Chapter Five
Dominic
It could have been considered a form of torture, having Olivia wrapped so tightly around him for the duration of the journey, but it was a torture that felt almost pleasant. Like eating far too much at a delicious dinner, it’s painful and uncomfortable yet you wouldn’t have changed it if you could have.
In the beginning of their trip he’d half contemplated simply walking back home in order to be able to talk to her more, even though her incessant questions were quite annoying. But the moment she’d started to pry about his past and the things he’d seen, that was something he couldn’t take. He didn’t want to think about the memories or see the flashbacks in his mind. Without much thought his body had broken out into a run, trying hard to escape the images of his brother, bloodied on the ground.
Of course, there was no way that she could have known what he’d done, the way he’d let his animal rage inside of him without even thinking about it, it was something he never wanted to let loose again.
By the time he had finished his running he felt as if he’d almost been able to outrun his thoughts. He was back at his new home, delivering Atticus’ daughter safely, and he was ready to eat a large dinner and crash right into his bed. It had felt fantastic to stretch his legs and run as far and as fast as he could, pushing just a little harder and faster on the way home in an odd hope of impressing Olivia, but he was definitely exhausted.
When the cabins came into view it had felt strange to suddenly feel at home amongst the trees. Dominic had been living in that cabin for a couple of months and it had yet to feel like home. He had felt instead like a puzzle piece that wasn’t quite fitting right. But suddenly, with his little town in sight, he felt as if that puzzle piece had been turned in another direction and was fitting into the picture.
Suddenly he felt more like himself than he had since he’d been kicked from the kingdom. There was a new air in his lungs and he could even feel his old personality and sense of humor coming back to him. He hadn’t laughed or felt lifted in months but he found himself teasing Olivia and pushing her buttons playfully. When was the last time he had felt playful?
He shouldn’t have asked himself that question as the answer came screaming back to him. It had been her—Cherise—that was the last time he had been playful, had flirted, and had any sense of fun. And had it been worth it to take revenge and steal his brother’s girl? That was a question that he didn’t want to answer. He had already run from those memories once that day, he wasn’t going to go back there.
Luckily his stomach took that exact moment to grumble loudly, reminding him of how far he’d run and that he hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. There wasn’t much food inside his house as he hated shopping and was never sure if he was going to be feeding as a wolf or a man for the day, but he rummaged through his cupboard anyway, far too drained to get to the store to buy anything.
A knock sounded at his door just as it had the night before.
“Come in,” he called out, still opening and closing his cupboards.
He turned to see Atticus open the front door and step inside his home, his second house call in two nights, but he wasn’t alone. Olivia was standing beside him, her face more of scowl than it had been when Dominic had picked her up from school.
“Dominic, I need to ask another favor of you,” Atticus stated. There was no question in his tone, it was another demand from his Alpha, one that he wasn’t going to be allowed to ignore.
It was the price he had to pay for being a banished prince.
“Anything you need, Atticus,” he answered.
Dominic was used to hearing his own servants say such things to him and then following through with any of his demands. But it was still difficult to get used to being the one that fell below someone.
“I don’t trust that Olivia is safe in my cabin. I’d much prefer if she stayed with you.”
Surely Dominic hadn’t heard that right. It was not possible that his Alpha was commanding that his daughter— as unique, beautiful, and annoying as she was, was to stay in his own cabin.
“Is that really such a good idea?” Dominic asked, looking for any way to get out of this order. “I mean, I feel like I should be outside patrolling the premises and keeping an eye on everything.”
“Atticus, I’d really just rather stay in my own room. You dragged me all the way home, it’s the least I should get.”
It was obvious that the two of them had already been fighting over this arrangement that Atticus was trying to make. She didn’t want to be there, her eyes not even able to meet Dominic’s, and Dominic knew from past experience that messing with any woman in a pack could mean nothing but bloodshed and tears.
“It’s not safe for you in the cabin. I can’t protect you the way that Dominic can.”
“Who says I need protecting? How do you know you’re not just overreacting?” she pushed.
“Maybe she’s right sir. Maybe it’s best if she’s with you,” Dominic agreed.
“Silence!” the Alpha roared.
Both Dominic and Olivia froze in their spots. Atticus may have been getting on in age and afraid he couldn’t keep his daughter safe, but he still had complete command of his pack.
“She will stay with you. There is no discussion about it. She takes the bedroom, you Dominic, stay on the couch.”
Atticus raised a brow in the exact same way Olivia had— like father like daughter. Dominic immediately knew what he was implying with the look he was giving and given the banished prince’s reputation, he wasn’t going to argue the fact. Not to mention that having Olivia in such close quarters was already going to be hard enough. Just a mere step inside of his small cabin and the wolf inside was already stirring again.
“Your priority is to protect her at all costs. Is that understood?”
“Yes sir,” Dominic answered reluctantly.
The Alpha turned to his daughter. “And you will listen to what Dominic tells you. Do you understand that?”
Olivia hesitated before answering, throwing her dad a look that only a daughter could throw, before reluctantly agreeing with the Alpha herself.
“Fine,” she said stubbornly.
“I’ll check in on you both in the morning.”
With that Atticus pushed his daughter further into Dominic’s home and closed the door behind them both.
His wolf stirred more and Dominic started to feel as if he was almost too exhausted to stop it. What was it that this girl had that made him feel as if he could barely keep control of his wolf? In all his life he’d never had the problem where he couldn’t control his wolf. Even from a young age he’d been able to handle it far better than those of his same age group, even better than his twin brother. But there was something about Olivia, something that made him forget how to keep calm, and something that made him almost forget how to be human.
But it wasn’t in a bad way, not necessarily. It was in a strange way. The emotion was intense inside of him but it wasn’t aggression or anger, which would be the normal feelings that would make his wolf stir without his consent. The emotion inside of him was something else entirely, something he hadn’t felt before. He felt restless yet completely at ease.
What the hell was happening to him?
“Well,” Olivia began, “you heard my dad. You get the couch.” She breezed past him, brushing against his shoulder ever so slightly, and moved to the back of the house where his bedroom was. There was a new resolve to her, one he sensed she was faking, but he let it be and didn’t pick on her for it.
“Yeah, well, it’s cold back there anyway!” he called out to her.
She came back out from the bedroom, having placed her bag somewhere inside. “Then I expect you’ll bring me another blanket,” she said with far more attitude than he’d heard from her before. Her cool blue eyes met his and he almost gave into her before he remembered exactly who he was.
“Listen, Princess, I don’t know if you’ve forgotten but you’re n
ot the one who makes the rules around here. I don’t know if you’ve forgotten who I am?”
She put her hand on her hip again and Dominic was sure this was her usual stance when she wanted to get her way.
“And perhaps you’ve forgotten who I am?”
It was hard to ignore how cute she was when she got riled up so Dominic decided to push her a bit more and ignored her question completely.
“I am the Alpha’s daughter, so that does entitle me to some demands around here.”
She gestured around his dingy little cabin.
“And in case you’ve forgotten, I’m the prince of this kingdom and that entitles me to tell you to find your own blanket.”
“Yea but you’re not in the castle anymore, you’re in our pack now.”
“That may be so, but then why are you still going to get your own blanket?” he asked, knowing that he wasn’t about to budge.
A frustrated squeal came out of her and she whirled back around and marched back into the bedroom, slamming the door behind her.
Chapter Six
Olivia
Absolutely infuriated at the circumstances, that’s how Olivia felt as she lay in Dominic’s bed in his tiny cabin, away from the world she wanted to be in. All her life she’d longed for freedom, to get to explore the world without the need to have a wolf at her side watching her constantly. The first time she had gotten it— that acceptance letter to school, it had been taken away from her and she was now more protected than ever. It wasn’t as if protection was something to be upset or angry about necessarily, but when you’ve never even been given the chance to breathe it did become a strain in life.
She should be going to sleep in her tiny dorm on her bed that felt more like a board, than having to sleep in Dominic’s bed with him just in the other room. Of course, his bed was far more comfortable than her bed in her dorm and the scent of him on the pillow was comforting, but she wasn’t going to admit that.
That hum that had built inside of her during the run with Dominic was buzzing incessantly inside of her as she tossed and turned in the bed, unable to sleep. It was this same restless feeling that had led her to look into going to school past the woods and somewhere she could breathe fresh air. In her small pack and the small area of the outer kingdom they inhabited, it was nearly impossible to have any room to even have a thought. Sure, it felt like home but it also felt stifling at times.
And now with the hum that was building deeper and louder the longer she stayed around Dominic, it felt even harder to be back home. She didn’t understand it and didn’t know where it was coming from, but she did know that she needed a break from it.
There had been many nights where she had slipped out of her own bed and through the window to meet someone— anyone at all, that wasn’t involved with the pack. Most often it was a boy but sometimes she’d meet a girlfriend, and they would hangout through the night doing anything and nothing. They’d swim in the creek or pass beer bottles around a campfire, anything to keep her from remembering that she was tied down to her pack, yet she was nothing like them.
On the nights she didn’t spend sneaking out of her bedroom, she thought about why she felt so stifled. What was the deep need to break free of her dad and his rule? Yes, it was annoying to be as overprotected as she was, but that wasn’t all there was to it. Olivia knew that it was more than that.
It was the feeling of not belonging to her own pack. How could she belong? After all, she wasn’t anything like the others. She may have been born with an Alpha as a dad but there was nothing wolf about her, she had taken solely after her mom. It was the risk a shifter runs when he has a child with a human, there was no guarantee if the child would be shifter, human, or some mix of both.
But as for Olivia, she had yet to find many attributes that were similar to shifters. As far as she knew she was all human which made it difficult to find her place in her pack. She found herself more often drifting towards other humans rather than spending times with those in her pack, but even that didn’t make her feel like she belonged. The edge of the kingdom was a small community and in such a small community, they knew who she was and what she couldn’t do. As of yet, Olivia hasn’t found any place that made her feel as if she fits. Being away at school was the closest she had gotten.
Restless with all the thoughts that were bombarding her and even more confused by the comfort of Dominic’s bed and how relax she felt wrapped in the warmth of his blankets, she flung them away from her body and sat up in the bed. She couldn’t stay there another minute, she needed to break-free.
Without another thought, Olivia slid on a pair of leggings and her fuzzy boots, throwing a coat on over her sleep t-shirt, and went to Dominic’s bedroom window. Expertly she lifted the window and pushed the screen out just enough to allow her thin body to slip out of it. She slid down and landed steady on her feet, she hadn’t even made a noise.
Just a walk, she thought to herself, I just need a walk to get some space.
She set off into the dark of the night, her only source of light being the phone in her hand.
Chapter Seven
Dominic
Between his brisk run through the woods and the effort of shifting as well as trying not to shift in Olivia’s presence, Dominic had fully expected to fall fast asleep the moment that he closed his eyes. Of course, it would have been far easier if he’d been able to lie in his own bed instead of attempting to get some rest on his old, sagging couch.
He still couldn’t believe that Dominic had been kicked out of his own bed and forced to sleep on a tiny couch that was absolutely not fit for a prince to be sleeping on. Once again, Dominic was reminded of how far he was from the plush living style he was so used to. It was even worse to know that even though he was still a prince in title, everyone, including Atticus, knew that Dominic held no power anymore. Though he was still royalty and believed he should be treated as such, those that knew he’d been banished from the castle didn’t care who he was. They simply treated him as another member of the pack.
Frustrated, Dominic tossed and turned on the couch, attempting to find a way to arrange the lumps of stuffing into something that resembled comfort. As the dripping of raindrops through his roof continued for the second night, and he lay there, blanket-less while Olivia slept cozy with all of his, he struggled to get himself warm.
Once again, the question raised itself in his mind…. had it really been worth it to steal his brother’s fiancé?
Had he not done that, had he let his smug, wimpy, perfect brother just get married to that girl, then he’d still have his own place in the castle and be able to sleep on velvety soft sheets and eat lavish food at every meal. He would have been able to continue to spend his days in any leisurely way that he pleased, knowing that unless something happened to his father and then his brother, Dominic’s own responsibilities in life were almost non-existent.
Maybe it hadn’t been worth it to take revenge on him. What had that bit of trickery gotten him? A drafty and damp cabin in the woods where he was to stay with a small pack and use his brawn as protection for the kingdom. He was more of a soldier rather than a prince.
Ah, but Dominic couldn’t help the smile that drifted on his face. His body relaxing just slightly, he remembered the priceless look on his brother’s face when he caught Cherise in Dominic’s own bed. It wasn’t exactly Dominic’s fault, she hadn’t been in love with Ronald from the beginning, so it had been easy to seduce her away from him.
Of course, Dominic hadn’t wanted her for himself, and she hadn’t wanted that either, opting instead to break off the engagement and find someone that was fated for her. She knew Ronald was more of a fling rather than fate.
When Dominic had heard that she had broken it off, it took every bit of strength he had not to laugh in his brother’s face. His whole life he’d spent living in his brother’s perfect shadow, being told to be more responsible like he was, and generally never adding up to the future king. But there was one departme
nt that Dominic was always better in, and that was women.
Sleeping with Cherise had knocked that perfect smile from Ronald’s face and though it resulted in the nastiest brawl Dominic had ever encountered and had gotten him removed from the castle because of the hand he’d played in making her realize that she wasn’t fated for Ronald, that moment of satisfaction felt worth it.
Though, Dominic did feel a little guilty, only because he had to wonder if his pathetic brother would ever find a woman that would actually want someone so passionless and dull, but he supposed that eventually a woman as equally dull would come along. Not that Dominic had ever felt anything for Cherise, but she was nice enough and cute enough that he knew he’d spared her from a life of monotony.
In fact, there had never been any girl, no matter how attractive or interesting, that had ever made Dominic think of as more than a fleeting thought. None had ever gotten him riled or excited. The only one that had come close to making him feel anything was laying in the next room, having taken his bed and his blankets. But Dominic couldn’t figure yet if the wolf inside of him was stirring because of his attraction to Olivia or because she annoyed him so easily.
With his thoughts still stirring, Dominic lay on the couch just barely resting when he heard a snap outside. A branch, snapping under the weight of something, made Dominic sit up quickly, all thoughts of sleep and everything else quickly vanishing. Hair stood on the back of his neck and his wolf paced inside of him, ready to rip out.
Dominic took a few steadying breaths, listening as closely as any wolf could, to any other sounds outside. There was a rustling, like that of wet leaves on the ground, and it was right outside of his cabin.
Quickly he stood from the couch and raced to the front door. If there was about to be an attack then it wasn’t going to be on his watch. He opened the door but his eyes weren’t as good in the night unless he had shifted. Unsure if he was overreacting, he stood at the door for a moment, catching any unfamiliar scent in the night breeze, waiting for a shadow to move through the dark, but there was nothing. Still, he sensed something was lurking outside, just in the woods near his cabin.
Tornado: A Paranormal Romance (Savage Brotherhood MC Book 1) Page 32
