5. Frederick

Chapter 5

Frederick

I could only stare at the ceiling in the suite that Master Arthur had given to me for the time being. The assignment I’d been sent here to accomplish was over before it ever really started. Everyone that had been placed here had gone through a thorough background check before they were allowed anywhere near Master Arthur’s family. The fact that we had to come and question them again because of some information that was discovered in the laptop of one of the Gallo cousins was ridiculous. That information wasn’t there before so it had been quite well hidden before. Or had just been created and had been well doctored.

While my team happily returned to Montana, I stayed behind. I couldn’t leave. Not yet. My One was here, and I still hadn’t had a chance to talk to him. That was all I wanted; all I needed. Just a conversation with him. If I could at least tell him I’m sorry, that I wasn’t thinking things through clearly, then I would return to Montana and leave him alone.

Master Arthur had let me know that he’d talked with Dominic and the reason he didn’t wish to talk with me was because he had overheard me this morning in his office. Of course he had. I deserved it though. I deserved every ounce of displeasure and irritation from Dominic.

I had explained the situation to the council and was very fortunate that they had given me a few days to stay behind in order to hopefully smooth things over with my One. No, all I needed to do was wait for him to hopefully give me the time of day. It would be truly embarrassing if I had to return to the council without having had even a single conversation with Dominic, but I deserved no less.

I was thankful for, Benjamin, Sebastian, and Caspian. All three of my cousins have been immensely, helpful, and understanding. Benjamin had even offered the suggestion of literally throwing myself on my knees in front of Dominic the next time I saw him. At this point, it was certainly something I was considering. I had waited in the dining hall all throughout the evening meal, and when Dominic never showed, I asked around if anyone had seen him. His friend from earlier was quite willing to share with me that Dominic had decided to take his evening meal in his private quarters.

Of course, I knew where those were, but after getting the door closed on me earlier today, I had no desire to repeat such a situation. It was difficult, but I was willing to wait for Dominic to hopefully become ready to have a conversation with me.

That left me with trying not to go crazy in my own suite of rooms. I did my best to have an evening meal, and Balthazar had taken pity on me and joined me. We talked about Spain, and how we both missed it at times. Unlike me, he was quite happy and settled here at Amherst.

I was hopeful that Montana was going to offer me the same sense of serenity, but now that I had met Dominic I knew that no matter where he went I would follow. Even if he never accepted being together, I knew I would need to be in the same vicinity of him. If that meant I was going to resign my position as an enforcer, I would happily do it.

The knock on the outer door was a bit of a surprise, but not completely unexpected. Both Balthazar as well as Master Arthur had been by to check on me after the evening meal. That was a couple hours ago now though, and I hadn’t thought either of them would be by to check in on me again.

“It’s open,” I called out without getting up from the sofa. I couldn’t really be bothered too much. I was trying to come up with a plan to get my One to talk to me, and throwing myself on my knees in front of him was sounding like it was the best thing I could possibly do.

There was another knock, and I turned my head to glare at the door. I got up to answer when there was a third set of knocks. Whoever it was, obviously hadn’t heard me call out. When I opened the door, the absolute last person I expected to see was Dominic standing there. Both of my eyebrows rose in surprise, which caused him to smile.

“Can we talk?” He asked.

I nodded and took a step back to allow him room to enter. Once I quietly closed the door, I stood there, leaning against it. I had hoped, more than anything, for just the chance to talk to him. If nothing else, to apologize for what I’d said when I wasn’t thinking rationally.

“Did you want to sit?” I asked, indicating the sofa and two chairs that were in the room. The sofa was facing the wall of windows, and the chairs were on opposite sides, facing each other.

“If you don’t mind,” Dominic said.

“Not at all. Did you want something to drink? Tea? Coffee? Water? Wine? Something else?”

Dominic smiled but shook his head. He walked toward the living area and when he sat on one end of the sofa, I sat on the chair closest to him. “If you want me to move over to the other side of the room, I will.”

Dominic rolled his eyes. “That’s not necessary.”

We went quiet for a moment before I decided that there was no time like the present to apologize.

“I owe you an apology,” I said. “It is absolutely no excuse, but I was irritated with the assignment, and then to meet you, I really wasn’t expecting to find my One here. I wasn’t thinking clearly, and said things I didn’t mean. I do not think poorly of you. In fact, I’m upset on your behalf, for what Marco and Riccardo are obviously trying to do, which is frame you and others for their doings.”

Dominic snorted. “That doesn’t surprise me at all, actually. I’ve never cared for either of them, and for very good reason. They are absolutely ruthless, and will stop at nothing to get their jobs done. I’ve heard about them taking out entire families, just to get to one person. The fact that they’ve decided that I’m to go down with them for whatever reason is a bit of a surprise, but I wouldn’t put it past them.”

“Why do you think you were chosen? Random name? Did you piss one of them off?”

Dominic shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you, to be honest. I’ve only ever physically seen them a few times in my life. They obviously know who I am because my name ended up in that computer. But I worked in the coven’s marketing department. I’m rather boring for the most part. I still don’t know what Specter Logistics is, and now that I’ve had time to think about it, I really don’t care all that much. I just want to move back to Europe and continue on with my quiet, lonely existence.”

My heart fell. He wanted to return to Europe. Although that meant I would be closer to my parents and siblings again, it also meant I would have to leave the council. Sure, I hadn’t been an enforcer for long, but having the job had given me something to do.

“Where in Europe are you moving to?” I asked.

Dominic looked at me and shrugged. “I’m not sure yet. I was thinking Spain somewhere, but I have to wait and see because I can’t leave anytime soon. I have to wait for everything with the council to clear up before I can even consider going elsewhere. For now, I’m stuck here.”

I tilted my head to the side, studying my One. “You aren’t stuck here,” I told him. When Dominic sent me a confused look, I shook my head. “You don’t have to stay here. You are welcome to go wherever it is that you wish. The council has relocated you and others for your safety. Riccardo was able to kill at least one person helping the council before we were able to capture him. Marco on the other hand, is still yet to be found. The laptop was obviously planted. They wanted us to find it and cause a distraction. And they’ve done that. We don’t yet know what their endgame is, so all I can do is ask that you please stay here until Marco at the very minimum is found and dealt with.”

The thought of Dominic being in danger because Marco could easily get to him made my heart race. I didn’t know if I would ever have the opportunity to be with him in a way that couples were, but I was going to do everything I could to protect him no matter what.

“I’m not in a hurry to return to Spain. As you probably know my parents are gone, and I have nothing and nobody to go back to. I just wanted to go somewhere that it wouldn’t matter if Dominic was there alone. I have absolutely no doubt that it will eventually get out that,” Dominic eyes seem to lose focus and he shrugged. “It’ll get out that you didn’t want me.”

I reached for Dominic’s hand and when he didn’t immediately pull away, I took that, a tiny step in the right direction. I gave his hand to squeeze, and when he looked up at me, I tried to offer a reassuring smile. “Trust me; I regret what I said. I want you. I want to try to figure out how to make us work.” I gestured between the two of us, hoping that Dominic would understand what I was trying to convey to him. When he squeezed my hand back, that gave me hope. Was it working? Even just a little.

Wondering if the return gesture might mean something, I took a chance in making a suggestion. “You know, you are more than welcome to come to Montana.” I held up my hands to keep him from hopefully jumping to conclusions “I’m not suggesting anything, other than a relocation destination. “Is it selfish of me? Absolutely. But there is nobody there other than me, you, and Dante that knows what happened this morning. Even if someone did, they’re not going to hold anything against you. Trust me when I say that my cousins have already chewed my ass out for what I said.”

Dominic eyes widen and immediately I realize what I had just said. “So more than just you, me, and Dante no, what you said this morning.”

I winced. “Yes. Secondhand, yes. I needed advice, and they’re all mated, so I was hopeful that they would have some suggestions on how to win your trust enough to wear. You would at least talk to me.”

“Here I am. This doesn’t mean I’m ready for there to be in us though.” Dominic side and his shoulders slumped. “I will be three-hundred in just over two years’ time.” Dominic moved at me and shook his head. “I’m old Frederick. I don’t have the desire to try and make something work at this point in my life.”

“I’m only a century behind you. I’m not asking for you to move in, although I can’t say that I won’t in the future. Perhaps you will like Montana. If not, am happy to follow you to Spain. My parents live there, as do my siblings. Well, at least some of them. Francis and Martin both are off on adventures looking for there forever.”

“How many siblings do you have?”

I smiled. “I’m the middle child of five. My parents are Edmund and Dorothea. They had my oldest brother Aldwin, followed by Martin. Then can me, and then after me was Emmett. Emmett is the only one of us thus far that is mated. They have a few kids, and that makes my parents very happy. Francis is the baby and I don’t think he has ever thought about finding his One.”

Dominic smiled. “The baby by how much? Is he still really young?”

I snorted. “No. He’s eight years younger than me, so he still closer to two-hundred than he is one-fifty.”

Dominic chuckled at my response. “I am not saying I am willing to move to Montana. But I will consider it.”

Inside I was jumping for joy. That wasn’t an outright no. It was a possibility, and I could work with possibilities.

“I would have to find somewhere to stay first,” Dominic said.

“There are places on the mountain that you could stay,” I told him. “My place is a three-bedroom, and I know there are a lot of cabins that are available off of the mountain if you don’t wish to be near the council.” If I could get Dominic to Treasure Ridge, I felt I had a better chance of getting the opportunity to start at least somewhat of a relationship with him. I could see Dominic getting ready to argue, so I did everything I could to reassure him I meant nothing by my offer. “I’m not going to try anything,” I told him. “I might have been a complete idiot this morning with my words, but I am a gentleman and would never do anything inappropriate,” I told him.

“You’re telling me that you would invite me out to Montana for a visit. During this visit, you would not try anything with me?” Dominic asked while raising an eyebrow in question.

“I would behave. Of course, I would offer to show you the area, and see if you possibly wanted to go out for a date. Beyond that I wouldn’t try anything else.” I really hoped I was getting some sort of opportunity to try with Dominic. He didn’t have to give me a chance, but hopefully the fact that he was here now meant that he would.

“Very well. A date then. Where is it that we are going on this date?”

My eyes wide, and briefly before I thought of something quickly. “There are many places we can go in the local area. There is a favorite pizza place among the enforcers and many of the other council members, there is a Chinese food place that all of the pregnant omegas seem to really love. If neither of those are to your liking, we don’t have to stay in that area. We are warlocks, as you know, and we can go wherever your heart desires.”

That seem to catch Dominic’s attention. You’re telling me that if I really wanted to go to a hole in the wall place in Venice, you could take me there and it wouldn’t be an issue?”

“If that’s what you want, that’s what you get. I have not spent a whole Lotta time in Venice so I would have to suggest that you be the one to pop us in there, but yes, we absolutely could do that if you wished.” By my quick calculation, it was sometime in the middle of the night in Venice currently. But we absolutely could do that tomorrow if he wanted.

“All right. Consider it a date then. Please don’t make a fool of me in front of everyone,” Dominic said

“I wouldn’t. The fact that you are giving me a chance is more than I deserve, and I am grateful for it. I am going to do everything I can to show you that I can be a good One to you. You are willing to take a chance on me and I’m not going to throw that away.” I told him. At least, that’s what I thought he was doing. I really hoped I hadn’t misread the situation. “I haven’t gotten it wrong, have I?”

Dominic offered a smile. “No. I’m not ready to say that I’ve completely forgiven you. But I am willing to see if things are possible between us. I owe it not only to myself but you as well.”

I shook my head. “You don’t owe me anything. It means a lot to me that you’re even here, willing to talk to me.” He had given me a chance, and there was no way I was going to throw what he was offering away. I would take things one day, one step at a time.

“Tomorrow then? Or whenever you’re ready to go on our date?” Dominic asked.

“Yes. We can see if tomorrow works. I don’t foresee it being an issue,” I told him. “I’ll just need to let the council know where I’m going. For the most part, they don’t really track us too closely once we meet our mate or One. I was given a few days off once I contacted them to let them know about who you are to me. I know I’ll get at least two weeks, but most likely a month off to spend with you. No pressure, that’s just how the council does things.” I didn’t know how it was going to work with us specifically since Dominic wasn’t exactly ready to jump into a relationship with me. That was completely on me, and I took responsibility for my actions.

Dominic stood, and although I understood why, it saddened me that he was ready to leave. I quickly joined him and as we walked the short distance to the door, I placed my hands behind my back when the desire to touch his became too much.

“Even if tomorrow ends up not working, perhaps we can still get together?” I asked, hopeful.

Dominic turned and smiled at me. “Sure. I’m always up for a good cup of coffee,” he told me.

Coffee I could do. Dominic opened the door, and then left, leaving me to watch as he walked down the hallway three doors and then entered his own suite. It hadn’t gone unnoticed that Master Arthur had placed me as close to Dominic as possible. But I was beginning to think that being so close to my One without actually being with him was going to be painful in other ways. I absently rubbed at the ache in the center of my chest once Dominic disappeared from sight. Tomorrow. Tonight I needed to figure out how to romance my One.