Wolf or Love

Four days ago Lindy had come to him complaining that Danica had taken their deckchairs and barbeque from storage and set them up near the

lake as an area where she could go and relax. A few minutes later Danica was sitting by the lake at the table trying her best not to laugh at the way Suza and Rick were glancing around nervously as if they were expecting Gio to jump out and pounce on them.

“They’re all very protective,” noted Rick, referring to the pack. And wasn’t that an understatement. It was laughable the way the males were hanging around trying to look as though they weren’t in fact there to keep an eye on her and ensure she wasn’t kidnapped. Like that would ever happen. Donny and Andrew were lazing in the lake as if it wasn’t a chilly day, Chris sat against a nearby tree reading a book that was upside down, and Duda

and Hudson were cleaning a barbeque that was already spick and span. All were occasionally sneaking covert looks at Danica and her friends, or at least they thought they were being subtle anyway. Apparently she should have better defined ‘the hell away’ because they didn’t appear to have gotten the idea.

“Yeah,” she agreed.

“Which means you must have proven your worth as an Alpha Female, so I’m guessing that tale about you calming a wild Gio was true.”

The emphasis on the word ‘wild’ irritated Danica. “He hasn’t hurt me and he’s not going to.”

“Danica, have you seen yourself in a mirror? You’re covered in marks.”

Most of which were fading, thankfully. “Someone that possessive isn’t balanced.”

“I know Gio’s a few fries short of a happy meal, but it doesn’t mean he’ll hurt me.”

“How can you be sure of that? His wolf goes wild for God’s sake.”

“But even being wild he doesn’t hurt me.”

“And you expect us to believe that’s because he’s your true mate, right?” Rick snickered. “There’s no way I can believe that.”

Suza appealed to her with a look. “Danica, we watched you, at nine years old, slip into a state of depression. It was like being around a zombie.

You existed but you didn’t live. It was all just mechanical. And we understood why you had just lost the other half of your soul. It was a shock that you even survived it, no one thought you would. I mean, I know you two hadn’t mated but you had still formed a connection and you were so young.”

“It hasn’t occurred to you that maybe the reason I lived was because that connection solid and true though it was just wasn’t the connection between true mates? That maybe the reason I reacted so badly was because I’d just lost my best friend and my mom in the same accident?”

Rick lowered his voice as he spoke. “Look, if your dad’s right and you did this to get away from Cody…well he’s dead now. You don’t have to keep this up. God, you could have come to me, I’d have mated you. I still will if it’s what you want.”

Danica smiled. “Rick, that’s sweet and all, but do you really think I’d ask you to enter a permanent mating with someone you thought of as nothing

but a friend – an annoying friend at that – ending any chance of you having a life with your true mate?”

He shrugged, suddenly seeming uncomfortable. His voice was even quieter when he spoke again. “Who says I see you as nothing but a friend?

Maybe I just hadn’t acted on what I felt because it would have felt like I was betraying Zan.”

Danica rolled her eyes. “Yeah. Right.”

“So you hadn’t wanted to mate with Cody?” asked Suza.

“Not particularly, no. I thought he was kind of vain and overly flirtatious – you know how stuff like that annoys me. I don’t know how my dad or anyone else can claim that me mating with Gio – someone who had been a stranger to me before that day has anything to do with that. Maybe if I had the power of mind control and could hypnotise him to believe and claim that I was his true mate, then yeah sure.”

“Obviously you guys believe you’re true mates, I saw for myself what happened,” said Suza. “But isn’t it possible that it was just a really strong case of lust at first sight? ‘Cause, you know, I’ve been there – it’s powerful.”

A loud, sharp, metallic ‘tock’ sound had Danica looking up. She smiled at her relatively new friend who was perched on a branch high in the tree to

she left. “Hey, big guy. Come on down here.”

“Oh no, Danica please don’t,” whined Suza. But it was too late. The huge glossy black raven was already on the table.

Caleb frowned. “What is it with you and birds? Why do they always like you?”

Danica shrugged one shoulder. “Isn’t he gorgeous?”

“I don’t like crows,” whined Suza, leaning back in her seat.

“It’s a raven.”

“Well then I don’t like ravens.”

“How can you not like them? They’re so intelligent and beautiful. Look at the way his feathers shine a kind of metallic violet in the light.” He made a series of guttural croaks that had Shaya flinching.

“Aren’t ravens an omen of death and disease?”

Danica rolled her eyes at the nervousness in her friend’s voice. “For God’s sake, Suza, it’s only a bird.”

“And a scavenger, did you forget that part? Wait, does it only have one leg? And hang on, did it just bark?”

Danica chuckled. “Ravens can imitate a whole variety sounds, even a human voice.” As if to back her up, he made a series of gurgling and croaking noises followed by another bark.

“Ravens only have one mate too, you know,” she said as she watched him returned to the tree.

Rick sighed. “I don’t care what you say, Danica there’s no way I’ll believe Zan wasn’t your true mate.”

Of course he wouldn’t. “Just because I’m mated now doesn’t mean Zan means anything less to me than he did before. That bond we had doesn’t mean any less because he once filled a place inside me. It’s not that Gio’s replaced him, because Gio has his own place.” Not one word of that had been a lie. Now that she’d mated with Gio, he did have his own place. He just wasn’t filling it. Suza ran her hand through her hair, sighing. “I want you to have this, Danica, I really do want you to have this. I’m just worried that somewhere along the way you’ll think, ‘Hey, I was wrong, he’s not my true mate at all’. Then you’ll have lost two mates. Where would that leave you? I don’t want to ever again see you in that state. And, well…For God’s sake, Danica, how can you not be petrified of him?”

“He’s a walking time bomb, Danica, he’s -”

Danica held up her hand. “Look, Rick , if you’re here to try to turn me against my own mate then you might as well save your breath to blow up

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Grinning, he shook his head and took the hand that Danica had held up.

“I want to say I’m happy for you but…well I’d be lying. I don’t want you mated to a psycho. Just swear to me that you’re happy here. At the end of the day, that’s all that really matters.”

In some ways, Danica was happy. These people with the exception of Lindy, Max, Gary, Theresa and Cindy – didn’t treat her like she was inferior

just because she was latent. She didn’t feel like an outsider or someone who needed to be constantly on the defensive. The atmosphere here was the total opposite of the one she had grown up in and she found it refreshing. She had become close friends with Lucy as she spent a lot of her time

helping her with her graphic design business. She was a great person to be around as she entertained Danica non-stop with her little eccentricities and her habit of saying whatever the hell she thought. Danica wouldn’t have thought that someone like that could be so suited to the very sensitive Richard, and yet Lucy was.