by V Vee
Worried she would, Angelo quickly returned to his human form. He sat back on his heels, watching Joi carefully. She seemed perfectly calm and he relaxed. She was okay. She had accepted his wolf. They would talk this through and all would be good.
So, the punch to his ribs took him by surprise. With a grunt, he fell to the side of the bed and off onto the floor, stunned for a moment as he heard Joi’s footsteps rushing out of the room and towards the front door.
Chapter 15
Joi’s feet pounded the wooden floors of her Caribbean home as she raced to the front door, she snatched her long, black, walking peacoat that she’d left hanging on the coat rack and quickly shoved her arms into it, before shoving open the door, scooping up her tennis shoes and flying out the door on light feet. She made sure the footprints in the sand led directly to her car, before she turned and headed back towards the back of her house and the beach beyond.
Her breath sounded loud in her ear as she panted, her gaze focused on the sand of the beach and her neighbors that lay one mile down the stretch of private land. She knew if she got to them, though they’d rarely communicated that the man who lived within would help her. She wasn’t sure if Angelo… the wolf… could track her as well in his human form, but she had to try. She had to get away.
Once on the sand, she hastily buttoned and belted the coat around her nude form, then shoved her feet into her shoes. Hearing the howl of a wolf too closely for her liking, Joi let out a screech and pushed herself harder, pumping her arms as she headed to her neighbor.
Thank god for high school and college track, she thought to herself.
She could hear footsteps behind her, but she refused to look behind her. That was how all those stupid women in the horror movies got caught and killed. Instead she dug deep within herself and pushed herself to go faster than she ever had before. Her life, literally, depended on it.
Angelo is a fucking werewolf! I had sex—unprotected sex—with a werewolf! Oh fuck! Am I going to become a wolf because he came inside of me?
Seeing her neighbor coming in from the ocean, a surfboard tucked beneath his arm, Joi started screaming and shouting at him. She saw the moment he noticed her, and no doubt the large, hulking form of a strange man chasing her. He tossed his surfboard aside and ran towards her.
Joi. Stop. You belong to me. You are my mate. You were created for me. Don’t run from me.
Angelo’s voice appearing in her mind, sounding as if he were right next to her, caused Joi to stumble slightly. She hopped a couple of steps, realizing she’d twisted her ankle, but still she ran on. Persistant. Determined to reach her neighbor.
She blinked, stunned that he’d reached her so quickly, and screamed when he launched himself at Angelo. Knowing that her neighbor had come to her rescue, she finally allowed herself to look back.
The sight that greeted her, startled her, and she screamed, falling to her ass and scrambling backwards. Her neighbor… what was his name again, oh yeah, Hendrix Numisius, had shifted into a brown wolf and was currently fighting Angelo, whose own wolf, which had been a rather large black wolf, had doubled in size since he’d shifted for her.
Hendrix is a shifter too? Who the hell isn’t a fucking werewolf?
Blood flew through the air, decorating the sand beneath the two fighting wolves. Snarls, growls, and the sound of claws ripping through flesh and fur echoed through the air. Joi trembled in fear, uncertain of exactly who she wanted to win. Who was she safer with?
Her eyes went back and forth from one wolf to the other, as she backed away from them, in a crabwalk. When they began circling each other, Joi rose to her feet and began to take careful, measured steps back. She slapped her hands over her mouth to muffle her wince as she stepped down on her swollen foot, attached to the swelling and sprained ankle. However, the sound obviously carried to the angry and fighting wolves because they both stopped and snapped their heads in her direction.
Joi’s eyes widened, and she took a deep breath and turned to run again. Maybe she could get to her next neighbor, and hopefully they wouldn’t be a shifter, and she could find sanctuary and safety there.
Before she could run, she was tackled, arms wrapping around her and rolling with her to the sand. She was protected from any harm or too much sand, by whomever it was and when they came to a stop, she lay half in the wet sand and half out of it, the Caribbean waves coming in and lapping at her skin. She found herself looking up into the angry gaze of… Angelo.
“Stop running from me, mate,” he commanded her through clenched teeth.
Joi shoved at his unmoving torso, punching his broad torso. She could tell he wasn’t bothered by her hits, her knuckles came away stinging with pain, as if she’d been punching a brick wall. She finally hissed and pulled her hands back to her chest.
Angelo shook his head and Joi frowned at the cuts, scratches, and wounds that marred his face and body. She lifted a hand to Angelo’s cheek, a feeling of guilt, shame, sadness, and anger at Hendrix racing through her. She glared at her neighbor over Angelo’s shoulder.
“Did you have to hurt him so badly?” she yelled.
The look of surprise that swept over Hendrix’s face caused Joi to freeze. She turned to look at Angelo, confusion swelling within her.
Angelo was smiling down at her softly. “I have been trying to tell you, love. You are my mate. The one destined and created just for me. Our spirits and souls have bonded. Joined. You no more want to see me hurt, than I would ever hurt you. I will not only never hurt you, but I will kill—viciously—anyone who ever hurts or touches you.” He swept sandy fingers over her shoulder.
“We are one,” he whispered.
Joi swallowed and opened her mouth to say… something, but before she was able to, Hendrix’s voice sounded from the darkness.
“You are mated to a Marconi?” Disgust and despair evident in his tone.
Chapter 16
Angelo stared at the man, a member of the Numisius pack—the mortal enemy of pack Marconi—with rage boiling in his gut. How dare this… pup question his mate about their bond! Angelo stood and pulled Joi to her feet, wrapping his arm around her shoulder, tucking her close to his side. He watched the other man closely, what had Joi called him? Drix. This Drix was glaring at Angelo as if he’d stolen Joi away from him, which was just ridiculous. If Joi hadn’t been his mate, he would not have knotted inside of her, but he had. He’d also been unable to stop from giving her the mating bite when they’d been making love. He wasn’t sure what this Numisius asshole’s problem was, but Joi didn’t not belong to him, she belonged to Angelo.
For eternity.
“W-what are you talking about, Hendrix?” Joi stuttered out.
Angelo rubbed his hand up and down her back, in an effort to soothe the agitation he could sense from her. It vibrated the lines of their bond, making Angelo wince.
Hendrix—what a stupid name—frowned at Angelo before he looked back at Joi. He gestured at the two of them before pointing directly at the mating mark at the base of her throat. “You have the mating mark on you. His mark. That means you’re mated to him. You belong to him. Were destined for him.” He shook his head. “You reek of him.”
Angelo’s chest swelled knowing that the other wolf could smell him on Joi. It would take a full day, but eventually her scent would change, become a musky blend of her natural scent and his. The only time her scent would be different from that, would be when she was pregnant with his pups.
Angelo couldn’t wait for that day. To know that he’d bred her. That she was swelling with his baby, his seed. Angelo had to swallow back the groan of desire that clogged his throat. He wanted her again. Wanted to put his mark on her once more. Adrenaline and the animalistic urge to mark his territory, his mate, to claim her, after having to chase her and fight someone else for her safety and her hand, was causing his wolf to pace, whine, and howl within him. He would only be able to hold off for a moment before he would take her, no matter where they were.
&nbs
p; So he needed to get her home.
“I smell like him?” Joi lifted her hand to her hair, then touched her neck, shivering when her fingers touched her mating mark. Angelo smirked at Hendrix, quirking an eyebrow.
“Of course you do, love, you are mine. I told you, we are one. So you smell like me, and I smell like you,” he told her.
“Wait!” Joi slashed her hand through the air. “Is this some w-werewolf thing?”
Angelo and Hendrix growled. “Wolf shifter,” Angelo corrected her.
“We are not werewolves,” Hendrix stated simultaneously.
“Whoa!” Joi raised her hands in surrender. “I’m sorry. Forgive me if I’m having a bit of a tough time processing all of this.” She shook her head. “I only just found out that the man I just slept with, the one I ran from, is actually a wolf shifter, and not just an arrogant, demanding, asshole.”
Angelo chuckled. She wasn’t wrong about his attributes… or shortcomings. But he’d hoped that she would be able to see past the businessman and see the man he was inside. That even after he’d shown her his wolf half, she would still want the man, as well as the wolf.
Hendrix angrily stomped over to them, and Angelo pushed Joi behind him. While his wolf was easily twice the size of the other man’s, the man himself topped Angelo by at least three inches and was much broader in the shoulders and thicker in the thighs. Angelo could sense that Hendrix thought he could beat him in their human forms, better than he could in their wolf ones, but he would be seriously wrong. One of the reasons Angelo was, in fact, an Alpha, was because in human form his size, while still tall, broad, and muscled, was deceptive to his strength. He looked as if he would be slow, weighed down by his muscles and frame, but he was fast, and his hands, the hands of an Alpha, packed a punch. He knew he would be able to take this Numisius dog, easily. He just didn’t want Hendrix to know it.
“You mated her without telling her what you were? What she was signing up for? What the fuck are they teaching in the Marconi pack? That you don’t need to be honest with your mate or have their consent before giving them the claiming bite?” Hendrix growled.
Angelo narrowed his eyes and growled at the implication that he’d forced Joi into anything. “Well, as a Numisius you know all about rape, force, and violence don’t you?”
Hendrix pulled back his fist and Angelo watched him in anticipation, hoping the other man would hit him first so he could kill him. The very idea of washing his hands in the blood of his enemy made him almost dizzy with excitement.
“Stop it!” Joi yelled. “What the fuck is wrong with the two of you? You act like you hate each other, but you’ve only just met.” She shook her head and touched Hendrix’s forearm. Angelo snarled and snatched her hand away, holding it tightly in his own.
“Hendrix, thank you for wanting to look out for me, but Angelo didn’t force me into anything. Not really. I wanted to have sex with him. I was rather enthusiastic about it. Yes, he should have told me the truth about who and what he is, but,” she shrugged. “I guess I get it. I’m human, even if I was… created,” she said, stumbling over the last word, “for him, he couldn’t be certain that I wouldn’t put him in danger by trying to tell someone. Or even trying to kill him.” She sighed. “I understand, more than you can comprehend what it’s like to have someone want to kill you because of how you were born.”
She looked away and Angelo wrapped his arm around her waist and brought her body flush against his own. He could feel the despair rolling off her like waves. It permeated the air around them like a bloated whale, that had washed up onto the shore, died, and been left to rot for days. Angelo wanted to get the stink out of his nostrils, and by the way Hendrix held a hand up to his nose, the other wolf felt the same way, however, it wasn’t as simple as simply exhaling or blowing their noses. The stench was coming from Joi. From how she was feeling. So the only way to get rid of it was to make, or help, her feel differently. Happier.
“That still doesn’t explain how or why you mated a Marconi,” Hendrix said with a narrowed-eyed gaze.
Angelo tilted his head to the side. “What do you mean, how or why? She mated me because she is mine. My mate. My eternity. The other half of my soul. My spirit’s song. The beat of my heart. We were able to mate because it was destined,” he pointed out.
Hendrix shook his head. “No. No. No. That shouldn’t have been possible,” he denied.
Joi lifted her head from where she’d rested it, subconsciously against Angelo’s chest, and he missed her warmth instantly.
“Why not, Hendrix?” she asked.
Hendrix thumped a fist against his chest. “Because you are mine. You are my mate. I have known it since the moment we met. I was simply waiting for the right opportunity to introduce you to my world. To tell you what I am. To get you comfortable with my wolf. You shouldn’t have been able to mate anyone else, because it is my mating mark that should be on you.”
Angelo stared at Hendrix as if he’d lost his mind and then glanced down at Joi who was watching the other man considering. He didn’t like the look on her face, and dread snaked its way up his spine.
She looked up at Angelo for a moment before returning her gaze to Hendrix.
“Maybe I’m supposed to be mated to both of you?”
When Hendrix growled angrily, Angelo agreed with his furious sentiment and echoed it with a growl of his own.
* * *
Joi wanted to laugh at the two domineering men who were growling around her. She’d known before she’d spoken that the chance she was mated to both of them was nonexistent. Without asking him, it was apparent that Angelo did not share, and Hendrix seemed as if he were cut from the same cloth.
Well, there goes that fantasy, she thought to herself.
Yeah, you can forget about it, Angelo’s voice sounded in her head and Joi jumped slightly. Oh yeah, she’d forgotten about that. Angelo could talk to her in her mind. It was weird and completely creepy… and just a bit cool.
Something else to think about and ponder later, she promised herself.
You can ask me anything you want, and I will answer honestly, Angelo responded.
Ugh! Can’t I turn you off? Joi groused. Isn’t there a way to make it so that you can’t hear everything I think or feel?
Yes, there is, I will teach you once we return to your home, Angelo promised.
“Are you two talking using your link?” Hendrix asked, his voice sad.
Joi’s gaze flew back to the other man’s face and she realized that she and Angelo had been talking without using their mouths, simply staring at each other, for quite a while.
“I’m sorry, Hendrix,” she apologized.
He raised a hand and shook his head. “I just don’t understand,” he murmured. “Your scent woke my wolf. It smells like my mate. It makes my wolf howl out mine,” he confessed.
“While I have no love for you,” Angelo spoke up, “are you positive? How is your wolf reacting now? Smelling me on her? Because I can tell you, if I smelled you on her, I would rip your throat out, but you merely seem… agitated and confused.”
Joi looked back and forth between the two men, though she understood their words in theory, in the practical part of her brain, the rational side, she was completely lost. She smelled like Hendrix’s mate? Was that how wolves knew who their mates were, by scent? And if that was true, how could she smell like both Angelo and Hendrix’s mate?
Suddenly, clarity came to her and while it may have been a long shot, she decided to test her theory.
“I have a sister. Older. But still…” she hedged.
Hendrix’s head swung to her and his eyes flashed… gold. Why not silver like Angelo’s? Which Joi realized in that moment she hadn’t been imagining.
“You have a sister?” Hendrix asked. Joi nodded, taking a tiny step closer to Angelo when Hendrix’s voice lowered even more. She released a sigh of relief when Angelo’s arm tightened around her waist. While she still wasn’t one-hundred percent on board with the
whole wolf shifter thing, she had to admit that she felt a lot safer with Angelo than she had with anyone else. Even her father.
“Her name is Kim,” she answered.
Angelo snapped his fingers and pointed at Hendrix. “As siblings their scents would be similar, but slightly different. I noticed it when I met her. If I hadn’t met my Joi first, I may have been slightly confused about who my mate was as well. My wolf definitely took notice of her, but he already knew Joi was ours.”
Joi turned to glare at Angelo. “You checked out my sister?” she asked, jealousy and possessiveness gripping her insides tightly.
Angelo’s eyes widened and he shook his head. “Not like that, baby. It’s just…”
Joi pushed him away from her. “Forget it. Hendrix, if you would like to meet my sister, I’d be glad to introduce her to you, just… break the whole wolf thing to her delicately. She’s got children and she’s been through enough in her life already. As for you,” she pointed at Angelo. “Kiss. My. Ass.”
She turned and stomped back towards her home, the sand flying up behind her feet as she marched towards the warmth and shelter of her Caribbean vacation house. While she was upset to know that her… mate, had checked out her sister, she still expected Angelo to follow her. They had much to talk about.
Like the fact that he’d offered her one billion dollars for her company when he knew she was supposed to end up with him.
Chapter 17
“If I were you I would go after her,” Hendrix suggested as he and Angelo watched Joi stomp off.
“Yes, you may be right,” he agreed. He made a move to follow his mate, when Hendrix’s hand came down on his forearm. Angelo looked down at the man’s hand on him then up into his face. He quirked an eyebrow.