Madison’s wolf eyes darted to her father for confirmation, and he nodded. “It’s always the hardest in the beginning, but we’re here for you.”
Dominic pulled forward his dominance, a special aura that every shifter carried with them. It was the strongest in alphas and could be used as both a tool to make other shifters submit as well as to soothe a distressed shifter. For Madison, dominance could ease her fears. Dominance, especially coming from the Prime Alpha, told her that she was safe.
She nodded, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes just before the shifting pains made her fall to her knees. For the next several minutes, Dominic and Jaime coached her through the shift. Bones broke and mended back together. Joints dislocated and reformed at different angles. Smooth, youthful skin grew a thick pelt of brown and beige. Hands morphed into paws, and her human facial features gave way to those of a wolf. The screams that Madison had held in through the ordeal changed pitch into canine whines and whimpers.
When it was all over, Madison Gabors stood on all fours, her shift from girl to wolf complete, and the purple robe lying in a pool of fabric beneath her. Dominic almost hadn’t realized that Jaime had begun his own shift in the middle of her transformation and loped toward them as a large, chestnut brown wolf. Father and daughter greeted one another by burying their muzzles in one another’s manes, the equivalent of a human hug. From the direction of the house, the pack let out shouts of victory, all of them able to sense Madison’s completed shift. The air was no longer tense with her pain and struggle. Dominic thought he heard Gwen sniffle back tears of pride.
Dominic sat back on his heels and took a few stealing breaths, inhaling the earthy scents around him, before shedding his shirt to begin his own shift. He hadn’t lied when he told Madison that it became easier over the years. Older werewolves, like his late father, could complete the transformation within a couple of minutes, sometimes in less time, but with much more pain and effort.
When his shift was done, Dominic stood, midnight black fur with silver accents rippling in the nighttime breeze. Though he was a few inches shorter than Jaime, the subordinate wolf purposefully bent low and hunched his shoulders to appear smaller than the Prime Alpha. Jaime licked the underside of his muzzle to express his submission and appreciation for Dominic’s help that night.
Once more, Dominic felt embarrassed, but wouldn’t show it. Knowing full well that other shifters may have been watching from the house, he exuded alpha confidence to the shifted wolves. Any show of weakness would jeopardize his title, and any wolf would jump at the chance to fight him for it. To be Prime Alpha of Tolstone meant power. But it also meant responsibility. It meant having your name and reputation known across the country. There was no room for mistakes. No room for vulnerability. Regardless of his feelings about following in his father’s footsteps, Dominic was determined to maintain order, if not for himself then for his pack. Though he and his father didn’t always see eye to eye, one lesson stuck, much at his own expense. Pack was everything.
Chapter One
“I’ll be honest,Miss Barrett,” Julia said as the last of the closing papers slipped out of the printer, “I never thought they would sell that old house.”
“I’m surprised it was on the market for this long. It’s so beautiful.” Erica tried to keep her voice low out of respect for the other settlement agents in neighboring offices, but she could barely contain her excitement. She had been looking forward to this trip to the title office for months. The last step in a long, exhausting journey.
Julia shrugged and gave her that bemused but accepting look, as if to say that she didn’t quite understand it either. “It sure is. I thought the Donaldsons would have kept it after their grandmother passed away, but the husband got offered a job in Chicago, so they moved shortly after she passed. Good thing for you, huh?”
As soon as Erica saw that the house was up for sale almost a year ago, she knew she had to have it. After twenty years of gazing at the old Polaroid photo pinned to the corkboard above her desk in her room, it was about time that the stars aligned to finally make it hers. She just wished so much didn’t have to happen before she could write that check. A chunk of her life had been wasted while her mother’s assets were processed through probate and during the many meetings with attorneys and accountants to sort out the distribution of her inheritance. Now, all that was left were her signatures, and she could finally have her dream home.
“This could take a while,” Julia said. “Do you want anything to drink? Coffee or pop?”
Erica shook her head and scooted to the edge of her chair. “Nope. I’m ready.”
About twenty minutes later, she regretted not asking for some water. Julia thoroughly explained every aspect of the closing process, though Erica had familiarized herself with those details way ahead of time. Still, the experience proved a tad overwhelming. This whole adventure started off achingly slow, but wrapping up the sale of her childhood home and moving on with this purchase seemed to happen so quickly. Everything fell into place just as it needed to, with few hiccups along the way.
They made it to the very last signature and Erica paused, the tip of her pen poised just a fraction of an inch above the paper.
“Something wrong?”
Erica wouldn’t look up and strained a small smile as her nose stung with impending tears. “No. Just taking in the moment.”
“I know how special this is for you. Take your time.”
For the thousandth time, she wished her mother could have been there. They had talked about having this house for so long. Even when her mom’s condition was worsening, they still daydreamed about sitting on that spacious porch that they had only ever seen from the street. They visualized what it would be like to sway in rocking chairs and drink iced tea during a hot summer afternoon, wrapped in the aroma of the gardenia blossoms.
As her mother was fading and they worked out the details of the inevitable, Erica’s mom dropped a bomb on her. She made Erica promise to take everything her mother owned, squeeze every last penny out of what she had on this earth, and use it to make her dreams come true. That meant Tolstone. But, why couldn’t they have just done that to begin with, so they could live the dream together? Why did she have to do this alone?
She glanced out the window behind Julia’s desk that looked out onto Tolstone’s picturesque town square. Cars turned through the roundabout to disappear down the spindle wheel of streets and roads that extended out to the cardinal points from the center of town. On one of the iron benches lining the walkway in the square, a couple basked in one another’s company and sipped from paper cups of coffee. If she listened close enough, she could hear their laughter between the rumble of car engines and the pattering of water around the fountain in the center of a neatly manicured garden behind them.
Erica absentmindedly gripped her light brown braid hanging over her shoulder and still couldn’t believe that this would be her home. Tolstone, as little as she really knew about it, had always felt a little magical to her, ever since she was a child. It was like Eden, a place to fantasize about, perfect and meant to be sought after but never obtained. It could only be visited for a short afternoon whenever they had the time or gas money. But this was no fantasy. This was real, and she’d finally get to live the life she had only dreamed about. Decatur, her old hometown where she was born and raised, just an hour’s drive away, felt like purgatory. It was a temporary home, a place to stay until her true home became available. They were meant to seize this dream together, Erica and her mother. After so many years of struggle, they deserved it. But now, it was just her.
Erica let out a long breath and looked back at the colored sticker that marked the place she needed to sign. Never had a single black line been more intimidating. Once more, she thought, “Wish you were here, Mom.” Then, she scrawled out her final signature.
*
Dominic slid the brass key into the lock and twisted it with just the right amount of pressure until the finicky tumblers were triggered by the worn edges of the key. He had been meaning to have another locking mechanism made at the hardware store, but whenever it seemed like he had a few moments, he’d be interrupted by another pack Tolstone business phone call.
The little bell over the door to Renewed Relics announced his arrival to the countless figurines, grandfather clocks, old desks, vintage movie posters, and other antiques amassed across tabletops and bookshelves. It was an organized chaos of artifacts, souvenirs, memorabilia, furniture, and discarded family heirlooms that had once been Dominic’s passion. For several years, he traveled from one coast to another, attending countless auctions and estate sales to find the best pieces to be shipped to his dad’s shop. He enjoyed that freedom, and that he only ever needed to come back to Tolstone for the obligatory holiday visits.
Still, from the start, it was always agreed that Dominic would settle down, return to Tolstone and take up his father’s mantle and his shop. No matter how hard he fought tradition, his arguments and pleading fell on deaf ears. One day, he’d be Prime Alpha, and that was the end of it. That day came far too soon.
He let the door shut behind him and closed his eyes so he could breathe in the musty, dusty scents of these tiny pieces of history. They didn’t talk back, and they didn’t cause trouble. Running this antique shop was so unlike the wolf shifter packs of this town these days.
The late-morning sunlight slanted through the storefront windows and only illuminated those antiques featured in thefrontmost display. He kept the lights off for a while, knowing that as soon as he flipped the switch and the sign, customers would feel entitled to disturb his peace. He wanted to enjoy this quiet for just a little longer.
