4. Dom
4
DOM
I ’m sitting at the dining table across from Kira. I have no interest in eating breakfast because things are not right with my mate.
Her T-shirt is so damp, it’s sticking to her skin. The same T-shirt she was wearing last night.
“Did you sleep okay?” Sierra asks Kira.
Why is her T-shirt damp, and if she’s here for a couple of days, why didn’t she bring anything from her car to change into?
“Great, thanks.” Kira smiles at Sierra. “The howls made me a little nervous, but I guess as long as the wolves stay outside, there’s nothing to worry about, huh?”
Sierra’s smile freezes as Galen looks down at his breakfast.
Howls.
No one looks at me, but they all know it was me out there, my wolf laying claim—in a more vocal way than the man would have approved—to his mate.
Now Kira is afraid of said wolf and that wolf is me.
If Kira had any idea she was sharing a table with nine people who regularly turn into wolves, I’m not sure she’d be smiling the way she is.
In fact, I’m almost positive she’d be sprinting out of the door as fast as her pretty legs could carry her.
In Missouri, she was always smiling, always cheerful. Helpful. Back when I was pretending I had no interest in her, I spent more time than anyone would ever know subtly watching her.
She volunteered at every charitable event going, and she was one of the first to show up to help when a storm brought a tree down and it damaged the front of the grocery store.
Maybe she did it to help out. Maybe she was looking for an excuse— any excuse—to get away from Bryce. But she was always there smiling, in her long denim skirts, flashing her freckled ankles, in short sleeve blouses buttoned up to the neck and her hair in a braid down her back.
And that damned wedding ring I wanted to rip off her finger and fling into the sea, closely followed by, or preceded by, her deputy sheriff husband.
I watched her, wanting her, needing her, and when she aimed one of those sweet smiles my way, I’d leave soon after, pretending I didn’t see that smile dim.
Knowing I was responsible for dimming those smiles hurt, but the less interest I paid her, the less the husband seemed to care when I happened to be in the same place as Kira. Which was as often as I could make it happen.
It was never an accident. I was always there by design. Until I nearly followed her into her house when she was carrying in the groceries. I realized I was inching closer to ripping her husband’s throat open.
During a poker game at Aaron’s house one night, I mentioned I was going to be leaving Palmerston soon, to continue the same aimless wandering I’d spent most of my life doing. He was getting ready for his next deployment and suggested I join the Marines.
Me, a Marine?
I laughed for a solid five minutes.
He shrugged, told me to think it over, that I wouldn’t find a better purpose than fighting for my country, even if it took me thousands of miles away for months and months at a time.
I went home, and as I got ready for bed, I thought about those thousands of miles and months away from Kira.
And that’s when I realized how I could keep my wolf from killing Kira’s husband and stealing her away from her happy life in Missouri.
Sierra laughs belatedly, returning me to the present. “So, Dom is like a closed door that someone locked and threw away the key. He has told us absolutely nothing about you, Kira.”
She’s not the only one eyeing Kira curiously.
Galen tried to pin me down for details last night until I told him I needed to go for a run. He offered to join me. I told him that it looked like Sierra wanted to talk to him about something, and when he turned to his mate, I took advantage and walked quickly away.
Yes, Sierra had looked like she wanted to talk. But not to him. To me. About Kira. About why I’ve spent years sitting on the front porch steps, staring into the distance, and then suddenly a woman turns up in the middle of the night that I’d told none of them about.
And about why I’ve suddenly lost the calm they know me for.
I dig my fork into my eggs as I tell myself the reason for Kira’s damp T-shirt can’t possibly be that she has no clothes with her. Because if that was the case, it would mean she left her home in Missouri—not exactly a short distance away—in a hurry.
And along the way misplaced her wedding ring?
“We knew each other a few years ago,” I say. “That’s all.”
Galen’s piercing green eyes narrow in suspicion. “I see.”
“So, you’re here for Dom’s birthday, then?” Nick asks.
Pretty blue eyes fix on me. Kira still has the most beautiful eyes in the world, framed with long, dark blonde lashes. “It’s your birthday?”
Galen sits back in his seat as he abandons his breakfast to focus on me. That look confirms he’s going to be pinning me down at the first opportunity for answers about why almost every word I’ve spoken since Kira has appeared has been a lie. “Next week. It’s his big thirty. We planned on having a party to celebrate.”
If Kira sticks around—and I’ll be doing everything in my power to convince her that’s exactly what she wants to do—then the nature of that party will have to change. We’d planned on having a BBQ in the backyard, then stripping out of our clothes and spending the next several hours running as wolves.
That can’t happen now.
Kira might wonder what happened to the party guests when she starts tripping over clothes on the back porch.
“Oh, that sounds nice,” Kira says brightly. “But I’m not staying. I was just in the area.”
“That’s a shame.” Rose is eyeing Kira with so much interest I need to make sure never to leave them alone together. Rose loves to shop. She never needs an excuse to drive into Wylder and spend an hour chatting about fashion to Tricia, the boutique store owner. She is also far too curious about my mate. “Are you from around here, then?”
Kira’s hand tightens around her fork and her gaze turns evasive. “Uh, no. Missouri, actually.”
Missouri, we all know, is in the Midwest. Wylder is on the far east coast. There’s no ‘being in the area’ unless you intended to be here.
The silence extends for two beats.
“So you were passing through?” Aly’s brow furrows in confusion.
When Kira’s eyes flicker, I would put money on her trying to come up with a lie. “Um. Something like that. Do you think I could have another pancake?”
“Sure.” Nick forks another pancake onto her plate, and as Kira lowers her head, I shoot Rose a warning look to drop it. If Kira doesn’t want to talk, she doesn’t talk.
As everyone returns to their breakfast, the sound of a car engine heading this way distracts me from the piece of bacon I’m about to stuff in my mouth.
I glance toward the entryway. “Anyone expecting anything?”
Head shakes accompany murmurs of dissent.
Galen focuses on Rose. “Any new shoe deliveries, Rose?”
Her eyes widen. “It’s been at least a week since I used the pa—” Jones coughs, cutting Rose off. She darts a rapid glance at Kira, remembers we have a human in our midst. Talk of pack credit cards might lead to questions none of us want to answer, “—personal credit card.”
It’s early, and none of us are expecting anyone.
The greater mystery is why Kira is suddenly gripping her fork tight as she stares at the open kitchen doorway, as if trying to see through walls to discover who it might be.
“Everything okay?” She jumps at my voice. The fork flies out of her hand, clashes to her plate and there is absolutely no way any of us miss the way she flinches at the sound.
She laughs nervously, her cheeks pink. “Uh, sorry about that. The mess I mean. I’ll?—”
“No worries.” Chloe smiles reassuringly at her as she makes quick work of scooping the few bits of egg from the table into her hand and carries it over to the trash. On her way back to the table, she snags a new fork she places beside Kira’s plate. “It’s just a bit of scrambled egg. It’s no big deal.”
Chloe is an alpha. Although Kira isn’t a shifter, her fear and wariness is that of a submissive shifter. It’s in an alpha’s nature to want to protect the weakest members of our pack, so Chloe’s reaction doesn’t surprise me. Neither does the look of concern Galen aims her way.
Kira hunches her shoulders, and the sharp tang of her fear is unmistakable. For her, dropping something is a big deal, and I need to know why.
My wolf growls in my head at the scent of Kira’s fear, wanting to eviscerate the person or thing that caused it. Because Kira is acting like she expected one, or maybe all of us, to punish her for the mess.
Outside, a car door slams shut, reminding me of our unexpected guest.
We’re in the kitchen at the back of the house, so there’s no scenting the air to figure out who it is. The footsteps are familiar and Chloe, who has returned to her seat from putting the egg in the trash, perks up. Her reaction confirms who is paying us a visit this morning.
Shawn, Wylder’s sheriff.
As beta, I’m the second in command. It’s my job to assess potential threats to the pack. Galen leads, but I’m his right-hand man. Which is to say, I should be getting off my ass and going to see what Shawn wants. If it’s anything that poses a danger to us, to deal with it. But my mate is leaking fear. Something is wrong. I can’t leave her.
“I’ll see what Shawn wants.” Galen must have seen more than I wanted him to see, about me, maybe even about Kira, for him to push his chair back and set his fork down beside his half-finished breakfast as he rises.
Sierra flashes Galen a grateful smile and, seeing it, his expression softens as he takes her hand and briefly squeezes it before he walks out.
The front door swings open, letting a blast of cool air through the entryway and to the kitchen.
I hear Galen greet Shawn at the front door. Shawn asks if he can come in for a minute. Because I’m watching Kira, I catch the exact moment all the blood drains from her face when she first sees Shawn.
Shawn is a trim man in his late twenties, with short, light brown hair, bright blue eyes, and an amiable disposition. He’s wearing his usual light green khaki long-sleeve sheriff’s uniform, a friendly smile on his lips that he’s mainly aiming at Chloe.
Chloe’s cheeks turn pink before she points her face down as Galen turns to see what caught Shawn’s attention.
“Did you want to join us, Shawn?” Sierra asks with an odd note in her voice that makes me wonder if she caught the interplay between Shawn and Chloe. “We have plenty if you want to.”
That is no exaggeration.
Shifters have big appetites, and a pack of them, who went for a long run last night and didn’t end that run with a rabbit or a deer, were ravenous this morning. Kira missed the first round of breakfast that everyone fell on the moment they came down.
Nick, who does the cooking, knows to make extra. There’s still a good helping of eggs, bacon, hash browns, pancakes, and toast that will all go by the time breakfast is over. No one wastes food around here.
Shawn looks interested. More in a certain blonde shifter than the breakfast. After a long pause, where it’s clear he’s debating saying yes, he shakes his head and refocuses on Galen. “No. I had a fax come in overnight, and I wanted to ask if you’d seen…” His voice trails off as his eyes wander back to the table.
Now he’s no longer distracted by Chloe, he’s finally processing the fact that we have a new arrival at our breakfast table this morning.
Kira is still ashen faced with a strange half-smile on her lips as she stares at a point just above Shawn’s right shoulder.
“Shawn?” Galen prompts.
Shawn tears his eyes off Kira, refocusing on Galen. “Like I said, we had a fax come in. A woman has gone missing. Long strawberry-blonde hair, blue eyes, about 5’4 and in her mid-twenties. She’s suffering from a mental illness that means it’s important we reunite her with her loved ones before she comes to harm.”
My packmates look at Kira, whose fixed smile doesn’t move. It’s like someone glued it in place. I’d swear she’s barely breathing. She’s that still.
There’s no mistaking who Shawn is looking for. Kira.
No one is taking my mate if she doesn’t want to leave. I don’t know what the talk of her having a mental illness is about, but that doesn’t sound right. Not with all the terror bleeding from Kira’s pores. Shawn is a friend. As much of a friend as a shifter can be to human police enforcement, but if he tries to take Kira…
Shawn turns away from the table to fully face Galen. “But since I’ve been here and had a look around myself, and seen no one matching that description, I’ll respond to that fax to say that woman, whoever she is, must not be in the area.”
Kira’s eyes widen at what is so clearly a lie, and I relax, relieved I don’t have to do something to a man I consider a friend.
Shawn walks away without a second look back. “Well, I’ll leave you to enjoy your breakfast. If you have any trouble, you know where to find me. Good morning.”
Galen returns to his seat. We all resume eating breakfast as Shawn starts up his car and pulls away from the house.
After a moment, Kira picks up the clean fork Chloe placed beside her plate. “About this party? When were you having it?”
I forget about my breakfast. “Next weekend, the weather’s supposed to be nice enough for a BBQ and maybe a football game. We’d be happy for you to stick around for it.”
She looks at me and, try as I might, I can’t read her expression. Maybe relief tinged with a touch of fear. Not the sharp fear of someone hurting her. Fear of what my answer will be.
“I wouldn’t be in the way?” her voice is soft, hesitant.
Something about that question, about her being here, with no wedding ring, no clothes she needed to pull out of her car, and a T-shirt that it looks like she washed it last night and it didn’t dry before she needed to wear it again, combine to make me think she has nowhere to go.
And that flinch...
That flinch enrages my wolf. I can’t help but think the reason for that flinch has to do with the reason she’s no longer wearing her ring.
“You wouldn’t be in the way.” I gentle my voice. “Stay. Please. ”
After a searching look, she nods, and her shoulders relax. “I’ll stay for the party. Thanks.”