Wicked Cravings

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“The wound is fully healed,” declared Grace after she had carefully examined Jaime’s leg the next morning. “I think it will still be a little tender to walk on for a few hours. By tonight, it’ll be fine again.”

Jaime looked at the panicky wolf who sat gingerly on the bed, as if his body weight could break her. “Happy now?”

Dante kissed her cheek and filled his lungs with her scent, reassuring himself and his wolf that she was fine. “I just wanted to be sure. You were almost killed last night. Give me a little space to be more overprotective than usual.”

“Give me a little space to breathe. I’ve agreed not to go to work, but there’s no way I’ll agree to sitting in this damn bed all day.”

The door opened, and Lydia strode inside with a tray of food. Gabe was close behind her, carrying two mugs of coffee. While Dante had been off interrogating the lone wolf last night, her brother had barged into the examination room and fussed over her for at least thirty minutes straight. It had taken Hope, Lydia, and Rhett to convince him to go to bed.

“Morning, sunshine,” drawled Gabe, who knew she was the world’s worst patient.

Scowling, she took the mug of coffee. “If you’ve come to fuss again, you can leave right now.

I’ve had enough of that from Popeye here.”

Dante nipped her earlobe punishingly. “You’d be the same if it was me.” She snorted. “No I wouldn’t, because you wouldn’t even be in this bed. You’d have been out of it the second the bandage was on.”

He couldn’t argue with that, so, stifling a smile, he said nothing and took a swig of his coffee before digging into the pancakes that Lydia had placed on the tray for him.

“Your silence speaks for you.”

Gabe chuckled and kissed her forehead. “Give him a break.”

She gasped. “Whose side are you on?”

“His, in this case. He just wants to take care of you. Let him.”

“Traitor.”

Suddenly there was a light knock on the door, followed immediately by Shaya peeking through.

“Is it okay to come in?”

“Yes, please do,” Jaime quickly replied before Dante could say something dumb about her needing peace and quiet. Shaya smiled and walked inside, and then a crowd of people followed behind her and piled into the room.

Dante went to object, but Grace shook her head, saying, “They just want to see that she’s okay.”

Begrudgingly, he didn’t comment as each of the pack—other than Greta—gave Jaime a brief hug, though he did release a low, territorial growl whenever one of the males touched her. Marcus earned a whack over the head when he kissed her smack on the mouth purely to rile him. Jaime raised a brow at Dante, but he just shot her a wide, unrepentant grin.

“How does the leg feel?” It was clear by the way Taryn was fidgeting that the healer in her was finding it hard to know that someone in her presence was injured.

“A little tender, but that’s it,” replied Jaime, flexing it. “Give me a couple of days and I’ll be ready to challenge Glory.”

Dante nearly choked on his food. “You will not.”

Her wolf growled, displeased by his objection and tone. Dante had told her all that he had learned from the lone wolf last night. There was really only one thing Jaime could do now. “Dante, that crazy-ass woman tried to have me killed. Call me strange, but I’m not prepared to let that go.”

“She’ll pay for what she did. It doesn’t mean you have to challenge her.”

“A few months ago, I wouldn’t have. But your training taught me how to keep a handle on my wolf when I’m fighting. Why not put those skills to good use? Besides, she’ll just keep doing stuff until I do. Generally people who want someone dead will not stop until they’ve succeeded.”

“Yep,” he agreed, playing with her hair, “but she’ll have to get through me to reach you, and that’s not going to happen. You don’t get involved at all. The enforcers and I will deal with it.”

“I’m not the type of person to sit on my ass while everyone else shovels the shit.” A huff escaped the old woman standing near the door. “If your wolf wasn’t insane and you weren’t such a liability, you wouldn’t have to, would you.”

“Uh-oh,” said Jaime. “Greta’s mouth is open and words are spilling out. That can’t be good.”

“Because of that, the responsibility now falls to my poor boys.” Jaime groaned. “Please tell me you’ll cut the apron springs at some point. Seriously, it’s kind of disturbing.”

“It’s your wolf’s state that’s disturbing. I don’t know why Dante couldn’t have settled for someone who wasn’t mental, rude, slutty, and fat. There’ve been some lovely girls in his life. Why he had to pick you is beyond me.”

Jaime cupped her ear. “Sorry, what? It was hard to understand you while all that shit was streaming out of your mouth.”

Dante held a hand up to shush Greta and gripped Jaime’s chin, bringing her face to his. “I won’t let you put yourself in danger, Jaime. Deal with it.”

“Before we decide what to do next, we need to talk to Nick about what happened,” Trey interrupted.

Jaime resisted the urge to glance at Shaya to see if she was okay at the mention of Nick’s name. She made a mental note to check in with her later.

Tao leaned against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest. “What’s the point? He’s been no help at all.”

Trick nodded his agreement. “So far, all he’s done is protect Glory.”

“That’s only to be expected,” said Trey with a shrug. “She’s one of his wolves. I’d want damning evidence before I handed over any of you to someone to be punished. Even then, I wouldn’t want to do it.”

Dante sighed. “Then we don’t contact him about it. I told him that time I met him in the diner that if she didn’t let this drop, I’d deal with her myself without his approval. He said he’d do the very same thing if the situation was reversed.”

“Still, I doubt he’d truly be okay with it. And the last thing I want right now is to be battling with another pack. Taryn doesn’t need that kind of stress—” Taryn growled. “Flintstone, please explain what I did to give you the impression that I was delicate?”

“Taryn, you’re due to give birth any day now.” His expression was fierce and his voice was firm, but he might as well have been whispering for all the good it did to intimidate his mate.

“That doesn’t mean anyone in the pack has to suffer because of that. I think Jaime’s right. I think Glory will keep this up until someone gives her a very good reason to stop. If she acted alone, it’s possible that her brothers no longer wish to get involved.”

“That wouldn’t surprise me, given what Dante, Jaime, and Ivy did to them when they turned up at the animal sanctuary,” said Marcus.

“No.” Jaime shook her head. “I saw the looks on their faces. They were excited about hurting me. They were going to enjoy it. Especially because they’re unbelievably overprotective of their baby sister and know I hurt her badly. I can’t see them wanting to let someone else have the privilege of hurting me in return. They’d see it as being robbed.”

“She’s right.” Dante took her hand in his, wanting to feel her skin against his. “The brothers wouldn’t let this go. But they’ll know by now exactly what happens when they confront us. They’ll most likely want to bide their time, may even think we’d fall for the ‘Oh, they’ve let it go’ trick.

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. “Taryn, honey—”

“Don’t you ‘Taryn, 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, Taryn. 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 Taryn 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.

His voice was soft and beseeching. “You have to see why I don’t want you challenging anyone.”

“Well, you needn’t worry about it.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that I called Nick, I told him I wanted to issue a challenge on Glory, and he informed me that she’s missing.” Spineless bitch. Her wolf was in full agreement with that assessment.

“You called Nick? You did that without discussing it with me?”

“I did discuss it with you. You made your stance clear.”

As he sensed the depth of her anger, he shook his head disbelievingly. “You have no idea just how much it scared me when I realized you should be dead right now, do you? You just don’t get what that would have done to me. Nothing would have gotten me through it. Nothing, Jaime. I’d have been exactly like my mother was at the end: going through the motions, existing, but not living. Is it really that awful that I don’t want anything to happen to you?” If he thought that talented mouth was getting him out of this one, he was so wrong. “You, you, you—that’s all I hear. Let’s revisit the facts, big guy. I was the one this happened to. I was the one who should have died yesterday. And I’m the one who’s been getting called Limp-A-Lot all damn morning. But wait, no, you’re the victim here, aren’t you? So sad. Well, I hope that pity plane you’re on malfunctions and hits the ground like a goddamn dart!”

He caught her just as she was about to leave the room and curled both arms around her, keeping her back to his chest. “You’re right.”

“I know that.”

He sighed and kissed her hair. “Believe it or not, I came in here to tell you that I’d support you if that’s what you need. But then I saw you pale and limping…I’m used to being the protector. I want to protect you, and I don’t want you to have to protect yourself even though I know you can.” She gave him a sideways glance as, surprised, she said, “So you’re not disputing that I can?”

“No. Definitely not. I know how capable you are.” He turned her around and cupped her neck with his hands, using his thumbs to lift her face to his. “I know I made this about me. I’m just not used to having someone else who I have to think about. I’ve been on my own for so long that I sometimes don’t even realize how self-centered I’m being.”

“I can totally help you with that with some well-aimed bitch slaps if you want. You’d soon learn.”

He couldn’t help grinning. “I did tell you I’d need the room to mess up a little. Overprotective and controlling is a real bad combination, huh?”

She nodded, feeling her mood calm at his self-recriminating tone. He was a perfectionist who was forced to face that there was something he was far from perfect at, and it was getting to him. She wanted to smack the shit out of his ex for making him cower from relationships for so long. Not that she liked the idea of him with other females, but she liked the idea of him all confused and self-doubting even less. “But so is bitchy and stubborn. When you think about it, we shouldn’t match at all, should we?”

“Yes, we should.” He kissed her lightly and let his hands slide down her body until they were locked at the small of her back. “As much as I like control, it’s not healthy for me to have it all the time. Your rebellious streak takes care of that. If you weren’t so bitchy, you’d probably let me steamroll you and wrap you in cotton wool.”

“I guess.”

“My overprotectiveness makes up for your appalling lack of a flight response, and my controlling ways give you a way to exercise your bitchy streak. I mean, you have to admit that yours runs so deep it’s more like a muscle. I give you a way to flex and stretch it when you need to.” She fought a smile, but it was hopeless. “Jerk.”

Moving his hands down to cup her ass, he said, “Wanna go to bed and play doctors?” Chuckling, she punched his arm. “No, I don’t.”

“Sorry, that was immature. How about playing gynecologists?” Again, she chuckled. “I would, but lunch is calling my name loud and clear.”

“Baby, I’ll call your name as loud and clear as you want.”

She kissed him lightly. “Save it for later, big guy.”

“Dick-tease.”

Less than twenty-four hours later, Dante was arguing with her again, and losing at it again. He had wanted to give Jaime another morning free of training to give her extra time to recover, but the stubborn female refused to rest. Eventually he had to concede that she was right on two scores. One, her leg was, in fact, totally healed. Two, he would never have given anyone else extra time. Jaime didn’t want special treatment. His wolf loved her strength.

As usual, they started with their warm-up and did several laps of pack territory. It was no longer necessary to do any exercises on stealth—that had become clear on the morning before last when he had introduced pressure drills. During the drills, he had asked her to close her eyes and rely only on her other senses as she avoided Dominic, Marcus, and Trick, who were skulking around the woods. Not only had she been able to remain undetected, but she was more difficult to sneak up on than a sleeping cat. The guys had soon learned as they attempted to track her through the woods that unless Jaime wanted you to see her, you wouldn’t.

In fact, now, Jaime was physically the perfect enforcer. Not only had she perfected every combat move and mastered stealth, but she was as fit as Dante and as resilient as they came. “You’ve done amazingly well with your training over the past few months, Jaime,” he told her as they finished their laps of pack territory and stopped for a drink at the patio table. Whereas at one time she would have collapsed into one of the chairs, now she stood upright, ready and alert. “But I’m pretty sure you know that.” Her self-satisfied grin proved him right.

“Can I just ask why the guys are hiding in the woods?”

He grinned. No matter how good they were, she always sensed when anyone was around.

“That’ll become clear in a minute. As I said, you’ve done well. And everything I’ve taught you will help you when you challenge Glory. But there’s more to it than combat moves. So now it’s time to address the number one challenge you’ll face when confronted with a threat—which you soon will be. Yourself.”

Jaime’s forehead crinkled. “Myself?”

“You can be your own worst enemy in a dangerous situation if your head isn’t in the right place. Let’s not forget that the challenge will only end when one of you has been subdued or killed.

More often than not, it’s the latter. You might think killing someone will be easy. It’s you or them, so therefore it won’t be a problem, right? You’d be wrong to think that.” In truth, Jaime knew it would be a problem for her. There was no denying that she could be vengeful, but in the past that had always taken the form of practical jokes or maybe knocking someone out cold. But killing someone? This would be a new one. As much as it didn’t sit comfortably with her, and as much as she hoped that Glory would yield during the fight, Jaime strongly doubted that anyone who wanted her dead that badly would surrender.

“There’s another thing that you need to be prepared for, Jaime. As much as you’re confident that you can control your wolf, we both know you’ll have doubts lurking. These doubts will distract you. And if you feel your wolf strongly fighting to surface, you’ll become a little spooked. You can’t afford to do that.”

She didn’t bother denying any of that. “Okay, so tell me how to get over my fear.” Dante looked at her incredulously. “Why would I do that? Fear is a basic survival mechanism.

It helps you stay alive. It’s an automatic response that dumps adrenaline into the bloodstream, which helps us.”

Jaime’s face scrunched up. “Sweating like crazy, having your heart race, and shaking like a shitting dog helps us?”

Dante chuckled. “No, but adrenaline will help with increasing your speed and strength and increasing your tolerance for pain. The time it becomes a problem is when you let that fear become something else—panic. Once you begin to panic, your ability to think rationally often goes out of the window.”

“Right. So how do I do that?”

“Acknowledge what fear actually is—it’s just your brain communicating to your body that it senses danger. Accept fear for what it is, and work with it. That’s when its power disappears.”

“Accept it as a chemical reaction that’s there to help me.”

“Yes, because if you don’t, if you let it control you, then you’re, to put it bluntly, fucked. You can be killed. And that’s not acceptable to me. Yes, you’ve kept your wolf under control during training, but sparring with me is very different from what you’ll be facing in reality.”

“I know, I know,” said Jaime flatly. “I won’t be in a safe environment fighting one of my pack, I get it.”

“No, I’m not sure that you do. Glory won’t want a fight, Jaime. Her objective will be to kill you as quickly as possible, particularly since you’ve overpowered her once before. I very much doubt that she’ll shift, because she knows how dominant your wolf is. She’ll come at you so swiftly you might not see it coming. She won’t want to give you a chance to use any of your moves on her.

Even if you manage to land a lot of good blows, that won’t be all it takes. She will have moves of her own. She’s been in countless fights before. She’ll be used to being hurt and ignoring the pain to carry on.”

“I don’t think she’ll stop until one of us is dead,” she said quietly.

He repeatedly clenched his fists. “Neither do I. This is why it’s imperative that you’re able to switch quickly from one mind-set to another—namely, that you can be prepared to kill. That kind of thing isn’t easy. Throughout your entire life, you’ve had morals instilled in you. You have a conscience that interferes in every choice you make. It’s similar to brainwashing, in a sense. None of that can matter, Jaime. Even in the context of self-defense, you still can’t fully justify killing a person to your conscience. It is what it is. You need to be able to accept that rather than make excuses for it.”

“Like you?”

“Like all the enforcers, but yes, like me. I have a very fierce sense of right and wrong, but when it comes to defending or protecting this pack, I’ll cross over any lines I wouldn’t otherwise cross. You need to be able to do the same. It doesn’t mean you have to stop being a good person and that you have to harden. But like it or not, it will change you in some ways. You can still be the person you are now, but with an ability to cross right over any ethical lines when you need to. When you’re involved in a fight with Glory, you will need to. So, can you do that?”

“I can do it.” Jaime set her jaw.

“I don’t know how long it will be before Glory finally appears again, but I think we can be pretty sure that she will. So until then your training won’t involve exercises or practicing. I’m going to be asking you to do something much harder than that. From now on, there’ll be no more sparring.

There’ll only be attacks. Not just with me, but with the guys, too.” Jaime smiled evilly. “Good.”

“You might be thinking that this will be fun, but believe me when I say that they won’t go easy on you. They will hurt you, and they will continue until you either yield or pass out, unless you can give as good as you get. You can’t afford to care that these are your packmates. You can’t afford to care that hurting them will be hard. In fact, hurting people close to you would pain you ten times more than hurting Glory. You do everything I taught you—you fight dirty, you cheat, you make them bleed.

They’ll do exactly the same to you, as will I. Are you ready for this?” After a few moments, she finally replied in a strong voice. “I’m ready.” Jaime had done better than Dante ever would have imagined. He was pretty sure the guys were just as surprised. While Jaime was hesitant and awkward during her first fight, Marcus hadn’t held back at all. She had therefore learned the hard way what happened when she let her feelings distract her. After that, she had been merciless. She hadn’t said one word at any point, as if she had taken herself into some sort of zone where the only thing that mattered was survival—and that was exactly what Dante had been hoping for.

He had purposely left Dominic until last, knowing how close he and Jaime were—something Dante would never be happy about. Although there had been the briefest flicker of unease in her expression, it had quickly disappeared, and Jaime had fought just as dirtily as she had with Marcus, Trick, Ryan, and Tao. As expected, Tao got it the worst. The second it was all over, the enforcers enveloped her in a hug. Not a comforting act, but a show of respect.

Trey, who stood a short distance away and had observed the entire thing, looked truly impressed with Jaime. While the enforcers were still fussing over her—all of them tended to joke with her as if she was one of the guys—Trey approached Dante. “You did good with her.”

“I can’t take all the credit. She worked hard. She only tried to kill me twice.”

“She’d make a good enforcer. But…I think she’d make an even better Beta female.” Dante’s gaze shot to his. “What are you saying?”

“Just that I’m no longer so troubled about her staying. I admire anyone who shows that much strength and determination. And she puts you first. You don’t put yourself first to anything. You’ve been too focused on your role as Beta—you deserve to have something of your own too, and I know you want to imprint on her. Although you don’t need my approval or blessing, you have it.” With that, Trey turned and walked away.

That had been a surprise. Trey was right, Dante wouldn’t have sought his approval, but he was glad to have it. Now all he needed was Jaime’s approval. Dante swerved his head to see the female in question— his female—jogging over to him, smiling. She was bruised and covered in scratches and bumps. If he hadn’t known they would heal in a matter of hours, he would have freaked.

“My wolf’s feeling really smug right now.”

He returned her smile and pulled her to him. “I’ll bet.”

In response to the strange look on his face and the strain in his voice, she cocked her head.

“You okay?”

He kissed a spot on her forehead that wasn’t smeared with blood. “More than okay. I’m proud of you.” But I have no idea how to tell you I want to imprint on you without scaring you off.

“Good. Let’s go take a shower.”

Dante told himself, as he walked hand in hand with her back to the caves, that he would talk to her about it in their room. Unfortunately, the words didn’t come out. He wasn’t scared of the commitment that would come with it. As far as he was concerned, she was it for him whether they were bonded or not. But he was still worried that she would leave before she agreed to imprinting.

Losing her wasn’t something he could allow.

Still, he was resolute that they would talk about it. He’d been silent about it for long enough, and he wouldn’t last much longer before it burst out of him anyway. If she said she didn’t want it, he could simply agree that things remain as they were. Then, naturally, he’d do his best to wear her down over time.

He told himself that he’d bring it up when they were in the shower. Yeah, he’d fuck her with his tongue until she was on the verge of an orgasm, and then he’d stop and tell her. But that didn’t quite work out because, once again, he chickened out. He’d tell her before they left to go to lunch, he promised himself. Preferably while she was naked, because then she couldn’t run out on him.

However, not only did he become terribly distracted by her naked body and mischievous smile, but she chose that moment to get on her knees and suck him off. So, yeah, his wits were a little too scattered for him to have any kind of conversation right then.

After that, they’d been caught up with Beta stuff—that was the excuse he was sticking to anyway. Before he knew it, they were seated at the long dining table having their evening meal and he still hadn’t told her.

“Now you’re just being selfish,” Dominic said to Jaime, shaking his head. “You have that body for the rest of your life. I only want it for one night.” Not in the mood to hear his packmate making moves—no matter how playful—on the female he intended to claim, Dante growled. “Dominic, no. Not to Jaime.”

“But—”

“No.”

Dominic sighed in resignation. “Okay, fine.”

Noticing that Trey seemed to find the whole thing extremely amusing, Dante raised a brow at him. “It’s funny now that he’s not saying this shit to Taryn?” Trey smiled. “Of course.”

“I’ve always got some stored up for my gorgeous Alpha female,” said Dominic with an impish grin.

Instantly Trey’s smile fell from his face. “Dom, don’t do it.” Dominic held his hands up, pleading innocence. “I was just going to ask her if she went to Boy Scouts…because she has my heart all tied in knots.”

Taryn groaned and chuckled at the same time. But then she gasped loudly and everybody froze.

“I think my water just broke. Yep. My water just broke.”