CHAPTER 4

• As Danica closed the front door behind her than a voice was loud,
• “Where the hell have you been?”
• It was always a surprise when her dad Carrick Hart was seeking her presence.
• Usually Carrick was indifferent to Danica and could even go a whole day without talking to her. What was more surprising was that he seemed to believe she
• should be hanging around just in case he wanted to see her or to bestow some attention on her.
• “It’s almost time for the evening meal.”
• Since when did he care if she missed a meal?
• “Cody's going to be here soon. You have about two minutes to change.”
• Ah. “Why would I change? And why wasn’t I told he was coming?”
• You know, I still don’t know why you’re so set against him. I never would have thought you’d have attracted an Alpha in a million years. Hell, a wolf shouldn’t want to be bound to a latent unless he had no choice.
• You should be grateful.”
• “Grateful to be mated to someone I don’t like, let alone care for?”
• “You’ll just have to grow to care about him, won’t you,” he snapped. “I want this alliance and you are not going to mess this up for me. Now get upstairs and change into something I don’t know…”
• She searched for his expression. “Doesn’t it matter to you at all that this will make me miserable? I know you must have heard the rumors about him and how he treats women. Does none of that matter to you?”
• “It’ll be good for you to mate with someone who has a firm hand. You could use the discipline. Maybe he can be the one who manages to teach you the meaning of respect.” Miss Danica couldn’t help that her mouth fell open. She had thought that her dad was just ignoring the rumors, blinding himself to them to escape the
• guilt. In actual fact, he felt none. He was perfectly content with the idea of handing her over to someone who would beat her, and he wouldn’t even be angry with Cody for doing it. You know, for the first time in my life I’m actually glad Mom’s not around. If she’d been here to hear this, it would have broken her heart.”
• He actually laughed. “You forget, Danica she died before it became clear you’re latent. She wouldn’t have wanted anything more to do with you than i do"
• You disrespectful little bitch,” he gritted out as he raised his hand to slap her.
• She didn’t flinch “Go on, do it.”
• “I’d really rather you didn’t, Carrick,” said a voice from the doorway.
• They both turned to see Cody. “When you signed that contract, you signed her over to me.”
• In other words, the only person who had the right to slap her was him.
• “Until the mating ceremony, I’m still her Alpha, Cody. Remember that.”
• “And as her mate, I’d feel obliged to protect her if you were to lay a hand on her.” He turned to Danica and smiled. “Nice to see you again, beautiful.”
• Right now, her wolf’s desire was to take a swipe at the smarmy bastard in front of her. When he leaned down to kiss her she turned her head away, but his mouth still
• managed to catch her ear. Carrick released a tired sigh. “Let’s go. Everybody will be waiting for us.”
• As they made their way to the dining room, Cody attempted to hold her hand. She shot him a look that swore violence and curled her upper lip.
• His response was a smile. She kind of got the feeling that he liked seeing her being wild.
• Quickly the food was brought out and everyone was eating greedily while listening to Cody answer all Carrick's questions about his pack and the times he had been challenged in the past. Danica rolled her eyes as she saw how many of the females were staring in utter admiration at Cody, clinging to his every word. Even her best friend Suza for Christ’s sake! The males were also staring at him, all pretty pissed with him for his effect on the females. She simply didn’t understand how everyone could be so taken in by him. Yes, he was charming, had a warm smile and was very nice to look at, but there was something very wrong with his eyes.
• He sighed. “Come on, Danica , you can’t tell me you wouldn’t like getting away from here for a while. You could see where you’re going to be living, and meet some of the wolves from my pack. You’ll soon be their Alpha
• female. Don’t you want to get to know them?”
• No, not even a little bit. And she would never be their Alpha female. His hand slid around her neck; a gesture of ownership. With fast reflexes she jumped to her feet and kicked his chair out from under him. She looked down at him where he was flat on the floor. “Don’t you ever touch me like that! I don’t belong to you, I’ll never belong to you!” She was angry and pissed, so she stormed out of the room. It was only minutes later when she heard footsteps approaching and his scent drifted toward her. He sighed as he took a few steps towards her. "Danica , it really is time you stopped fighting me. I think we’ve proven who the more dominant one is.”
• “Oh you might want to know that your father and I have arranged the mating ceremony to take place on the next full moon, which is a week from now. I would rather have a porcupine brutally shoved up into my rectum than mate with you.”
• “I’ve already claimed you.”
• “I don’t accept that claim.”
• “Your father does.
• You need a nice submissive female who’ll say and
• do what you tell her to and make all the right noises at the appropriate times.
• Me…I’m just going to piss you off.
• You’re right, Danica, I do like my females submissive. And that is exactly what you will be when we mate.”
• “I’ll never mate with you. Never.”
• He smiled with a large grin. “It’s sad that you actually think you’ll win this battle. “It’s sad that you even started this battle. Why would you want me
• when you know I don’t want you? Why would you want me when you know I’d fight you every step of the way?” “I won’t need to force you. You will crave my dominance and my direction. I’m looking forward to you moving into my home. Then we can negin your training.”
• “Sick, delusional and suicidal. That’s what you are.”
• “Suicidal?” He sounded surprised.
• “I’d kill you before I let you touch me.”
• “You really would try to, wouldn’t you? Even if it meant risking your own life.”
• “If I mated with you I’d be practically dead anyway,” she said with a loud tone. “I’ll remind you of this conversation in a year’s time. It will be
• interesting to know what you make of it then.” With that, he went back into the house, leaving her stood there.
• Four more days until I met up with Gio , she reminded herself. In four days she could be free of her father.
• Moreover, there would be no way that sicko could get near her. After only one day of being spied on and followed wherever she went, Danica was more than pissed. She was a bomb waiting to blow up. It was decided that evening by Cody and Carrick that her whereabouts for the entire twenty-four hours of each day up until the mating ceremony would be
• monitored. If she was at home, one of her dad’s men was to accompany her around the property. If she left pack territory for any reason, she was to be tailed by two of his other men. Protection, they called it. Yeah, right. Wanting to get her uncle's address and contact the men made it hard for her to get to her dad's office.If Gio’s plan fell through, she was prepared to drive all the way to that address and beg her uncle’s Alpha to give her sanctuary. Maybe if he liked her uncle a lot, he would take pity on her. It would be convincing him not to hand her over to Cody or her dad that would be the problem after that.
• Knowing that she would never be able to come back here no matter what happened, Danica packed and arranged a large bag complete with clothes, passport and a few objects with the plan that she could stash it in her car ready for Friday night. Unlike the other wolves, she always drove to the club as she was constantly on call in case someone from her pack needed healing.
• She didn’t have a lot of stuff, so it wasn’t hard to go through it and only take the things she really liked or wanted. One thing she had learnt from her mom was the importance of saving money, so at least she had some to take with her. The problem was getting the bag to the car without her constant companion seeing. She figured that her best chance of making Ben (the guard man) a little distracted was if she seemed the most boring person imaginable.
• After another two days Ben became less vigilant and she found a moment to hide the bag in the trunk of the car. Then soon she was deep in thoughts concentrating on what she would do if Gio didn’t appear at the club. She knew she was going to her uncle, but what she hadn’t mastered was just how she would do that while being watched so closely by her dad's men. She figured that her best option would be to disappear in a crowd of people. If she could slip away from the club while her dad’s enforcers were still inside the club, she might have a chance at getting away. She had to have a chance. She couldn’t mate with that sicko.
• Finally Friday morning came. It had felt more like two weeks than four days. She had remembered what Gio had said about not doing anything out of the norm, but there was one thing she had to do before she left. Her usual visit to Zan's and her mom’s graves were every other Sunday, but Ben didn’t seem suspicious. Surprised, but not suspicious. She went to her mom’s grave first and, as usual, spent a few minutes tidying it up by replacing the decaying flowers with a fresh bunch. Silently, she apologised to her for this being the last time she would ever be able to visit and for not being able to have the kind of loving relationship with her dad that she would have wanted.Her eyes filled with tears as she gave Zan’s grave the same treatment as hermom’s. She then sat in front of it as she silently spoke to him.
• "Hey Zan, I don’t know how much you guys up there know about what goes on down here, but there’s been some really weird stuff going on.
• Remember I told you last time about that weird-psycho alpha my dad is trying to force me to mate with? Well, it turns out he’s also a very sick son of a bitch and my dad doesn’t even give a shit.
• There’s this other alpha who’s offered me a deal that would get me out of this, but it means I’d have to mate with him. It wouldn’t be a real mating, because all he wants is an alliance with my dad and it will only be temporary. The thing is…I need to make everyone believe that he’s my true mate, which means I’m going to be telling them that you never were. And I’m so sorry for this, so fucking sorry, but I can’t see any other way out. People say I must wish I’d never found you if it meant you were going to die before we even had a chance to have the mating bond, but I don’t wish that, you know. Never have. We might not have mated, but we did have a bond.
• I’m so sorry, but this is the last time I’ll be here. My dad’s not going to let me come back after this, but you can bet your ass that I’ll still be talking to you sometimes. I’ll find a river just like we used to and I’ll go sit there and talk to you. And you better listen, too, Zan Klint, because you always had a habit switching off when you thought I’d been talking for too long.
• You’ve probably switched off now. Okay, it’s fair to say that I’ve been saying a lot."
• She stood, wiping the tears from her cheeks, as she said the words she always said just before leaving. Miss you, love you.
• Then, with a heavy heart, she turned away and began walking back to the pack house. And it hurt so bad knowing she’d never be back.