“Granted. But you’ll bring him back here first. If I don’t like the answers he gives you, I’ll take care over.”
She nodded. It was the best she was going to get out of him.
“Your place, or mine?” she tossed at Pasquale over her shoulder as she stalked toward the door. She was going to get this right, and she was going to put him in his place too.
“Yours.”
His deep-timbred response nearly made her knees weak. It would have really messed her up her bad girl exit by falling out on the floor. Totally.
Mine!
Not if I can help it. I’ve got toys if this gets too hard for little old you.
I already know what I want to play with.
Ugh. You’re an asshole.
He can play with that too.
Giuliana officially hated her wolf more than all the bastards in the room.
Chapter Two
Giuliana Moretti was the most beautiful woman Pasquale had ever seen—and he’d been surrounded by them all his life. Priceless gems with no voice and even less control over their lives. Under his father, Primo, he’d learned the women were fodder and had seen the worst of what a wolf could be.
Even more so when his own father decided Pasquale wouldn’t be given a place as the Alpha’s son.
No, that privilege went to his sister, Fabiana, and what she could have created if she’d successfully married Dominic as originally planned. The orchestration had failed, his father left dead, his sister hiding away to lick her wounds, and his former pack split.
Giuliana may have been more than he could ever wish for in a mate, with her outspoken manner and her lush curves, but he couldn’t take the chance. He’d lost too much, and he had enough with his wolf to deal with. Mating her would only cause what he’d been keeping under wraps to explode. His packmates needed him to keep his head on straight so they could have a better life than the one they’d had under his abusive Alpha father.
But watching her hips sway as she stomped her way to her car parked out front made Pasquale wish he could follow his wolf’s needs.
There was no doubt Giuliana was the wolf fashioned to be the other half of him. It was unfortunate it had to be realized in the fire and snuffed out before either of them had ever had a chance.
Giuliana wrenched open the door of her sedan, and he pressed his lips into a firm line. He didn’t like being in vehicles, at all. Too much metal, too cramped and closed in for his wolf to be comfortable. The burn of his wolf pressing against his skin to get out and run free made him hesitate.
Not now.
Giuliana scanned the road in front of Kalinda’s home before turning to him. “Where is your car?”
“I didn’t drive one.”
A sigh met his ears. “Well, get in.”
Not going to happen. “I know where you live. I’ll meet you there.”
“We don’t have time for this. You need to catch me up to speed on what you know about Heath before we head out. The sooner the better.”
“At best, you live five minutes from your Alpha. I can cover that ground faster than your car.”
Pasquale spun around and loped off, ignoring her as she called his name. His legs ate up the distance. He may not have been as fast as his wolf when he wasn’t shifted, but he still could challenge a car. He’d always been better, stronger, and smarter than the other wolves around him. He could recognize Dominic for what he was—strong and ruling with an iron fist, tempered with love for his pack. Pasquale could respect the love and how Dominic really cared for the wolves around him. Although Dominic’s heritage and the way he’d become a wolf had created something in him that should have been impossible, he was not Pasquale.
He was not a Born wolf meant to be Alpha from his first cry. He was not a pup able to tackle wolves twice his age. He’d never been trained to face fears and overcome them, despite them threatening to break him.
But Pasquale had.
In some ways, Pasquale was more wolf than Dominic ever hoped to be, and more Capo as well. Understanding that, however, didn’t change reality—Dominic was the head of Lombardi Pack, Bianchi was no more, and Pasquale’s place was precarious at best. If it wasn’t for his nose and the skills he had in combat, he was sure he wouldn’t be as involved in the inner workings of Lombardi as he was.
