24 - Penelope
“What was all that about? Why would Agnes need asylum?” I asked Dominic when we managed to leave the courtroom.
“We’ll find out soon,” he muttered darkly, his eyes scanning the drawing room.
He took my hand and led me to a group of Alphas huddled in the corner. My father was one of them, and he seemed distraught.
“It’s not meddling in a male’s private life if he is abusing his mate,” Father told the Kentucky Alpha. “It’s safe to assume that if he’s abusing his own mate, he’s abusing his power with the rest of his pack as well. The mating bond is sacred, and that is all you need to know.”
“I don’t disagree with you, but we’re setting a dangerous precedent if we allow the Crown to police our private lives like this,” the other male countered, and while I could see why he’d find that problematic, all I could think of was Agnes: beautiful willowy Agnes who seemed so sweet and kind. I wondered what he had been doing to her.
“All your arguments are pointless. Do you really think Larson will just accept this? We should be getting ready for war instead of yapping like females,” the North Carolina Alpha said with a scowl.
“Which side would you take in this war you predict, Terrell?” my father asked in a quiet and menacing voice, and the male’s scowl deepened.
I realized then I had no idea where my own father stood on the issue.
“Larson is a bastard,” the male, who was apparently called Terrell, finally spat out.
I got the feeling his stance would have been different if it had been anyone else, but there was no love lost between Larson and the other Alphas.
“Well, that settles it then. I’ll go talk to the others,” my father straightened and nodded at me and Dominic before approaching another group.
I cocked my head to the side as I observed him talking animatedly to them, clearly riling them up against Larson, and for the first time since my mother’s death, he looked like the male he used to be while she was alive. What was it about this situation that brought it out in him?
I glanced at Dominic, and he was analyzing my father as well.
“Should we go find Florence and Eden?” I asked him, tired of the male energy in the room.
“Yeah, I miss Gabriel,” he said close to my ear, like it was a secret he wasn’t willing to share with the others.
I smiled at him, and I felt my heart bloom from the love I saw twinkling in his eyes.
As we made our way to the stairs, I said, “You know what Lilian told me? She said that she made the mistake of getting caught in “survival mode”, as she called it, when her pups were little. She said one always thinks they will have time to enjoy and bond and do all the things once just this last thing is done, but that is never guaranteed.”
Dominic nodded, “I think you and I both learned that lesson more than once. Tomorrow is never guaranteed to any of us. Especially now, when we could be on the brink of war.”
“You really think we’re in danger of war?” I whispered, feeling the color drain from my face.
“I don’t want to lie to you, Penelope; no one knows right now. Larson is unpredictable, he always has been, and this will not go over well with some of the packs.”
“What if someone kills him first?”
“Well, then that someone will be tried and jailed. Or executed. Who would throw their life away like that, even if it was for the greater good?”
There was nothing I could say to that.
◆◆◆
“I can’t believe they got it ready so quickly,” I told Dominic as we toured our new house, but I suddenly stopped walking and turned to my mate.
“How did they get it ready so quickly? We never even finalized our choices before...” I trailed off.
He looked to the side, “They were very... motivated.”
“And what was the source of this motivation?”
“They were offered a generous tip.”
“Only that? No threats?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him, but he just pressed his lips together, refusing to answer.
Did visions of the future have a name? Something like flash-ahead instead of flashback? Because in that moment, in my mate’s face, I could see Gabriel as a young boy of maybe seven, pressing his lips together defiantly to avoid answering my question.
I smiled and shook my head at Dominic. He sat down on the couch that had moved to the new house with us, and I joined him.
“I didn’t want you setting foot in that house ever again,” he admitted, closing his eyes.
I felt the pain and guilt radiating from him. We’d been staying with Florence in his childhood home ever since we came back from Colorado.
“I wouldn’t have minded,” I told him gently.
“Trust me, you didn’t want to see Gabriel’s room like that,” he said with a faraway look in his eyes.
I hated seeing his jaw so tense, so I put my hand on it, and he leaned into my touch.
“I can’t believe I never recognized what a wacko she was; I failed to protect you,” he whispered.
“Luckily, Nana taught me to protect myself. Come on, Dominic, not even Vera noticed, and it’s her job to read others. No one could have seen it coming. Besides, I’m fine now; everything is fine.”
He shot me a look that said it was anything but fine, but he’d let it go, for now.
“Are you working through this in your sessions?” I asked him.
“Yeah, most of the sessions now are about me trying to work through the guilt, both as an Alpha and as your mate. I should have done a better job. Vera thinks that Heather probably had a personality disorder in addition to her wolf being messed up from the wolfsbane. She always sensed something was off about her, but it’s hard to tell with widowed wolves sometimes.”
I knew what she meant. My father was always off somehow after Mother was gone.
“What about your sessions, Penelope?”
“I did the ten hours mandated by the Court,” I said defensively because Dominic had been paranoid about how killing Heather would affect me.
“I know,” he said soothingly. “I was going to ask how you liked them.”
“Oh,” I said and then thought back on the time spent on Vera’s couch. “She wanted to talk about all sorts of things unrelated to the events of that day. It was annoying sometimes.”
He chuckled, “I know exactly what you mean. But somehow, she leads you back to a conclusion you didn’t even know you needed.”
“She does,” I agreed.
The sessions had been eye-opening for me.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked, and he seemed so vulnerable in that moment.
I moved to his lap, and I hugged him, which was very difficult for me to initiate. I had worked with Vera on that. A lot.
“Dominic, listen to me. I do not regret taking her life. And I don’t feel tainted by it. I feel strong, and my wolf is proud. Don’t ruin this for me by treating it as something bad.”
“I’m sorry,” he murmured into my neck.
“Apology accepted,” I said and kissed his forehead.
“I’ll go get Gabriel from Mom’s now. You can use that time to hide your knives around our new home,” he grinned, and I shoved him as I got up from his lap.
“Don’t make fun of me!”
“Making fun of you? I’ll never stop praying for your Nana Myrtle to get all the bounties of paradise! She saved your life with her wisdom, and we’ll be passing it on to our pups. Actually,” he took hold of my hand and started dragging me to the deck, “I bought something to honor her memory.”
He led me to a pot that held a young tree.
“What is it?”
“It’s a crepe myrtle,” he said, his pride unmistakable. “We’ll plant it in our backyard after the first frost. It’s a beautiful tree.”
My eyes got all blurry as I nodded.
“Hey, no tears,” he took my face in his hand and wiped my cheeks with his thumbs.
“These are happy tears,” I said, and it sounded really nasal because my nose was stinging. “Are those allowed?”
“Hell, yeah.”