  She shook her head. &quot;That&quot;s just his wolf, Duda. Just his mating instincts. It&quot;s not Gio.&quot;
  &quot;He knew in advance that his wolf would be possessive, he knew his instincts would ride him hard &ndash; he&quot;d been ready for all that. He hadn&quot;t been
  ready for how it would be if he himself felt those same things.&quot;
  &quot;You&quot;re wrong.&quot; The denial was automatic. Automatic because she&quot;d come to the conclusion a long time ago that she could only ever rely on
  herself, that she would never have that total acceptance that came from a mate. She was defiant, sarcastic, snappy, contrary, stubborn and strong-willed.not an attractive combination for male wolves in her opinion. When she&quot;d lost Zan she&quot;d also lost that one chance of being cared for exactly as she was, latency and all. Besides this was Gio they were talking about for God&

  It was as she was rinsing the conditioner from her hair that Danica felt a chill on her back followed by the presence of a warm muscular body behind
  her. Gio&quot;s scent swirled around her, comforting both her and her wolf. Without saying a word, he took the soapy sponge from the shelf, tipped her
  head forward, and washed every inch of her back. Then he moved onto her arms, her ass, her legs. Never was his touch anything but gentle. Then he
  turned her to face him and washed the front of her body in much the same way. At no point was his touch seductive, but somehow she was as turned on as all hell by the time he&quot;d reached her thighs.
  Abruptly Danica knotted her hands in his hair and tugged his head down as she mashed her lips to his. He didn&quot;t require any coaxing. Groaning, he
  plunged his tongue into her mouth and made the kiss his own. There was nothing gentle abo

  &quot;The whole point of mating with me was to get an alliance with my dad. You can&quot;t let the fact that he&quot;s an asshole get in the way here of your big
  plan.&quot;
  Yeah, but Gio couldn&quot;t agree to this alliance without feeling as though he was being disloyal to his mate. God knew he&quot;d hurt her enough already.
  &quot;Jeremy said a number of other alphas are willing to discuss an alliance. Maybe I won&quot;t need your dad.&quot;
  &quot;You&quot;ve never needed him, you&quot;ve never needed this mating,&quot; stated Max.
  &quot;Too right,&quot; said Theresa, crossing her arms over her chest, accentuating her cleavage. &quot;She has no place here.&quot;
  &quot;No Hart will ever have a place here.&quot;
  Danica shook her head. &quot;This stuff is getting real old.&quot;
  &quot;Isn&quot;t that right, Cindy?&quot; pressed Theresa, ignoring Danica.
  Cindy gulped a

She shook her head. &quot;That&quot;s just his wolf, Duda. Just his mating instincts. It&quot;s not Gio.&quot;
  &quot;He knew in advance that his wolf would be possessive, he knew his instincts would ride him hard &ndash; he&quot;d been ready for all that. He hadn&quot;t been
  ready for how it would be if he himself felt those same things.&quot;
  &quot;You&quot;re wrong.&quot; The denial was automatic. Automatic because she&quot;d come to the conclusion a long time ago that she could only ever rely on
  herself, that she would never have that total acceptance that came from a mate. She was defiant, sarcastic, snappy, contrary, stubborn and strong-willed.not an attractive combination for male wolves in her opinion. When she&quot;d lost Zan she&quot;d also lost that one chance of being cared for exactly as she was, latency and all. Besides this was Gio they were talking about for God&quot;s sake! &quot;There&quot;s no danger of us imprinting.&quot;
  &quot;I agree. There&quot;s s

CHAPTER 33