Page 7 of Claimed By the Werewolf Boss
“Tino, you know if you need some skirt, you can do better than…that. I know plenty of available females.” Luca keeps talking, but my stomach curdles at the mere suggestion that Cheyenne is anything less than perfect.
Our organisation hasn’t always been progressive. My father, brother, and I have spent decades beating the bad habits out of our older men and teaching our younger wolves to be respectful of all people regardless of who they are. Obviously, if you cross us, that respect is lost, but the best way to gain a following and loyalty is with mutual respect and aid.
Luca’s been sliding back on some of these ideals recently.
“What’s happening in Naples?” I change the subject. This trip is about Andrea and Junelle. The business with the rat following us here is frustrating but par for the course with a criminal organisation. I need to keep my situation with Cheyenne under wraps until after the ceremony. Once I’ve got her claimed, I’ll have a chat with Luca to set him straight.
“Gio called about a lead on the head rat,” he explains. “You want me to find you some higher-quality ladies on my way back?”
“No. I’m good. Get that shit sorted so we can enjoy a little vacation.” I force a grin because if I don’t, I’mgoing to punch in his fucking face. What the fuck is a high-quality woman? “How long will you be gone?”
“Overnight, maybe another day.” He shrugs. “You wanna do the honours when I bring him in?”
“No, I trust you to send the right message.”
I head to the door before he can say anything else to piss me off. All I want to do is make sure I give my girl the right idea about that kiss. There was something on her face before she ran off that I didn’t like. It wasn’t fear or disgust, it looked like shame. Nothing about what happened is anything to be upset about, except maybe that we didn’t run right back to my suite to fuck like bunnies.
But there is no sign of Cheyenne, and the van taking us to the nature reserve is all loaded up. It’s going to be a long day away from my mate, a long day of waiting before I can force her to explain her response. I climb in and take my seat next to Nonna.
I text the new manager of our personal pier and make sure he gives Cheyenne a good spot and she doesn’t pay for a thing while she relaxes. Whatever she wants from here on out is on me. No exceptions.
“Where’s Luca?” Andrea asks, leaning forward.
“Got called up for a meeting. We waiting on anyone else?” Looking around the minibus, there is only one empty seat, so I tap the driver’s shoulder to get us moving. “The birds won’t wait forever.”
The drive up the mountain is disturbingly quiet. A few of the guys who worked the late guard rounds are sleeping, Andrea and Junelle are playing some phone game, but everyone else has some massive book in their hand. Even Nonna has one on her lap, a fancy magnifier clipped to the top of it. I lean over slightly to see what’s got even my grandma so enthralled she doesn’t want to tell us some story about when she and Nonno were young.
Valerie’s sharp cry echoed around the empty bar. Blaze moved his hand from her breast and wrapped it around her throat. He squeezed, the rapid beat of her pulse making his dick harder.
“You like that, don’t you, dirty girl?” he taunted. “The big scary biker fucking your ass raw?”
He emphasized his next thrust by biting hard on her shoulder. She nodded, tears glistening down her cheeks while her arousal dripped down her thigh. God yes, he was right. Valerie was addicted to all his roughness, all the ways Blaze took her, trying to find the bottom of her depravity.
But she’d never tell him.
Mary, Mother of God, what in the fuck is this? My cheeks heat up envisioning the scene I read. Is that what this whole book is?
Teresa, one of the many cousins on this trip, gasps behind me. Her palm is pressed against her mouth in shock. Her sister Rebecca shoves her in the shoulderand tells her to shush. I rotate more in my seat to see Nonna’s younger sister, Romina, bite her nail as she reads. Is everyone on this trip but me reading porn?
“Here,” Junelle whispers, sliding her e-reader over my shoulder. “You might get some ideas from this.”
Andrea winks at me, his grin fucking stupid.
I click the power button, and the cover on display has a half-naked man with his jeans popped open.His Ballerina’s Secretby Remi Roman. Sounds a little weird, but okay. I tap through the first few pages, stopping at the table of contents. Jesus, it has forty chapters.
This can’t all be porn. Not that I’ve got a problem with what anyone reads, but when my loud family is this quiet, I want to know why. I fold my arms across my chest and get reading.
He grabbed the assailant by the throat and slammed him into the ground. If this guy thought he could attack Dante’s wife, he was going to find out what happened to scum. Dante replaced his hand with his boot to hold the shit stain down before he looked at his wife.
Because that’s what Paisley was to him, wasn’t she? This reaction wasn’t because he’d agreed to keep her stalker at bay. She was his old lady, his tiny dancer who brought a shining light into his dark life. Her happiness was all he craved anymore. Drinking and going out with the boys didn’t have the same effect. A ride across the state didn’t clear his head the way falling asleep in her arms did.
And this fucker tried to hurt her.
I didn’t see a single bird all morning. Much to everyone’s amusement, I stayed attached to the small tablet in my hand while we hiked around. Andrea and Junelle lead us up and down familiar trails while a guide points out different bird calls and nests, but I’m engrossed.
This is how I am through the picnic lunch and on the drive back to the villa. I’m so completely absorbed in this fictional world, it’s only the smell of Cheyenne walking into the sitting room where all the women have congregated that I realise how late it’s got. Even the handful of nail technicians with their acetone and lotions didn’t faze me.
Jesus, reading can be dangerous, I guess.
