Chapter 21 - Cecelia
An Hour Before
“Please stay for dinner, dear,” Delphine, Donna and Dominic's mother, tells me kindly as she places a lid on the pot and turns to me. “I made the traditional meat stew you love.”
Smiling warmly at the older woman, I see no point in resisting her offer.
She's always been kind to me and seemed to fill the void of a mother while I was growing up.
Donna always brought me around, especially during those three years Dominic was gone.
Delphine is one of the very few in Lunaris who've treated me kindly, and I'm grateful to her.
“Of course, Delphine. But I'd like to go home and take a shower. I'll be back when I'm done.”
“I understand, Cecelia,” Delphine smiles warmly as she rounds the island table and lifts my hand. “I want to thank you again for helping my Dominic in the trials. We are indebted to you.”
“Oh, it was nothing!” I giggle nervously. “It was all Dominic!”
“She's lying, Mama,” Donna titters as she enters the kitchen. “My hard-headed brother would have messed something up if it wasn't for Cece.”
Donna winks at me, and I giggle again. It feels nice being surrounded by people who genuinely appreciate me, and their warmth spreads through me in gentle waves. I could get used to this, and I can't wait for Dominic to act on his promises.
That's why he was so eager to meet with the ex-alpha today. He left me at his house and said he would speak to Alpha Sirius about the evidence to clear my father's name. With everything going on so quickly, we haven't really had time to speak about “us,” but things are looking promising.
I finally made my way home after promising Delphine that I'd be back in time for dinner. Being back in Nightmist feels different, and there's a certain spring in my step as I head toward the harbor, a sense of hope warming me on the inside as the setting sun warms the air on the horizon.
Stopping to appreciate the vibrant oranges and soft pinks painting the sky above the water, I soak in the beauty of the air and feel hopeful for what the future will bring when it comes to Dominic and me.
I might not know what he's planning, but there's one thing I'm sure of: I love Dominic Rivera, and I trust that whatever he chooses to do going forward will benefit me. It'll benefit us.
With that stern conviction in my heart, I make my way inside my cabin, feeling like I'm a soldier returning home from battle, but relishing in the warmth that comes from lifting the photo frame of my father and mother from the side pedestal and smiling at their youthful faces.
For the first time in my life, I feel as if I've done something to make them proud, while I've really only mended my heart and realized that I love Dominic.
There's something about that realization that repaired my heart and opened me up to a world of endless possibilities, and I look forward to seeing him later tonight.
I replace the picture on the table, about to head to my bedroom, when there's a knock on my door. My heart skips a beat, my lips lifting in an involuntary smile that sets a spring in my step as I rush to open the door, expecting to find Dominic on the other side.
So my heart drops when I find a certain redhead outside, crossing his arms with an air of haughtiness in his twinkling blue eyes.
“Simon,” I say measuredly, taking a deep breath. “What do you want?”
“Ah, that's no way to treat your new delta, Cecelia Morales,” he taunts as he clicks his tongue. “Unless, of course, you hold yourself in high regard because you were partners with our alpha,” he quips with a raised brow.
“Dominic is gonna be here anytime now. I'm expecting him,” I lie in an attempt to get rid of Simon, but it doesn't seem to work since he pushes past me and enters my cabin without an invitation. “Hey! What are you—”
Simon snaps around, holding up his phone with a sinister grin. “I'm here to tell you that you're wrong about him, you know? Your alpha. He didn't even want you as his partner, even after I made it happen.”
“I don't know what you're talking about,” I huff, crossing my arms and waiting at the door for him to leave.
“Oh, you're about to find out. The only reason he cozied up to you during the trials was to make sure he won.
Do you really think he wanted you as his partner?
He was forced into it, and he had no intention of making you more than his dirty little slut during the trials, to get you to do what you needed to do to help him win.
After you were picked, he'd gone to my father, begging him to change his partner.”
“I don't believe you!” I scoff, not wanting to believe that it was all an act.
But then Simon taps his phone screen and plays a recording that sounds muffled even as Dominic’s voice rings out clearly.
“Please, Alpha Sirius! I can't be partnered up with the omega half-breed. She shouldn't even be considered fit to participate in the trials. She's a nobody, a nothing. This is a mistake.”
My jaw drops as my heart shatters, forcing me to stay frozen as I hear the rest of the conversation.
“Unfortunately, no changes can be made, Dominic. The decision is final. Cecelia Morales is your partner for the trials.”
What's left of my shattered heart explodes into tiny fragments that float like mist across my hazy vision when I hear Dominic’s distinct growl through the muffled voice recording before a blast of a door being shut rings out.
Simon appears smug about my reaction, so I pull myself together and straighten my expression, even if I'm dying inside.
So, Dominic believed that my status was too low to be fit to participate in the trials… I had no idea he'd gone to Sirius to change his partner and said those horrible things about me.
He made it seem like he had faith in my capabilities…
I had no idea he said all those horrible things about me.
Sure, I knew he didn't want to be partnered with me, just as I didn't want to be his partner, but that was because of our history. I can't believe he'd speak like that about me to the old alpha.
I can’t believe that for a moment, he’d be any different than the guy who stood idly by and watched me being bullied. His silence back then makes sense now. That’s how he thinks of me.
When Dominic assured me that our last night in Mount Desert wasn't goodbye, he probably meant that I'd still be in Nightmist after clearing my father's name.
It had nothing to do with “us.”
There was never an “us” to begin with.
It was all a lie…
“So, you see, Omega? You can get off your high horse now. You never meant anything to the alpha, and you never will. Dom said it back then, even before he left for black ops; you don’t deserve a place in this pack. You're nothing but scum, and it's only a matter of time before you're kicked out.”
Simon's words knock into my gut with a palpable strike that has me feeling sick to the core. I know exactly which time he’s talking about—the time I was being bullied and Dominic said and did nothing. I ran off then, and it’s probably when he said those nasty things about me.
Keeling over and clutching my gut, I point at the door.
“Leave, Simon!” I yell out, relieved when I see his boots stepping toward the door.
But instead of leaving, he turns to me, forcing me to look up just as he smiles sadistically, then presses a sweet but ether-like doused cloth to my face.
Just as I'm about to squeal and attempt to fight back, the claws of unconsciousness wind their dark tendrils around my vision, and everything fades to black.
***
The gnawing in my insides is what pulls me back to consciousness, my head heavy with a thumping headache that makes it nearly impossible to see clearly when I open my eyes.
Blinking them slowly as I adjust my vision to the dim light surrounding the room, I panic when I realize my wrists are tied to bedposts on either side of me.
Gasping and struggling to catch my breath, the scorching burn in my throat lingers from having inhaled chloroform. That's when I remember that it was Simon who choked me with a cloth drenched in poison, and now I've woken up in a dimly lit room, tied to the bed.
I kick my legs, shuffling to sit upright when Simon's treacherous face stares at me, appearing eerily creepy as he holds a candle to his face. Lit up by the orange flickering light, every sharp line of his face appears horrid, his eyes glowing like hellish pits as if he's deranged.
“You're awake so soon, Omega…” he chides in a cruel tone as he stands up and carries the candle with him. “I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise, since you're the alpha's fated mate.”
“Wh-what?” I stammer, my stomach churning with how gruesome Simon's looming presence appears. I gag when I feel a stir in the pit of my belly.
“That's right, Cecelia Morales,” Simon chuckles.
“I overheard my father talking to his beta about it, and we all know that fated mates are the most feared amongst our kind because of their power together. Now that proves to be a problem for me, considering that Dominic won the trials and is now alpha.”
“You're l-lying!” I croak, the unbearable pain in my gut making it hard to concentrate. But I heard what he said—he thinks Dominic and I are fated mates.
It's so rare, but if it does occur, the wolf who emerges with a fated mate naturally becomes the pack's leader because of how powerful he becomes beside them.
Simon must be lying. There's no way Dominic and I are fated mates.
“Oh, I’m not lying. I wouldn't have gone through all this trouble if I were,” Simon snorts. “Why would I care about a stupid omega, unless killing her would render my rival weak, so I can take his place as the alpha?”
Simon's sadistic laughter as he peels his lips over yellowing teeth and throws his head back has me feeling sick to the core.
“You're crazy!”
Simon lowers his head and blows out the candle, meeting my eyes with a cruel glint in his.
“I may be crazy, but I know Dominic will be too once I've killed you. I heard it hits one harder when the other dies.” He straightens up and pulls out a knife.
I gasp when he presses the blade to my throat, feeling it burn because it must be made of silver.
“Let's put it to the test, shall we? I'll prove to everyone in the pack that Dominic is a weakling, just like his weak omega mate!”
Simon howls and raises the knife as if he's preparing to strike, and I close my eyes, bracing for impact while murmuring a few last-minute prayers, knowing I'm going to die. I shed tears for the life I would have had, and guilty ones for ever doubting Dominic.
If Simon is right—even if he's crazy—then Dominic and I are fated mates.
It's that thought that erupts a giant stir in the pit of my belly, shooting my eyelids open just in time to see the door crashing in and knocking Simon down.
As if my prayers were answered, Dominic stands at the door in his magnificent wolf form like a knight in shining armor of black fur.
Our eyes meet for a brief moment as relief washes over me, the ache in my belly subsiding until a treacherous howl rings out when Simon shifts into wolf form and bursts out from under the door that knocked him down.
Dominic lifts his head and howls at the top of his wolf lungs, the sound vibrating through me with the power of recognition of my fated mate.
There's another recognition just as Simon charges toward Dominic, and I gasp, worried for the father of my child.