CHAPTER 10

Yeah it could be said that they had engaged in a sexual marathon. Gio was insatiable and had impressive stamina, even for a shifter. A few minutes later she was dressed and heading through the damn network of tunnels. The familiar black door that led to the kitchen wouldn"t be too hard to find; she could just follow the scents of meat and eggs and hot toasted bread. The plump lady who had been pouring coffee for the others then approached her. "You must be Danica," she said, smiling. "I"m Michey. I cook, clean and say ‘shit" a lot." She gestured at the dining table where croissants, toasted bread, bacon, scrambled eggs, baked beans, sausages, platters of cold meat, various fruits, and cereals were all laid out. "The wolf over there with the glasses and the goatee who"s the epitome of geeky, that"s my mate Jeremy. A cousin of Gio"s dad Gary was also sitted. The guy next to him is Richard. And the very pretty female opposite him is Richard"s mate, Lucy." "Stop mooning over my mate"s legs, Michey," groused Richard playfully before shovelling half a croissant in his mouth. "You"re like a little doll," said Lucy, smiling at Danica. She was the only one other than Michey who had a smile for her. "No one would ever think you had such a smart, awesome mouth. Coffee, tea, or Apple juice?" asked Michey while Danica took one of the empty plates and piled bacon, scrambled eggs and toasted bread on it. "Coffee." Plate in hand, she parked her ass back on the counter. At Michey"s amused but questioning look, she shrugged. "I always sit on the counter. A little quirk of mine." Michey"s gaze skimmed over her, taking in the various marks of possession that decorated her flesh. "Well, short of having ‘Property of Gio Wright" tattooed on your forehead, he couldn"t have made it any clearer that he considered you his, could he?" Very true. In addition to those marks that Gio had left while they consummated the claiming, there were those that he had made during the second, third and fourth rounds that followed through the night. There was a bite at the hollow of her throat, another on her inner wrist, a third one on the swell of her breast, and also claw marks on both upper arms – and they were only the ones that weren"t hidden beneath her black t-shirt, navy jeans, and black leather knee boots. Maybe it would be fair to say that if she hadn"t fought him so hard on the issue of belonging to him then she wouldn"t be in this state. Yeah, but that only applied to the first time. After that, she had conceded belonging to him as his mate, although she had snarled at him with every concession. "Can I, um, ask," began Jeremy, "is it true that you"re, um, latent?" At her nod he added, "Do you still feel your wolf or is she buried deep?" Michey quickly interrupted. "You should know that Jeremy is one of the most curious people to have ever walked the face of the Earth. Whereas he"s great with computers and anything technical, he"s not an expert with human emotion. It wouldn"t occur to him that he might offend you by bringing it up." She shot him a reprimanding glare. Danica shrugged. "It"s fine. No, my wolf"s not buried, she"s very much aware and very much a pain in the ass." Jeremy seemed about to ask her something else, but a sharp look from Michey had him returning his attention to his meal. "It"s going to be nice having some more female company," said Lucy. "We"re way too outnumbered by the males." Danica arched her brow. "There aren"t many women?" "No" added Lucy. Need a Hart? Now that"s a joke." The deep voice belonged to a male who, though nowhere near as good-looking or muscular as Gio, bore a few similarities to him. He had the same strong nose and chin, the same eyes, the same height. Whereas Gio"s dark scowl somehow looked good on him, it made this guy look creepy. She only had to look at his posture and the flash of bitterness in his eyes to know the guy had a chip on his shoulder. She had to wonder just what that chip was all about. He took a seat beside Lucy and then glared at Danica. "We don"t need a Hart, and we don"t need a latent." "I don"t need your approval," retorted Danica. "So fuck off." That seemed to surprise him, but she wasn"t under the illusion that it would shut him up. Michey sighed. She didn"t appear any happier by his presence than Danica was. "That"s Max, Gary"s son, so he"s sort of Gio"s cousin." She mouthed, ‘And an asshole". His nostrils flared as he looked at Danica. "If you think we"re all going to bow down to a Hart then think again." Danica smiled at Michey. "Isn"t it great when just your very existence infuriates someone? You"ve got to love that kind of power." The sound of very merry whistling was soon followed by the entrance of Donny and Andrew. One look at the marks on her body and that clown grin took over Donny"s face. Andrew simply snickered. "Hey little sister." Andrew ruffled Michey"s hair, earning himself a scowl and a smack on the shoulder. "Go, sit, eat, don"t bother me," she grumbled. Chuckling, he took a seat at the table and practically attacked the plate piled with slices of cold meat. "Here," said Michey as she handed Donny a goody bag. "See you later." Donny opened it and sighed happily. "Is it wrong that I"d sell my soul for your cooking? If you weren"t already mated I"d snap you up." Michey rolled her eyes but a blush stained her cheeks. Danica couldn"t blame her , the guy was seriously hot. Hell, all the enforcers were. "He"s guarding the gate today so he only has time to pop in and out," she explained to Danica after he had left the room. Danica looked up as Duda entered and went straight to the jug of coffee. He poured some into a Bart Simpson mug, inhaled the aroma deeply, and then took a sip. It was only then that he turned to everyone, apparently now equipped to interact with others as he had caffeine in his system. The instant he saw her he almost choked on his drink. She would have said she didn"t look that bad, but she did. "Now I know why you kept yelling at him for biting you." At her raised brow, he explained while grinning wickedly, "As Beta, my room"s next to the Alpha"s. How does he look?" "You"ll see for yourself, won"t you." In truth, she hadn"t marked Gio. Her wolf had wanted her to, and had desperately tried to surface in response to Danica"s resistance. But no chance was Danica going to encourage his wolf"s sense of possessiveness by marking him back, not when this was temporary. Also, it would be easier on her wolf when they separated if she hadn"t branded him. It would be easier on Danica too. Gio hadn"t questioned her about it or urged her to mark him so she could conclude from that that he was on the same wavelength. Duda took another swig of his coffee. "I said that Gio, although he"s not usually possessive , would mark you up properly. The others, including Gio, thought he would be able to rein it in because you aren"t true mates. I have to say that I"m kind of enjoying that I was right." "Your life is that sad?" "You don"t get it. Gio never marks his women. He"s always teased us whenever we"ve gotten even the slightest bit possessive with our partners. I"m just enjoying how the tables have turned." "To be fair," said Andrew, pausing in the demolishing of his cereal, "it"s a little different since he mated her." Duda looked about to say something but was distracted by the entrance of Hudson, Ray, Chris and Gio. Hudson acknowledged her with a grunt, Ray with a teeny nod, and Chris with a fierce scowl. "Yes it is a fabulous morning and yes I did have an amazing sleep, thank you," she said to them sweetly. Just for the hell of it, Gio delivered a sharp nip to her bottom lip before taking a seat at the table with the others. Inwardly he frowned at this strange primal urge that he had to be close to her and touch her. Naturally he ignored it, but his irritation remained. Gio hadn"t hungered for touch for a long time and he didn"t like the idea that that might be changing. He hadn"t been too pleased when he woke up to find himself alone. He"d originally hoped to taste her this morning since oral sex had been out of the question last night while she was battling his dominance so hard. He hadn"t been able to pin her down to taste her and he certainly hadn"t been interested in risking sliding his dick between those snapping teeth. Damn if their battles for dominance hadn"t been the hottest thing ever though. Duda leaned back in his seat, smiling at Gio. "So…how come you didn"t mark her?" Low laughs filled the room but Gio just ignored them. Okay he"d probably gone a little too far, but he simply liked the look of his mark on Danica"s flesh. Once he"d gotten past that annoyance with himself for his urge to do it, he hadn"t held himself back. "Poor girl looks like she had a fight with a vampire. Oh and you, Danica, damn you can curse. What did she call you at one point, Gio? Oh that was it. A motherfucking ass-licking sod of a cock-sucking goddamn bitch." Michey and Lucy laughed. "I"m an expressive person," she said with an innocent shrug. "I especially liked the part when she threatened to slice your cock off in your sleep if you didn"t stop spanking her. So where did she mark you?"