20. Dominic

20

DOMINIC

The tension in the meeting house could have been cut by a dull butter knife. It was thick, and palpable, and Voss practically vibrated with fury as he stood there, staring down at the pictures Ronyn brought back with him. I watched our commander general gaze out over the compound, no doubt trying to figure out how in the hell to protect them should we get attacked. And with Bexley and her pack in the mix, we were a double target at that point.

I picked up a screenshot Ronyn printed out of Bexley’s Facebook page. Years. My Alpha searched for the bitch vampire that slaughtered his family for years. That initial attack of Delilah’s that made Voss our Alpha in the first place had slaughtered us in droves. Everyone lost someone in that attack. Everyone had to leave behind the bodies of their loved ones as we ran and fought for our lives.

Those of us that did survive barely made it out.

And it left scars, both seen and unseen, that we’d never be able to fully heal.

“Ronyn?” I asked.

“Mhm?” he hummed from the window.

“How did you get that woman in the café to talk so much about Bexley?” I asked.

He turned back to face me. “You’d be surprised what a woman is willing to talk about if you smile kindly at her and compliment her dress.”

I chuckled. “Trust me, I’m familiar.”

The piercing howl that left Voss’s throat made me flinch. The anger and the hurt that busted forth from his throat rattled the house we were in and damn near shattered the fucking windows. His howl turned to a roar, which caused me to take a few steps back, and as I watched him throw his soda can across the meeting house, Ronyn leapt toward him.

“Voss, no! You’re going to destroy the place!” he exclaimed.

Voss raked his hands on top of the table and shoved the pictures to the floor. Ronyn wrapped his arms around Voss, linking his hands together, but one buck from Voss and the man pretty much went tumbling to the ground. I kept backing up, giving Voss the space he needed to be angry.

He had every right to be, as far as I was concerned.

“Alpha!” Ronyn grunted as he chased after the man.

Voss stormed around the meeting house. He flipped the kitchen table and picked up a chair before he threw it across the room. I ducked, hearing the chair itself whizz over my head as Ronyn continued barking at him.

“Voss, stop!”

“Raaaaaaaaaaaah!” Voss bellowed.

Glass shattered and the plaster on the walls gave way to his fists. Dust flew everywhere as plates were shattered and glasses were broken. Voss looked like a bull in a fucking porcelain shop, and Ronyn just made things worse by trying to wrangle the fool in.

“Alpha,” Ronyn choked out as Voss elbowed him in his gut, “just take a breath.”

“God fucking damn iiiiiiiiit!” Voss exclaimed.

I shimmied over to the fridge and opened it up. I reached in for another apple and pulled it out, chomping on it as Voss threw something across the room. Ronyn snarled and cursed beneath his breath as I watched the plate zip through the air and shatter against the wall. And as Voss continued dealing in obscenities that I wasn’t sure were actual phrases more than they were absolute gibberish, I chomped on my apple and watched it all unfold.

“Dom, a little help here?” Ronyn snarled.

I shook my head and swallowed the bite of my apple. “Looks like you got it under control.”

Ronyn growled lowly at me. “Dom.”

“That stupid bitch!” Voss roared.

I knew Voss had to get it out of his system, so I just stood there and munched on my apple. Ronyn wore himself flat out trying to get Voss to calm down. But, when the two of them finally flopped onto the mangled couch Voss also broke, I piped up with some sense.

“You’ve got every right to be angry, Alpha,” I said as I finished off the apple and tossed the core into the trash can. “But, we finally have a fucking break.”

I walked over to them and stood in front of my two sweaty best friends.

“We know where that bitch works and lives,” I said with a smile.

Plus, I now knew more about my mate. God, I wanted to know everything about her. I didn’t care that she was human. I didn’t care that she wasn’t an Alpha, or whatever the fuck. All I cared about was knowing all of her. Every crevice of her body, mind, and soul.

And as silence descended around us where there was once chaos, I drew in a deep breath. I relished the chirping of the crickets and the soft summer breeze flittering through the trees. Moonlight penetrated the ground as the world fell calm, and for the smallest of moments, I felt at peace.

Peace within the darkness.

That is, until the front door creaked open, revealing a tired, haggard, tearful Bexley.

“Bexley,” I said breathlessly.

Voss and Ronyn leapt off the couch at the same time and whipped toward her, but neither of them said anything. Bexley’s gaze cased the place, taking in the sheer amount of damage that was done. And when her gaze came back to us, it didn’t fall on me.

It fell on Voss.

“I’ll leave in peace, but you’ve got to keep them with you. They have nowhere else to go,” she said with a sniffle.

Voss moved toward her, and I drew in a short breath. “Alpha.”

He held his finger up to me, silencing me in my tracks. He stormed toward Bexley, taking her hand in his, and tugged her over to the one kitchen chair he hadn’t destroyed. He sat her down, crouched in front of her, and leveled his gaze with hers. And as I stood there, ready to strike if he decided to give her a tough time with anything, his face grew serious.

“You’re going nowhere until you answer every single one of our fucking questions,” he growled.

“Voss,” I warned.

Ronyn stepped in front of me, though, and I growled up at him. “Think I can’t take you down?”

Ronyn smirked as he folded his arms across his chest. “Try me.”

“Bexley?” I called from around him. “You can leave if you don’t want to be here. I won’t let them stop you.”

But, when I peered from around Ronyn’s towering frame, all she did was nod.

“I suppose that’s fair enough,” she said softly.

And the defeated look in her eyes broke my heart.