Chapter Eighteen #3
“I’ve got connections, just like you do.
” Wyatt’s predatory eyes watched the way a little more of the beast came out of Dominic with each passing second.
“Erica’s probably sitting in a jail cell right now, facing a long trial ahead with pretty damning evidence against her.
Without the proper lawyer, she could be sent to prison.
I can make sure that she doesn’t have to go. ”
He narrowed his glare. “I’m listening.”
Wyatt stepped closer as he explained. “Nathan’s all brawn and no brain.
I told him that as long as he played along, I’d make sure that his record is expunged, and he never has to go back to prison.
He believed me. He pulled some strings and got his hands on a few bags of cocaine to plant in Erica’s home upon my request.”
“Get to the point.” Dominic put real effort into keeping his voice down.
“You have two options,” Wyatt said, stopping just out of arm’s reach.
“You can give Tolstone to me. Pack, title, and all. Tell everyone you can’t handle the stress of all that responsibility, being at everyone’s beck and call all the time.
You want to settle down, raise a family, move away to someplace where you don’t have to worry about anyone else but yourself.
If you do, I’ll present hard evidence that the drugs do not belong to Erica and Nathan will take the fall.
Your little bitch is free to run off with you into the sunset and I’ll become Prime Alpha. ”
Dominic gritted his teeth. This was his fault.
He had shown his belly to Wyatt, shown that the extra load of his manic pack had burned him out to the point he was ready to give up.
Had Wyatt orchestrated this from the start?
Told his pack to run amok so Dominic would feel the pressure and strain of leadership when he was most vulnerable?
Purposefully dragged his feet on finding a new home for his pack so they’d wear him down even more?
Wyatt wanted Dominic in just the right headspace to be tempted by this offer and pushed him over the edge by threatening his mate’s safety.
That was the wrong move. Now, he had more to fight for.
What Wyatt didn’t know was that Erica was safe and as long as Cole was still adamant about doing right by her, she’d never face a judge for this bogus crime.
Cole had his connections too. They had too many allies in this town for Wyatt’s scheme to ever come to fruition.
But Wyatt didn’t know that. He didn’t know he had fucked up when he messed with Dominic like this.
“And the other option?”
“Then I’ll take Tolstone by force, and your precious Erica goes to prison.”
Dominic laughed. “And how do you propose doing that? You know you can’t beat me. This morning proved that.”
“This morning, I wasn’t ready to fight you.” A wicked grin split his face. “Now, I am.”
His hands moved almost too quickly for Dominic to register, but as soon as he saw the muzzle of the gun in the streetlamp light, he dashed out of the way.
The crack of the gunshot would have been heard across the square.
The bullet whizzed past his ear, and he could feel the searing effects of the silver on his skin, missing him by a hair’s breadth.
Dominic dashed to safety on the other side of the shop, putting several bookcases and priceless antiques between him and Wyatt.
From what he could tell, the bullet lodged itself in a chest of drawers, splintering the face of one of the drawers and likely passing through the back, but inflicted no other major damage.
“Think about it, Dominic,” Wyatt called out. “I don’t have to kill you, and you can have everything you want. Just turn it all over to me, and you can walk away.”
Dominic’s heartbeat hammered against his ribs as he looked around for anything that could give him some advantage against a gun with silver bullets. “And let you drive this town into the ground? You must think I’m stupid. You can’t even take care of your own pack, much less two more!”
Wyatt came closer, and Dominic weaved his way around, making sure there was always some kind of barrier between them. His wolf might have wanted to fight, but his human logic understood that claws and fangs would do no good against what Wyatt was packing.
Lead bullets could be easily pushed out, and the wound would heal.
Silver was poisonous, an acid that burned their flesh.
If allowed to infiltrate their blood, it was deadly.
A silver bullet to the chest was not something he could bounce back from, and Wyatt knew that.
No amount of dominance, pack loyalty, or brute strength could save him.
“Oh, but here’s what I was planning,” Wyatt’s pace quickened as he chased Dominic around the store.
“Cole and his bunch can leave. I don’t need them, and he won’t respect me anyway, so there’s no point in making him see things my way.
Gage isn’t ready to be alpha, so I’ll just accept him into my pack after I employ a little persuasion.
I’m not even going to begin to bother with those packs that want to come here for sanctuary.
They can help themselves unless they accept me as their alpha, and only me. ”
Dominic thought of Shane and all the other applicants on the waitlist. All those shifters, loners, and small packs that needed help. If Wyatt had his way, none of them would be safe. None of them would be granted asylum. That’s not what Tolstone was about.
“That’s a lot of dead shifters on your hands.”
“You think I would feel guilty over a bunch of weaklings who couldn’t hold their own? They’re better off dead anyway.”
Dominic snapped. He dodged around an upright piano and toward the end of an aisle where Wyatt stood.
He heard the gunshot and felt the searing pain in his shoulder as the bullet grazed his flesh.
The Prime Alpha fought through it and channeled his wolf’s blind anger into a full, uncontrolled assault on Wyatt.
He grabbed for Wyatt, one hand on his neck and the other gripping the wrist that held the gun.
Tiny bones snapped between his powerful hold, and Wyatt let out a roar.
The gun clattered to the floor, and he kicked it underneath a cabinet, well out of reach and useless in their fight.
Golden eyes glared in the dim light of the antique shop, and their battle began.
Tables were knocked to the ground, figurines smashed, plates and crystal goblets exploded into tiny shards as the shifters left a path of destruction all the way from one side of the store to the other.
Dominic didn’t care about the damage. Didn’t care about the priceless pieces of heritage and history that were lost forever to this storm of violence. All he cared about was putting this shifter in his place, saving his town, and saving his mate. Nothing else mattered.