Alisha was poking at her again. “It’s almost 100 degrees out.”Dani said nothing as she straightened another set of glass bottles.“Take it off or you’ll pass out with how tight it is,” Alisha said, and tugged at the ends.Dani ducked out of her reach. “I like it, so please just leave it alone.” She moved to the next shelf and Alisha followed her.Alisha tugged at the scarf again and it came unwrapped and slipped down over Dani’s neck. Alisha giggled at what she thought at first was a love bite from some playful necking, but then the full picture came into view.Dani had studied the mark in the mirror for almost an hour last night. Even now, it was a wicked dark rainbow of blues, purples, and yellows that extended from the sweet spot in her neck and ran into the hollow of her collarbone. It was not some high school hickey like a girl might get behind the school bleachers during a football game; it was truly the mark of an alpha, a mark that promised that Mason was going to make claim to her, it was just a matter of when.Dani moved back from her reach and shrugged.
