Filed to story: Luna Lovette and Alpha Kodak Story
Maybe Glory didn’t want to wait and acted alone this time. Whatever the case, we can’t let this go.” Jaime nodded. “Which is why I fully intend to challenge her.” Dante tightened his grip on her hand. “Jaime-“
“Just what would you do to a guy who not only attempted to have you killed, but was claiming I was his mate?”
That didn’t even require an answer. He knew that she had a point, knew that nothing in this world would have stopped him from challenging someone who tried to claim her, but fairness didn’t matter to him right now. All the fear and anxiety he’d felt last night was still lingering in his veins.
The last thing he could condone would be for her to be in any form of danger ever again. And she honestly expected him to? What perturbed him more was that his wolf wasn’t objecting to her intention. He saw it as just that his female would challenge the person responsible for her injury.
“I’m not asking for your permission,” she said softly, “but I am asking for your support.”
“I can’t.” With that, he released her hand, slammed his mug on the bedside table, and stood sharply. As he stormed out of the room, he heard her hitch in a breath behind him, knew his reaction had hurt her. A part of him wanted to do a U-turn and lock his arms around her, fuse his lips with hers, and tell her he was sorry. But he couldn’t, because he wasn’t sorry. He didn’t want her challenging Glory, and nothing could change his mind on that.
Until Jaime came along, he’d never been a brooder. Never saw the attraction in going off to be alone somewhere to simply stew on his feelings. But he found himself doing that for the next few hours. As if the rest of the pack knew exactly what he was doing in the living area, they completely avoided it the whole time. Well, all but one.
“You’re an ass. You know that, right?”
Dante looked up at the tiny, scowling blonde standing over him and sighed. “Lovette, honey-“
“Don’t you ‘Lovette, honey’ me, Barney Rubble.” She perched herself on the sectional sofa beside him and moaned as if she was glad to be off her feet. The large piece of furniture practically swallowed her. “Look, I realize that you’re inexperienced with relationships, so I’ll give you a heads-up. Refusing to offer support to a girlfriend who is constantly supportive of you-that’s bad.”
“Why is it so bad that I don’t want her hurt?” He honestly didn’t get it.
“You’re hurting her right now by not supporting her.”
“I’m trying to protect her from herself. She could have fucking died, Lovette. The guy shot to kill.”
“Yes, and she wanted to kill him. But she didn’t. You did. You got your revenge. I’ll bet you wouldn’t be sitting here so quiet if you hadn’t.”
Maybe not, but that wasn’t the point. “What if her wolf pushes to the surface like last time, huh?”
She gave him a disgusted look. “You don’t believe that will happen any more than I do. Your training has helped her so much. You’re good for her, and she’s good for you. Don’t mess that up for yourself.”
“I don’t see how wanting her alive and well is going to mess anything up.”
“Of course you don’t. But that’s because you’re stupid. You think that since you have a dick, you’re more dominant and should make all the decisions and everything will work out as you want it to. If you want a female who’ll let you deal with all her problems, go find yourself a nice submissive wolf. It’s not in a dominant wolf’s nature to hide behind other people. You know this. You’re expecting Jaime to be something she’s not.”
“I’m expecting her to care about her own safety.”
She released an exasperated sigh. “How do you think it feels for Jaime to have someone claiming the person she cares about? You know how hard that would be for you, and for your wolf.
Making it even harder is that this same someone threatened her once before and made her wolf strive to surface.
Now she’s trying to have her killed. What else do you expect Jaime to do? By doing what she did, Glory effectively challenged her. No, the bitch didn’t expect her to survive it, but Jaime did, and now she’s in a position where she has to deal with it.”
“I can protect her.”
“Sure you can. But this isn’t about your level of macho-ness. It’s not about you, so stop trying to make it about you.”
Not about him? “She’s my female, she’s-“
“A person with her own mind who you’ll never be able to control no matter how hard you try,” finished Lovette in a surprisingly patient voice. “You care about her. I get it. You want her to be safe. I get it. She gets it. But you can’t fight Glory. Her brothers, sure. But you can’t fight a female, and you never would.”
Fair point, but that didn’t make any difference to how he felt. “I can’t be okay with her putting herself in any kind of danger.”
“No one’s asking you to be happy about it.” With a slight struggle, she managed to get to her feet. “But you need to support Jaime in this. So do it, or lose her. One or the other.” Why did she have to be right? All he wanted was for Jaime to be safe. It wasn’t like he was asking her for a kidney or for her to eat her own foot or something. Damn dominant females and their independent streak. As much as it infuriated him, he had to admit that it wouldn’t be fair to ask Jaime to ignore this and be something that she wasn’t. He couldn’t bring himself to be okay with it, but he could support her the way she’d supported him. His wolf settled a little at that.
Sighing, Dante finally left the living area and sought out the female who had a way of turning him inside fucking out. Eventually he found her in the game room with Shaya, Gabe, Hope, and the enforcers. To his surprise, each one of them scowled at him when he walked in, even the usually passive Hope.
Apparently uninterested in him, Jaime didn’t react at all to his presence. She limped around the pool table to take her shot, reminding him of just what had happened the night before, reminding him that she shouldn’t even be standing here right now, reminding him of just how scared he was of losing her. Dante wasn’t good at handling fear, and he wasn’t good at handling helplessness. Here he was in a situation where he had to deal with both.
When he gestured to the others with a tip of his head for them to leave him alone with Jaime, they completely ignored him. Great. His own female was being protected from him.
“Out.”
The command got their attention and, grumbling and scowling, each member of the pack slowly left the room. A few of them shot him warning looks that said, “Don’t upset her again.”
“Finished sulking, have you,” Jaime said flatly before sinking each of the balls that remained on the pool table. How was it that she could want to gut him and kiss him at the same time? Oh she was royally pissed, just like her wolf. But damn it, he was wearing that soft, vulnerable expression again. As much as she deeply suspected he did it on purpose, it got to her every time.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?