Wicked Cravings (The Phoenix Pack Series - By Suzanne Wright Page 0,1
a man of very few words, merely grunted before returning his attention to the food in front of him.
“Ryan’s certainly complex,” allowed Rhett. “So are Trey and all the enforcers—it’s part of why you all became friends in the first place. Like calls to like. But we’re not talking about any of the others—we’re talking about you. Since you took up the mantle of Beta when you were an adolescent, you’ve put yourself second to everything else—the pack, our Alpha, your responsibilities. You’re a workaholic of the worst kind. You need to find that work/play balance. You need to be as protective of yourself as you are of everyone else.”
Dante really wanted to punch Rhett. The guy was genuine, loyal, and he would give any of his packmates the shirt off his back, but he would also analyze their every move, take them apart, and find out what made them tick. It was the way his geeky, analytical mind operated. Annoyingly, he couldn’t just allow people to have their problems. No, he wanted to “fix” everyone. It was why Taryn called him a “psychological mechanic.” But Dante didn’t need fixing; he was dedicated to his job, but he was not addicted to it. “Easy there, Dr. Freud. Are you also going to tell me I secretly wanted to have sex with my mom when I was growing up?”
Rhett started to say something else, but Grace shot him a sharp look. He sighed. “Fine, shut down. It’s only because you know I’m right.”
“Now can we back get to the original subject? Why would Glory falsely claim I’m her mate?
She has to know that it’s not going to make me mate with her.”
“Maybe her pride’s stung because she’d expected to be more than a one-night stand and she wants to cause trouble to get back at you,” suggested Tao, the Head Enforcer.
“But I told her before I even touched her that I didn’t want anything more than that.” Dante sighed. “Why would she expect more?”
“Some people won’t accept what they don’t want to hear or see.” Rhett’s expression was genuinely sympathetic.
“Yeah,” agreed Dominic. “She’ll probably be happy once her brothers are done with you.”
“See—agent of Satan.” It wouldn’t be the first time a gang of brothers had targeted Dante. At least this time they weren’t his own.
“They’re all big fuckers, you know.” Trick’s lips twitched into a smile. “I heard they’re a crazy bunch, too. And I don’t mean ‘eccentric’ crazy, I mean ‘ we, the jury, find…’ crazy. If I were you, well, I’d definitely be a little nervous.”
“Nervous of what?” asked Shaya as she entered the room and took a seat at the table. The redheaded female, who had been a close friend of Taryn’s since childhood, had recently joined.
Ordinarily, Trey didn’t like adding newcomers to their relatively small pack of sixteen. In fact, with the exception of Taryn, it consisted of only those who had left their old one, the Bjorn Pack, with Trey when he was banished. But he had accepted Shaya at Taryn’s request, and he had also allowed two members of the Bjorn Pack to switch with Selma and Kirk when they left Phoenix.
Trick smiled at Shaya. “We’re just congratulating Dante on finding his mate.” Almost as if he sensed that Dante was close to strangling Trick—not through a loss of control, just because it would be fun—Tao quickly explained, “A one-night stand of Dante’s apparently doesn’t like that she was simply a one-night stand and has decided to tell her brothers she’s his mate and sic them on him.”
Shaya winced. “Taryn’s not going to like it when she finds out. Good luck to Trey with keeping her out of it.”
Tao looked at Dante. “What are you going to do? If it was me, I’d want to go and confront her.”
“That’s probably what she’s hoping I’ll do. I’m not playing her games.” Dante drained the last of his coffee. “We’ll meet Nick Axton at Mo’s Diner to discuss it like he asked. As her Alpha, it’s his right to sort this mess before it goes any further. Refusing him that chance would mess up our alliance with his pack. No spoiled little princess is worth that.”
“At least he was good enough to call and let us know what Glory’s up to,” said Ryan.
“Do we mention this to our Alphas before the meeting?” Tao asked.
“No.” Naturally it wasn’t good to keep things from your Alphas, but part of Dante’s role as Beta was to protect them—even from