Chapter Fourteen
The rain had finally slackened off as water trickled down the gutters to spill out onto the lawn.
In the tranquil darkness, Dominic watched Erica sleep.
Her chest slowly rose and fell with each breath underneath the sheets.
Her brown hair had been loosened from its braid hours ago to spill out over her pillow.
He prized this moment, wishing it could last forever.
It must have been close to dawn now. They made love until she couldn’t keep her eyes open, but he was ready for so much more, for vows and promises. Their mating bond pulsated with their heartbeats, stronger than it had ever been, and Dominic never wanted to leave her side.
Was this how it was for his parents? He couldn’t remember a time when they showed how blissfully happy they were in their union, but he had also been too young, and his father was never around.
He didn’t even want to think if this was how it was for Cole and Felicia when they were first together.
Dominic would need to find a way to keep it this good, this passionate, and special forever.
He couldn’t mess this up. That’s why he set aside his pride for their first time and let her take the reins.
Not that he would ever complain about the way she rode him to completion.
He couldn’t count how many times he had heard the boisterous conversations from other men who swore they would never let a woman emasculate them by letting them take charge during sex.
Something that was supposed to be demoralizing turned out to be oddly thrilling.
Once her dominating streak was taken care of, Erica let him take over, at least for a couple of rounds.
God, that woman had more sexual energy than he would have ever guessed.
Dominic smiled when she snuggled deeper under the covers, tucking her bare shoulders until they were concealed. He cherished the feel of her hand nestled in his. They were so perfectly matched, but something deep in his gut told him that she couldn’t see that yet.
Her words last night in the kitchen, her jumbled mass of emotional confusion just before she broke away from whatever was holding her back from accepting the mating bond, continued to taunt him in these silent moments.
What was she so afraid of? He had bared his soul, told her things that no other human knew about him.
He’d told her that he would never leave, that he was willing to forsake Tolstone for her, and she knew how significant that was now.
Why wasn’t that enough? What would be enough?
How could he blast through the strongholds that were left around her heart?
Maybe her intuition was stronger than he even realized.
Something deep inside told him that he couldn’t completely forsake Tolstone.
That’s why, even while her naked body warmed his, he kept glancing at the place where his jeans lay on the floor beside the bed and wondered how many missed calls and unread texts he had.
He shouldn’t have cared, but damn it he did.
Was this a sign of what was to come in their relationship?
Would the pull to be alpha still ruin things like it had for Cole and Dominic’s father?
He let go of her hand and slid out of bed. He didn’t make a sound as he fished out his phone and crossed his fingers that there would be no notifications. No such luck.
Not only had Hank and several other pack members called, but Cole, who was supposed to be covering for him, had left a few voicemails.
With a sigh, he stood in the buff by the window and fortified himself for a long list of complaints or simple problems that could have waited until the morning.
Dominic was ready to disregard them all until after breakfast. He owed Erica that much.
The very first message was from Hank, and he didn’t have to listen to the rest. He covered his eyes and regretted his decision to put the phone on silent.
He should have put it on vibrate. At least then, he might have looked at his phone much sooner.
This all happened about an hour ago. God only knew what was going on now.
“Dominic?”
Erica’s sleepy, cracked voice broke through his panic. He looked up and saw her peering at him in the bluish, early dawn light softened by the gauzy curtains. She wasn’t too out of it to notice that he was holding his phone.
She drew the sheets to cover her breasts and sat up. “What’s wrong?”
Dominic swallowed hard and came to her bedside, though he should have been booking it out of the house the second he knew why everyone in Tolstone had tried to reach him.
“I’ve got to go, but I’ll be back, I promise.”
With nothing to hold her back, Erica reached out and grabbed his arm. “Please don’t go.”
For once, Dominic wished he couldn’t see so well in the dark. It would have made ignoring the despair in her eyes a lot easier. “It’s … There’s been an incident. A shifter was assaulted, and I have to take care of it.”
Erica, now fully awake, gripped his arm tightly until he could feel the prickling of her nails on his skin. “Tell me.”
It might have been refreshing to tell her, to disclose exactly why he had to leave and keep no more secrets.
Maybe it would make her worry less, but the nature of this call might not have settled her at all.
“You met Gage Phelps. The mechanic at Tolstone Auto Repair?” He waited for her to slowly nod.
“He has two in his pack. One of them is Kimberly. She works at the flower shop. Someone from another pack tried to rape her last night. Gage is going to confront him since they couldn’t reach me, but this is a matter for a Prime Alpha.
I have to mediate this and make sure the guilty party is punished. ”
When he said it that way, he sounded more like a judge than a regular man, especially one who owned an antique store.
This was his job, his life, his duty. He wouldn’t tell her that it was a member of Wyatt’s pack, one that had caused too much trouble thus far.
What little information Wyatt gave about Nathan’s past and situation didn’t sit well with Dominic to begin with.
There was something rough about the character, something far more dangerous than any shifter had a right to be.
If he could have accepted all of Wyatt’s pack except for Nathan, then he would have.
However much Wyatt had proved himself to be a shitty alpha, he stood by his pack and wouldn’t let any of them be tossed aside just because they had a sketchy background.
Gradually, Erica let go of Dominic’s arm. “You need to go, then.”
He held her face in his hand and let his thumb stroke her cheek, immense love and devotion in his eyes that he hoped she could see in the dim light. “I promise I’ll come back as soon as everything is settled.”
Erica leaned into his hand. “Just be careful?”
He smirked. “There’s not much that can hurt me.”
A tired smile spread over her lips, and she nodded. “I figured as much. Just be careful anyway?”
That much he could certainly do. It wouldn’t be easy to leave her, especially when her hair was a mess, and her eyes were still bright with afterglow.
But Gage’s life and Kimberly’s honor were at stake.
Damn this alpha instinct. He wished he could have ignored it all, but he began to realize that he might have been wrong.
Giving up Tolstone might have been just as difficult as giving up Erica.
They were both in his blood, in his soul.
After half a dozen kisses goodbye, he dressed in his now dry pants and collected his shirt from downstairs.
He’d have to do this quickly if he wanted to get back to Erica by breakfast. Just on the front porch, his wolf yowled for her, the mating bond strained across this short distance apart.
Dominic bravely pushed it aside and rushed to his truck parked on the other side of his house.
When he arrived at Larson Caves Park, he could already hear the commotion deep within the woods.
Several cars were parked by the visitors’ center, and he knew this was no longer a private duel.
Gage’s motorcycle, Hank’s Honda, Cole’s squad car, and the vehicles that belonged to numerous other pack members, including Kimberly, Wyatt, Declan, Jaime, and Ronan, were there.
The metallic scent of blood, the musty smell of fur and animals, and the earthy aroma of moist soil greeted him when he stepped out of the truck. His nose and ears pinpointed their location to a dense part of the reserve. What he found enraged him.
Over half a dozen wolves circled a clearing while the other shifters remained human, watching or arguing, on the brink of war.
In the center were Gage and Nathan in their wolf forms. The unique tan and black marbling of Gage’s pelt was muted in the early morning light, but his eyes blazed a fierce, hateful gold as he sized up his opponent.
Nathan, black as night, glided in his powerful strides, tail stiff and lips pulled back in a snarl.
They must have been fighting for a while.
The evidence of it was matted in their fur and glistened on the ground.
Both wolves looked ready and willing to duel until one of them lay lifeless in the grass.
Serving as their seconds, Hank and Wyatt stood by in their wolf forms on the sidelines, ears pricked forward and focused entirely on the wolves in the center as chaos erupted around them.
A few of Wyatt’s pack in their human forms were ganging up on Declan, the other member of Gage’s pack besides Kimberly.
From the jumble of screams and threats, Dominic gathered that the packs were divided.