“Aren’t you?” she sneered. “Isn’t that what guys like you do? Say all those pretty things like ‘I read in my spare time’ and ‘It’s such a burden to be needed’ and all that bullshit. Then, when you have the girl, you dump her for the newest thing that comes along. You’re only interested because I’m something new in town, right? Someone new to win over.”
His mouth hung open. “Why would you—”
Then he stopped. He was going to ask why she would believe something so heinous, so stereotypical and cynical. Then he remembered what she had told him last night. She never grew up with a father, and if he could take a wild guess, he would have said that her mother planted those ideas in her head. No man could be trusted. A woman should rely on herself and no one else. Erica’s entire childhood would have been one jaded, dysfunctional mess, and this was the kind of baggage she carried into adulthood.
The mating bond was there, and he knew everything out of her mouth was forced. She might have believed what she said, but her heart wasn’t in her accusations. Below the anger, below those hateful words, Erica really didn’t want this to end. The mating bond told him that much; otherwise, this thing between them would have unraveled already, wouldn’t it?
Too dumbfounded, he just stared into her beautiful face, the one that was on the verge of bursting into fresh tears. Her pride denied her the release. He would have loved for her to come apart in his hands, just so he could have the privilege of comforting her when she needed it most and put the pieces back together the right way.
“What can I do to make you believe me?”
Erica looked away, and he saw her throat work. “I don’t know if there is anything you could say.”
Just then, his pocket buzzed and chimed, and he was ready to smash the damned cell phone.
“Go ahead,” she said as she marched away. “Go play hero for someone else.”
Dominic rushed after her a little faster than he should have. Using his inhuman speed around her could have been dangerous, but he couldn’t just let her leave like this.
He grabbed her by the arm, and this time, she didn’t try to break free. “Can we talk more later? Please?”
After a few seconds, she nodded, and he let her go. Nothing was resolved, nothing definite anyway. She was broken, and he didn’t know what to do. Perhaps she was broken to begin with, but hid it so well that no one could see. Erica must have been confused by all of this, and Dominic couldn’t blame her. Maybe if she knew the truth about everything, that could show her that he wasn’t all those things she said. He wasn’t like any other man who would use up a girl and toss her aside. He didn’t know any shifter who did such a thing. He would tell her everything tonight. He had to.
Chapter Eleven
The last thingDominic expected to hear through the earpiece on his cell phone was the accented, husky voice of Alex Rivers, the owner of Howling Bones Bar, screaming at him in English and Creek. All he could make out was that three wolves were trashing his bar. Alex, being a bear shifter and wanting no part in the pack drama, thought it best to call Dominic when things like this happened. If his hunch was right, Hank was one of the wolves involved in the fight. After their talk last night, the beta said he would make an effort to mediate first before dragging Dominic into any problem.
Dominic closed up the shop, hopped in his truck, and made his way down to Colonel Street. It didn’t take him long to reach the bar, a former hardware store Alex had remodeled for the trade he knew best. The bear shifter didn’t cross his path often, but from what little he knew about his past, Alex was a master beer crafter and had been perfecting his brew since before Dominic’s first shift.
He could already hear the snarls and snapping of wood before parking the car. At least the front windows hadn’t been busted yet. All the liquor and cigarette advertisements were still in place, and the blue, crescent moon neon sign still shone in the noonday sun.
Ronan, Cole’s beta and deputy officer with the Tolstone police department, along with a few other cops, had created a barricade a safe distance from the windows to control the small crowd that had gathered to witness the fight. The posters andtinted glass masked whatever mayhem was taking place behind those walls.
Lately, the fights began in homes or at least in open areas where they could be contained. This was the first brawl in a public setting, and Dominic was ready to pound these wolves into the dirt for causing a scene.
As casually as a man looking for a drink instead of a fight, the cops let Dominic edge his way past the barricade, and he strode inside the bar.
Alex stood behind the bar, more or less protecting the wall of glass liquor bottles and brass tap handles from being broken by the three wolves warring in the center of the bar. Some tables and chairs had been saved before the fight began, pushed up and stacked against the walls. Others lay demolished, splinters and bulks of mangled wood strewn across the floor, broken beyond recognition.
Alex looked to Dominic, his dark, Creek eyes full of hate for the pesky wolves. Possessing no dominance, bear shifters had something else. Intimidation, and lots of it. Dominic was immune and turned his attention to his pack.
Hank was in the thick of it, doing his best to keep one shifter from tearing apart the other while still maintaining control over himself. Rick and Lincoln were the brawlers, and it looked like the former was ready to drop into a full shift at any moment. Dominic could already see dark hair sprouting from his face and neck as fangs gnashed and claws swung for purchase in flesh.
Lincoln remained in full control. Not even his eyes glowed golden as he dodged the crazed, younger shifter. Lincoln always had excellent control.
Past the odor of tobacco smoke, beer, and thousands of different scents, the air inside the bar was filled with a suffocating smog of savage rage, the kind that had become all too consuming over the last week. He could feel it seep into his veryskin and course through his veins, inviting him into the chaos. After what he just had to go through with Erica, Dominic would have gladly taken the bait to blow off some steam. Once more, the pack interfered with his life, forcing him to put his new mate on hold.
How he would have loved to bash in a few skulls. But he had to admit that it was noble of Hank to step in and try to tear the two apart. He would have done better if he could refine his dominance enough to actually expel this fierce energy rather than add fuel to it like a grease fire.
As intoxicating as it was, Dominic snorted the addictive odor of violence to clear his head before he charged into the fight.
Through the mad flailing of limbs and tossing of heads, Dominic reached out and grabbed Rick by the back of the shoulder. His unsheathed claws latched on to keep him still, and the younger shifter wailed in pain. With one swift move, Dominic yanked Rick out of the fight and left Hank to deal with Lincoln. He pinned Rick to the floor, flat on his stomach, so he couldn’t reach around to strike back at the Prime Alpha. The scuffed and bloodstained floorboards snapped beneath the force of the tackle.
For a second that felt more like an hour, an eerie calm settled over the bar as Dominic radiated his dominance to quell the violence. He didn’t have to growl or roar. He simply emitted that fierce essence that made him Prime Alpha, that same distinctive trademark passed down through the Beaumont line.
Every shifter in the bar breathed it in, and it cured every bit of poisoning aggression in their blood. Golden eyes faded, claws retracted, and all signs of the shift disappeared. Everything and everyone froze as Dominic made it clearly known that he was not pleased.
Rick looked at his alpha’s glare from the corner of his eye and let out a shrill, canine whine of apology, the only thing to break the silence.
