He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He looked flustered and angry and Gia pressed on.
“I’ll tell you when. It was two years ago when you went after a healthy buck and nearly lost your eye when it kicked you in the face.”
“That could have happened to anyone. Brian and Kyle had serious injuries from that hunt too.”
“Yes, because they had to save your ass. You put our brethren in danger and you didn’t have the strength to protect them.”
“Do you know what it’s like being with a woman who always has to be on top? Who always has to be the dominant? I’m a man Gia, and I want to feel like one.”
“If you want to feel like a man, than you have to act like one!” Now she was screaming, her anger running roughshod over her self control. All the whispers, all the pleas, all the well meant advice she’d taken over the years about her poor choice of mate washed over her, drenching her with fresh anger as her efforts were thrown in her face. He wasn’t just ungrateful, he was outraged. It pissed her off.
She opened her mouth to say something else, but Claudiu shocked her by grabbing her arms and hurling them both toward the wall. Her back hit the plaster with such force she was certain there’d be a body sized indentation when she moved. A dull pain throbbed in the base of her skull and oozed down her back. She stared at Claudiu like he’d lost his mind.
“You’ve been a cold bitch to me ever since we left that bloodsucker’s mansion,” he hissed. “Was it the violence? Is that what you mean when you tell me to ‘act like a man?’”
He pressed his body against her, grinding his hips into hers. Their hip bones grated against each other and she gritted her teeth against the minor pain. The erection pressing into her belly did nothing but disgust her, coming as it was from a man who clearly had no soft feelings for her.
Claudiu leaned down, putting his lips against her ear. “You haven’t fucked me for a month. Have you been waiting for me to take it?” He drew his tongue over the edge of her ear and her skin crawled. “Should I go ask the vampire to borrow his chains?” Claudiu sneered.
“We are through,” Gia gasped, so furious she could barely get the words out. “Now let me go, or I’ll—”
A dark blur crashed into Claudiu, ripping him away from her and throwing him across the room so hard his head bounced off the window and shattered the glass. There was a gasp from somewhere outside, but before Gia could go to see who made the sound, Sorin turned to face her.
The sight of his face took her breath away. He stood before her completely naked, his smooth pale skin glowing in the beams of moonlight streaming through the window. Without the restrictive confines of his gentleman’s clothes he looked like something wild and free. His eyes flashed as he turned his back on Claudiu and faced her.
The sickening feel of Claudiu’s body pressed against her vanished under a wave of arousal as she stared at Sorin. His entire being vibrated with barely restrained violence, leaving no doubt in her mind that here stood a mate who could fight his own battles. He stood there waiting, his dark gaze shining with hunger. Desire burned over her flesh, enveloping her in heat. She stepped toward him and it was as if that’s all he’d needed. She gasped as he darted forward, his arms banding around her as he crushed her against his chest. He lowered his mouth to hers and she eagerly tilted her face to meet him.
He kissed her as if he would consume her. Her spirit soared as his lips slid against her, teasing her mouth open and taking advantage of her complete surrender to invade her mouth and run his tongue over her own. Wet heat rushed from her body, making her painfully aware of her body’s need to be filled, to be reclaimed by the mate she’d been so sure she’d lost.
Claudiu.
Gia stilled as a sound from behind her reminded her where she was. She reluctantly pulled away from Sorin, her beast crying out when she broke the kiss. No matter how angry she was with her former mate, and no matter how desperate she was to lose herself in Sorin’s arms and forget the last month had ever happened, this was neither the time nor the place.
She stared into Sorin’s eyes, the hunger in his gaze making it hard to keep any space between them. She didn’t know what had made him return to her after nearly thirty days without a word, but there would be time to talk about that later. For now, she had to deal with Claudiu.
Before she could even turn around to face her ex, a howl pierced the room, echoing out the broken window into the night. Gia and Sorin both jerked their attention toward the source of the sound, and Gia’s desire addled brain struggled to figure out what was going on as she watched Claudiu throw his head back and howl again. A feeling of dread wrapped its tentacles around her as the front door flew open and the first of her brethren rushed inside.
“The vampire has come to kidnap our lupa,” Claudiu shouted. He pointed at Sorin. “We must save our lupa!”
Gia’s blood ran cold as she recognized John and Paul, two of her pack’s Furies. At six foot four, John towered over Sorin and despite being only five foot eleven, his brother Paul was equally menacing. They’d been the pack’s punishers for over a decade and while Sorin had proved himself more than capable of defeating another werewolf one on one, he couldn’t possibly be prepared to face a pair who’d been physically subduing their own kind for years.
The two brown-haired brothers turned their icy blue gazes to Sorin. Gia could almost feel the tension in the air spike as they drew themselves to their full height and bared their teeth at her “attacker.” She gasped in shock as Sorin jerked her behind him, snarling at the Furies.
Oh, I don’t think so!
Gia gritted her teeth and stepped around Sorin, raising her finger to point at John and Paul.
“Step down, Furies,” she commanded. “There is no danger here.”
The brothers paused, their eyes darting from Gia, to Sorin, to Claudiu, and back to Gia.
“What in Hades name is going on?” Paul growled.
“Can’t you smell him?” Claudiu shouted. “He’s a vampire and he has your lupa!”
“Isn’t that Sorin?” John asked suspiciously. “I thought we’d determined he wasn’t a threat?”
“He’s not,” Gia said firmly. Her eyes darted around the room as more and more of her kin responded to the commotion in her cabin. Some entered cautiously, searching for danger, others wandered in with expressions of blatant curiosity. All of them looked to her for an explanation.
Her mind spun as she tried to keep up with what was happening. She’d been so sure Sorin didn’t want her, she’d never bothered to speak with anyone in her pack about what had happened between them. As far as they knew, he was a vampire living nearby who didn’t cause trouble and had never given them a reason to view him as a threat. She took a deep breath. There was no reason to panic. This was none of their business.
Before she could open her mouth to order everyone out, John sniffed the air and frowned, the tension in the room momentarily ceasing its climb. He turned his gaze to Gia.
“You don’t smell scared,” he said slowly.
“Of course she doesn’t smell scared, she is our lupa,” Claudiu yelled. “Do your duty and protect her.”
For the first time in years, Gia didn’t flinch at her pack mate’s complete disregard for Claudiu. John continued to search her eyes. “She smells aroused.” He glanced at the vampire. “And so does he.”
“Claudiu is the only one who smells scared,” Paul spoke up, glaring at Claudiu.
Gia almost laughed with relief. Her body’s stubborn and insuppressible reaction to Sorin had finally paid off as had Claudiu’s natural cowardice. Her pack would believe this was a personal matter and leave her alone to sort things out with the two men. There was no need for bloodshed. No one in the pack would support Claudiu over her. He would have no choice but to leave.
To his credit, Sorin hadn’t tried to push her behind him again after she stepped forward. Whatever protective instincts he was dealing with, he obviously trusted her to know what she was doing. Another piece of Gia opened itself to the idea of taking Sorin as her mate. He wouldn’t try to control her.
“Everyone go back to your business. This is not a pack matter.”
John and Paul glanced at each other. Despite their obvious confusion, they did as she commanded and stepped back. The rest of the pack seemed to relax and they began to shuffle around in preparation for leaving the cabin.
“On the contrary, this is very much pack business.”
The female voice pierced the murmur in the room and Gia clenched her teeth with anger as she recognized the woman who had spoken.
“Rhianne,” Gia acknowledged coolly. “You have something to say?”
“Yes, I do.” Rhianne walked to the front of the crowd, her hips swaying subtlety, drawing the men’s gazes to her softly curved yet well-muscled body. Gia narrowed her eyes at the way they parted for her. From the day Rhianne had joined their pack, she’d been a not so subtle threat. Gia had taken her in despite her animosity because she’d felt sorry for Rhianne—one of the few survivors of her previous pack’s massacre. It hadn’t taken long for Rhianne to prove herself as a valuable fighter, earning her a position in the Furies. Now Gia had to wonder, not for the first time, if she’d made a mistake allowing the ambitious younger woman into her family.
Rhianne stopped just in front of Gia, giving her a steely look before turning to address the pack. Her eyes held the same accusation they always did when she looked at Gia—as if the older woman had failed her in some damnable way. That look always inspired guilt in Gia, and she didn’t know why. For the millionth time, Gia wondered what she had done to earn such ire.
“I’m here to tell you that tonight when I came to retrieve our alphas for the hunt, I heard Gia sever her relationship with Claudiu.”
There were wide eyes and sounds of surprise from around the room. Most of her pack nodded in approval and Gia had a split second of comfort before Rhianne continued.
“Claudiu instigated a fight, challenging Gia for leadership of the pack.”
Now the surprise turned to shock. There were a few derisive laughs and Gia couldn’t help a small swell of satisfaction that everyone in the pack recognized Claudiu’s challenge as the joke it was. Sorin tensed beside her and Gia frowned. Something was making him nervous. Something she hadn’t seen yet.
“So do you plan to challenge her for the position of lupa?”
Gia snapped her head around to face the voice. Marco stepped forward, his brown eyes boring into hers. His neck still bore a faint hint of a scar from where Sorin has torn at his neck during their fight. The sight of the injury sent a spike of guilt into her heart as she remembered his broken bloody body falling from Sorin’s blood drenched hands. Whatever the circumstances, it had felt incredibly wrong to stand by while a member of her pack was hurt. She winced. It didn’t help that it had been that display of dominance from Sorin that had cemented her wolf’s determination to take him as a mate.
“I would challenge her,” Rhianne nodded. “But it would be irrelevant.” She turned to face Gia, a spark of grim satisfaction lighting her eyes. “Since she is not our lupa anymore.”
The pack erupted into a chorus of questions. Before Gia could call for silence, Rhianne raised her hands and the talking stopped. Her wolf’s fur bristled as she watched her pack obey the commands of another female. Something was wrong.
“What do you mean Gia is not our lupa anymore?”
“As I watched Claudiu attack Gia, this man,” she pointed to Sorin, “entered the room and took up the battle. Letting someone else fight the challenge fight constitutes a forfeit. By right of combat, Claudiu is our lycaeon. And he is single.”
“I choose Rhianne for my lupa,” Claudiu shouted.
Rhianne’s smile widened. “I accept.”
Gia’s head spun and bile teased the back of her throat. In a matter of seconds, her world had gone from a dream to a nightmare. She looked around at the faces of her pack mates, dismayed at the looks of discomfort she saw as they turned away from her.
“Technically she’s right,” a voice admitted.
“If he interrupted the fight then Gia forfeits.”
Pain burned in the tears behind Gia’s eyes. A technicality. That’s all it was. No one here could really call Claudiu attacking her a “challenge fight.” Nor could they really consider Sorin’s intervention a forfeit on her part. They were all allowing a technicality to remove her as lupa. How could she have lost their loyalty so completely?