“What do you mean ‘I’m coming home’?”
Surely, she couldn’t have heard him correctly, he wasn’t going to pull her from school and make her go back to the pack, was he? She’d only been gone for a few months and while she missed them all, she absolutely wasn’t ready to go home yet.
“This isn’t up for discussion. Until we learn more about what is happening and can stop the attacks, you will be living at home.”
“You can’t be serious! What about school?” she argued, her voice becoming rather whinny, like a child’s.
“I have already sent someone for you. Pack only what you need, he’s coming on foot.”
There was no use arguing with him, Atticus always got what he wanted.
“And which member from the pack did you send?” hoping at least for a pleasant ride back home.
“You haven’t met him yet.”
How would that even be possible? A pack wasn’t just like a club you could join. It was something you were born into, it was an innate demand of your soul rather than a choice. She had grown up with the members of her pack. Her whole life back home in their small town had revolved around Atticus’ position in the pack, so how was it possible there was someone she hadn’t met?
“I’m sure you’ll know it’s him when you see him. I’ll see you when you get here. Be careful,” he instructed. The discussion was over, Olivia knew she never had a chance of changing his mind. Once Atticus decided something, then there is no persuading him. Olivia couldn’t remember a time in recent memory where her dad had changed his mind based off of someone else’s’ argument.
There was only one person in the world who had been able to do that. Her mother. But her mother had been gone for years and Olivia had never seen anyone else ever hold any power over Atticus again.
She sighed, frustrated that she was leaving and even more frustrated that there was nothing she could do about it. Part of the reason she had needed to get away from home was because she was tired of living under someone else’s’ thumb. Ever since her mother’s death, she had spent every moment being watched like a hawk. Space and freedom was something she craved, and it was something she’d never be able to get being so close to her pack’s watchful stares.
“I love you, Daddy.” she told him before she hung up the phone.
The phone clattered back to the floor while she yanked her blankets back over her head, wishing that she could go back in time and not answer the phone at all. Or better yet, that she had turned it off the night before and had not gotten the call at all. Not as if it would have mattered much, Atticus would have sent a pack member to pick her up no matter what. At least this way she had been given a warning.
But instead of falling back to sleep, the rest of the morning was spent tossing and turning in her rickety bed as she tried to understand everything that was going on. The attacks, which Olivia was distinctly aware that she knew hardly anything about, this mystery pack member, and most of all, having to leave school.
Eventually she gave up on sleep and flung the covers off of her, edginess growing inside of her. Grumpy over her situation and being woken up so early, she hastily packed a backpack, throwing in only the essentials. When traveling on the back of a wolf, it was always wise to pack light.
Even for all of her exhaustion at having her life revolve around her pack, she did have to admit there was something so majestic when a man shifted to wolf. They weren’t like rearguard wolves that one would see in the woods, they were more than that. Larger, almost like the size of a bear, with fur that was soft like a favorite warm blanket. The speed of them were almost unbelievable so races between them were always an entertaining event. They really were remarkable animals.
Still pouting, Olivia sent a quick text to her suitemate to let her know there was a family emergency and she’d be out of school for a while, and then scooped up her bag to wait downstairs. She still had some animal like abilities, senses of smell and instinct, though so far she didn’t stand out much.
He was getting close, whoever he was, Olivia could feel him, and opened the door the chilly winter air. Why couldn’t Atticus have been normal and simply sent a car instead of a wolf? The ride back would be cold, no matter how much heat his body gave off.
It was only a matter of moments that she waited outside, her arms wrapped tightly around her body to stave off the shivering, before she saw him.
Instantly their eyes connected and a low hum filled her body. He walked toward her, a swagger in his steps. It was easy to see that he was wolf who was sure of himself, confident, possibly bordering on cocky. His hair, rather shaggy and long for her usual taste, framed his face in a way that made him look like a God as it flowed behind him, brown but with streaks of gold running through it.
“Olivia?” he asked, even though she knew he knew the answer.
All she could do was nod.
“Dominic,” he offered his hand to shake.
She took it and was shocked at the strength of his grip, sure by the look and feel of him that his large frame was built solely from muscle. The hum in her grew stronger.
“We should go, I promised Atticus I’d have you back quickly.”
His voice was low and stern, the command making her instantly angry. There was no way she was going to let anyone else keep her under his thumb. But the middle of the quad was not the place she was going to argue that. She’d wait until they got to the woods to say her peace. He took her bag for her and they walked along in silence, her seething while she could feel the wolf in him wrestling to stay calm.
As angry as she was, she couldn’t help but wonder, what he was going to look like when he shifted. Instinctively she felt she wasn’t going to like this new guy, but there was a feeling inside of her that told her she was going to be impressed by him.
Chapter Three
Dominic
Dominic had set out early in the morning to go and retrieve Atticus’ daughter. He had been right, once Dominic had shifted and got his muscles moving through the woods, it had only taken him a couple of hours to find her school. Having her attend a school inside of the kingdom yet through the woods so that it was easy for her pack to reach her had been a smart move by Atticus. Of course, he assumed it was Atticus who had chosen that destination for Olivia, most likely a compromise for letting her leave the pack at all.
As he neared the edge of the woods and was about to spill out into the kingdom, Dominic slowed his pace. A little unsure of just where the woods ended, he decided to stop behind a large tree and take out clothes from the sack he wore around his neck. When he first began shifting, it didn’t take long to realize that sometimes a shift was unavoidable. When emotions coursed quickly through a shifters body, it was sometimes hard to keep the wolf inside quiet and an unintentional shift would occur, and tattered fabric would be left scattered around on the ground.
Once the wolf was ready to calm itself and shift back to human form, he was left naked and most often embarrassed in public. It did eventually become easier to control the wolf inside but even still, Dominic had learned to always carry a sack of clothes just in case. It was also handy to have spare clothes in case he purposefully shifted quickly before he could change. Though he hated the unexpected need to shift because it did ruin a lot of clothes.
Dominic emerged out of the woods in jeans and a bulky hooded-sweatshirt but barely out of breath from his run. No one who saw him on campus would even suspect that he was a shifter. While the people in the kingdom knew that there were shifters among them, civilians very rarely knew who those shifters were. They kept their identities a secret as best as they could and lived in harmony among regular people. Especially being royalty, no one in the kingdom knew that the royal family were comprised of shifters.
The scent he’d smelled on the scarf became stronger the closer he got to campus and by the time he finally made it there, he was almost dizzy with the scent of her. The throngs of students milling about the campus didn’t bother him in his quest to f
ind her, as he felt like he was being pulled by a string directly toward her. The moment he saw Olivia, even though he’d never seen a picture of her, he knew it was her.
She stood there outside of the school, a bag flung around her, arms wrapped tightly around her body, watching for him. Her brows were furrowed in discontent and her lips were pushed out in the sexiest little pout he’d ever seen. Suddenly it wasn’t just the scent of her that made him dizzy but the sight of this blonde, wavy haired beauty that made him lose all control of his thoughts.
When Olivia turned to him, her eyes were the color of blue glaciers, Dominic could feel his wolf stirring inside of him, making him feel primal, animalistic toward her. Something in her face reflected his own thoughts and he was relatively aware that his legs were still moving but he had once again lost his words.
Just mere steps from her, Dominic knew he had to say something. Anything.
“Olivia?”
She nodded yes without speaking.
For some reason he was dying to hear her voice.
“Dominic,” he introduced himself.
They shook hands and a shock went through his body, making the wolf inside of him restless. He did his best to ignore it, pushing his wolf back inside. He had to keep the shift at bay until he was back in the woods. It had been years since he’d felt so close to shifting without meaning to do so.
“We should go, I promised your father I’d have you back quickly.”
His voice came out gruffer than he intended and quickly he spun away from her, afraid that if he looked in her eyes another minute his wolf would spring out of him.
Steps squished behind him as he led Olivia across the grass of the campus and back toward the woods. Inside of him something more was stirring, his steps moved faster afraid that he would shift right in front of everyone at any minute. He was sure there were eyes on him as he nearly began to run toward the safety of the trees but all he could feel was Olivia’s cool stare at his back.
“Could you slow down?” she asked. He could hear the heavy breathing coming from her as she tried to keep up with him.
He grunted and took a few deep breaths himself, slowing down the pace and trying to control his own body. His slowing of a few paces allowed for her to catch up to him so they were now walking alongside each other.
Just a few more steps, he told himself, as the warmth of her body radiated to his. I can shift in a few more steps.
“Do I know you?” she asked him.
Afraid his own voice would betray how unsteady he felt, he simply shook his head.
“I do, I’m sure of it,” she said.
Her gaze raked over his face and her heat began to feel like burning. What the hell was happening to him?
“You’re the prince!” she exclaimed.
“Shhh!” he hushed her sharply. He was already having a nearly impossible time keeping himself together, the last thing he needed was his celebrity status as a prince to make things worse.
“Why would my dad be sending you to come get me? How do you even know him?”
Dominic’s eyes shifted towards her, taking a chance at glancing at her porcelain looking skin.
“I was sent to be part of your pack,” he answered simply.
“Our pack? Why?”
“There was a… disagreement… within my family. My father thought it would be best if I come to stay with your pack for a while. To be able to protect the kingdom.”
Now that Olivia had placed him, he felt her eyes move from examining his face to looking at the bulk of his body.
“So, the prince has become a protector?”
Finally, the woods were within reach. He didn’t want to answer any more questions. He just wanted to return to her pack—well, their pack, and drop her off in Atticus’ cabin.
“What was the disagreement?” she prodded further.
“Do you always ask so many questions when you first meet someone?” he snapped.
She scowled at him. “This should be a fun trip back,” he heard her remark under her breath.
Finally, they had reached the woods. Behind the same tree he’d dressed behind, Dominic let his inner wolf rip through him. Olivia stared at him, wide eyed, but her expression unreadable.
He waited for a few moments, feeling slightly better now that he’d shifted, but still off balance in her presence.
“Aren’t you going to shift so we can get going?” he asked impatiently.
Her eyebrow cocked in question. “I don’t shift.”
Dominic waited for her to give an explanation to that statement, but she didn’t. She just crossed her arms and stuck her hip out in a stubborn stance.
“Alright, why don’t you shift?” he finally asked.
“Because I’m not a shifter.”
Her tone of voice had changed from questions and wonder at him to pure annoyance.
“What do you mean you’re not a shifter?”
“I mean exactly that: I can’t shift.”
“How can the daughter of an Alpha not be able to shift?”
Olivia’s eyes broke away from him for the first time since he’d seen her on campus. Her gaze fell to the muddy floor of the woods and she took a moment before she spoke again. This time, he didn’t feel impatient as he waited for her answer, he was simply curious.
“Because I’m not pure shifter. I’m half human. My mom, she was a human. I didn’t inherit my dad’s abilities.”
Dominic hadn’t known that about Atticus or about his daughter. He had assumed that such a strong pack Alpha would have married a woman of equal female shifter strength. But a human? That was a surprise to Dominic and the way shifters usually operated.
“Why didn’t Atticus tell me this yesterday?”
“Because being and Alpha and having a daughter who can’t shift isn’t exactly something to be proud of. Not to mention having to let me ride on your back isn’t a thing most guys want to do. So, are we going to get moving or not?” It was Olivia’s turn to be impatient.
Dominic bristled at the thought of Olivia riding on his back. He could hardly stand the feeling inside of him at just being in her presence, how was he supposed to handle her riding on his back?
“Well, it’s not like I’m going to make this trek on foot. I could always just go back to my dorm, it’s where I’d rather be anyway.”
She turned to leave, and Dominic couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Atticus had been completely right about how difficult she was.
“Fine,” he grumbled and bent low to the ground so she could climb on.
She turned back toward him and hesitated only a second when her fingers brushed his fur.
A hot surge ran through him as she climbed on and laced her fingers through his thick fur, her legs wrapped around his body. What had seemed like a short and easy run before was sure to suddenly feel like an eternity now.
Chapter Four
Olivia
There was no denying how confusing everything about the situation felt to Olivia. What could have happened that would have sent a prince to become a member of her pack and make him a protector instead? And what was that humming, the one that grew stronger with each moment she was in Dominic’s presence? Thoughts were swirling through her mind, one coming into focus just as another floated to the back the entire time they walked toward the woods.
That was until she watched Dominic shift behind the tree. Then all of her thoughts seemed to cease altogether.
Her initial impression had been right, Dominic was a wildly impressive wolf. His fur had those same streaks of gold and his amber eyes glowed. But it was his size that truly took her breath away. Wolves when they shifted did not turn out like that of a normal wolf. Shifters were larger, like that of a bear, and they were stronger, faster, than an average wolf. Olivia had seen enough shift in her life that she had known what to expect when she watched Dominic, but he was so much more than she had thought he would be.
He was larger, immediately recognized as stronger, and in her o
pinion, majestic. It took all of her strength to not to caress his fur, to stifle the urge to feel its softness under her fingers. She let her fingers graze him only a moment before she climbed onto his back and did everything she could to steady herself on top of him.
A new question popped into her head; how was she going to spend hours on his back with her entire body on fire at the feel of him?
She needed to distract herself from this strong prince, from the beauty of his wolf, and she needed to distract herself fast. As Dominic began to stride and she felt his muscles move underneath her, she closed her eyes tightly and forced her mind on something else.
“So, does anyone know what is happening to all of these packs? Do we know who is attacking them?”
Dominic waited a moment before answering, his large paws making deep imprints in the soft mud.
“There is a theory that my father’s informants given to the kingdom.”
“What is it?”
“There are men out there who believe that shifters are not human at all. That we are simply a trophy to be captured. In some dark circles, I’ve even heard that they have contests to see who can capture and kill the biggest shifter.”
“That’s disgusting!”
“It is.”
“What can you do about it?”
“These men, they’re good at what they do. Too good. They’ve perfected how to capture and kill us which is why it has become harder and harder to prevent the attacks. The number of casualties of shifters has grown significantly with each attack.”
Olivia didn’t say anything for a moment, just thought about what Dominic had told her. Poachers killing innocent shifters for sport was something too disgusting to digest.
“Have there been any human casualties?” she asked.
“None that I’m aware of. But you know how shifters are, we do everything we can to keep our emotions under control. You know what would happen to us if we killed a human, even one who was hurting us.”
Olivia knew that was the truth, she’d grown up watching plenty of shifters attempt to control themselves and when emotions were high it was not an easy task. But if their packs were being threatened, she was surprised that they were keeping it under control.
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