“What the fuck is your problem?” Hank bellowed, just as incensed by Dominic’s sudden aggression.
Dominic glanced down at Hank’s shirt that sported four tears, rimmed in blood, where his claws had slashed. Beneath the ruined cloth, skin stitched itself back together with agonizing slowness. The shifter body could heal at an unbelievable rate compared to a human’s. He was in the wrong and they both knew it. Then he looked at the fist-sized hole in the wall between two priceless paintings his great-grandmother had brought over from Europe.
There had never been a brawl in this house, and his father kept it that way for a reason. There were too many valuable things here, too many memories between these walls. Their home had been a neutral zone for negotiations between alphas, but never a fighting ring.
He ran his hands through his hair, the tips of his claws raking against his scalp. Bits of Hank’s blood from his fingers slicked back the locks, and he knew he’d need to shower after this was over.
“What are you doing here?” the alpha demanded, somehow able to keep the wolf out of his voice.
Hank’s golden eyes nearly popped out of his head. “What am I doing here? You weren’t answering your fucking phone! I tracked you from the shop to that bitch’s house next—”
A roar bellowed from Dominic’s throat. “Don’t you dare call her that!”
The beta pointed an accusing finger at his alpha. “I thought something was going on with you, but I didn’t think it was this! Have you lost your mind?”
Quite possibly, he had. Dominic didn’t know what had come over him. In the last ten minutes, he went from kissing a girl he barely knew to fighting with his beta. This wasn’t like him. Worse yet, he knew what he had done to her. It was unconscious, completely initiated by his wolf, but that made it no less of a crime.
Dominic had formed the mating bond with Erica.
It had happened without him knowing, without him realizing what he had done until they separated, and he’d left her standing dumbstruck in the entry hall. She had to be feeling it just like he did. It was as if their souls were a handful of wool drafted into a strand so thin that it couldn’t be seen but as strong as steel, all because they were apart and not in one another’s arms. Just being next door was hard enough. He couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to be at the antique shop or on the other side of Tolstone. Now he understood the kind of misery his father had gone through when his mother poisoned herself with silver dust, and the kind of torment his mother endured, being so distanced from her mate day after day. Dominic didn’t want to think of the pure agony a severed mating bond would bring.
He couldn’t imagine what Erica must have thought of him now, what Hank must have thought. Any shifter would recognize the change.
“Well?” Hank barked.
He recoiled at the command and growled again. “I don’t have to explain anything to you.”
“Yes, you do. The alpha and beta are a team, Dominic.”
“You sure don’t treat this like a team!” Dominic’s temper still flared as his muscles finally caught up with the strain of his partial shift. “The only thing you seem to do around here is drag me away to solve everyone else’s problems. You don’t try to fix anything yourself. You can put the pack in line just as well as I can. Isn’t that what a beta is supposed to do?”
“Your father had a personal hand in everything that happened in this town.” Hank’s voice softened in reverence to the memory of the former Prime Alpha, who probably had taken the beta’s respect with him to the grave. Dominic sure didn’t feel it here in this house. “He was there to break up every fight, greet every new pack that came in, and say goodbye to every alpha who moved on. He was always there.”
Dominic’s hands balled into fists, and he was glad that his nails weren’t claws anymore. “My father micro-managed this town until his dying breath, and that’s what killed him. But that’s not how I want to run things. I deserve to have a life.”
Hank’s eyes narrowed. “Is that what this is about? You’re turning off your phone and running around with some girl just because you can’t handle a little stress?”
He opened his mouth to deny every bit of it, but Dominic stopped himself. Despite the furious wolf beneath the surface that wanted to argue against the beta, he tugged back on his leash so he could have a moment to think.
What he felt for Erica was real, tangible, felt in every bone and drop of blood in his body even before he created the mating bond. The kiss had been long overdue, their connection evident since the moment he’d laid eyes on her. By the way she’dreturned the kiss, Erica must have felt the same. All of it was consensual, even the mating bond.
But forming the mating bond without her understanding its meaning, that was inexcusable. No shifter couple in their right mind would make such a commitment unless they were absolutely sure of themselves and their relationship. But it had happened so naturally. That never happened—unless Erica was something like a true soulmate for him. Such things were reserved for fairy tales, but somehow Dominic had met his princess, and she needed no saving from any dragons or monsters.
Dominic knew what they had was something special, not just a random fling or distraction. Maybe it had started off that way, but that wasn’t what it was now. This was real, but Hank couldn’t possibly understand. He had never been in love. He was married to the pack, as he believed Dominic should be.
Hank took Dominic’s silence as an affirmative, and he let out a long sigh. “If you need a break—”
“I don’t need a break.”
In truth, he did need to get away from the madness. He’d told Hank himself on countless occasions over the last few months, but was never taken seriously. Perhaps that’s what incited him to leave his phone at the shop for one night. Just the sight of his phone made him anxious, bracing for the next moment when it lit up with a call or text message that would disrupt his day.
The beta seemed to settle back into some measure of calm. “Does she know?”
Dominic cast his eyes down before he said, “No. She doesn’t know anything.”
Hank groaned, and now released from his alpha’s dominance, turned to pace down the foyer.
“I’ll tell her soon,” Dominic recovered. “I know I can’t hide any of this for long.”
