CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER NINE

Heading to his Alpha’s office, Dominic rolled his shoulders, trying to shake off the tension riding him. It didn’t work. Nothing had.

Technically, he should have been relaxed, considering he’d fucked Mila into oblivion the night before. He should have been walking around with the stride of a sexually satisfied male. Instead, he was antsy. Edgy. Like he’d been trapped in a crowded elevator for hours.

He’d finally had her. Finally knew how she tasted, finally knew how it felt to be inside her. Fuck, it had been better than he’d imagined. So much better. But it hadn’t cooled his hunger for her. If anything, it had only intensified it. And his wolf wouldn’t fucking stop growling at him to track her down.

The second Dominic had thrust inside that deliciously tight pussy, triumph had filled him—not smugness but the sheer male satisfaction that came with finally having that thing you want most. Relief had also coursed through him, relief at being exactly where he’d needed to be for what felt like too long.

There’d also been a greedy possessiveness. It had crawled over him, clawed at his gut, urged him to mark her—something, as a rule, he never did to a woman. And it had taken everything he had not to bite hard into Mila’s neck as he exploded inside her.

He’d never needed to fuck someone so hard before, never wanted to see his come sink into a woman’s skin, never needed to be permanently etched into a person’s memory. The problem was . . . he was pretty sure she was now etched into his.

He hadn’t had his usual ironclad control with Mila. Hadn’t even dug for it, if he was honest. No, he’d wanted to take her that roughly. Wanted it to be a night she remembered.

Another thing he never did was feel awkward if he got caught leaving in the middle of the night. She’d made light of it, hadn’t seemed to care. That should have made it easier. It hadn’t. Because, for the first time in his life, he truly had felt shamed by it. She deserved better, but he didn’t have “better” to give her, so he’d left. What he’d really wanted to do was crawl back in that bed with her.

He hadn’t originally had any intention of sticking to a one-night stand, but he wasn’t sure it would be a good idea to have a repeat of last night. Not given how many of his rules she’d tempted him to break. Not given that his wolf had become quite possessive of her. It would be bad for the beast to develop an attachment to her, considering she was immigrating to Russia and planning to mate with some bastard called Maksim.

His wolf snarled, and Dominic snapped his teeth. The thought of another male’s hands on her made him feel far too dangerous.

Reaching Trey’s office, Dominic rapped his knuckles on the door. The Alpha had summoned him by text, saying there was a “delicate matter” that needed to be discussed, so Dominic wasn’t surprised to find both his Alphas and Betas, the Head Enforcer, and the other four enforcers inside the room.

Both Alphas were tense as bows, and that raised his wolf’s hackles. Something was wrong. The others were exchanging uneasy looks, clearly no wiser than Dominic about why they’d all been summoned.

Sitting on the leather rolling chair behind his desk, Trey gestured for Dominic to close the door behind him. He did so and then stalked farther into the room, his nose twitching at the scents of air freshener, stale coffee, and hot ink from the printer. Except for the whooshing of the ceiling fan, there were only the sounds of birds chirping and trees rustling filtering through the partially open window. The hint of a breeze carried with it the ozone scent of rain.

“What’s happened?” asked Dominic.

Trey ceased tapping his pen on a sheet of paper that rested on his desk. “I received a call from Emmet Pierson twenty minutes ago.”

Dominic’s wolf peeled back his upper lip. “What did he want?”

“Let me guess,” said Roni, her face scrunched up in distaste. “Rosemary went whining to him that her visit here came to nothing.”

“Yes, she did,” said Trey. “But that’s not all. Rosemary tried to kill herself last night.”

Jaime’s mouth fell open. “What?”

Just as stunned, Dominic could only stare at his Alpha.

“She swallowed a bunch of pills.” Trey rubbed at his nape. “She’s in the hospital now. The doctors pumped her stomach. She’s alive, but her father says she’s not responsive—just sitting there, staring at the walls.”

Dominic cursed under his breath. “He blames me, doesn’t he?”

Trey nodded. “The day she left here, she went straight to him; told him that you’re her true mate and that when she made that same claim to you, you laughed at her and sent her away.”

Dominic’s wolf bared his teeth. “She’s not my true mate.”

Trey raised his hands. “I never thought she was.”

“I don’t think she even believes it herself. Not really.”

Perched on the edge of the desk, Taryn tilted her head. “Why do you say that?”

“She didn’t make that bullshit claim until I told her she was wrong about me wanting to be a perpetual bachelor. I think she just blurted out that we were true mates in the hope that it might make a difference to me.” Dominic raked his fingers through his hair. “Fuck.”

“That’s not all.” Trey gripped his pen tightly. “Pierson made a statement to an online anti-shifter paper.”

Sighing, Trick leaned against the tall filing cabinet, careful not to knock the photos and drawings that had been attached to it with magnets. “Lay it on us.”

Trey lifted the sheet of paper from his desk. “To sum it up, he talked of how his daughter is a ‘latent’ wolf, said that having shifter blood ruined her life. He basically blames it for her divorce, since he believes she’d have otherwise conceived children with her ex-husband. Then he mentioned you, Dominic. Said shifters talk about how precious our true mates are, but that’s nothing but a lie. Said that you mated Rosemary, formed the bond, but then turned her away because her animal never surfaced.”

Fisting his hands, Dominic swore viciously. His wolf was pacing madly, lashing out with his claws. “The motherfucking bastard.”

Ryan grunted his agreement at that assessment.

“There’s more,” Trey added, grim. “Pierson said that the rejection ripped out her heart and left her with nothing—that the bond has tied her to you, keeping her a prisoner, and now she’s unable to cope with life. He also claimed he went to our pack for help but that we turned him away.”

“He told us at the restaurant that he doesn’t believe mating bonds are metaphysical things that can’t be broken,” said Dominic.

“And I think he meant it,” said Trey. “I also think he doesn’t really believe she’s your true mate—he’d have said so if he did at the restaurant. No, this article is not a devastated father coming forward with a heart-wrenching story. He’s taking what he thinks are lies about our kind and twisting them to make you come across as a conscienceless bastard.”

Tao, the Head Enforcer, made a sound of disgust. “I get that Pierson’s upset and wants someone to blame, but this is fucking bullshit. It’s also the kind of thing that stirs up the anti-shifter extremists. Granted, they’re not as organized or well funded as they used to be, but they’re still dangerous.”

Tense seconds ticked by as everyone seemed to take a moment to digest everything.

Dominic looked at Trey. “What now?”

The leather chair squeaked as Trey leaned forward. “Now you lie low.”

Both Dominic and his wolf bristled. “I’m not hiding.”

“No, you’re not,” said Trey. “But you do need to keep a low profile for a few days. This article has already been shared on other sites and blogs and forums. You can bet your ass that a crowd of anti-shifter extremists will be standing outside our gates within a matter of hours, holding up ‘die demons’ billboards and making as much of a scene as they can. They’ll be chased off, but they’ll no doubt come back.”

Taryn slid off the desk with a sigh. “He’s right, Dominic. They usually get bored within a few days. Until then, it’s best you avoid your usual hangouts and don’t draw any attention to yourself. It’ll blow over fast. These things always do.”

“In the meantime, we’ll make a statement on the pack blog,” said Trey.

Ryan’s eyes narrowed. “What kind of statement?”

“A video.” Trey clicked his pen on and off as he continued. “We’ll tell the truth of the matter, and although it seems a shitty thing to do to someone who just tried to kill herself, we’ll mention that it’s not something she hasn’t tried before.”

Roni blinked. “Say that again.”

It was Taryn who explained. “Rhett’s unearthed a whole lot of information on Rosemary Pierson. She has a history of stalking, for one thing.”

“Stalking?” echoed Dante, draping an arm around Jaime’s shoulders.

“Yep,” replied Taryn. “An old boyfriend, her ex-husband, and her ex-husband’s new girlfriend all got restraining orders against her. She wrote them threatening letters, harassed them on social media, and turned up at their houses and places of work. She’s also tried to kill herself twice in the past. Once as a teenager, and once after her divorce.”

“I can see now why her father was so desperate to get her what she wanted that he offered me money to mate with her,” said Dominic. “He was worried she’d have a relapse of some kind.”

Trey nodded. “That was my thought. The ex-husband resembles you a little. I’ve got to wonder if that’s why she fixated on you. There are a lot of shifters out there, but she chose you—one who was highly unlikely to give her a commitment. That made no sense to me. But it could be that she was subconsciously drawn to you because you reminded her of what she lost and desperately wants back.”

Marcus scraped a hand over his stubbly jaw. “Do you think Emmet will stop at the article, or do you think he’ll make another sly move?”

“I don’t know.” Trey twisted his mouth. “That may depend on how damaging the article is for us.”

“If we move fast, we should be able to minimize any damage,” Trick reasoned.

“The extremists will pounce on this, but I don’t think we have to worry too much about the public believing Pierson’s lies,” Tao stated. “Especially when they hear about Rosemary’s history.”

Scrunching the printed article into a ball, Trey tossed it in the wastebasket. “I don’t like that we’ll be airing her dirty laundry, but we need to show that her unstable behavior started long before she ever met Dominic.”

Taryn straightened her shoulders. “Then let’s get it done.”

Sitting at the office desk, Trey, Taryn, and Dominic used the camera on Trey’s computer to record a brief but succinct message addressing Pierson’s article. They weren’t insensitive, didn’t directly call Rosemary a liar or claim she was unstable. They just stated the facts, letting them speak for themselves. Before ending the live recording, Taryn passed on her hope that Rosemary recovered soon.

Trey then turned to Dominic. “I know you’re thinking that your behavior brought this shit to our door. But you’re wrong. Rosemary’s and Emmet’s behavior did that, not yours.”

Dominic pushed to his feet. “I need to let my wolf out. He needs to run.” Run off the rage and feel fresh air on his face.

Outside the caves, Dominic shifted into his wolf form. The beast spent hours padding through the woods, chasing small animals, lapping from streams, and traipsing through the shallow river. Tired and much less angry than before, his wolf retreated.

Dominic pulled his clothes back on, still as restless. He had no one else to blame for the situation that he and his pack were currently in. It lay squarely on him, no matter what Trey said.

Did Dominic feel any responsibility for Rosemary’s attempted suicide? No, although he did feel shitty for being so harsh with her. The main reason he was so pissed at himself was that he quite simply hadn’t seen how unstable she was. She hadn’t raised any red flags. Why? Because he hadn’t looked below the surface. When it came to women, he never did.

Just as Dante had pointed out, Dominic didn’t give people a chance to know him, and he skipped the getting-to-know-the-girl stage. If he hadn’t been so fucking closed off and determined not to risk forming ties, he would have seen how troubled Rosemary truly was. His pack wouldn’t be dealing with this shit-storm, and maybe she wouldn’t be lying on a hospital bed staring at walls.

Fucked. The whole thing was fucked.

Mila was in the middle of unloading the dishwasher when she heard a knock on the front door. Wiping her hands on a small dish towel, she tossed it on the counter and headed into the small hallway. A look through the peephole made her brows lift in surprise and caused her half-asleep cat to snap fully awake.

Opening the door, Mila gave Dominic what she knew was a guarded look. “How did you get in?” Nobody entered the building unless they had the code or were admitted by one of the residents.

Not waiting for an invitation, he stalked into the apartment. “I was about to press the intercom buzzer when Evander came strolling out. He let me in.” Dominic tilted his head. “You look surprised to see me.”

“I doubted I’d see you again unless we were just crossing paths.” She shut the door. “You got what you wanted from me.”

“I didn’t get anywhere near enough of it.” He caught her nape and pulled her close, raw need glittering in his blue eyes. But there was something else there—a barely leashed fury.

Something was wrong, she thought. Very, very wrong. Her cat’s hackles rose. “What happened?”

“Nothing. All is good, Mila.”

She planted a hand on his chest when he would have moved in for a kiss. “Tell me.”

His mouth tightened. “I came here to get away from it, not to talk about it.”

Mila narrowed her eyes. “You don’t get to turn up at my apartment hoping to work out your issues in my bed unless you tell me what’s going on.”

Releasing her, he cursed under his breath. “Like I said, I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Tough,” she bit out, folding her arms across her chest. “I told you that Joel is my true mate. Most of my pride don’t even know that. But I gave you that truth. I trusted you with it. You can return that trust, or you can go. Choose.”

His face softened a little, and his eyes darkened with something that made her stomach do a little flip. “You’re hot when you’re all assertive like this.”

She would not be distracted. “Well?” she pushed.

Sighing, he strolled farther into the apartment and sank into her living room sofa. “The father of a human I had a one-night stand with offered me money to mate with her.”

Mila blinked, almost rocking back on her heels. “Wow. So what, she wants herself a shifter mate like we’re accessories?”

“Turns out she thinks she has an inner wolf.” Dominic told her about Rosemary’s beliefs and gave her a rundown of the offer that Emmet Pierson had made him. Dominic hadn’t wanted to talk about it, but now that the words were tumbling out of him, he felt a little better for it. “Naturally, I said no to his bribe. Rosemary turned up at my territory a few days later. I was clear that I wasn’t her true mate, wouldn’t be forming any bond with her, and that she had no inner animal.”

“All of which she needed to hear.”

“Yeah. And that should have been the end of it. But it wasn’t; she tried to commit suicide.” Dominic still couldn’t quite wrap his head around that. “Her father blames me, so he chatted a pile of shit to a journalist who posted an article about it online. Emmet exaggerated the whole thing to make it sound like I had bonded with her and then thrown her away because her animal hadn’t surfaced.”

“Bastard.” Mila settled on an armchair. “I can understand that he’s hurting, but he has no damn right to blame you. Sounds to me like she’s not in touch with reality. He fed her fantasies by giving them credibility—something he no doubt realizes now. He’s pointing the blame at someone else because he can’t stand the weight of it.”

Dominic nodded, flexing his fingers. “He threatened to cause problems for us the day we met at the restaurant, although he wasn’t specific about what those problems would be.”

“You feel guilty, don’t you?”

“I don’t hold myself responsible for what she did, but I can’t help feeling bad about how hard I was on her. Maybe I should have just allowed her to have her fantasies about being part shifter so that she could at least live with whatever comfort that brought her.”

“I doubt that it would have helped her in the long run.”

“If I’d bothered to look beneath the surface, I would have seen that she isn’t stable. But I didn’t bother. Never do.”

Mila waved a dismissive hand. “Plenty of guys sleep with women they don’t know. It doesn’t make you a shitty person.” She cocked her head. “Have you ever been in a relationship?”

A smile softened his mouth. “What, you’re wondering if maybe a girl once broke my heart, and I’m determined to avoid feeling that pain again? No. Nothing like that. There are a few reasons why I’ve avoided relationships. Mostly, I just don’t think it’s fair to start a relationship with someone unless you can be sure that you’ll be what they need.”

Mila pursed her lips. “I get it. While coming to terms with the fact that I’d never have my true mate, I stuck to shallow flings because I just wasn’t in an emotional place where I had anything to give. I’d have had no right to ask for a commitment from anyone.”

“And now you are in a place where you have something to give?”

“I think so.” She exhaled a heavy breath. “I’d say we should go sit out on the balcony and relax—it’s a real pretty view. But Vinnie’s paranoid that there could be a sniper waiting on a rooftop somewhere, pointing a rifle at my apartment.”

Dominic frowned, tensing. “Could they shoot through the glass?”

She shook her head. “All the windows and balcony doors in the building are bulletproof. Vinnie’s into illegal shit, remember? He wanted to be sure that no one in his pride paid for that.”

As something occurred to him, Dominic asked, “There’s no way that the person who put the bounty on your head did it to get at Vinnie?”

“It seems more likely to me that they’re trying to flush out Alex. Besides, Vinnie has a lot of contacts. If someone in his circle put a hit out on me, he’d have heard about it.” Pushing off the chair, Mila added, “I just need to finish unloading the dishwasher and then I’ll be back. Want a beer?”

“Sure.” As she passed, Dominic grabbed her hand and smoothly pulled her onto his lap. “Or you could just straddle me like this. Yeah, I prefer that.”

Mila probably should have pulled away, but she could almost feel his need for touch. Wondered if he even sensed that need himself. She found she couldn’t deny him.

They sat in silence as he smoothed his hands up and down her back, doodled patterns here and there, massaged her nape, dragged his fingers down her neck and along the curve of her shoulders. It was as if he was tracing her, memorizing the dips and curves.

All the while, he pressed soft kisses to her face and neck. His cock was rock hard, but he didn’t make any moves to seduce her. She got the feeling that he needed comfort more than he needed sex, so she let him have his way. Massaged his chest and shoulders until his muscles were no longer rigid.

Although the anger hadn’t quite left him, a growl of contentment rumbled out of his chest, and she had the feeling that it came from his beast. “Your wolf seems to have relaxed.”

Dominic raked his teeth down her throat. “He has what he wants now. He’s been hounding me all day to come see you. Touch you. Take you.”

Drawing back a little, she said, “I got the feeling you were saying a permanent goodbye to me this morning.”

“I was,” he admitted. “You tempt me to break my own rules, and that’s not good. But I was kidding myself when I thought I could stay away from you.” And then he closed his mouth over hers and sank his tongue inside. Before long, he had her naked and riding him right there on the sofa. He came like a fucking freight train.

They showered before tumbling into her bed, where he took her again after indulging in a long, thorough taste of her pussy. They fell asleep, but he woke sometime in the night, just as he always did unless he was in his own bed.

Not wanting to sneak out—and knowing she’d probably hear him if he tried—he lightly trailed his fingers down her arm and said softly, “Mila? Mila?”

Her eyes fluttered open. “Hmm?”

“I gotta go.”

“’Kay.” Her eyelids fell shut. “Leave the money on the nightstand, would ya?”

His mouth quirked. “After the stuff I did to you last night, you owe me money.”

She smiled but flicked her fingers. “Be gone. Some of us like to sleep.”

He pressed a kiss to her shoulder and then rose from the bed. Having pulled on his clothes, he said, “I’ll call you later.”

“You don’t have my number.” Frowning, she looked up at him. “Do you?”

He just gave her a mysterious smile. “Later.” Ignoring his wolf’s growl of displeasure and his own desire to get back in that bed, Dominic forced himself to leave.