Page 30 of No Harm No Howl

“I begged you to wait. For us to go slowly so our friends and family could celebrate with us. You refused and demanded we get married last night. You even picked the Elvis venue.” He pulled an envelope filled with images from his jacket pocket as he slipped it on. He tossed the handful of candid snaps onto the table, followed by the envelope. “See.”

Gia refused to open her eyes. “Please. Just leave. I need to …”

The truth was Gia didn’t know what the hell she needed or wanted. None of this made a damn bit of sense. Surely, she would have remembered getting married and mated, so what the actual fuck? What the hell was going on?

“Fine, but I do want to talk about this.” He grabbed his shoes, gave her one last glance, and left.

Gia picked up the pictures that Russ had tossed onto the table and flipped through them. “Oh, God,” she moaned as she saw their smiling faces staring back at her. Pacing back and forth, her mind was completely numb to everything.

Did you get us into this?She asked her wolf, who had been uncharacteristically quiet throughout this whole mess.

Don’t blame me. You were in human mode. Shifter mode had not been activated until the mating occurred.

Ha-ha! Funny girl,Gia growled.Don’t you meandrunkhuman mode?

Nope. Stop messing around. You know what you did. Why are you acting so surprised?Her wolf scolded her.

“What are you talking about?” she asked out loud. “If I had any clue what the hell was going on, I sure as shit wouldn’t be asking you.” Gia was dumbfounded. If she wasn’t drunk as hell, why didn’t she remember what the hell had happened? How could she have married and mated Russ without a single memory of any of it happening?

Clearly, it did happen. She had the bite mark, marriage certificate, pictures, and, oh yeah, a huge-ass diamond ring to prove it. There had to be something blocking her memories of what should have been the most important time in her life.

What was it that made her say yes to Russ after her profound speeches about wanting to stay single and focus on her career? It didn’t make a bit of sense. None of it.

The only other option was that she had been liquored up off her ass, and he had taken advantage of her. Was her wolf staying quiet because she was happy that they had finally gone through with the mating and had taken it a step further by getting married?

Gia ran to her dresser and threw her clothes back into her suitcase. She left out a pair of leggings and a sweater to wear to the airport. They were scheduled to spend another two days in Vegas, but there was no way she could handle being around him. Mate or not. Supposed-husband or not. This was not okay. She was not okay with any of it.

Opening her laptop, she searched for flights home. The first flight she could get was tomorrow morning.

“There has to be a freaking flight out of here today. I don’t care if I have to max out my damn credit card to get the fuck out of here,” she growled at her computer. After searching for more than an hour, Gia gave up. She was stuck in Vegas with Russ. The sole seat that had been available when she’d first started her search had been snagged by someone else.

“Fuck!” she growled.

She grabbed her cell phone and called the only person she could. The one person who had gotten her into this mess to begin with.

“How’s Vegas?” Gerri asked as she answered the call.

“If you were here, I’d probably kill you,” she said, choking back the tears threatening.

“What happened, honey?” Gerri asked, concern lacing her voice.

“I … I,” Gia couldn’t force the words out of her mouth. The tears she’d been holding back let loose, along with a loud sob.

“Gia, babe. Are you okay? Did something happen? Is Russ okay? Was there some sort of accident?”

“No … no … it’s nothing like that,” she sobbed.

“Okay, take a deep breath and tell me what happened,” Gerri said.

“We’re married and mated. I married him, and I don’t remember it. I mated him and have zero memories of it.” She felt even worse once the words left her mouth. Saying them somehow made them more real to her.

“You what?” Gerri shouted.

“Please don’t make me say it again,” Gia begged. Every time she said it, her heart sank.

“You said you don’t remember marrying or mating him? Honey, how much did you have to drink?” Gerri asked.

“That’s just it,” Gia thought about the previous night. “I honestly don’t remember much. I was at the bar by myself. Then some creep hit on me, and Russ came to my defense. We went to a corner booth to have a bottle of wine. I went to the restroom … then …”

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