“Not her. You’ve lost the right to think of her.”
Without warning I shifted. Seeing things through wolf eyes, I didn’t think. I lunged at him. Hunter immediately shifted and knocked me back down. I pushed him off, but he came back.
“Stop it!” Marni yelled. “This is ridiculous. Gage isn’t stupid enough to try to steal your mate.”
Marni’s words brought me back to reality. Mary Anne was going to be mine again. I needed to play along to make that happen. I calmed myself and shifted back to my human form. After several deep breaths, I held out a hand. “Truce.”
“Truce?” Hunter roared. He was a human again and glaring at me with an intensity that should have terrified me. Instead it only made me mad. “There’s no truce in my pack. I am your Alpha, and you will obey me.”
“Okay.” I stood there. What was I supposed to do?
“You will stay away from my mate unless I say otherwise.”
“That won’t be a problem.” Marni took my arm. “Will it?”
“No.” I gritted my teeth.
Marni tried to pull me down to sitting. I knew what she was doing. She was trying to make me show deference. I reluctantly sat down on the wood floor.
“Good.” Hunter stared down at me. “I didn’t think so.”
I choked down the response I wanted to give. It wasn’t going to help my cause. If I wanted to get Hunter to put down his guard, I had to convince him I was ready to stay away from Mary Anne. Clearly I was going to have to work on my acting. I needed to stop letting the sound of her name set me off like that, but she was the last shred of humanity I had to hold on to and distancing myself was impossible.
Hunter stormed out of the shed, slamming the door behind him.
“You really annoy me sometimes.” Marni sat down again in her spot by the door. I hadn’t bothered standing up yet. What was the point? Where was I going to go?
“Do I?”
“Yeah. I thought you were going to be smart about things.”
“I am.”
“You provoked Hunter. Why? What did you think you were going to get from it?”
“He pissed me off.”
“Mary Anne is with him now. How many times do I have to say that to get that into your head?”
“It’s in my head. It’s done.”
“Oh yeah? That quickly?” She eyed me skeptically.
“I get it. Ok? I get how this is going to work.”
“You can crash at my house if you want.”
“I thought I had to stay in this shed.” Hunter wasn’t exactly rolling out the red carpet to welcome me to the pack.
“Hunter wants someone watching you, and he wants you away from Mary Anne. My house is the furthest away.” She stood up. “Let’s go.”
The shed floor didn’t exactly appeal to me, but Marni’s motivation worried me a little. “Why? Why are you letting me come? Why are you being nice to me?” I stood up.
She walked over and slowly ran a finger down my bare chest. “Why do you think I am?”
“Aren’t you with Chet?” I was getting used to being naked, but that didn’t mean I was comfortable with her touching me.
She laughed. “Gotcha. I’m doing this because I want what’s best for all of us. For all the Dires. And that’s for Hunter and Mary Anne to be together. So I want to get you settled so we can all move on from this.”
“If you say so.” I couldn’t argue with that. I was supposed to be going along with things.
“And don’t worry about Chet. He’s not concerned.” She opened the door to the shed, and I followed her out.
I noticed some movement at the edge of the woods, and I thought it was a Dire. I wasn’t so sure Marni was right about Chet.
Chapter Seven
Hunter
We couldn’t stay here much longer. Vanessa was staying away for the time being, but she was only biding her time before she came looking for trouble. If it weren’t for Gage I’d have had us packed up and ready to go already, but he wasn’t in any condition to travel.
There were so many details to figure out, and so many more complications since the last time we moved. First I had to figure out what to do about nomads of the pack, as I liked to call them. They came for the occasional meal, but otherwise kept to themselves on the outskirts of the property. I’d have to round them up. On top of that I had to make sure Falcon knew his place, and that Gage was in control. Lastly, and most important, was Mary Anne.
I had to make sure she was comfortable and safe. I’d wanted to make her my mate before we moved, but I couldn’t rush it. If I forced her into anything, she’d hate me. I refused to let anything come between us. She was already warming up to me, I could tell. I had to tread carefully to make sure things moved along in the right direction. The problem was I was tired of waiting. My resistance was wearing thin. The other night it had taken all of my strength not to explore every inch of her. She’d wanted my touch, and that only made it harder. I wanted her to be the one to tell me she was ready, but my body begged to connect with hers. That combined with having changed Gage was almost too much to handle.