Chapter 7 - Cecelia #2
To my surprise, my show of defiance is met with dismissal when Dominic simply pushes past me.
Mouth agape, I turn slowly to watch him disappear into the kitchen area of the cabin.
Groaning in irritation, I stomp my feet as I follow him, glowering at the back of his head as he searches the cabinets until he finds a glass that he picks out and sets on the counter next to the stove.
Why is he being so indifferent toward me when he just caught me in the woods trying to run away?
“Dominic…?” I call out hesitantly as I watch him find the drinks cabinet and coolly proceed to pour himself a glass of brandy.
“What?” he asks only when he turns with the filled glass in hand, casually tipping it to his lips as he avidly avoids meeting my eyes.
“You do realize I was trying to run away, right?”
“Noted,” he shrugs diffidently and continues to sip his drink.
My jaw drops, and I stare wildly perplexed at his face. “I don’t want this, Dominic. I don’t wanna help you.”
Dominic sighs as he sets the glass on the counter beside him. Folding his arms, he lifts his eyes to me, the dark pits becoming softer and lighter, but doing nothing to calm me right now.
“You don’t have a choice, Cece, you—”
“Don’t call me that!” I retort with a rumbling growl. “You have no right to call me that!”
Dominic drops his head bashfully. “You don’t have a choice in this, Cecelia. The council has already decided that you’re my partner for the trials. There’s nothing we can do to change it now.”
“I’m gonna make you lose,” I announce, folding my arms across my chest and tilting my chin with defiance.
“That’s not what you told my sister,” Dominic frowns, cocking his head to one side.
“I told Donna whatever I needed to tell her so she wouldn’t suspect that I was running away from you!”
“So you lied to your best friend?” Dominic lifts a brow and peels himself away from the counter, taking a step forward.
My heart skips a beat when I realize he’s stalking toward me, and I attempt to back away when the wall behind me blocks my escape.
“I didn’t lie to her!” I insist, catching the defensiveness in my tone and not liking the way it sounds. Why do I need to prove anything to him? “Why do you care if I lied or not?!”
“It says a lot about your character if you can lie to your best friend…”
My jaw drops again, my eyes widening with horror. “How dare you question my character!” I snap. He’s only a few feet away when my heart skips a beat in response to his prominent scent demanding my attention. I can’t give in so easily.
“You have no right to question my integrity!” I spit venomously, desperately hoping that he’ll back off before I lose my mind. “I don’t owe you a damn thing, Dominic Rivera! I hate you!”
My thoughtless exclamation is what freezes Dominic on the spot, his brows knitting into tight lines of shock as if my words struck him. “You hate me?”
I decide to run with my vindictive spree. “I’m not like the others, Dominic. I won’t grovel at your feet.”
Dominic begins to nod slowly, gulping as if to digest this information, as if he wasn’t aware of how I’d feel after what he did.
“Okay,” he concedes, resuming his approach toward me as he stares calculatedly into my eyes. “I accept your hatred, but it still leaves us with the dilemma of the trials.”
“I’m not doing it,” I refuse grimly. “I’d rather die than be your partner in these trials.”
A flash of remorse crosses Dominic’s eyes as he pauses and hangs his head with a sigh. “You see now, this is the problem we’re facing. If you go against the council, it’ll be considered treason…”
That last word cuts through me like a hot branding iron. “If you’d just let me run away, I wouldn’t be faced with that, now, would I?”
Dominic chuckles sardonically as he reaches into his pocket and produces the key he used to lock the cabin door.
“I’m sparing your life by keeping you in here.
You think Alpha Sirius would let you get away without sending a search party to bring you back and throw you into a dungeon?
” He scoffs. “I’m doing you a favor. I’m saving your life. ”
Gulping hard, I shake my head slowly. “I don’t need any favors from you.”
Dominic nods at my bitter declaration, remaining calm as he stalks forward again, this time closing the little distance between us and placing a flattened palm on the wall beside my head.
“That’s a shame.” His lips shrivel up in a contemplative manner, one brow lifting skeptically. “Because I need a favor from you.”
I’m holding my breath now, not wanting to become consumed by the scent that threatens to lower my guard. Those walls I’d built up around my heart were only put in place because of him, even if they served me when I had to be strong against a pack that hated my guts.
Rolling my eyes, I cling to that strength now that I’m so close to Dominic. It’s nearly impossible to be this close and not remember what happened before he left for black ops.
“What favor could you possibly want from me?” I ask with a deep frown.
Dominic takes a deep breath, defeatedly removing his hand from beside my face and turning to give me his back, his shoulders slouched.
“I need your help to win the trials, Cecelia. If you don’t participate, I lose my place as a contender,” he sighs, disheartened. “I’ve already spoken to Alpha Sirius, and there’s no going back from this decision. It’s either you take part with me, or I lose any chance of becoming the alpha.”
It’s impossible to ignore the desperation in his voice, and the weight of the silence that follows carries that same desperation.
“Dominic…” I begin, biting my tongue to stop myself from saying something I might regret later. I shouldn’t be showing him any compassion after what he did to hurt me. He turns at my silence, his expression grim and helpless—something I’ve never seen on his face before.
“Please, Cecelia. You must help me. It’s my only chance to prove the strength of the Rivera family. I’ve been training my whole life for this moment. I can’t let it slip through my fingers. I’m the only hope for my family to reclaim their rightful place in the Lunaris Pack.”
His eyes soften and gloss over with moisture that makes it nearly impossible not to feel a slight flicker of sympathy for his plight.
I’ve never seen Dominic Rivera in such a vulnerable predicament, and it shifts something inside me.
Perhaps it’s because I understand what it’s like to have your family fall from grace.
I could easily refuse to be his partner and forfeit Dominic’s chances of becoming the alpha. It would be the revenge I’ve always fantasized about taking, and now I have the upper hand to claim victory over him for what he did to break me.
But there’s something that prevents me from going ahead and disappointing him by ruining his plans, like a tiny voice in my head that guides me.
I raise a brow and stare up into his eyes with determination. “What is in it for me? I was willing to run away, so I have nothing to lose.”
Dominic nods slowly. “You can have anything you want, Cecelia. If I win with your help and become alpha, you can have anything you want.”
There’s a level of sincerity in Dominic’s tone that makes me believe him. Slowly, I begin nodding as I decide that there’s only one thing I truly want.
If I’m going to spend my days in Nightmist amongst the Lunaris Pack, there’s only one thing that will make my living conditions easier. I take a deep breath, and that inner intuition nods that it agrees with my choices.
“If I help you become alpha, there is something I want that only the alpha can give me,” I say in a measured tone.
A fleeting frown passes through Dominic’s face. “What do you want, Cecelia?”
Unfolding my arms, I take a step forward and stare into his eyes to make sure that he catches every word I say.
“I want a clean slate for the Morales family name. I want my father’s name cleared.
When you become the alpha, you’ll be able to do this, right?
You can clear his name of the crime he was accused of. ”
Dominic’s frown is fixed on his face now, but he offers out a hand. “It’s a deal. If you help me win, I’ll clear Hugo Morales’s name in front of all of Lunaris.”
Nodding measuredly, I place my hand in Dominic’s, faintly aware that the touch is electric, but I choose to ignore it. It feels like I’m making a deal with the devil, and I’m not about to let my guard down.
I don’t fully trust Dominic, but I will hold him to his word if he wins the trials. If he doesn’t keep his end of the deal, I’ll do everything I can to make his life miserable. I just have to be on my guard now, remain wary, and not allow my body to respond to him in any way.
I might be wearing the T-shirt again, but I won’t be stripped of my dignity this time. It’s my armor now, to remind me that he doesn’t have a hold on me anymore.