“You sure?” she presses, but I quickly dodge her question by tearing my attention from Dominic and pointing to the bench at the back.
“Look! Empty seats!” I chuckle nervously, and Donna scoffs even as she slips into the aisle and pulls me along with her.
“Since when do you get so excited about seats?” she quizzes with a confused smile.
I shrug nonchalantly with a nervous half-smile. “Since they’re in the back, of course.”
Donna giggles and shakes her head, then spots her brother at the front and excitedly taps my arm. “They’re gonna announce the trials starting tomorrow!”
Grimacing to myself, I give my best friend a supportive smile and a tentative nod as I follow her gaze to the front, where Dominic stands. It’s impossible not to become mesmerized by his features, and I feel myself drawn to his eyes as he laughs at something his friend says.
Those dark, beady eyes were what set my heart ablaze once before, when they twinkled with mischief as he led me out of the bar that one night. I’d been naively reeled into the biggest mistake of my life, letting him guide me into the forest in a particular spot that he claimed was special to him.
That’s when he took the most precious thing I had—my virtue—and in the aftermath, when I foolishly slipped up about the crush I’d had on him for years, his true colors came out.
Shivering into myself to let the memory pass because it’s not welcome, I tear my gaze away from him, not wanting to admit that even without the long waves of dark hair, he’s still the most beautiful specimen of a male werewolf I’ve ever laid eyes on.
After what happened that night three years ago, I was sure of one thing: that wasn’t Dominic’s first rodeo, and I was not the only one who fell victim to his oozing charms.
I wasn’t special at all.
The thought sizzles in the pit of my belly with the anger I’ve been keeping locked away since he left. It rises now likeacidic bile in my throat, forcing me to gulp down on my agitation.
It’s a conscious task I must perform for Donna’s sake, so she doesn’t catch on and suspect that her brother and I have history. When Dominic left and joined the black ops squad, it was right after we spent the night in the woods together. Only two days had passed before Donna came rushing to my cottage in a fit of tears to tell me about his sudden decision to leave. It was a relief for me, even though I consoled her back then.
Now that he’s back, I’m forced to face the implications of what happened, forced to face the man who broke my heart in the flesh, walking around as if his words didn’t cut me the deepest.
Three Years Ago
I stare at the soft pinks and lilacs painting the sky as the sun begins to rise, my heart following a rhythmic beat that lingers from the night before. Turning my face to the side, I notice that Dominic is stirring awake, his arm twitching where it rests under me like a pillow on the blanket of the soft lawn.
Giggling lightly when I feel the faint tingling between my thighs that reminds me of the gift I’d given the man I’ve always had a crush on, a sense of warmth washes over me. Not once last night did Dominic make me feel worthless or aware that I’m overweight. It’s something the pack has always targeted me for, along with my tainted surname, but he’d praised and worshipped my body as if my size didn’t matter to him.
My giggling is what makes him open his eyes, blinking as he adjusts the dark brown orbs to my face. Staring at him, my heart skipping a beat the moment I catch a whiff of his mintybreath when his lips part, I’m startled when Dominic abruptly pulls his arm out from under me.
I roll onto my shoulder in a pathetic, unexpected pile, my brows knitting with confusion. Dominic’s sudden coldness sends horrific icicles down my spine, contradicting the heat we’d shared last night.
“I need to go,” he mutters flatly as he sits upright and pulls his T-shirt over his head.
“Dominic…?” I whimper fearfully, gulping when it dawns on me that he’s serious about leaving.
“Can you find your way back home?” he asks without turning his face to me.
Pathetically desperate, I reach out with a tentative hand toward his shoulder. But he must sense the warmth of my fingers approaching, and curls his shoulder toward his chest as if coiling away from my touch.
“Don’t, Cecelia. I am leaving for black ops in two days.”
The coldness in his tone sends more shivers down my spine, taking fragments of my fracturing heart along with it.
How am I supposed to survive without him after what happened between us last night? I’d given a part of myself to him that I’d never give another, and he’d stolen my heart with every kiss peppered on my bare flesh.
Pulling my hand back, I sit upright and hug my arms over my voluptuous breasts, bare and stinging from the hickeys he’d left behind.
“You’re leaving so soon?” I ask, my voice trembling. “What about me?”
Dominic rises to his feet and pulls his pants over his taut buttocks held in the black briefs he’d slept in beside me through the night.
“What about you?” his accusing tone matches the accusation in his dark eyes when he finally turns toward me. “What does my leaving have to do with you?”
