CHAPTER 18

"Why would you need to go near his mouth to heal him?" asked Jeremy in that curious tone of his. Turning to see that Andrew was the one standing closest to the window, she asked, "Andrew, would you open that for me?" "Why?" "So I can gaze lovingly at the sun. Will you just open it?" Grunting, he did as she asked while Gio finally drank down some water and wiped his face. "Now be still." She was pretty sure he only did it out of curiosity. Danica placed her hand on his forehead and watched as several patches of his skin suddenly illuminated where there were scratches and bites. She heard a few gasps, a ‘Whoa" and a ‘Holy shit" coming from behind her, but ignored them. Leaning down, she placed her mouth at Gio"s and inhaled deeply, taking the foulness from him and then blowing it out of her mouth through the window. She repeated the move over and over until, finally, the last luminous patch faded. "I"d say you"re done." With that, she allowed herself to flop backwards onto her back much as Gio had five minutes ago. She almost laughed as she opened her eyes to see several faces all peering down at her. Then suddenly she was snatched from the rug and was being cradled against Gio"s chest. "You shouldn"t have done that, you look worse than I did." "I"ll be fine, you ungrateful asshole. I just need some water and maybe some sort of sugary food." "You got it," said Michey as she dashed out of the room. "You do know that was awesome, right?" Duda's grin was almost as wide as Donny"s clown grin. "More like unnatural," muttered Lindy. "Did you just use the word awesome?" Ray asked Duda, chuckling. "Come on, she totally calmed a wild wolf and at the same time negotiated an alliance before then doing some weird healing stuff. That"s some seriously cool shit." Gio strangely felt a twinge of pride for her, though he still wanted to spank her ass for going near his wolf while he was wild. "My wolf could have hurt you." "Yeah, I know. Blame Duda, he told me I should go for it." Duda spluttered. "That"s not – I didn"t – She -" "You should see your face." Her chuckle was interrupted by a cough. Her throat always felt a little hoarse after she used her healing gift. At that moment Michey handed her a bottle of water and an energy bar. "Thanks." "Never again are you allowed to use that gift," stated Gio firmly, not liking how pale she was. His wolf wasn"t happy about it either. "Don"t be a goof. Of course I"m going to use it. I wouldn"t be much of a healer if I didn"t." "You look like a corpse." "I"ll be fine. Just plonk me on that monstrosity of a sofa and let me have a twenty minute nap and I"ll be just as lively as I was before." She wouldn"t have even needed the nap if Gio hadn"t had so many bruises and wounds. "Just a little power nap and I"ll be fine." Gio couldn"t help smiling at the way she curled up on the bulky sofa in a position that was so comfy for her five minutes later. She looked even tinier than usual, but still not fragile. There was too much steel in her for that. "Hudson just called," Chris informed him. "They"ve gone." Gio nodded and then watched in surprise as some of his pack gathered around her. Duda, Michey and Jeremy sat on her left while Lucy ,Donny and Richard sat on her right. Andrew, Ray and Chris then all sat on the floor with the back of their heads resting against her legs. It was a gesture of support, comfort and acceptance as well as an indication that they intended to guard her as she slept. She had earned the respect of each of them in the short time that she had been here. A strange pang struck his chest ,unfamiliar and unnerving. "I"m going to take a shower. I"ll be back in a few minutes." They nodded but were focused on Danica who had gone out like a light. He and his wolf were comforted by the knowledge that they would stay with her while Gio removed the streaks of blood and the lingering scent of the dead wolf from his body. The dead wolf who was now no longer a threat to his mate or their mating. It was as Gio was showering that he thought back to how he had felt when, forced to be nothing but an observer, he saw Danica tentatively trying to gain his wolf"s attention. The anger, the frustration and the anxiety rushed back. There had been something else in that cocktail of emotions. Fear. Gio had actually felt fear. It wasn"t that he hadn"t experienced that emotion before. Of course he had. Having an underdeveloped conscience and an explosive temper didn"t mean he didn"t know fear. What was bothering him right now was that he had felt such fear for Danica, had feared she would be seriously hurt and feared she would be taken from him just like that and at his own hands. He couldn"t even say it was his wolf"s fear. His wolf had been going through his own shit right then. No, that had been all Gio. It had to have been a direct consequence of the natural crazy possessiveness and crazy protectiveness that came with mating. It was obviously age old instincts pushing to the forefront, taking over. Gio understood that the mating would be temporary, but his instincts to protect his mate were obviously going to override his thoughts. Obviously. Just like his instinct to mark his mate and make her submit to him had overridden his true indifference to those things. Yeah, that was all it was, all it could be. Obviously. That didn"t improve his mood any because there was another issue that was bothering him. Danica shouldn"t have been able to calm his wolf. When a wolf shifter went into wild mode they behaved a lot like a rabid animal. They attacked senselessly, they felt no emotional attachments, they lost all sense of reason and logic. And yet her scent and voice had reached his wolf even through that fog. Gio had felt how quickly his wolf had recognised her as his mate, how quickly he had switched from wanting to kill to wanting to protect. The only reason his wolf had been reluctant to leave the carcass was because he still hadn"t been stable enough to understand that the sandy wolf was dead and no longer a danger to Danica. If his wolf was this attached to Danica now, what would he be like in three months? What would happen when she left? Gio"s wolf growled his objection, confirming Gio"s suspicion that his eventual separation from her could be more problematic and uncomfortable than he had anticipated even though they hadn"t imprinted. Unlike with true mates, a relationship between imprinted mates could wither over time. For an unhappy imprinted couple it wasn"t simple for them to shake hands and go their separate ways because of the metaphysical bond that existed between them. The pain of that kind of separation was on a psychic level just as much as a physical one. For most wolves, it meant constant migraines, a lingering sense of emptiness, and slipping in and out of depressive states for a few years, if not longer. Some wolves even retreated within their human half completely, unable to function without their mate. The worst case scenario for any wolf separated from their mate was that they turned rogue, remaining in wolf form and turning completely wild, attacking anyone they came into contact with like his mother had. After had being banished, his mom who had been a submissive wolf had for the first time in her life rebelled against his dad"s authority. When he refused to reconsider his banishment, she had left with Gio and the others, believing that she would cope with the separation because her bond with his father had been through imprinting as opposed to them being true mates. However the separation had proven too difficult for her, most likely because she had been a submissive wolf. Within six months she had turned rogue…and Gio had been the one to kill her. There was no way that he was prepared to go through something like that again. As long as he and Danica didn"t imprint, there was no risk of either of them suffering any of those effects when they separated, but it was obvious that his wolf was already becoming attached to her. And that spooked the hell out of Gio. So instead of going straight to Danica to check on her like he wanted to, he shut himself in his office. Another thing that spooked him was the knowledge that if she hadn"t been with him in that Mediation meeting, if she hadn"t kept him calm with her touch, he would have most definitely lost it and went for Kevin"s throat. Never had he been able to truly rely on another person. Never had there been someone for him to draw strength from. But that had been okay because he hadn"t wanted to need anyone. He hadn"t been the type of kid who craved physical affection which had been a damn good thing since he"d never gotten it. He had always prided himself on not having that weakness of needing anyone or anything. Having a mate, having a connection that came with mating, was fucking with that. Not that he believed for even one minute that the mating connection could override the way he functioned and had always functioned, but he didn"t have any interest in encouraging the cravings for his mate by feeding them. Maybe if he distanced himself from her, spent little time with her, didn"t touch her, it would ease the matter and ease his wolf"s attachment to her. He needed to ignore these urges; he had to be with her, to touch her, to mark her entire body, to ensure his scent was all over her.