“Thanks,” I say, lifting the cup to my nose and sniffing. There's a pungent smell of bitter wolfsbane beneath the alcoholic notes, and I turn to her with wide eyes. “You laced the punch?!” I exclaim in a low whisper.
Donna chuckles. “It wasn't me, I swear!” she says defensively. “It's our last night in Mount Desert. Someone else had the right idea.”
Giggling nervously, the smell has me recalling what happened the night of my twenty-first birthday, and how I was so intoxicated that I ended up losing my virginity to DominicRivera. But as Donna and I stand near the fire and I catch Dominic's smile as he stands with his friend and beta, Santo, I can't help but feel like I made the right choice when I gave myself to Dominic.
The man he's become is so much different from the younger man who rejected me the day after he'd taken my virginity. He's changed, and so have my feelings for him. What once began as an innocent, girlish crush has now bloomed into something so much more meaningful.
I'm still holding onto some wariness since neither of us has brought up what the future holds now that he's the alpha. I don't even want to think about what will happen once he fulfills his end of the deal and clears my father's name. Will that be the end of the fun we've been having?
Will that mean I have to harden my heart again and pretend that I don't have feelings for the alpha?
Gulping hard, I lift the cup to my lips and chug down the punch in one go, feeling like I desperately need something, anything to make me stop thinking. The liquor burns on its way down, and Donna turns wildly confused eyes on me.
“Woah! What was that?”
Giggling nervously as I wipe the back of my hand across my lips, I pass Donna the empty cup.
“I'm letting loose,” I chuckle, blinking fervently and finding Dominic's eyes watching me with a curiously raised brow.
Donna sighs beside me, and a moment of silence stretches between us as Dominic and I continue staring at each other across the garden.
“You love him, don't you?” Donna probes, at which I tear my gaze from Dominic and stare at her, bewildered.
“What? No. That's not—”
She rolls her eyes at me. “You're my best friend, Cece. It's obvious that you're in love with my brother despite what happened in the past. You don't have to deny it. There's nothing to be ashamed about.”
A rapid blush creeps on my cheeks, and I sigh. “I do, Donna. I love him. But there's no future for us, and you know it. I'm the half-breed omega outcast, and the pack will never accept me.”
“Since when do you care about what they think?”
I sigh forlornly as I nod toward Dominic. “Since he's become the Alpha. I can't be selfish with my desires anymore. If he's gonna be taken seriously as the Alpha, he can't be seen with me.”
Now that I've seen Dominic in his natural element as the alpha, it makes sense that he rejected me in the past, even if he hasn't admitted it. I will always be the half-breed omega, even if my father's name is cleared. It will never change how Lunaris views humans, and I'll always be the outcast. Different. Unworthy. Too big, but never enough.
It's something I have to accept, even if it pains me to admit it. What Dominic and I shared while in Mount Desert Campground will just have to become a memory I'll tuck away as soon as we return to Nightmist. He'll clear my father's name, and perhaps that will make my living conditions a little better so I won't be seen as a stain on the Lunaris name.
“I refuse to accept this,” Donna clicks her tongue. “Surely there's something that can be done.”
I shake my head slowly, offering her a smile even though my heart is breaking inside. “There's nothing that can be done, Dons. It's okay. I'll be okay.”
When Dominic nods at me from across the garden, signaling for me to meet him at the cabin, I tell Donna that I'm retiring for the night and will see her in the morning to return to Nightmist. Once again, I'm Dominic's best-kept secret, meeting him at the cabin so the others don't see us.
With every step I take toward the cabin, my heart breaks a little more after I'd managed to stitch it back up during my time with Dominic in the trials. How can I fault him for doing exactly what he set out to do from the very beginning? Donna explained why he needed to win so badly and become the alpha, so it only makes sense that he'd keep his end of the bargain and call it quits on whatever was going on between us.
It's something I have to make peace with, but even as I wait inside the cabin for him to join me, a lump forms in my throat, full of the haunting reality I'm not ready to face just yet.
Dominic enters the cabin and finds me in the kitchen, absentmindedly staring at the table as I wait for the kettle to boil. He comes over and wraps his arms around me from behind, pressing a kiss to my cheek and springing me out of my thoughts.
“It's our last night in Nightmist…” I say softly.
“Then we should make it count,” Dominic offers with a purr as he presses another kiss on my neck.
It's impossible not to surrender to his gentle caresses, and stifling the tears threatening to burst forth from my eyes, I let out a deep exhale and feel my body reacting to his touch. One more night.
I can live with that.
A final goodbye before we go back to our lives in Nightmist, where things might be a little different now that he's the alpha. As Dominic turns me to face him, he hooks a finger under my chin and lifts my face, his brows furrowing when he meets my eyes.
