by Leila Brown
As she heard the car pulling up, she walked into his bedroom, fighting her wolf the entire way. She left the door cracked enough that she could see into the living-room area.
She held her breath as the doorbell rang; and he wheeled over to the door. She didn’t know what to expect but sure wasn’t prepared for the icy blonde who stepped through the doorway. She was impeccable. Her hair was perfect, although Gio knew the wind was blowing pretty hard, from the gush of cold air that followed her in.
“Hello, Jason.” She slipped off black gloves, then her coat.
Surely she wasn’t going to be there long enough to need to take that stuff off. Gio had no intention of staying hidden for longer than was absolutely necessary.
“Toni, what can I do for you?” He sounded too welcoming for Gio’s taste.
“Dane says you caused a shift. That you were actually healing.” She sounded surprised.
Gio saw her big, encouraging smile and felt her wolf growl. She didn’t hear it; she felt it like a vibration through her skin.
“What? You came to see for yourself? Sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t change on command. I guess you’ll just have to take his word for it.” Something about his surly voice made Gio shift her gaze from Toni to him. Why did the woman’s concern make him so aggravated? Something wasn’t right.
Gio sniffed the air. She smelled something that made her want to walk out and rip every strand of hair out of the blonde bimbo’s head.
“Don’t be like that, Jason. Even our doctors said you wouldn’t heal. That you’d never shift again. If anyone had ever hinted that you would be able to shift and run—”
“Then what? You wouldn’t have called off the engagement? You wouldn’t have told everyone what the doctors said? You wouldn’t have threatened every female who showed me the least bit of sympathy?” The anger and resentment in his voice were strong enough that Gio felt them like a backlash. She watched Toni snap back as if she’d been slapped.
They’d been engaged? And the bitch had called it off after the accident? He’d failed to mention those two things when he’d convinced her to hide from his ex. For once she was in total agreement with her wolf when she opened the door and strode through.
“It wasn’t like that. I didn’t tell them to do anything. They did it out of respect for me. For us. For what we had.”
“That’s bullshit, and you know it. You don’t control all the women of the pack. And the ones I trust aren’t afraid of you—”
“You got that shit right,” Gio said, taking the few steps to fully enter the room. She wasn’t sure Jason trusted her, but Little Ms. Perfectly Proportioned Blondie didn’t need to know that.
“This is the human you converted?” Toni said in a tone that didn’t hold a second of surprise. She let out a little laugh, then glanced at Jason. “Was she the best you could do?”
“From where I’m standing, his taste has actually improved.” Gio cocked her head to the side. “Something about that accident must have knocked him around enough to see you for the soulless bitch you are.”
Toni sucked in a breath as her gaze swung back to Gio. The first thing Gio noticed was her fiercely blue eyes. The second was the way the muscles in her legs tightened. She sprang and pounced.
Gio ducked, tucked, and rolled out of the way. She crouched and watched the woman slam into the wall. The woman shook her head and growled.
“Yeah. That growling? Not doing a damn thing for me.” Gio watched the other woman. Her muscles bunched again. Her legs bent slightly and the muscles in her arms tightened as if getting ready. She was going to try to ram her. Gio didn’t know how she knew it, but if her wolf believed it, so did she. Toni shifted, then burst forward.
Gio waited until she was close, then jumped. Toni couldn’t stop fast enough to prevent herself from running into the wall. This time there was a definite crack.
“Bitch,” she screamed.
“No, honey, you must have me confused with you.” Gio stood and backed away from the woman when her wolf screamed at her to run forward and squeeze the life from her creamy throat. “That sounded like a bone snapping. I would get that looked at. I mean, if it doesn’t heal exactly right, you could be deformed.”
“Just wait. This isn’t over.” Toni cradled one arm while she used the wall to help her stand up. She ran toward the door, never taking her eyes off Gio and not getting too close to her either.
A very silent Jason sat near the door, holding her coat and gloves. She snatched them from him as she barreled out of the door. He slammed it after her.
“Why couldn’t you stay in the room like I told you?” he demanded.
The euphoria of victory slowly drained out of her, leaving behind a definite sense of betrayal. “Well, gee, that was kind of hard when your ex walked through that door looking like she wanted to eat you up.”
“You’re exaggerating. She hasn’t voluntarily touched me since she broke off the engagement.” He laughed. But it wasn’t a funny ha-ha laugh; it was more the ironic kind of laugh you did when the information wasn’t something you were proud to share.
“What? You wanted her to come in here and fall all over you? Take you back.” Her wolf howled inside her head at the thought. “She was just feeling you out. I could hear the bullshit from your room.”
“No, I didn’t—don’t want her. She was about to admit why she was here before you stepped outside and decided to ruin everything. Now she’ll run back to Dane and tell him about you.”
“What’s she going to say? You picked a fat black bitch that could kick her ass?”
“No. That I have a woman strong enough to mate with. That’s why he sent her—to determine how strong you were. Now he knows, and he’ll plan for it. Not to mention she’s going to go around and tell the entire pack how you broke her arm for no reason. And that’s if we’re lucky. She could say that I broke her arm.”
“You know what? Don’t turn this on me. You should have told me she was your ex. That you were engaged.” She felt her throat close and tried to swallow. Her skin tightened below her right ear, and pain shot along her throat. Her chest filled with pain as she pulled in a breath. “I don’t know if you hid me because you were ashamed of me or because you wanted her back. Either way I wasn’t good enough for you.”
“Gio!”
“No. You don’t get to say anything. You’ve made my life a living hell, telling me if I made the wrong move, I was going to die.” She swallowed hard. “And I trusted you. I listened to you. I had sex with you. At no time did I treat you as less than your worth just because you’re in a wheelchair. But the first chance you got to do me that same courtesy, you hid me away. And you pretended it was to keep me safe? Don’t lie to yourself.”
“I did do it to keep you safe. If she had believed you were too weak to come out here and challenge her, it would have bought us a few more days.”
“Are you sure about that? Are you sure it wouldn’t have just made Dane bolder? If I were weak, I wouldn’t have posed much of a threat. You don’t know what would have happened.” She turned and walked to the guest bedroom. If she had to chain herself to the bed, she would. There was no way she was going to sleep with him again. Not tonight. Not ever. For the second time that day, her wolf agreed. Before she closed the door, she said in a very quiet voice that did nothing to hide the tears she refused to shed, “I’m trying to figure out if you’re hiding here for the good of the pack, or because you’re scared to even try.”
Chapter Six
Jason watched her walk out of the room. He wanted to go after her, but she was in no mood to listen to him. What could he say? He’d had no idea she or her wolf was strong enough to stand up to Toni without fear. The strength of your wolf was determined by how strong a person you were.
There was no way for him to explain this to her without sounding insulting. If she had truly been the woman he’d been e-mailing, he would have been able to read her strength through the e-mails. Through her responses to his comm
ands, he would have known her wolf would have been Alpha mate material.
He slowly wheeled over to the door and listened. He heard the soft whimpering and knew she was crying. Those tears were his fault. Each and every one. How was he supposed to make this up to her? Sorry just wasn’t going to cover it. He had no clue what would.
Instead he wheeled to the kitchen and finished preparing lunch. He fixed her a plate and wheeled it to the room. “I’ve got some food. I’m going to leave it here.”
“I’m not hungry!” she yelled.
“You need to eat. I’m going to leave it here. You don’t need to talk to me or eat with me. Just—”
“Fine.”
He was surprised when she stepped out, grabbed the plate, and walked over to the bar in his kitchen. He was not expecting that.
“Feeling better?”
“No. I’m not feeling better. I haven’t let anyone make me feel ashamed of who I was since high school. But I trusted you and… Never mind. It doesn’t matter. I was stupid. I won’t be again.”
She didn’t say she was stupid for trusting him. She didn’t have to. He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. What could he say? Trust me now. I won’t let you down again. He closed his mouth and just wheeled away from her.
“Don’t starve your wolf to punish me. She’ll get stronger and pop out on you at the wrong time.” The second the words left his lips, he knew it was the absolute wrong thing to say.
“Don’t worry. I think we’ll be just fine. If you don’t mind, I think I’ll be sleeping in the guest room tonight.” She picked up a forkful of the salad and pushed it into her mouth. She chewed, but she didn’t look like she was enjoying it.
“So you’re not going to talk to me anymore?” The time left until the solstice was going to drag on forever if all they did was ignore each other.
“If by talk you mean sleeping together, then no. We won’t be doing that. But talking? It doesn’t make sense to walk around each other and not talk.”
The fact that she wasn’t arguing with him anymore and didn’t sound remotely concerned worried him. Maybe they just needed to change the subject completely. It wasn’t like they didn’t have things to discuss.
“We need to get out of this house. Maybe we can do a little damage control.” He watched her as he said the words. Her body stiffened at the mention of going outside. “We can go into town and meet some of the pack before Toni has time to do much damage. But…”
“But what?” she asked, putting her fork down.
“But you’re going to have to pretend you actually like me. If you’re standoffish at all, they’ll know something is wrong, and Toni can be really convincing. She had me fooled for over a year.” He knew he shouldn’t have added the last part. Mentioning his ex was not going to help Gio forgive him.
“See, I don’t understand that. From the second she opened her mouth, I had her pegged as a power-hungry conniver. How could you not see it?”
“I’ve asked myself that question a lot in the last three years.” He shrugged. There was no good explanation for his lack of common sense here. He knew it. And he also knew that if he got Gio out of this house, he might be taking a step in the right direction—if not in her case, then definitely in her wolf’s.
“And it’s not that I don’t like you. More like I don’t trust you.” She finished her food. “Thanks for cooking. And if it will earn me an afternoon out of here, then yeah, I can play the adoring girlfriend.”
“We can go shopping too. Get you some clothes.” He waited. A few hours ago she might have jumped in with a smart-assed comment or a joke. But instead she got up and rinsed off her plate. Their easy camaraderie was gone. He hoped that if he proved he trusted her and wanted to be seen with her, she would also believe he was only trying to protect her.
He waited until she was done to show her out to the garage and to his modified truck. It had cost him a small fortune, but he could drive using hand pedals. After they were both in the truck, he pulled out.
“You left your chair?”
“I only use the manual chair in the house. For trips out, I have a mechanical one in the back.” He nodded toward the back of the truck. He’d also modified it so he could crawl through the back to get to the wheelchair.
“There’s a women’s-wear shop on Main Street. We can stop in there to see what they have. Sarah Jane and her sister, Ambriel, own the shop, but Ambriel basically runs it for the day-to-day stuff,” he told her as they pulled into a parking spot near a storefront sporting mannequins in swimsuits. He shook his head. Ambriel never paid attention to the seasons. Gio got out the passenger-side door, and he pulled his way into the backseat, then pushed a small button and lowered two small sections so he could reach the chair. He pushed several buttons to fire that puppy up. It hadn’t been used in a while. A long while. He pressed another few buttons on his key fob, and the truck’s cab lowered and a ramp extended down. He wheeled over to Gio’s side and took her hand.
He watched her muscle tighten in her arm as if she might yank her hand away—or something worse. He wasn’t going to give her that chance.
“If you pull away, people will see.” It was an excuse. A poor one, but he was grasping at straws. He needed to make sure things got back to normal before the solstice. After it her heat would be gone, and she wouldn’t need him anymore. It was plain and simple that they didn’t have enough time. He needed, no wanted more.
As they slipped inside, an intense floral scent hit him square in the nose like a heavyweight prizefighter. He coughed twice before his body adjusted to the aroma. He didn’t remember it being so strong before. Gio cleared her throat. Her ears had gotten more sensitive, but her nose wasn’t there yet. Either that or she liked the smell.
“Jason? I swear my eyes are playing tricks on me.” A small petite pixie of a woman came from behind the counter with a burst of speed and headed straight for him.
Gio held her breath. She wasn’t a jealous woman, or at least she’d never been before. She pulled in a breath and told herself that not all women wanted Jason. And even if they did, she couldn’t take them all down. She exhaled slowly. No way did she want him to think for a second that anything he did affected her. He wasn’t hers. She had to remember that. Even when everything in her told her he was.
“I heard someone busted Toni up. About damn time. I would have done it myself if it wasn’t for the business.”
The woman pulled her down into a hug. Gio didn’t know what to do. Her wolf didn’t want the hug. She wanted to tear the woman’s arms off and beat her with them for wrapping them around her. When she looked over at Jason, he was smiling. She pushed the woman away as politely as possible, then extended a hand. “My name is Giovanni, but everyone calls me Gio.”
The woman shook her hand and sniffed her. Actually put the hand up to her nose and sniffed. “My name’s Ambriel. My husband, Nickolas, works at the fire department. Maybe you can stay for dinner tonight.”
“Sorry, Am, we’re only here to do a little shopping.” He maneuvered a joystick, and his chair vibrated to life, and within seconds, he was by her side, stroking his thumb against her palm.
“Oh, I remember what it used to be like. That mating heat lasts until about the first child comes.” A smug smile lit up her face. “Then the kids come, and it gets worse, because you have to get adventurous. Sex in the laundry room, in the car, in the garage—and that’s just at home. Eventually you get desperate enough to do things outside, where strangers may see you.”
Gio couldn’t help but take a step back at the word kids. Her throat closed at the thought that she was never going to have kids. Her entire life gone in a flash, to be replaced by this joke where the one person who’d come to mean something to her was ashamed of her.
“I don’t—”
“We aren’t planning on having kids right away. We want a couple of years to ourselves,” Jason said, raising Gio’s hand to his lips.
The contact was both calmi
ng and inflaming. She’d been fine at lunch. On the drive down, she thought she’d been okay, that the need for him could be controlled.
Ambriel waved her finger at Jason. “Did he tell you that after seeing my brood, he bet my husband that he would have more? He’s planning on having his own baseball team.”
Gio swallowed hard. “No, he didn’t tell me that.”
Jason dropped her hand and looked away, then cleared his throat. “That was before the accident.”
Gio rolled her eyes. “You know you are the most self-pitying son of a bitch I have ever met. You’re in a wheelchair. Get over it. Lots of men in wheelchairs are great dads. I’m sure a few of them even have nine or ten kids. The only difference between them and you is they know that their lives weren’t over when they lost the use of their legs.” Gio walked toward one of the racks of jeans. She was sick and tired of hearing how his life had changed and the shit he couldn’t do. Hell, the only thing he couldn’t do was stand.
