The Claiming by Cooper Book 6
The Gamma Tournament by Cooper (Ezekiel & Gianna)
Chapter 5 Gianna
I’m not sure I’ve ever felt so loved, so adored. It’s not because Ezekiel is spending tons of money on me, although that is really nice, as long as he can afford it. It’s the thoughtfulness of this weekend. He wanted to make my return to the city special and he has. And we’ve only just gotten here.
As I wait for him to check us into a restaurant that I’ve only ever dreamed about eating at, I think about how different my life is now than it was with Daniel. He never treated me like this. Not the expensive restaurant, that doesn’t matter, but even thinking about surprising me with a night out on the town, a date night. After we were married, we never had anything like that, and even when we dated, it was never like this, never like it is with Ezekiel.
Almost as if I’ve thought him into being, I look up and see Daniel staring at me. “Gianna?”
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“Daniel?” I ask. It feels so strange that in a city this large, that here he is in front of me just as I was thinking about him.
He looks at me, Zeke, my pregnant stomach and then back at me.
“You have a child?” he asks as if he can’t really believe it.
“And one on the way,” I say, feeling heat at my back. The scent of p*umpkin pie surrounds me, and I smile as Daniel’s eyes go wide.
“Daniel, this is Ezekiel. Ezekiel, this is Daniel.”
“Hello, Daniel,” Ezekiel says, his voice low and dark. A clear threat to Daniel to stay away from me.
Daniel looks from him to me without acknowledging him.
“I heard you were missing,” he says. “I was. I was kidnapped and then held hostage for several months. But I was rescued by my…fiance and now we’re expecting our second child,” I say, trying to figure out how I’m going to make the timeline of a child and what looks like a mid-term pregnancy work in less than a year.
“Fiance?” he asks, looking at my empty ring f*inger.
“Yep,” I say, looking up at Ezekiel. He’s glaring at Daniel but when he looks at me, his face softens and he leans in, k*issing me. It’s gentle, but very possessive.
“We should get going, love. Our private room is ready,” he says, glaring at Daniel. Private room?
Ezekiel keeps one arm around me and takes the stroller in the other h*and.
He nods at Daniel.
“Nice seeing you, Daniel,” I say, turning to leave.
“Gianna, now that you’re back, maybe we can get together sometime,” he says, looking quickly at Ezekiel before looking back at me. “You know, to catch up.”
“Actually, I’m only in town this weekend to pack up. I’m moving to live with Ezekiel several hours away. But it was nice seeing you,” I say as Ezekiel guides me inside.
When we get to the maitre d stand, I turn and see Daniel still watching us. We’re escorted into a private room where we can easily leave Zeke in his stroller near our table.
Once we’re seated, they take our drink order, and leave us, closing the door and giving us privacy. I look around the room.
“You did this? For me?” I ask him. “Yes. I told you, I want you to always know how special you are to me,” he says, taking my left h*and and stroking his thumb over my f*ingers.
“Why did he look at your h*and? When you called me your fiance, why did your ex look at your h*and?”
“It’s a human thing. Werewolves leave marks on their mate’s n*eck, humans give each other rings,” I tell him.
“Rings?” he asks, frowning. “Something you can take off? Why would you want that? A mark is permanent. You could never deny being mine or me being yours.”
“It’s a symbol, I guess. Humans can’t leave bite marks, they don’t have the canines to do it,” I say, as the waiter comes in with our waters.
He asks if we want an appetizer and Ezekiel asks him to give us a few moments.
When he leaves, he looks at me again. “Do you want a ring?”
I reach out, taking his hands in mine. “Everything that I need to know that you’re mine in this room. And if for some crazy reason I needed a reminder, I have your mark on my n*eck.”
He’s still frowning, so I get up and walk to him. He pushes back in his seat, and I sit on his lap, wrapping my arms around his n*eck. “I’m not a human, Ezekiel. I don’t need human symbols of your love. I had a ring once, and I never felt as loved as I do with you,” I tell him and his arms come around me, pulling me closer.
“What kind of ring did you have?” he asks. “The usual. A diamond.”
“What’s the symbolism of a diamond?” he asks me.
I shrug. “That you’re married. Wealthy people have big diamond rings with lots of carats. But mine was a bunch of small diamonds in a cl*uster, making it look like one large diamond. When we got divorced, I gave it back to him.”
“If you ever try to remove that mark from your n*eck, I’ll just make a new one,” he says, nuzzling my mate mark.
“You make a new one almost every night, love,” I tell him.
“Mmmm,” he growls, a low, rumbling sound. “That’s because I like the way your b*ody clamps down on mine while my canines are in your n*eck.”
I lean in, nuzzling his ear. “I like it too,” I whisper.
He k*isses me, long and slow, before pulling back. “Hold that thought for later,” he says, lifting me and turning me in his lap. Then he leans back and pulls me against him, grabbing the menu.
Ne look through it together and when the waiter returns, Ezekiel doesn’t let me up. We order and eat with me still in his lap. “What do you say we get dessert to go?” he asks in my ear, nipping at me.
“You read my mind,” I tell him, shivering in excitement to return to our room.
When we get back to the hotel, I nurse Zeke and put him back to bed, then I go find my mate who is standing out on the balcony.
He turns, pulling me to him so I can see how pretty the lights of the city are from way up here. He moves behind me, wrapping his arms around me.
“It’s so beautiful,” I say.
“Not as beautiful as you are,” he says, pressing his h*ips against me. I arch against him, feeling him growing h*arder. We make love right there, looking out over the city, Ezekiel having to cover my m*outh when I get too loud, then he carries me to our room, as we enjoy each other several more times throughout the night.
The next morning, he wakes up with Zeke, feeding him a bottle and letting me sleep in. When I hear the ping of the elevator, I get up, putting on a robe and walking out to the living room area. Ezekiel is sitting with his back to me, talking to Zeke.
“Did I hear the elevator?” I ask, making him jump. I can smell food and my stomach rumbles.
“Hey baby, I’m sorry, did it wake you?” he asks, putting Zeke on a blanket on the floor and walking over to me. “I ordered breakfast.”
I turn, looking at the cart with covered plates on it and a carafe of coffee, along with glasses of juice and water.
I lean up on my toes, k*issing him good morning. “What did you get us?”
“I’ll set the table while you say good morning to our son,” he says.
I go over and pick Zeke up, k*issing his chubby cheeks while he reaches up and grabs onto my hair.
Ezekiel comes over, taking my h*and and leading me to the table.
“You can set him down in the bouncy seat. I ordered one last night when I realized we didn’t bring one,” he says.
“You didn’t have to do that. We could put him the stroller if needed,” I tell him. “Nah, he’s starting to stay awake longer. I hear it’s good to give them stimulation, something to look at and t*ouch,” he says.
I place Zeke in the bouncer seat and turn it on. It has a mobile right at level with his face that immediately intrigues him.
“Perfect,” I say, turning to see Ezekiel waiting at the table for me.
I frown, feeling his nervousness.
“What’s going on?” I ask him.
“Come sit,” he says, pulling a chair out for me.
“I’m not sitting in your lap this morning?” I ask him.
He smiles, then sits and taps his t*high.
I sit down, looking at the table.
“Which one’s mine?” I ask him.
“This one,” he says, pulling the plate over to me.
I pull the warmer off the plate and on top of the food, on some sort of mini stand, is a small box.
“What’s that?” I ask him.
“Open it,” he says.
I look at him and I feel his nerves ratchet up a notch.
“What did you do, Ezekiel?”
He leans in, k*issing my shoulder. “Just open it.”
I take the box, unwrapping it and open it to a beautiful, dainty ring.
I turn and look at him.
“It’s not a diamond and I have no idea why they are so expensive anyway when they have no specific meaning. But this is a Moonstone. It does have meaning for us and this way, you can wear it if you want to have that symbol or not. But I didn’t want you to have something from your ex that I never gave you. I never want you to feel like I missed something or forgot something. You are the most important thing in the world to me, so….I hope you like it.”
I feel the tears welling in my eyes before they begin to spill over onto my cheeks.
“It’s perfect,” I say, pulling it out of the box. The stone looks very much like a white opal, with multiple colors that shift in the light. It’ s in an oval shape, set in a gold band and on either side of the stone is a gold crescent moon bracketing the moonstone.
I turn and h*and it to him. “The fiance puts it on his mate’s f*inger,” I tell him.
He takes it from me, and I put my f*inger out for him. He slides it on, then leans in and k*isses my f*inger, then k*isses the tears from my cheeks. It’s not a perfect fit, but it’s close enough.
“It looks good on you,” he says.
“I love you so much,” I say, k*issing him long and slow.
Then we eat our breakfast, talking and laughing, and enjoying our quiet morning together.