Chapter Seventeen #3
This went beyond personal. If Wyatt or Nathan were behind this, then they would pay dearly for their betrayal.
Not trusting his own control, he called Hank away from a rather sensitive situation at his animal shelter to accompany him.
The beta claimed that this pack matter was far more important than a puppy that refused to eat, but Dominic knew the compassionate shifter couldn’t stay with him for long.
They had to hit Wyatt hard and fast to get this business over with.
Hank’s van drew closer to the house Wyatt and Xavier shared while they were in Tolstone. The lawyer required his own home on the west side of town, not an apartment like most of his pack were given.
Both cars were parked in the driveway, but only one set of footsteps sounded from inside while the television played some late-night talk show. Their scents covered the property too much for Dominic to make out if both were inside or not.
“You try being in my shoes and simmer down,” he mumbled to his beta.
“Better let me do the talking then.”
They climbed out of the van, and it took so much restraint not to charge through the front door and beat the truth out of Wyatt.
As soon as they stepped under the porch light, all movement inside the house stilled.
Before Hank could knock, they heard the groan of the sliding back door and pumping feet against the lawn.
Dominic sped around the side of the house and released a bit of the wolf that pushed against the surface to utilize his inhuman speed to catch up with Xavier as he fled the scene.
The front door splintered off its hinges when Hank rammed his way in to see if Wyatt was inside.
Dominic wouldn’t bother with him right now.
If Xavier was running, there was a reason for it.
He followed his scent, the only thing he had to go on, as the beta darted between homes and vaulted over fences.
Dogs barked and tugged against their chains to snap at their heels when they dashed by.
This was an upscale part of town and at this hour of the night, most families were in bed, but it was damned foolish to run this fast near so many humans.
All it took was one look out their window, and they might have seen two unearthly blurs in the darkness.
Xavier was headed to the north, to the undeveloped, forested lots that remained for sale in the neighborhood. Here, no one would see when Dominic finally caught up with the beta.
With one hand clamped around the nape of his neck and the other gripping the seat of his trousers, Dominic pinned him to the ground and roared, a partial shift initiated in the heat of the moment.
Nails sharpened into claws, canine teeth elongated and sharpened, and he could almost feel his jaw widening as if he were about to grow a muzzle.
Muscles became instilled with immense strength, and he could feel the back of his shirt stretch across his broadening shoulders.
Dominance smothered the subordinate shifter like an avalanche of mud, thick and suffocating.
For a shifter who was supposed to be just as powerful as an alpha, Xavier gave in quickly.
“I didn’t plant the drugs, I swear!” he cried, his golden eyes wide with terror.
Dominic wasn’t careful about where he dug his claws as he gripped Xavier tighter and drove him into the soil. “Then who did?” Dominic leaned closer until the beta could feel his hot breath against his cheek. “And I swear if you even think about lying to me again …”
He didn’t have to finish the threat.
“Wyatt had some scent-masking musk.” Xavier’s breaths came out in shuddering bursts as he struggled.
“He busted Nathan out and gave him some. They’ve been planning this for weeks.
They were going to plant the drugs in your house, but then he realized you were mated and planted them at Erica’s place. ”
“Why?” Dominic demanded. The tips of his talons sank deeper into the side of Xavier’s neck. Blood seeped out of the puncture wounds, and the shifter hissed.
“He wants Tolstone. All of it.” Xavier cut himself off with a soft cry when Dominic continued to dig into him. “I didn’t want any part of it. He said if I tried to warn you, he’d kill me.”
“And what do you think I’m going to do?”
Xavier squeezed his eyes shut, and he hated to see the way the beta sniveled and whined for mercy. Pathetic.
“Where’s Wyatt?”
“At the antique shop, waiting for you.”
“And Nathan?”
“I … I don’t know. He came by looking for Wyatt too. I told him about all this shit, how Wyatt was just using him, and he flipped out on me. I thought he was going to kill me, but he just left.”
That’s all he needed to know, but Dominic’s wolf wanted more.
It wanted to kill the coward for betraying him.
Luckily for him, there was still a bit of human intelligence left in Dominic.
Bloodlust and rage had clouded his judgment, but he knew that the beta was only doing what he was told.
Hank had more of a backbone than that, but if push came to shove, Dominic knew that his own beta would follow his orders to the letter if enough dominance could be imposed upon him.
He unlatched his claws from Xavier’s flesh and climbed off.
“Get your pack together. I want everyone except Kaelyn and Nolan out of town before dawn. Wyatt won’t leave here alive.”
It was extreme. Dominic had never killed anyone.
His dad only had to take the life of a shifter once because they had gone insane, but there had never been a situation like this.
Never had another alpha defied his authority so brazenly, so openly, and repeated, or threatened a human citizen in Tolstone.
Wyatt had attacked his mate, his pack, and his town. Either he was stupid or had a death wish. He couldn’t possibly think he could get away with it.
When his feet hit the asphalt of the street that ran alongside the unclaimed property, it occurred to Dominic that Wyatt probably did think he could get away with this.
He thought about the alpha meetings, the various incidents when Dominic couldn’t be found or let little offenses slide, the way he showed his weakness through his attachment to Erica.
It was his own damn fault that Wyatt thought he could pick a fight with the Prime Alpha.
He had let himself get careless, just like Hank had warned against.
Dominic tried to tell himself that he wasn’t that man anymore. Just in the past week he’d found a renewed pride for his position as Prime Alpha, a new drive to keep Tolstone safe. To keep his mate safe. He sure as hell wasn’t going to let Wyatt take either from him.
Even if he hated the times when he was called away from Erica’s side to take care of a problem, he couldn’t imagine anyone else in his place.
Any thought of leaving, even for Erica’s sake, seemed like treason now that Tolstone was under fire from this brash alpha.
He couldn’t let Gage’s small pack get driven out or absorbed into Wyatt’s.
He couldn’t let his own pack be ravaged or Cole’s become abused under new leadership. They depended on him.
Wyatt had broken too many rules, and he couldn’t avoid judgment. He’d threatened his home, his pack, and his mate. Dominic was ready to play judge and executioner.