A low rumble came from deep in his chest and her eyes widened at the unfamiliar sound. “I’m not getting kicked out from another pack,” he said firmly. “Go in the bedroom and get dressed,” he commanded.
If anyone else had talked to her that way she would have dug in her heels and refused to listen all the while giving that person a fight. But Dominic’s tone told her that he was in no mood for a battle so reluctantly she walked back to the bedroom with a million words on her tongue.
She swiped at the makeup that had slightly smudged in her sleep and ran a brush through her hair, in an attempt to calm herself from the anger she was feeling at Dominic’s dismissal. How could one person cause so many feelings inside of her?
One minute she was content and feeling safe and comfortable, his arms feeling like she was finally returning home after a journey that she’d never thought she’d make it through. Then the next she wanted to scream at him and wipe that smug smile right off of his face. How she could feel so connected to him yet utterly irritated by him boggled her mind. But someone was at the door and there was absolutely nothing she could do about Dominic at the moment. The only thing she could do was get dressed and find out who was at his cabin so early in the morning. That person had ripped her away from the happiest she’d ever felt so it had better be worth it.
Dressing in leggings and a sweater, Olivia emerged from Dominic’s room feeling much fresher and better about herself. The scent of coffee brewing perked her up as she took the few short steps toward the kitchen.
Patrick, one of the pack members, was sitting across from Dominic at the small circular kitchen table.
“Good morning, Olivia. How did you sleep?” Dominic asked as if he barely remembered she was there. It was an act, she knew it was, but still it grated on her nerves. Olivia had never hidden her life and what she wanted, so why was she having to do it now when she finally found the one true thing she wanted?
“Fine, thanks,” was all she said.
She walked over to the counter and took a mug out of the cupboard and poured herself a steaming cup of coffee.
“So, what were you saying, Patrick?” Dominic pulled the attention from Olivia back to the conversation she had interrupted.
“The attack last night, it wasn’t bad but I’m certain they’re coming.”
Olivia hadn’t heard what was being said from the bedroom but her blood ran cold when she heard someone had been attacked.
“Who was it?” she asked anxiously.
“No one from our pack. He’s a loner, lives in town but not with any wolves. He’s not part of a pack, seems that he’s tried to give up the life of a shifter. But, they caught him anyway.”
“Why would they do that?” Dominic asked. “Atticus said the poachers are looking to get rid of packs for sport. Why would they go after just one shifter who doesn’t even partake in a pack?”
Patrick shrugged. He looked ragged, worn out, and it was obvious the toll this was taking on every rank of member. He scratched at his thick beard and let his experience show in his thoughts. “Maybe this isn’t just about killing packs anymore, maybe this whole thing has just become a game of killing shifters.”
“It was close by?” Olivia asked.
“It was just in town. He survived, but only because a neighbor called for help when she heard some disturbing noises. He’ll be alright, but that means that they’re mere minutes away from us. We’re probably next.”
Olivia felt her body slump against the kitchen counter. Just the night before she had found how very real the threat was and now it was only minutes away? Life was spinning so fast in the prior couple of days that she was very nearly feeling dizzy about it all.
“I should get going,” Patrick finally said standing from the table. “The wife is nervous about being alone. I think we’re all a little nervous about all of it.”
He walked toward the front door, neither Olivia nor Dominic moving one bit. With his hand on the knob, he turned back toward Dominic again. The two locked eyes and Olivia watched something pass between them.
“Be prepared,” Patrick warned. With the final warning he opened the door and walked outside to go home and protect his wife.
The scent of coffee, which had smelled divine just moments before, suddenly made Olivia nauseous and she dumped the entire contents of the mug down the drain. Dominic stood from the table and began to pace around the house. Up and down and up and down until Olivia couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Can you stop pacing and say something?”
“This shouldn’t have happened. How did they get into town with no one noticing? Someone should have noticed,” he said clearly thinking out loud.
“How would someone have noticed? Everyone is in their cabins at night.”
“Exactly!” he roared, “That’s the whole point!” Dominic pointed at the windows, his face turning red in his frustration. “Someone should be out there watching and patrolling! We could catch these monsters before anyone else got hurt! A lone wolf, someone who isn’t even a part of this, was nearly killed last night!”
Tears were springing from Olivia’s eyes at his outburst and at everything that seemed to be such a mess.
“There’s nothing anyone could have done. And he’s alive,” her voice was coming out a whisper.
“Don’t you see how bad this is? Don’t you see that you could die? That everyone could die! I’m not going to let that happen!”
Dominic yanked the door open letting a strong cool gust blow through the house before he raced out of it, slamming the door behind him. She hurried to the living room where she pulled back the curtain just in time to see his wolf’s brown and golden fur race off into the mist of the morning woods. Olivia was left alone again.
Chapter Fifteen
Dominic
There was no chance of Dominic being able to hold back his wolf, not after the news that Patrick had delivered. No, he needed to tear out of his human form and race into the woods. He needed to stretch, to breathe, to clear his head from everything that was going on.
God, why was his head so foggy?
Ever since he met Olivia he’d been wrestling with his mind and his body and it was becoming exhausting. Maybe if he’d met her at another place and time he’d be stronger against her wiles. Maybe it was the knowledge that she was in danger and needed someone to keep her protected that kept him feeling confused, but he highly doubted that was it.
There was a feeling inside of Dominic that told him no matter when he would have met Olivia, as he was surely destined to do, he wouldn’t have felt this confused and riled up. It was just bad timing that when he met her, packs around their country, including his, were in grave danger. The tension was mounting inside of him, as well as the desire to belong to a pack, and it was all getting confused inside of his mind.
If there was one thing he was certain of, however, it was that he no longer thought that fated mates was just a fairytale. Though he’d scoffed at the notion for years, after his second night with Olivia, he knew it to be true. Fated mates indeed existed, and he was certain that he’d found his. But it couldn’t happen between them, it was impossible.
With Dominic’s reputation there was no way that Atticus would be alright with his only daughter ending up with a wolf like him. He’d banish him out of that pack and let Dominic fend for himself in the wild rather than let his daughter be with him. That was probably for the better, Dominic had caused enough problems and turmoil in people’s lives; not only women’s but his brother’s and families’ as well, that he had no desire to do any of that again.
Not to mention the fact that Dominic should have been doing something more important with his time. Being with Olivia had been a perfect way to spend any amount of time that he had, but since he couldn’t have her, he should have been out protecting everything around him. The pack, the town, even the kingdom since that was what his father sent him out to do anyway.
And that was exactly what Dominic planned to do. Once agai
n, he vowed that he would stay away from Olivia and be there only as a protector. But this time he wouldn’t go in the house. No. Instead he would stay outside on the porch, in wolf form, as if he was a watchdog. That was the only way he could be sure she was safe from any harm while keeping an eye on his pack.
Tension was brewing in the air, it was so thick that Dominic could taste it on his tongue. The attack was coming, and it was going to be soon. Dominic’s hackles went up instinctively and he knew that the attack could be as soon as nightfall. He needed to get back to the pack and their cabins, he’d been out running long enough.
What would he say to Olivia when he got back? How could he tell her that no matter how perfect she felt in his arms that he could never be with her? It wasn’t as if he could blame Atticus, it wasn’t his fault that Dominic carried the negative reputation that he did. Dominic had made those decisions to bounce around from girl to girl and live carelessly in the assumption that he’d never find that perfect girl. Now that he’d found her, it was a vicious circle that he couldn’t have her because of his reputation.
Damn his luck.
Had this been what his brother had felt for his fiancé? He was designed for her, yet Dominic had clouded her mind and judgment by convincing her of the bore that was his brother?
If so then he supposed he deserved the cards he was being dealt.
It didn’t matter much in the moment, the only thing that mattered to him was keeping her alive. He’d find a way out of the confusion he was in, once he took care of his pack. His pack was going to come first, though he hadn’t the faintest idea how he was going to do that either.
Suddenly nothing felt simple anymore. Not his emotions or his love life, and especially not the comfort of his pack. They needed him and he needed them, but how was he going to keep them all alive? He was just one wolf, no matter how strong he was, there was just one of him and he had a feeling there were going to be plenty of poachers to battle with.
Dominic stopped short of his cabin and once again put back on his clothes after he shifted to human form. The first thing he needed to do was talk to Olivia. He needed to explain what was happening, why he had to stay away from her, and hopefully she would understand how much she meant to him. He had to hope she wouldn’t hate him for staying away from her. Once she went back to school, she’d forget all about him. After all, she wasn’t a shifter, she probably didn’t even have a fated mate. She’d move on and find some college guy and fall in love.
The thought made him sick but at least she could be happy, she’d be taken care of and by someone Atticus would approve of. He would spend his life in misery, he was sure, but he probably deserved it. She’d go on to be happy and that would somehow mean more to him.
But first things first; he had to keep her alive.
Back at his cabin, he straightened himself up and opened the door to the cabin, prepared for the hardest thing he’d have to do— push her away.
Chapter Sixteen
Olivia
He left her. Olivia’s thoughts kept swirling through her mind that he had left her. Someone who lived a few minutes away had been attacked— nearly killed— and Dominic who was supposed to be her protector, had left her there alone.
Once again, she felt like a fool for thinking that Dominic was anything more than the animal that he was. Had it only been a few hours before that she thought that something had broken down between them? That when they had made love that time, the pain of their pasts had surfaced and they had been there to take care of each other?
God, he was good, very good to even fool a strong-willed girl like herself. She’d never fallen for a man’s sharp tongue and sexy charm before, but she had fallen stupidly for Dominic. But it was all too much, too intense, too much happening.
Just a few days before she had been happily studying chemistry— well not happily studying chemistry, but studying chemistry in her little single dorm attached to her suite with a roommate that she liked well enough. Now she was hiding in a log cabin in the woods, in weather that hadn’t seen sun in what felt like forever, the threat of danger very real. And of course, she was being protected by a man who drove her insane in every sense of the word and the only person who had ever made her feel that way. Yet considering how quickly he pulled away from her and cut her off, she was the only one who felt that way.
Everything was too much, she couldn’t sit in that little cabin anymore. The restless feeling inside wasn’t like those of her childhood where she wanted to escape because she felt overprotected and bored. This feeling inside of her was different, it was the burning of tears, the prickle of loneliness, and the deep cuts of a heart ready to shatter.
She wasn’t going to sit around and wait any longer to let herself fall apart further. Back in Dominic’s room she started to stuff things in her bag. There was no way she was going to stay another minute in the house being suffocated by Dominic and the threats that surrounded her. There was a tiny ray of hope that she would get out of the house before Dominic came back from his race through the woods. She didn’t want to have to explain herself or even worse have to say goodbye to Dominic.
But as luck would have it, just as she was zipping her bag, she heard the cabin door open. Dominic called her name, but she could feel the clog of tears in her throat and couldn’t manage to call back to him. She heard his heavy footsteps as he walked back to where she was in the bedroom.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
Olivia looked up at him and saw that he wasn’t looking at her but at the bags she was packing.
“I’m leaving. I can’t stay here anymore. I need to go back to school.”
She had been hopeful that she’d be able to keep her voice sounding steady and resolute but her emotions were betraying her, wavering with all the thoughts that she was thinking.
“What are you talking about? You heard what Atticus said last night and you heard what Patrick said today. You can’t leave.”
“Well, I can’t stay here! I can’t even breathe here. Do you have any idea what it’s like to have spent your life trapped, having your every move watched?”
Tears were streaming down her cheeks but she wasn’t going to stop them. This explosion of emotions was coming fast and furious and she couldn’t stop any of it. It was finally spilling over and Olivia slumped down onto the bed. It sagged next to her as Dominic’s heavy weight sat next to her. He placed his large hand on her back and the warmth spread through her, calming the storm that was brewing inside. Her sobs turned to hiccups and words started to tumble from her lips.
“When my mom was killed by a rogue wolf, she’d stood no chance. The wolf had been trying to take over a pack and had set his sights on ours. He was trying to take down Atticus and take his place as Alpha but my mom got in the way. She was human, the wolf didn’t know that, and he’d fought her. She couldn’t fight back and was slaughtered.”
Olivia took a breath, finally feeling like a weight was lifting off her chest with each sentence she spoke. She’d never talked about her mom’s death, not really. She didn’t remember much of it and didn’t want to ever hurt her father by asking for the details. But she did know that other than losing a mom that day, she lost any bit of breathing space she’d ever have.
“After that, my father was crazy with the need to protect me. He knew I would always be in the same situation as she was in, that I’d never be able to protect myself so he over compensated for the fact that I couldn’t shift by watching over me like a hawk. All the time, I was so stifled, so stuck, when I finally got the chance to break away I took it and went away to college. But now I’m back, in the danger that he was always worried about, and I just want to get away.”
Dominic’s hand was rubbing circles on her back and she was feeling the flow of her blood slow down, her heart rate return to normal. The hiccups of tears had subsided and nothing was left of her voice but a slow whisper.
“But I can’t let you leave,” he told her.
“Just beca
use he wants you to, you don’t need to sit and babysit me. I’ll be fine on my own.” For the first time in her life, she wasn’t sure that was entirely true.
“I’m not protecting you because Atticus told me to. I’m doing it because I need to protect you. I need to know that you’re safe.”
Olivia looked up at him and saw genuine emotion swim through his eyes. Why was he so complicated?
Chapter Seventeen
Dominic
He was surprised that he had been able to drift off to sleep at all with the tension still coursing through his body. But the instant shifting that he’d been going through was enough to make even the most alert wolf shut his eyes for just a moment.
Without knowing when he’d fallen asleep it was hard to know just exactly how long he’d been out of it but Dominic woke suddenly, his heart thudding loudly in his chest. What had it been that had startled him so much? Was it something in the house? Was it Olivia moving around?
Dominic sat up and listened closely but the inside of the house was still and silent. Still, the tiny pin pricks on the back of his neck wouldn’t stop tingling and Dominic couldn’t relax. Something was there, something had woken not only the human but the wolf.
The cabin was dark inside but Dominic had no problem adjusting to the light. His instinct was kicking every part of his senses into high gear. Ever so quietly he stood from the couch, preventing even the tiniest groan from the old cushion springs.
Tentatively, as to not make a sound, he walked to the back of the house to check on Olivia. He berated himself with every step he took. How could he have let himself fall asleep? How had he been so careless? With the attack so close he should have followed through with the plan he’d had in the morning and shift to stand guard on the porch all night.
But it was too late. If the poachers were there then they’re aware of his presence. He’d failed to guard the grounds and now he was going to have to search for them instead of being ready for them.
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