Her shoulders shook as Becky started chewing on her mate. “What the hell are you doing picturing

Belinda bare?”

“I’m not! I’m picturingyou  bare!”

“Ew. I’d rather eat honey-covered ants.”

Emma groaned disgustedly. “It’s not that bad, you big pussies.”

There was dead silence.

“What?”

“Emma!” Max looked like he was strangling on a laugh.

“What?”

Simon’s big, bellowing laugh had Belle lifting her head from Sarah’s shoulder. Becky was laughing sohard she was snorting. Sarah was trying desperately not to giggle and nearly biting her lip through in theprocess.

“What did Emma say that has you all laughing so hard?”

Simon moved, revealing Adrian and Sheri, grinning, standing by the side of the SUV.

“What makes you think it was me?”

Adrian’s amused snort said it all.

Belle leaned around Sarah. “She called us all big p-pussies for not getting full Brazilians.”

Sheri turned her back on the SUV. Her shoulders were suspiciously rigid.

Adrian blinked slowly. “Well. Spank my ass and call me Morris.”

They were still laughing when the Wolves pulled up five minutes later. Two men got out of the huge SUVthey were driving. “Ms. Campbell?”

Belle stepped out of Max’s Durango with a little help from Simon, fully expecting to see a big, angryredhead sitting in the driver’s seat of the other vehicle. “That would be me.”

The man smiled and bowed his head. “Luna. I’m David Maldonado, Rick’s Beta, and I’m here to escortyou home.”

Belle felt her face freeze. No one was in the driver’s seat.Oh, Rick, you’d better have a good reasonfor ditching me again.

And this time she wasn’t going to buy “Your Alpha made me do it”.

“Explain to me,again,  why Rick couldn’t be here?” Belle stared out the window at the passing scenery, struck once again by the beauty of the rolling hills and mountains. She’d been in the Poconos once or twice before, for vacations, back in the day when she still took those. Back before things had gone horribly wrong. The Pocono Mountains were a ski and resort area in Northeastern Pennsylvania, a southern part of the Catskills mountain chain, and was roughly two hours away from Halle. Belle was pretty sure if it hadn’t been for Max telling Rick to stay away, Rick would have come to visit since two or so hours would have been no hardship on the Wolf Alpha. But she knew if he’d visited, he would have carted her off to the mountains with or without Jamie Howard’s approval.

Ben sighed. “Gina, the current dominant female, is demanding full protocol when you arrive. This meansthat Rickhas  to be there, waiting for you.”

Belle took a deep breath, already knowing she was going to hate Gina.Thank God Rick sent me thatpackage.  She’d read enough to know how important protocol was to the Wolves. “And what am Isupposed to do?”

“Wait for Rick to greet you and welcome you into the Pack. Have you read over any of the material

he’s sent to you?”

She had. She’d rather read stereo instructions, but she had. “Yes.”

“Good.” The obvious relief in Dave’s voice would have been insulting if he hadn’t added, “We want to make sure that you’re as safe from Gina as you can possibly be, at least until you’re up to accepting challenges. Hopefully by then she’ll have given up on the idea of becoming Luna.”

Belinda saw the skepticism on Ben’s face. “How many of the females currently follow Gina?”

The two men exchanged an uneasy look. “The most powerful ones.”

She turned to stare at Ben, who was driving the land yacht they’d picked her up in. She’d never been ina Suburban before, and hoped to hell this wasn’t Rick’s car. There was no way she’d feel comfortabledriving it. “And the others?”

Their silence was telling.

“I see.”Bullies, bullies everywhere, and I can’t shift yet. Wonderful.  Not for the first time, she resented Jamie’s insistence that the pins remain in her leg for another six months. If she didn’t leave them in she risked having a bad limp for the rest of her life. If she waited to have the pins removed, once she shifted the bones would heal completely, and she’d be mostly pain-free.

“How soon can I expect Gina to challenge me?”

The men stared out the front windshield, their silence uneasy.

“Wonderful.”I gave up Frank’s burgers for this?

Rick dressed in his best silk shirt and his darkest jeans. As he pulled on his black boots, he noticed hishands were shaking. “Fuck.” He took a deep breath, determined to meet his mate as a strong male, not awhimpering, shaking fool.

Belle was the only person on the face of the planet capable of tying him into knots. He’d come to cravethe sound of her voice before he fell asleep at night, the conversations they indulged in were his lifeline ina world where his Pack was still in transition. She’d by turns confused him, amused him, given him adviceand been the verbal shoulder he leaned on, whether she knew it or not.

And Gina, the bane of his existence, was determined to do everything in her power to see to it that,withouther  by his side, he could not run the Pack, despite his announcement of having found his Luna andmate in Belle.

Rumor had it she’d been down in the Lodge’s archives, researching God-knows-what. He decided tohave someone keep a closer eye on her. The woman was more trouble than she was worth, and if ithadn’t been for Dave he would have already exiled the evil bitch.

When he’d first taken over, he’d been glad of the assistance she’d given him, grateful that someone waswilling to take on the difficult task of controlling the Pack females. But Gina had taken things further thanthat, practically creating an Amazon Pack, and God help anyone she deemed weak or unworthy. By thetime he’d figured out what was going on, he’d met Belle, and the balancing act had begun.

If he ever wanted his Pack to acknowledge his mate as Luna, he could do nothing to interfere with howshe dealt with the females. All he could do was deny Gina’s every request, refuse to see her, and defer allof her questions to “the future Luna”.

To say Gina was pissed would be an understatement. A number of the weaker females had shown upbruised and bloodied at the Lodge’s clinic in recent weeks. Ben was rapidly running out of patience; if Rick didn’t get Belle installed soon, certain female heads were going to roll, and damn the consequences.