Why is he being so indifferent toward me when he just caught me in the woods trying to run away?
“Dominic…?” I call out hesitantly as I watch him find the drinks cabinet and coolly proceed to pour himself a glass of brandy.
“What?” he asks only when he turns with the filled glass in hand, casually tipping it to his lips as he avidly avoids meeting my eyes.
“You do realize I was trying to run away, right?”
“Noted,” he shrugs diffidently and continues to sip his drink.
My jaw drops, and I stare wildly perplexed at his face. “I don’t want this, Dominic. I don’t wanna help you.”
Dominic sighs as he sets the glass on the counter beside him. Folding his arms, he lifts his eyes to me, the dark pits becoming softer and lighter, but doing nothing to calm me right now.
“You don’t have a choice, Cece, you—”
“Don’t call me that!” I retort with a rumbling growl. “You have no right to call me that!”
Dominic drops his head bashfully. “You don’t have a choice in this, Cecelia. The council has already decided that you’re my partner for the trials. There’s nothing we can do to change it now.”
“I’m gonna make you lose,” I announce, folding my arms across my chest and tilting my chin with defiance.
“That’s not what you told my sister,” Dominic frowns, cocking his head to one side.
“I told Donna whatever I needed to tell her so she wouldn’t suspect that I was running away from you!”
“So you lied to your best friend?” Dominic lifts a brow and peels himself away from the counter, taking a step forward.
My heart skips a beat when I realize he’s stalking toward me, and I attempt to back away when the wall behind me blocks my escape.
“I didn’t lie to her!” I insist, catching the defensiveness in my tone and not liking the way it sounds. Why do I need to prove anything to him? “Why do you care if I lied or not?!”
“It says a lot about your character if you can lie to your best friend…”
My jaw drops again, my eyes widening with horror. “How dare you question my character!” I snap. He’s only a few feet away when my heart skips a beat in response to his prominent scent demanding my attention. I can’t give in so easily.
“You have no right to question my integrity!” I spit venomously, desperately hoping that he’ll back off before I lose my mind. “I don’t owe you a damn thing, Dominic Rivera! I hate you!”
My thoughtless exclamation is what freezes Dominic on the spot, his brows knitting into tight lines of shock as if my words struck him. “You hate me?”
I decide to run with my vindictive spree. “I’m not like the others, Dominic. I won’t grovel at your feet.”
Dominic begins to nod slowly, gulping as if to digest this information, as if he wasn’t aware of how I’d feel after what he did.
“Okay,” he concedes, resuming his approach toward me as he stares calculatedly into my eyes. “I accept your hatred, but it still leaves us with the dilemma of the trials.”
“I’m not doing it,” I refuse grimly. “I’d rather die than be your partner in these trials.”
A flash of remorse crosses Dominic’s eyes as he pauses and hangs his head with a sigh. “You see now, this is the problem we’re facing. If you go against the council, it’ll be considered treason…”
That last word cuts through me like a hot branding iron. “If you’d just let me run away, I wouldn’t be faced with that, now, would I?”
Dominic chuckles sardonically as he reaches into his pocket and produces the key he used to lock the cabin door. “I’m sparing your life by keeping you in here. You think Alpha Sirius would let you get away without sending a search party to bring you back and throw you into a dungeon?” He scoffs. “I’m doing you a favor. I’m saving your life.”
Gulping hard, I shake my head slowly. “I don’t need any favors fromyou.”
Dominic nods at my bitter declaration, remaining calm as he stalks forward again, this time closing the little distance between us and placing a flattened palm on the wall beside my head.
“That’s a shame.” His lips shrivel up in a contemplative manner, one brow lifting skeptically. “Because I need a favor from you.”
