by Kiki Howell
He sat on the edge of his desk and looked around at the three men standing in his office. The three alphas from the wolf, bear, and hawk communities. Without their help, the Alliance surely would have already fallen by now.
“We followed El Tigre and his men to the edge of our territories when they left Inferno. They’re back on their own side of town now,” Loup said with confidence.
“I can confirm that,” Talon offered as he looked from the wolf shifter to Dominic. “My guys were watching from the air.”
Dominic nodded and looked at wolf shifter. “Thank you for handling that personally, Loup. I appreciate it, and I don’t think we’ll be seeing the cats back here anytime soon. But unfortunately, I think losing my cool out there a little while ago may have given El Tigre exactly what he’s really been coming here in search of.”
“Mmm,” Barrett mumbled as he stared at Dominic and nodded his head. “A weakness.”
Dominic met the burly bear shifter’s steady gaze, but he couldn’t deny it. “My weakness. Yes.” He looked down at the floor for a second as his stomach tightened. Then he took a deep breath before making eye contact with them again. “And I fear we have another problem.”
“What’s that?” Barrett asked.
“Dinah Martin.”
“The female dragon shifter we’ve all been searching for?” Loup asked, frowning at him. “Has she been found?”
Dominic shook his head. “No, she hasn’t. And something El Tigre said tonight leads me to think he knows exactly where we can find her.”
“Wait. What are you saying?” Talon asked. “You think the Cats have taken Dinah Martin?”
“To what end?” Barrett asked.
Dominic hesitated for a beat. “I think it may have been his miscalculated way of getting at me. Dinah was with me, seated at my table the first night the Cats came in here, when El Tigre requested a sit down with me. I think he naturally assumed she was my mate, or at least someone I was pursuing.”
They were all silent for a moment as the implications began to sink in.
“If that’s true, Dom, you’re saying El Tigre kidnapped Dinah Martin because of you.” Loup stared at him in disbelief.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” Dominic looked his friend in the eyes for a second. “And when I didn’t respond accordingly, when I didn’t even notice she was missing, he came back. And he’s kept coming back every couple of nights.”
“Looking for the right girl. The right weakness, just as you said,” Barrett’s voice sounded like a blaring accusation to Dominic’s ears as they stared at one another. The bear shifter tugged at the collar of his shirt, and Dominic looked away, letting him off the hook. This wasn’t the time to lord his position as leader of the Alliance over Barrett’s head.
His eyes drifted over to the hawk. “Talon, I hate to ask you this, but I need eyes on Lucinda Lindley at all times when she is not in this building. I would use my own men, but we dragons tend to be a little conspicuous from the air.”
Talon nodded. “I’ll put two of my best men on it. I’ve already got my guys patrolling the skies, like you asked. They’re reporting in every half hour. If anything’s amiss, they’ll spot it. And if your girl’s in any danger from the Cats, they’ll catch it.”
“Thank you,” Dominic said, quietly accepting the hawk’s mention of Lucinda as ‘his girl.’
“In the meantime, what do we do about the Martin girl?” Loup asked, looking around at each of them.
Dominic shook his head. “I have no actual proof the Cats are behind her disappearance. Just my gut, and El Tigre’s cryptic blabbering from before. I’m not asking any of you to join in, but I’ve already spoken to my men. We’re going into Cat territory on a rescue mission.”
“When and where?” Loup said, and Dominic shook his head again as his gaze met the wolf’s.
“Loup, you don’t have to do this. It’s a dragon matter. Dinah is one of ours. My clan will handle it.”
“As I understand it, the purpose of the Alliance is to lift us all. All the time, not just when there’s something in it for our individual species. A dragon matter should be a wolf matter, should it not?” Loup asked, meeting Dominic’s gaze.
“And a hawk matter,” Talon said.
“And a bear matter,” Barrett chimed in.
Dominic stared at them for a moment as an overwhelming sense of brotherhood surrounded him. These three men had already gone above and beyond for the success of this Alliance, and he could see they were each prepared to continue. It made him want to be a better leader, for them. He wanted to deserve their loyalty, always.
He opened his mouth to speak just as an urgent knock on his office door got their attention, and Manny hurried inside. “I’m sorry to interrupt, Boss, but I just got word.”
Manny was clearly shaken, and Dominic frowned at him. “What is it?”
Manny glanced around at the others and hesitated.
“It’s all right, speak freely. Tell us what’s happened?” Dominic insisted.
“Well, it’s Dinah Martin, sir. She’s been found.”
Dominic felt a quick swell of relief before the troubled expression on Manny’s face brought that hope crashing down again. “Where is she?”
“On her way to the morgue, I imagine.” Manny’s hands fisted at his sides as he looked at Dominic.
“What?”
“Her body was found dumped in the woods behind the old paper factory about twenty minutes ago,” Manny stated.
“He’s right. I’m getting a message from one of my guys now,” Talon said, looking at his cellphone.
“The old paper factory sits just inside Alliance territory,” Loup said. “Perfect place for the Cats to dump a body to try and frame the Alliance, or to send a message.”
“Jesus,” Talon whispered as he turned away from his phone.
“What is it?” Dominic asked, already knowing he didn’t really want the answer to that question.
“Pics my guys took of the scene before the cops showed up. He held his phone out to Dominic.
The first image he saw made Dominic’s stomach turn, and he handed the cellphone back to Talon without looking further. She had clearly put up a good fight judging by the bruises on her arms and her face. There was tape wrapped tightly all the way around her head, covering her mouth and nose. No doubt to keep her from starting a fire and saving herself.
“Fuck,” he whispered. This was his fault. Dinah had been kidnapped and murdered because of him. To get his attention.
“El Tigre decided she was useless to him now that he’s learned of your true feelings for the Lindley girl,” Barrett said, stating the obvious as the knot in Dominic’s stomach tightened even further.
Manny left the room, closing the door behind him as the four alphas said nothing for a moment.
“I know I speak for us all when I say this son-of-a-bitch has to pay. Tell us how you want to handle this, Dom. We’re behind you one hundred percent.” Loup stared at Dominic with a fierce determination, and the others nodded their agreement.
It took Dominic a moment to get his bearings, and he stood up and looked each of them in the eyes. “Gentlemen, your friendship and cooperation have been invaluable to the continued success of this Alliance.”
“We’re all in this together, man,” Loup said as he grasped Dominic’s outstretched hand.
“No one wants to see the Cats take over our territories again. And after this stunt, I think any action we take would be justified,” Barrett agreed as he shook Dominic’s hand.
“The Alliance is the best thing our former alphas ever did,” Talon chimed in as he took Dominic’s hand. “It’s brought stability and prosperity to each of our communities. That’s just what El Tigre seems hell bent on destroying. But the Alliance must not fall. On that, we all agree.”
The office door burst open without so much as a knock, and Lucinda charged in. But she stopped short as all eyes turned toward her. “Oh!” She turned a soft shade of re
d as the wind left her sails.
His fellow alphas exchanged a look among themselves, and Dominic let out a small tired sigh. He could only imagine what the men were thinking.
“I’m sorry, I ... I didn’t mean to interrupt,” Lucinda stammered.
“Not at all, Ms. Lindley,” Talon smiled at her. “We were just leaving. And please, accept my condolences. Despite his creative financing, your father was a good man. I admired him.”
She stared at him for a second, not sure what to think. “Thank you.”
Talon gave her a small bow before he turned back to Dominic. “I’ll be in touch as my men report in.”
“Thank you. I’ll keep you all posted on that other issue. Until next time, gentlemen.”
As the men filed out of his office, Dominic took a seat on the edge of his desk again and prepared himself for the coming confrontation. As he waited, his gaze traveled slowly from Lucinda’s high heeled shoes up her lovely bare legs. The black dress she wore clung enticingly to her hips, and something about the curve of them brought to his mind an image of her heavy with child. His child. The thought of it, coupled with the dress’s cleavage-revealing neckline almost made him salivate.
When the door closed, she turned to look at him. “I really am sorry. I didn’t know you were in a meeting this late. I figured you were just back here sulking, and still hiding from me. But, I just heard about Dinah Martin, and I wanted to ... I don’t know. Check on you.” She shrugged a shoulder as she stared at him. “I know the two of you were close.”
“We weren’t close. We occasionally had sex, that’s all.” He knew his tone sounded callous, and he was glad for it. He didn’t want her to know that he was affected by Dinah’s death.
“And I’m not hiding from you, Lucinda,” he said as he looked into her big brown eyes. “You know, you keep accusing me of that. Hiding from you, hiding my feelings, but that’s not the case, and it never has been. I am right here. I have always been right here, watching you. Wanting you. Loving you from a distance because you were young and impressionable, and the only daughter of my closest friend. Do you have any idea the kind of position it put me in with Jonathan when you made your feelings known? Do you have any idea how difficult it was for me to hide my desire from your father? Do you know what a fucking pervert it made me feel like? You always take everything so damn personally, Lucinda, but it had nothing to do with you. I wasn’t trying to hurt you. Keeping my distance from you was my way of showing respect to your father!”
His eyes lit up like fire as he spoke, and Lucinda was blown away by the raw passion of his words.
“Jonathan understood the world I live in. He knew the perils I deal with on a daily basis — the turf wars and the struggles for dominance and power. You think he wanted you in the middle of any of that? Back then, and still today, I am not the man you should be with, Lucinda, don’t you get that? My world is dark and dangerous, and you with all your beauty and light, you should never be anywhere near me. I am not a good man, Lucinda! I am responsible for Dinah Martin’s death. I am the heartless bastard who strung her along knowing full well that I never intended to make her my mate because I am in love with someone else. And now she’s dead because of it!”
She stood riveted as he yelled at her, taking in every word he was saying. She understood better now why he had kept her at arm’s length for so many years. It wasn’t just about her age or disrespecting her father. It was far more complicated than that. The self-loathing in his diatribe was palpable, and almost overwhelming. But it still didn’t make any difference to her, because she was only interested in focusing on one part of his impassioned speech.
“You love me?” she whispered, staring dumbfounded into his eyes.
Dominic snickered. Of course that was all she heard. That damned single-minded stubbornness of hers was so dragon-like it blew his mind sometimes. “I have always loved you, Lucinda. Even back when my thoughts made me feel like some pathetic deviant sick bastard.”
Tears stung the backs of her eyes without warning, and she wanted to remember his sweet words. Words she had longed to hear him say for so many years.
“If that’s true, then why do you keep pushing me away? I don’t deserve the pedestal you’ve placed me on. I’m not some pristine virginal goddess, Dominic. I’m a woman who desperately loves you back! Why won’t you just let me?” The tears spilled over onto her cheeks as she stared at him. “Do you enjoy keeping me in limbo like this? Why haven’t you marked me with your scent like El Tigre said? You obviously aren’t going to allow any other man to get close to me, yet you won’t take me for yourself. This is cruel and unusual punishment!”
Dominic clenched his fists around the edge of the desk as he fought to hold back the frustration. “You want me to take you, Lucinda? You want me to make you mine?”
“Yes!”
Before the word had passed her lips, he closed the distance between them and his mouth was on hers in a heated crushing kiss. She felt his hands everywhere, groping and caressing, pulling her flush against his body. Lucinda moaned as her fingers foraged through his ash red hair. He turned her around, making her take a few steps backward before she felt him lift her onto his desk.
Their breaths mingled in quick hot pants as he worked to open the front of her dress without first untying the sash. He took one lace-covered breast in his large hand, and Lucinda leaned into the erotic caress as he squeezed. She felt his mouth on her skin as he freed her breast from its frilly cage. A second later, his tongue began a relentless torture of her nipple as he urgently hiked up the skirt of her dress.
She tried to lift her hips to make his task easier. When the skirt was out of their way, he hooked his fingers around her panties and tore them away from her body with one swift yank. They reached for the front of his pants in unison as his mouth found hers again.
The sound of his moan as he entered her was the sexiest thing in the world, and Lucinda held him close as she kissed his lips. Their eyes locked as he began to move, in and out with a brutal punishing rhythm. He made no attempt to go easy as he pounded into her with a sense of abandon, taking all she freely offered and more, pushing her higher than she ever imagined she could go. She called out his name as her body began to tremble and shatter around him, and she wondered briefly if anyone could hear them over the techno dance music of the club, not that she cared.
Lost in the throes of their passion, her orgasm rocketed out of control again when she felt him bite into her flesh. Her body convulsed anew and she screamed out in a mixture of pleasure and pain. Dominic groaned as his body stiffened and he emptied himself into her. He captured her earlobe between his teeth for a few seconds, and Lucinda felt his hot breath at her ear. Then he looked into her eyes as if fervently searching them.
“You belong to me now, baby. You are more than just a dragon’s mate; you are the mate of the leader of the shifter Alliance, and I’m afraid that’s not a very safe position to be in right now. Are you sure that’s what you want?”
Lucinda gently took his face in both her hands as she relished the feel of him still inside her. “All I have ever wanted to be is yours, Dominic. I don’t care about the faction war, I don’t care that you’re a dragon shifter. I don’t care about the dangers of your world. I just want to be yours.”
He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer and thrusting deeper as he kissed her. Then he looked into her eyes. “Come on. Let’s get dressed and go home.”
.
Chapter Six
LUCINDA ADJUSTED HER breasts as she straightened out her dress and put herself back together. She stooped to retrieve her panties from the floor and made a face at the torn delicate fabric.
“Sorry.” Dominic’s lips turned up in a sexy smirk as he glanced down at the shredded undergarment in her hands and continued getting dressed. “I’ll replace every pair I rip off your body. I promise.” He took the torn lacy underwear from her hand and stuffed it into the breast pocket of his suit jacket, like a hanky.
Lucinda grinned at him and shook her head as he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. Then he stared into her eyes for a long moment.
“You are either going to be the bliss that sustains me, or the very thing that ruins me, Lucinda. My salvation or my destruction. I wish I knew right now exactly which one, but only time will tell.”
His words puzzled her, and she frowned at him as he held her close. “Why would you say such a thing?”
“I said it because it’s true.” He offered no other explanation as he stared at her. Finally, he gently swatted her bottom. “Come.”
His words bothered her, and she wondered what he meant, but she wouldn’t ask as she slipped into his private bathroom to freshen up. She still said nothing as she stood by and watched him gather his laptop and a few other things into his briefcase. Then he took her by the hand and led her from his office. They stopped by her dressing room so she could retrieve her things, and then they left the nightclub hand-in-hand, surrounded by a virtual wall of security — men she recognized as being part of Dominic’s clan.
Seated next to him in the back of a large black SUV, Lucinda stared out the window as they got underway, still pondering his words from before. When he rested his hand on her knee she turned and smiled at him.
“I can’t believe you’re finally letting me in,” she said as she scooted closer and leaned into his side.
He ran a single finger over her cheek. “A man can only fight the inevitable for so long.”
She took his hand and kissed it. “I would have waited for you forever. You know that, right?”
He shook his head as he studied her face. “And I would never have taken any other female as my mate. I want you to know that, Lucinda. I know I pushed you away and went through a lot of other women, but the only one I ever wanted was you.”
Lucinda smiled and rested her head on his shoulder. She felt him kiss the top of her head as her gaze drifted out the window again. They rode in silence for a while as she played their encounter in his office over again in her mind. The things he’d said, his declarations of love. She smiled to herself as she thought back on it all. It seemed almost magical now. The sex itself was incredible, but the truly important part was that he had bitten her – marked her as his mate. She was finally his, and he was hers. She let out a sigh of pure contentment as she held onto him.
