As she stomped out with Romano hovering protectively over her, Dominic stopped at the counter to grab a roast beef sandwich. He was ninety-eight percent certain he was about to kick some ass, and he preferred not to do it hungry.
As he crossed the street, the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. Yep, he was being watched. Scanning the trees and hedges, the benches, and the people strolling by, he quickly took a path that led into the park.
Nothing looked out of place yet. A day-walker vampire and his thrall huddled under a tree as the vamp sucked on the girl’s wrist. Her head was thrown back, eyes rolling in ecstasy. A group of college kids were playing hacky sack in a clearing. A young human nanny tried to pass him as she pushed a stroller down the path that led deeper into the park.
He shook his head at her. “Go back. Trouble,” he said in a low voice, putting a hint of snarl in it to make sure she got the message.
Her eyes widened in fear, and she quickly wheeled the stroller around and jogged back toward the street.
The scent of an unfamiliar wolf drifted his way, and he headed toward it.
He kept eating as he walked. There wasn’t a single wolf in the entire city of Encantado who worried him enough to make him put his sandwich down. And his wolf was snarling and howling now, clawing to be set free. To fight. To kill.
Apparently, the universe was willing to throw him a bone today because moments later, a wolf exploded from the bushes. The gray wolf was enormous, as were all warrior-class wolf shifters. Its eyes glowed yellow with fury as ropes of saliva dribbled from its black lips. It blocked his path, tail lashing. Dominic shoved the last of his sandwich into his mouth and brushed his hands off on his shirt, his bored expression unchanging.
The wolf stared at him blankly as if confused. It was likely more used to the sight of grown men running, screaming, and crying.
Angrily, it pulled back its lips and let out a low, rumbling growl that vibrated up from its chest.
“I’m going to give you a freebie,” Dominic said, grinning fiercely. “Roll over and expose your belly, and I’ll just maim you, not kill you. You can live another day as a member of the world’s lamest pack.”
The wolf threw back its head and howled in rage—the last howl of its life. It crouched low and then leapt, aiming for Dominic’s throat. Dominic shifted in a blur of motion; nobody but Arturo could shift as quickly as he did. Twenty seconds later, the wolf was bleeding out at his feet, its throat ripped open and spinal column nearly severed.
Damn. What a thoroughly unsatisfying fight. He’d really been hoping they could go at least a couple rounds.
Dominic shook himself and forced his angry wolf back inside the cage of his humanity, his fur melting into smooth skin, tail shrinking into his spine, and fangs sinking back into his gums.
Dominic’s clothes had fallen off when he shifted. A slender young woman in a business suit caught his eye and let her eyes rove over him before arching her eyebrows in invitation. He curled his lip and growled at her, letting fur ripple over his face. She stifled a shriek and hurried off. Good. The only woman who should be admiring his naked body was Zoey.
He dressed quickly, scowling down at the dead wolf which had melted back into its human form.
His phone rang, with the tone indicating it was Arturo. He snatched it from his jacket pocket.
“Let me guess,” Dominic nudged the dead wolf with the toe of his boot, “the mage’s board ruled in the Bianchi Pack’s favor?”
“Close. The mage’s board has decided to abstain,” Arturo said. “They feel the law is unclear in this case, so they’re not weighing in on either side.”
Dominic felt a snap of anger. He hadn’t expected that at all. “The law is clearly on our side. Can we appeal to the National Council?”
“It won’t help. A full-out war between packs benefits the mages. Both of our packs are getting too powerful, and a battle royale would thin our ranks and possibly eliminate one of our packs altogether,” Arturo replied. “This was always going to happen. Primo’s never been happy sharing.”
“Well, that explains why one of their soldiers is taking a dirt nap right now,” Dominic mused. “He tried to jump me about sixty seconds ago.”
“Huh. That was fast,” Arturo said. “The ruling came down mere minutes ago. It’s almost like he was lying in wait, just in case the ruling favored them. He’s in our territory? Where are you?”
“Greenwald Park. It was Jimmy. He came at me from behind a bush. Primo was strategic about it, I’ll give him that. You know about the rumors Jimmy was angling for Primo’s position? And then Primo sent him to kill me. Whatever the results, it would have been a win for Primo.” If Jimmy failed, Primo had let someone else kill one of his enemies. If he had succeeded, he would have made the Moretti Pack look weak, and he also would have taken out one of Arturo’s strongest warriors.
“Wait a minute.” Arturo’s voice suddenly went sharp. “Isn’t Giuliana with you right now? Oh, never mind, I see she’s heading back to my office.”
“Romano is with her; she’s fine. And they wouldn’t mess with a non-combatant female unless they want every shifter pack in the country to declare war on them,” Dominic said. “Wait … do you have a tracker on your niece?”
Silence.
“So something in her phone or on her clothing,” Dominic mused. “Nah, she’d suspect the phone. If she wanted to sneak out, she’d leave it behind. Maybe something on a piece of jewelry?”
There was a long pause.
“Don’t tell her.” Arturo’s voice sounded surprisingly mild.
“Of course not, sir.”
Giuliana would tantrum and throw things at her uncle, or she’d try to run away. If she ran, Arturo would catch her and lock her up for a month and Giuliana would make everyone’s life hell.
Arturo’s voice turned brisk and business-like. “Right. Attack on a pack member. We’ll have to answer.” By which he meant, kill someone from the Bianchi Pack or blow up something they owned. “Meet me at my office in forty-five minutes. Don’t bother fetching Giuliana. I’ll text her.”
Dominic headed straight for the Arena. Giuliana was already there, with Otto and Arturo, sitting in chairs arranged in front of Arturo’s desk. They were skipping the socializing today; Arturo was pissed. His ears had gone pointy and furry, and he didn’t even bother smoothing them out.
“Are you all right?” Giuliana asked Dominic with genuine concern. “You should have let me stay. I could have—”
“You could have stayed out of it or I’d have grounded you until you were dead,” Arturo snapped.
“You can’t treat me like I’m a damned pup,” she muttered rebelliously.
Arturo twisted to the side to fix her with his icy gaze. “What was that?”
“Nothing.” She inclined her head to the left, exposing her throat in a show of submission.
“Yes, that’s what I thought you said. Nothing.” Then he addressed Dominic – making a big show of ignoring his niece. “We’re going to hijack one of their armored trucks tomorrow morning,” Arturo said. “Hit those bastards where it hurts—in the wallet.”
Dominic nodded. “I’m going to suggest we take his men prisoner rather than kill them. That way we—”
“Bullshit!” Ottavio barked, interrupting him.
“Let him finish,” Arturo ordered.
Dominic continued as if Ottavio hadn’t said a word. “We actually make ourselves look better this way. We’re not just fighting the Bianchis, we’re fighting a war of perception. Right now, the Bianchis are presenting themselves as the aggrieved party. If we choose not to kill, it shows the Council of Mages we’re exercising restraint. We’re not the troublemakers. If we take the men hostage and hold them for ransom, that’s double humiliation for the Bianchis.”
Zoey would approve of the less violent option.
He didn’t know why thoughts of her were popping into his head at a time like this, but he remembered the look on her face when he told her
he had to go kill a man. He hadn’t liked the way it made him feel.
“Can I suggest another tactic?” Ottavio vibrated with anger, his voice a raspy growl.
“No.” Arturo dismissed him and turned away. “You will be in charge of this, Dominic.”
“Sir?” Ottavio struggled to keep the anger from his voice, but he couldn’t hide his claws as they shot from his fingertips.
“This situation calls for diplomacy,” Arturo said curtly. “You tend to kill first and ask questions afterward.”
“But Ott, how else would we do it?” Carlo sounded confused. Ouch,” he added as his brother punched him in the arm.
“Shut it, Carlo,” Ottavio said with a glower.
Chapter Nine
T he community center was crowded with angry residents and business owners. Even with the windows and doors shut, the sour smell of garbage permeated the air. Jordan sat in the front row in his flashy suit and nice shoes.
Zoey, Danielle, Stewart, Lorenzo, and Andrea stood at the podium as Zoey made her pitch.
The group had decided to let Zoey do the talking about her plan for the community gardens because her enthusiasm was contagious. Danielle, who had taken the night off from work, stood next to her and drank coffee with her usual sour expression.
“We’ll have the greenest space in all of Encantado! And we can use the fruit and vegetables we grow to set up a free community kitchen!” Zoey finished. That had been her favorite part.
Apparently, the audience didn’t agree. They just stared at the group with expressions of horror on their faces.
“Gee, tough crowd,” Zoey murmured to Danielle, taken aback.
“What a bunch of buttwipes,” Danielle said indignantly. “We worked hard on this plan. Well, you and Stewart and Andrea worked hard on this plan and I offered moral support. I whined less than usual.”
“Yes, you did.” Zoey bobbed her head in agreement.
Andrea had kept Danielle’s mouth stuffed with apple dumplings, and as long as Danielle was chewing, she wasn’t bitching.
Zoey cleared her throat and pasted a big smile on her face. “If we can help out the homeless community here, there will be less crime, which benefits all of us!” she said into the microphone, her voice bouncing off the walls.
Not a word. Everyone just stared in her direction in frozen dismay.
“Oh. It’s not you,” Danielle said in a low voice. She flicked a nervous glance at Zoey. “I think there’s actually something behind us.”
Zoey stood perfectly still, suddenly aware of every beat of her heart. In Encantado, “something behind us” could be … very scary. She just prayed it wasn’t a ghoul. She didn’t want to spend her final hours in a killing rage ripping her friends’ flesh from their bones with her teeth. They probably didn’t want that either.
Then again, she’d have smelled a ghoul. From what she’d heard, they reeked enough that even garbage wouldn’t disguise their odor.
The two women turned around very slowly.
Ottavio and Carlo had just walked in the room through the back door and were standing behind them.
Lorenzo’s face lit up as he looked at them admiringly. “The Moretti Pack? Wow!” His mother smacked him on the arm.
The room was completely silent.
Danielle went pale and her coffee cup slipped from her fingers.
Ottavio opened his mouth to speak, but Dominic and Romano burst through a side door, and his mouth snapped shut again. From the look on Ottavio’s face, he hadn’t been expecting them and wasn’t happy to see them. Carlo just stood there, glowering at the room with dull menace.
Ottavio stormed over and started talking to Dominic and Romano in low, angry tones. While the men argued, the audience members jumped to their feet and ran for the doors as if their butts were on fire.
Jordan stood frozen in place, with an uncertain look on his face, his eyes darting between Dominic and Ottavio.
Ottavio crossed the room swiftly and stopped in front of Jordan, whose eyes widened in terror. “I understand you have been collecting fees but not paying the garbage collection company,” he said in a loud voice, although there was hardly anyone left in the room to hear him.
“But I—” Jordan started to protest.
Ottavio quickly shifted and ripped out Jordan’s throat with his teeth. A fountain of scarlet jetted up from Jordan’s throat, and he staggered backward and crumpled into a heap.
Andrea went pale and grabbed Lorenzo’s arm and dragged him off as he protested and tried to pull away from her.
Stewart hurried after them, taking care to put his body between them and Ottavio.
Danielle bolted for the nearest doorway. She stopped to look for Zoey, who was standing on the stage, too stunned to move.
“Zoey, come on!” she screeched, and then ran for it.
Ottavio’s enormous gray wolf licked blood from his lips, and Zoey’s stomach lurched. He shifted back into human form and bent down to pick up his clothing from the floor.
After he’d hastily dressed, he scowled at Dominic. “You didn’t need to come here. I had it handled.”
“Since it involves my mate, yes, I did need to come. And you shouldn’t have tried to keep me out of it.” Dominic’s voice held an edge of steel.
“I don’t report to you,” Ottavio growled. “I serve only Arturo. You’d do well to remember that.” Ottavio left without a backward glance with Carlo trailing behind him.
Dominic walked over to the podium and helped Zoey climb down. “You all right?”
She struggled to find her voice. “A little shaken.”
“Jordan was pocketing the money. We only found out today,” he said, grimacing. “He told us the neighborhood had gone on strike because they thought our fees were too high. We’ll make sure all this garbage is cleaned up by end of day tomorrow. And next time there’s a problem like this, you’ll contact me immediately.”
Zoey swayed on her feet and struggled not to barf. Jordan had been a horrible human being, but seeing him killed right in front of her had snatched the breath from her body. She backed away from Dominic.
“Is that an order?”
He didn’t pursue her, so she stopped moving. “That is a request,” he said calmly. “Your friends live here, right? If this neighborhood has issues, you’d want them taken care of, wouldn’t you? So if you need help, ask me.”
She glanced at Jordan’s body. She couldn’t stand here having a conversation with a dead body ten feet away from her and the smell of blood clotting her nostrils. She turned and hurried out the back door.
Dominic was right on her heels. He moved to block her as she hurried down the steps. “Where do you think you’re going?” he snapped. “I was talking to you.” Romano trailed behind him but stood back, giving them space.
“I just saw a man killed right in front of me! Excuse me if I can’t make casual conversation next to a corpse!” She burst into tears.
“Oh,” he said, sounding chastened. “I’m sorry. Really sorry.” He gathered her in his arms, and her knees went wobbly as she leaned into him.
“I apologize,” he said gently, stroking her back. “I’ve lived this lifestyle so long, death just doesn’t have much impact on me.”
“Well, maybe it should,” she said, sniffling hard.
“Yes,” he said, his voice surprisingly wistful. “Maybe it should.”
Zoey slumped against him and rested her head against his shoulders, letting him hold her up. The feeling of his fingers trailing down her back was soothing, and when she closed her eyes, she felt like the rest of the world had faded away and they were in their own little bubble, just the two of them.
She’d never let herself be weak like this and hadn’t ever leaned on anyone else for strength. It felt so good, she let a minute or two drag by. Finally, she stepped back. Dominic released her reluctantly, his muscular arms dropping back to his side.
She heaved a sigh, missing his warmth and his scent of piney cologne and animal m
usk. She couldn’t let this happen again; it would be too easy to get addicted to a man like Dominic.
“You should have kissed her!” Romano called out helpfully. “Too late now.”
Dominic shot a furious glance at him. “I. Will. End. You.”
Romano smiled back, looking very unafraid.
Dominic managed a rueful smile at Zoey. “Ignore him. He was dropped on his head a lot as a pup. Now, where were we?”
“All right,” Zoey said, hugging herself. “You had no idea our payments weren’t going where they’re supposed to?”
“Of course not.” Dominic looked offended. “I don’t know how the hell Jordan thought he could get away with this.”
“Well, he wasn’t the brightest bulb on the tree.”
Zoey tried to wrap her head around what he’d just told her. She had been livid at the thought of the Moretti Pack ripping off poor communities and leaving them to live in filth with no recourse. If that wasn’t true, did it change how she felt about Dominic?
He was still violent and aggressive and a killer, but he was also capable of surprising tenderness and protectiveness.
“It will never happen again,” Dominic told her. “I’ll be visiting the head of the garbage company first thing tomorrow. I understand a number of people complained to him and told him they’d paid their fees. He should have reported that to us.”
Alarm flashed through her. “You’re not going to kill him, are you?”
He looked puzzled. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“Why wouldn’t you just end someone’s life?” Zoey felt a surge of frustration. There was a part of her that wanted to like Dominic, to let him in and trust him, but when he treated murder as if it were some casual chore, he made it hard. “Because it’s wrong. Because we have police and a court system to deal with things like fraud. I mean, for that matter, why even bother? The people in power here take whatever they can get away with, and the only reason you guys stepped in was because it was getting so bad here, it was impossible to pretend you didn’t know what was happening.”
Mated to the Capo (Mafia Wolf Shifters) (Encantado Shifters Book 1) Page 7
