by V Vee
He was drawn out of his musings by the sound of their doorbell coming through the phone. He frowned, a feeling of unease creeping up his spine.
“Hold on, my love, someone is at the door,” Joi told him.
“No. Joi, wait. I have a bad feeling about this,” he told her, already rising from his desk, grabbing his car keys and heading out the door. He walked past Howl’s office and waved for his younger brother’s mate, Talia, to follow him. On and on he went, grabbing his other brothers, cousins, and friends: Snarl, Thunder, Grumble, and Rumble to follow him. His heart twinged as he looked around at them, none of them questioning him, as they waited for the elevator. Howl had decided to return to base earlier than he was supposed to, due to issues with his mate, Talia, and though Angelo hadn’t wanted to push, at this moment, he wish he had. He needed his brother with him. He had that feeling in his bones. And while Talia had been welcomed into the pack with open arms, not only as his sister-in-law, but as his mate’s best friend, she was also pregnant and half-human. He wasn’t even sure if she could shift.
Just as the elevator doors opened, he narrowed his eyes at her.
“You can shift right?” he asked her.
She rolled her eyes. “Have you forgotten Barbados so quickly, Alpha?” she asked with a shake of her head, leading the way into the elevator. “Of course I can shift.”
The sound of Joi yelling, the sound of glass breaking, jerked his attention back to the matter at hand.
Some idiot was trying to take his wife.
“Joi!” He yelled into the phone.
“Angelo! It’s P-Peh!” Joi’s mouth was muffled by something and he snarled before following his pack members, his family, into the elevator.
“Someone took Joi,” was all he said, and like a flash of lightning, or a crack of thunder, every single shifter, full blooded or half, growled. The tension was thick, and Angelo knew that whomever had taken his mate, was going to be praying and wishing for death long before he gave it to them.
They all strode out of the elevator and to the SUVs awaiting them outside. Angelo didn’t speak to anyone the whole ride over the mansion he and Joi now lived in. It was surrounded by a gate, with security at the door and a large backyard and garden that ran into the forest. Angelo couldn’t understand how someone had been able to get past his guards and fury caused him to clench his hands the moment he saw the bodies of his security strewn across the driveway, bullet holes in their heads, some with their throats torn out.
With a roar he leapt from the vehicle, shifting midway, and raced up the driveway to his home, where the door stood ajar. The windows were shattered. Bullets littered the floor of his entryway and the formal living room. But there was one thing that made him freeze in place.
Angelo’s wolf scented blood. A scent that made him growl.
His mate’s blood.
Before he could move to sniff around, distinguishing the different scents that permeated the air, he heard Talia gasp behind him. Turning he snarled at her. She lowered her head, tilting it to the side in a show of submission.
“Forgive me, Alpha, but I know who took Joi,” she murmured softly.
Angelo shifted back into his human form and marched over to her. He wanted to shake the identity from her, but she was his brother’s mate. He would respect her.
“Speak, halfling,” he growled.
Talia swallowed at his words, Angelo knew they were an insult, especially as she was a “halfling” in both the shifter and the human worlds, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care. Not when his mate’s life hung in the balance. Not when some death-seeking fool had saw fit to take her from what should have been her sanctuary.
“Perry. Her ex. He took her,” Talia said.
Angelo narrowed his eyes and leaned closer to her. “And how do you know this?”
Talia looked at him, before lowering her eyes again. “Because Perry’s last name is Bianchi. The same as mine.”
Angelo roared and punched the wall next to Talia’s head. He had to give her credit, she didn’t flinch or jump as his fist slammed through the wood and plaster. She didn’t even lift her eyes or gasp. He wasn’t sure if it was because she’d been trained so well in how to be submissive to her Alpha or if it was because of something more sinister.
“Let’s go,” he snarled and turned without another word, shifting back into his wolf, ignoring his family as they grabbed clothes, weapons, and medical supplies, shoving them all in various duffle bags.
Though shifters rarely used weapons when engaged in combat with each other, when humans were involved, when human authorities could be summoned. They used weapons, cleaned them, and disposed of them. They had enough of humans putting their noses into pack business when one of them died. It was even worse when a human was the victim… or the preparator.
Rumble, his younger brother, drove silently beside him, listening to Talia’s directions as she directed them to the “private-not-so-private” cabin that belonged to her brother, in Upstate New York. The didn’t stop directly in front of the residence, instead parking down the road a bit, and climbing from inside. Angelo sniffed the air, and detecting a wisp of Joi’s scent.
He tried sending her a message through their bond again—as he’d been doing every minute since he’d heard her scream—to no avail. Everything was quiet on her end, and that worried him even more. Joi was never quiet. Her incessant chattering, wild thoughts, creative imagination, it was soothing, white noise to him as he worked or went about her day. His wolf was soothed by it, his human mind was calmed and settled by it. It meant his mate was safe. That she was whole and happy. But now?
Now there was nothing but emptiness and darkness.
They raced down, across, then up towards the cabin, surrounding it, before dispatching the guards who stood watch outside, silently and quickly. Slowly shifting and taking their places. Once everyone was standing in position, Angelo creeped to the back door of the cabin, which he slowly and quietly opened.
Stepping inside, he followed the sounds of voices. One agitated male, one female.
Who sounded pissed beyond belief.
That’s my girl. Angelo grinned.
He crept down the hall, perking his ears for their conversation. He wanted to take this Perry asshole by surprise.
“All you had to do was take me back when I asked you, Joi. I could have spared you all of this,” Perry was saying, and Angelo could hear him pacing back and forth.
“And how would you have done that, Perry?” Joi’s voice sounded exhausted and disgusted. “You said your father put you up to this. So it seems to me, that no matter what, I would have found myself tied up to a chair, in an abandoned cabin, while you threatened me and tried to get your Daddy on the phone.”
Stop taunting him, he told her over their link, but it was as if there was a blockage there, nothing but darkness and silence met him. Though it concerned him, just knowing she was still alive and well was enough to make his limbs momentarily weak with relief.
“Just shut up, Joi! You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Perry groaned. “Look. My father doesn’t even want you. He wants your mate. And he wants your company. But mainly, he wants your mate.”
“Angelo? This is about Angelo? B-but, why?” Joi asked, her voice trembling and Angelo felt his wolf pacing inside of him at the sound of their mate’s distress.
“It’s about that man thinking he runs things for the packs here in America. It’s about him reneging on the deal he made with my father. It’s about his ancestor and what he did to the Bianchi pack centuries ago. It’s about the fact that he’s a Marconi.”
“B-but…” Joi stammered, and though Angelo knew Perry probably heard fear in her voice, Angelo could sense she was putting on an act. Just as he went to peer around the corner of the room where they were, a gunshot rang out, and a bullet crashed into the wall behind where his head had just been.
“Come on out, Marconi! I know you’re here. I could smell your filthy fur a m
ile away,” Perry yelled.
Angelo bristled and clenched his fist but refused to move.
“What? You gonna be a pussy and keep hiding behind walls in my home? Or are you going to come out and fight me like the Alpha you want everyone to believe you are?” Perry’s taunts continued, but Angelo ignored him. Instead he continued to try and push at the wall that was up between him and his mate.
“You look and sound like an idiot, Perry. Even if you weren’t high on drugs and pacing around the room like a souped up junkie, you are no match for my man. Wolf shifter or not. Gun or not. Angelo will rip you limb from limb if you try him.” Joi’s words reached his ears and Angelo’s chest expanded with the pride and sureness he heard in her voice.
Will you get in here? Joi’s voice was like sunshine blazing through the cracks of the wall erected in their bond. It was then Angelo realized that Perry had drugged his woman. His chest vibrated with the low, sinister growl that emanated from his throat.
“Wha—?” Perry’s tone was hesitant and fearful, and before he could think about it further, Angelo shifted and leapt into the room.
He crouched low, his eyes fixed on the man who had taken his mate. His Joi.
The half-human, half-wolf who was about to die.
“N-now l-look Marconi,” Perry stammered. “Don’t make any sudden moves, or I’m gonna have to s-shoot you,” he stated, his hand shaking. Angelo narrowed his eyes on the gun, sniffing the air and smelling silver.
Like father, like son.
Joi snorted and Angelo offered her a wolfish grin. It was a grin that turned into an angry growl when he got a glimpse of her.
Her normally luminescent, glowing, brown skin was marred with dark bruises, around her wrists, her eyes. Her lip was bleeding, her lace front wig was laying in her lap, her own naturally thick, black hair hanging in relaxed strands around her face. Her dress was torn at the shoulder and…
Right where her pregnant belly was.
Had Perry tried to kill his children as well as his mate?
He turned his head slowly in Perry’s direction and stalked towards him. Perry’s eyes widened as he backed away, the stench of his fear filling the room.
“Uh-oh Perry. Looks like you fucked up,” Joi continued to taunt him as he moved around the room, trying to stay away from Angelo, one hand shakily holding a gun, while the other held a cellphone.
“You think he knows that you threated to tear his baby from my body?” Joi whisper shouted. Angelo growled at her words, feeling as if his body were growing bigger and wider, his teeth growing sharper, the angrier he got. “I’d throw yourself at his mercy, Perry. Before he finds out that you tried to jerk off on my stomach, but couldn’t because I kicked you in the nuts.”
As the image of Perry standing over his mate, his pregnant mate, with his no-doubt short, thin dick in his hand, attempting to spew his jizz on Angelo’s mate… marking her… Angelo threw back his head and released a howl that vibrated the walls. He jumped high in the air, straight towards Perry, landing on top of the man. He heard Joi scream but he ignored her. Instead focusing on planting the lethal claws of his paws into the skin of his arms and legs, ripping into the flesh. He buried his canines into one side of Perry’s face, tearing off portions of skin and bone, before turning his attention to the other side. Perry’s body was still twitching, and Angelo still felt enraged.
So he used his paws and snout to dig into Perry’s chest-bone. He latched his jaws around Perry’s sluggishly beating heart, and ripped it out. He lay on top of the corpse and bit into the organ, watching as the blood oozed out. Hearing Joi gag, he tossed the heart away and backed away from Perry’s lifeless form. He shifted back into his human form and watched her carefully.
She sniffled. “Oh, you’re okay,” she said tearfully.
Angelo tilted his head to the side in confusion. “What?”
She inclined her head. “He shot you. I was sure you were dead.”
Angelo shook his head and rushed towards her, taking her face in his hands. “No, no. I’m okay, my love.” He moved to kiss her, but she jerked her head away.
“Umm…. Not to be a bitch, but maybe you can untie me and get me to a bathroom before I wet myself? Then you can wash that blood off your face and you can kiss me all you like.”
Angelo chuckled. “Yes, my queen. Your wish is my command.”
Joi shook her head and leaned forward to rest her forehead against his.
“I love you, Growl.”
“I love you, Joi.”
If you plan to continue with this series, there’s an epilogue…but I suggest you stop here if you don’t like cliffhangers and don’t plan to continue.
Thanks for reading!
Epilogue
Six Months Later
How many years would I get for murder if I think it’s justified? Joi Young-Marconi’s skinny, expensive, black stilettos with the black and red swirled heels and red bottoms, the same shoes she’d worn just seven or eight months earlier, tapped angrily down the streets of Manhattan as she made her way towards Woodland Pack Incorporated. She tried desperately to keep a smile on her face. Not only because of the fact that it took her well over an hour making sure her face looked properly “beat” or flawlessly prepared with makeup now—foundation, blush, mascara, lipstick, eyebrow pencil, eyeliner, lipliner, eyeshadow, extra concealer to hide the dark smudges below her eyes, etc.—but also because of the fact that while she knew she turned heads even without the makeup with her good looks, her long, perfectly curled, thick, lustrous, black hair that was one-hundred percent her own, that now hung to the middle of her back; but also because she knew if she didn’t keep the smile on her face, she would be perceived as the stereotypical angry black woman. And while she was indeed angry—no, scratch that, she was pissed, incensed… livid—she didn’t need anyone whispering, gossiping, or treating her as if she was going to be snapping her fingers, smacking her teeth, and rolling her neck as if she were just two steps out of the ghetto. She’d made enough Pack Marconi members and employees of WPI run off in fear because of her numerous—and often joked and whispered about—mood swings.
She was no longer the bright-eyed and hopeful business owner hoping to partner with Angelo Marconi. She was now Joi Young-Marconi, Alpha Bitch. Queen. Wife. Alpha Consort. Mate of Alpha Marconi. She was also extremely, extremely, extremely pregnant.
Joi’s dream to own her own online fashion and makeup makeover business, one that had the unlimited resources, connections, and audience reach of WPI was one that had been recognized, lauded, and heralded by hordes of people in the fashion and cosmetics industry, as well as applauded by those in the ethnic community. Daily her Twitter™, Facebook™, and Instagram™ accounts were flooded with notifications and mentions by people praising her products or thanking her for her contributions to various organizations, schools, and communities.
While it was amazing, especially since she got to work with her husband—her mate—Angelo Marconi, and her parents were ecstatic not only by the money, and the fact that she’d held onto her company and still got to go to work and do what she loved every day, but also by the fact that she was married with a baby on the way—Joi was not there to see her mate for any type of pleasant reason.
Angelo Marconi, “The Growling Wolf CEO,” Alpha Marconi, her mate was in trouble. Big, big, big trouble.
Joi nodded at the new receptionist that sat behind the front desk as she headed straight to the elevator. This one was the fourth one to be hired in the last six months. Joi knew it probably looked bad to employment agencies, but she couldn’t help it. If the women would stop lusting over her husband, then maybe she could stop firing them.
Trashy broads, she thought to herself, sounding a lot like her mother in that moment. This latest one, Yolanda, seemed like she would be a good fit though, she’d barely looked at Angelo whenever he was in the room, and Angelo had told her that the young woman had the scent of another wolf on her.
He should have just hired
already mated wolves, anyway, if he insisted on hiring a female, she muttered internally.
Which was the reason she’d shown up at the WPI building in the first place. She’d gone to do some shopping with her mother, but upon returning home, she’d been shocked to see a young, petite, curvaceous, black girl who’d smiled and giggled, fluttering around her like a ninny, as she informed Joi that Angelo had hired her to be her new assistant.
I. Don’t. Fucking. Think. So.
When the doors opened Joi wasn’t surprised in the least to find her mate leaning next to the opening elevator doors, his arms folded across his chest, an indulgent smile on his face.
“Hello, love,” he said.
Joi scoffed. “Don’t you ‘hello, love’ me, you… you… horny wolf!” she growled. She’d gotten really good at growling since mating Angelo. She almost sounded like a shifter when she was really angry.
Like now.
She shoved past him and marched down to his office, hearing his slow, measured steps behind her. Once Angelo closed and locked the door behind them, Joi turned and face him, her clenched fists on her hips, and tears burning her eyes.
“Did you hire her because you’re bored with me?” she asked him.
Angelo frowned for a moment then he marched towards her angrily and gripped her arms in his large hands. He gave her a tiny shake. “Are you kidding me? How many times do I have to tell you that you are my mate? I don’t even see another woman but you. You are all I want. All I need. All I desire and yearn for. Even if I weren’t a shifter, and I were purely human, it would still be you. From now until forever. Until we take our final breaths together, you are it for me. My heart, my every breath, my soul’s partner, the song of my spirit and my every thought.”
He shook his head. “I hired Sheena because she needed help. Plus, she’s my best friend Bay’s mate, but he’s serving overseas, and he asked me to look after her. I told you all this last month, and again last week. I would never betray you that way.”
