Now that the offender was under control, Dominic slid a glance to his beta, wordlessly demanding an explanation.
Hank stood, Lincoln’s shirt collar knotted in his fist, but he had no answer. By the sheepish look on the less dominant shifter, Dominic knew that he wouldn’t confess whatever it was that started the fight either.
The Prime Alpha looked to Alex behind the bar, who would have seen and heard everything.
Alex might not have been a pack member and under his direct leadership, but he still respected Dominic as the Prime Alpha and a source of dependability. The reclusive, antisocial nature of the bear shifters often made them volatile, untrustworthy, and could always be counted on to start trouble with another shifter. Alex wasn’t that way and though Dominic didn’t know too much about him, he knew that he would tell the truth no matter how condemning it was for either Rick or Lincoln.
“Rick made a comment about Lincoln’s… inability to hold down a job. Lincoln threw the first punch.”
Dominic let out a guttural growl and snapped around to look at Lincoln, who was now visibly shaken. Lincoln knew the penalty for starting a fight with another pack member in this town. It didn’t matter if it was between him and a refugee or a shifter who took up permanent residence. Fighting was prohibited, and one of Cole’s pack knew that just as well as Rick did.
“That loan you took from me to help fix your car?” Dominic snarled at Rick. “You can forget about it. You’ve been where Lincoln is. You’re just as guilty of asking for money when things are tight.”
“I know, I know,” whimpered the cowering shifter. “I was—”
Dominic picked him up and slammed him down harder into the floorboards to curtail whatever excuse he was about to give. “I don’t want to hear it! Any wages you get for the next week belong to the pack. Do you understand?”
Rick winced at the punishment but meekly nodded.
Dominic whipped around to Lincoln. “And you know better than to start a fight in broad daylight where the humans can see you. Hank and Cole were going to help you with job applications, but now, you’re on your own.”
Lincoln’s lips curled as if he’d snarl back in protest, but he thought better and kept his mouth shut.
Disciplining shifters had to be done carefully. Their wounds could heal, but their pride and pocketbooks were open targets. He remembered how his father would drive some shifters into the ground with this special brand of justice. As a child, Dominic didn’t understand. But as an adult, with bills of his own and a pack to support, taking away money and independence from an obstinate shifter might have been, by far, the best method. Exile was a last resort, but Dominic hoped he would never have to cast anyone out of Tolstone. For some, that was a fate worse than death.
*
Erica kept her hands occupied as she readied the living room for the headshot appointment with Wyatt Ratner.
What she did to Dominic, everything she said, and the anger she had to fake, turned out to be more than she could bear. When their eyes met, she nearly lost her resolve and would have done just about anything to feel his embrace one more time, to taste his lips, and let her hands explore everything she hadn’tbeen able to the night before. She completely lost her reason for why she had to tell him to ease off. Did it have to do with her mom? Her career? Why did she feel like she had to say those things to him? She was glad that the phone call interrupted them, otherwise, she might have burst into tears and taken back every hurtful remark.
This was a mess. A complete, utter fucking mess and she couldn’t dig her way out of it. She wanted Dominic, plain and simple, and when he said all those sweet things about how he truly felt for her, Erica could have screamed. His comment about meaning what he said came back to her, and she didn’t want any of it to be true. It would have been so much easier to believe he was a liar and manipulating her, but she couldn’t bring herself to believe it with her whole heart. Why did she want these walls to stay up when he constantly scratched at the stone to make them come down again?
Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to put herself through so much before her two appointments that evening. The smiles she had to fake and the forced pleasant conversation made her feel like an imposter. On the outside, she was the picture of professionalism. Inside, she was dying.
The lawyer came dressed in an expensive-looking suit that must have been tailored to fit him perfectly. Though the suit softened the lines of his body, she could tell he was fit and muscular underneath. Erica found it rather remarkable how many well-built men lived in this town.
More than that, Wyatt must have been an amazing defense attorney. He carried a presence that was hard to overlook or disregard. When he spoke, she could believe people paid close attention. Erica could have attributed it to his physique, but it was more in the way his dark blue eyes pierced through the very soul, demanding respect instead of earning it with kind words and compassion.
Erica couldn’t be intimidated so easily, though he did look as if he could easily break a few bones if he really wanted to.
She led him into the living room, where she had set up her usual headshot backdrop.
“Thanks for squeezing me in on such short notice,” Wyatt said. “I know you must be getting a lot of business.”
Without being told, he took his place in front of the white canvas, and Erica grabbed her camera from the sofa cushion. “It’s off to a good start, I can say that much. I’m just glad I was able to get home in time for your appointment. The last photo shoot at Jade Lake took a little longer than I expected.”
She also briefly told him about the car trouble from earlier that day and how Officer Cole Spradley had come to her rescue. At the mention of the sheriff’s name, Wyatt’s lips pulled into a slightly sour look, but only for a fleeting second.
“You don’t like Officer Spradley?” she asked.
Wyatt let out a heavy sigh and shrugged his broad shoulders. “He’s not my favorite guy in the world, but I guess he does a lot of good things in Tolstone.”
Somehow, she took offense to his conceited tone, and Erica couldn’t understand why. “He seems like a pretty good guy to me.” She quickly thumbed through the gallery to make sure she had enough memory for the session. When she flipped past some of Dominic’s pictures from the festival, her stomach got twisted up again.
“Something wrong?” Wyatt asked so tenderly that Erica stiffened.
“I’m fine.” She laughed it off. “It’s just been a long day. Are you ready?”
