Chapter 6 - Dominic #2
“Dominic!” Donna exclaims in a condescending tone.
When I turn around slowly, I see my sister with her hands on her hips as if she’s about to scold me, her eyes wildly disbelieving as she clicks her tongue.
“What makes you think Cecelia will ruin your chances of winning?” Donna asks, glaring at me. “Just ‘cause the pack hates her, it doesn’t mean she’s stupid, Dominic.”
“I never said she’s stupid!” I defend. “But I’m not going into this without knowing we’re…” I pause to gulp, not wanting to reveal too much to my sister. “We’re on the same page.”
Donna sighs, dropping her arms to her sides. “I already spoke to her, Dom. She’s agreed to help you win.”
My eyebrows lift in surprise. “Really?”
My sister nods. “Cecelia has been called many things, but she’s not an idiot, Dominic. She knows how important this is, and she told me she’ll do whatever needs to be done.”
I let out a relieved sigh, that relief spreading through my body. Naturally, Cecelia would want to help her best friend out, even if it means helping me.
But recognizing this only further cements what I’ve been needing to say. Cecelia can’t hold on to any hope that this partnership means something more. I already made it distinctly clear that I would never want to take her as a mate.
I’ll never take anyone as a mate, and Cecelia is no exception, even if she draws me in like a siren singing my inner wolf’s favorite song.
I’d sealed myself off from ever needing a she-wolf to rule alongside me, and spent three years building up the courage to fight off the unwarranted attraction I’ve had for her.
I have to keep reminding myself that she’s just the hybrid omega of the pack, and she has no place in my life.
I need to tell her that I meant what I said in the past, even if I came across as a total asshole when I did it.
I could have been gentler, I admit. But the damage was already done.
It doesn’t seem to matter now that she’s agreed to help me win the trials. It will just make me feel less guilty if I speak to her before the morning, so we can work together as a team.
The corners of my lips lift into a pleased smile. “Well, then I should go ahead and thank her.”
Donna rolls her eyes at me. “Mama prepared your favorite meal to send you off. Are you just gonna skip dinner?”
Chuckling, I step forward and press a kiss at the top of my baby sister’s head. “Tell Mama I’ll be back soon. She’ll be done with prayers by then, I’m sure.”
Donna nods, a slight frown knitting her brows as I step away. I can only hope that she doesn’t suspect that there’s history between her best friend and me. It would just complicate things.
As if they aren’t already complicated…
Silencing my inner wolf’s voice by actively ignoring it, I take a cool stroll down the street toward the harbor, where Cecelia lives in a small, secluded area of Nightmist. Because of what Hugo Morales did when he mated with a human, his home in the main residential area of the coastal town was seized, and he was allowed to occupy a small cottage between the woods and the harbor with his daughter when Cecelia was a newborn.
I faintly remember what it was like to hear about their plight when the news first reached the pack.
I was only four years old back then, and my father explained that it was wrong for a pure-blooded wolf shifter to have a child with a human.
The only reason Hugo was allowed back was because he was of pure blood, and Lunaris couldn’t kick him out even if he did leave of his own accord in the first place.
Cecelia’s heritage as a half-human and half-werewolf makes her weaker than the rest of us. It’s probably why it’s easier for her to pack on pounds that are easily extinguished by a werewolf’s fast-working metabolism. Her body just doesn’t work the same way as the rest of us.
Cecelia Morales is different.
The only trouble is that I somehow became intrigued by her uniqueness to the point of no return.
It’s almost impossible to forget that night we spent together on her twenty-first birthday. I could say that I wasn’t in my right mind, and it could be true, considering I had no control over my inner wolf’s desires that night.
I growl as I near the harbor, not wanting to recall those memories I buried so deeply. What’s the point, anyway? If I become alpha, there’s no viable reason for me to be mated to a half-breed.
There’s no reason for me to be mated at all. But if there was one she-wolf my inner wolf would have wanted, it would be—
I slow down as I near Cecelia’s cottage, frowning when I notice that the place is shrouded by darkness and covered in an invisible, eerie mist that alerts my inner wolf.
As goosebumps spread across my forearms and extend to the back of my neck, where the fine hairs prickle at attention because of my highly intuitive senses, my heart skips a beat that sends me bolting for Cecelia’s front door.
I don’t bother to knock before shoving the door open.
“Cecelia?!” I call out urgently, flashing through the cottage in search of her. But when I discover that she’s nowhere to be found, I find a note propped underneath the empty vase on her kitchen table.
As soon as I begin reading the strokes of Cecelia’s neat handwriting on the letter addressed to my sister, my stomach churns, and my blood rushes with anger through my veins.
Cecelia Morales has left town.
Crumpling the note in my curling fist, I know there’s no way I can participate in the ranking trials without her.
I have to find her before my chance at becoming alpha slips through my fingers as quickly as logic seems to slip away every time I’m around her.