table. You just never got that.”

For the first time ever, there was an element of respect in Carrick’s eyes as he regarded her. “But you’re not going to fight this alliance?”

“This here and now isn’t about making friends or building bridges. This is politics, pure and simple. Us being related by blood has no relevance

because, as unfortunate as it is, there’s just no emotional bond there.” It was a sad, simple truth delivered with a shrug. It hurt more than she would ever admit or ever let him see.

“I underestimated you quite a bit, it seems. Both of you suit well. You make a good Alpha pair.” After a heavy sigh he asked irritably, “Okay, Wright, what exactly are you willing to agree to?”

“Like I said, if there’s a situation that requires you to call on your alliances then you’ll have my support. In other words, I don’t mind being part

of a solution to your problems, but I won’t have you doing your namedropping thing and using me as a deterrent to the beginning of any problems.

And there’ll be no using Danica.”

“Out of curiosity, if you didn’t consider me such an awful protectorwhere Danica’s concerned…?”

“Then we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. My allegiance would be automatic and have no limits.” And Gio sincerely meant that.

Maybe it was petty of Danica to be enjoying that, for just once in her life, her dad was regretting his treatment of her. Not because he cared about

her, true, but because it had cost him in a political sense – something more important to Carrick Hart than anything else. “How’s that Karma tasting,

Daddy Dearest? A little sour, I’ll bet.”

Carrick simple gave her an impatient look. “I’ll agree to your terms,” he said to Gio, albeit a little begrudgingly.

Gio looked at Danica. “All of that okay with you, baby?” He knew he’d surprised her by asking for her input, but she didn’t let it show on her face.

“One last thing,” she said to Carrick. “Because of your attitude toward me growing up, a lot of people saw it as their right to target me just for fun. Don’t think that if, like Elsa, they decide to do it again I’ll back down just because of the alliance. They shouldn’t challenge me unless they’re damn

positive they can take me. I’m an Alpha female of a pack, which means any attack on me is an attack on the pack and I won’t ignore one.”

Carrick gave her a sharp nod. “I’ll make sure the pack understands this.”

“Good.” After draining the last of the coffee from her cup, Danica said,

“Shall we go then, Gio?”

“Sure, baby.” They all rose and then Gio took the hand that Carrick extended and shook it once. “Until we next meet…”

“Oh wait.” He gave Ben a subtle signal and the enforcer then dug a bulging sports bag from under the table and handed it to Danica. She didn’t take it, just raised a brow at Carrick hoping for an explanation. “You know what your mother was like for saving money. She began a fund for you to be

given to you when you mated to give you a kick start. Obviously there would have been more in it had she not died.”

Tentatively she took the bag. “There’s money in here?”

“Twenty-five thousand dollars.”

“Twenty-five thousand dollars,” she echoed quietly, more than a little stunned. It struck her that he could have just kept the money for himself,

knowing she’d be none the wiser.

“Why are you giving me this?” It sure wasn’t because he cared for her.

“I’d never ignore the wishes of my mate.”

“Come on, baby.” Giving a slight nod to Carrick, Gio draped his arm over her shoulder and kept her close to him as they walked side by side her from the diner with Duda and his enforcers trailing behind them.