He tightened his hold around the mug. “Yeah, I’ll tell her.”
Hank asked, “And Nathan’s detained?”
“Ronan’s got him on lockdown at his apartment. We’ve got a good watch on the place and on Declan.”
“Declan?” Dominic questioned. “What did he do?”
“Nothing,” Cole said with an amused smile. “He just wants a piece of Nathan himself. Declan wanted to fight just as badly as Gage did. We want to make sure that the kid won’t do something stupid before we can get Nathan out of town.”
“Aren’t you going to turn him in?” Hank asked after he had downed the last of his coffee.
The sheriff frowned. “We’re searching for any open warrants on him from Chicago.”
“Is it wise to set a wolf up for prison?” Dominic made a point to lower his voice. The office was soundproof, but he didn’ttrust the gossiping lips of the secretary clerk. He glanced at her through the glass walls that separated Cole’s office from the rest of the station.
“We know a few contacts in a prison who can take care of him and make sure his condition is taken into consideration. If Nathan starts to shift, he’ll be put in solitary confinement and kept away from other prisoners. They’ve had to do it before.”
Cole had barely touched his coffee and by the way it no longer steamed in his hand, Dominic knew it had gone cold.
“How’s Kimberly?”
“Some of the other women are at her place now,” Hank said with a sigh. “Poor thing’s still rattled by all of it.”
“She shouldn’t have been at the fight.”
The other two wholeheartedly agreed with Cole. Shifter women were tough, but Kimberly was too sensitive a soul to deal with attempted rape and watching a wolf fight in one night.
“She shouldn’t have been, but she wanted to be,” Hank added. “I don’t understand her sometimes.”
Dominic smirked. “She wants to be brave.”
Cole stuck up his chin. “Kimberly is brave. Even when she’s lost her nerve, she stays committed. Gage told me that when their alpha killed himself, she stayed by his body for five hours before any other help could come to take care of him. When they found her, she was white as a ghost and wouldn’t speak for a couple of days. But she stayed with her alpha, even though she was scared shitless.”
The Prime Alpha nodded. “And even when she was scared shitless to face Nathan again, she went to the fight.”
“Yep.” Cole took his first draft of the coffee, and his lips turned up in disgust. “Damn, I should have put more sugar in this.”
Hank, who took his coffee black and considered it heresy to modify the timeless drink, snorted a laugh. Cole ignored himand made his way down the hall to the break room to fetch the sugar dispenser.
“What about Wyatt?” Hank asked, turning to his alpha. “You said he broke a rule too, on top of lying to cover Nathan’s ass.”
Dominic couldn’t help but at least acknowledge to himself how utterly satisfying it was to finally put Wyatt in his place. Just the thought of how his blood tasted, how it felt to have that alpha writhe in fear beneath him, made him smile a little.
“He’s got to go. Along with the rest of his pack. He’s had long enough to find a place, and I’m giving him less than a week to round everyone up and leave Tolstone. If he’s not gone, I’ll personally make sure he leaves.”
He didn’t expect the hard look from his beta. He thought Hank would have congratulated him on having the guts to put his foot down and demand that Wyatt take responsibility for his situation. Instead, he sensed contempt from his subordinate.
“What?” Dominic nearly slammed his mug down. “You want me to just allow him stay and let another incident happen? What if next time it’s Brady who crosses a line? What if Wyatt and his pack never leave? Should I just let them walk all over me?”
Hank made a face. “No, but maybe now that Wyatt recognizes you as the Prime Alpha, he’ll straighten up.”
Dominic’s lips pulled up into a sneer, but he kept himself from growling like his wolf wanted to. He was far from experienced, far from owning his title as Prime Alpha, but something unnerved him about having Hank reprove him like that. Two weeks ago, he would have conceded and rolled his eyes. Now, it was as if the true alpha in him had awakened, and he detested having his decisions questioned.
Humility trumped the wolf, and he took a deep breath to clear his head. There was wisdom in Hank’s words, and if the rest of the pack saw that he was unwilling to give secondchances, then they would call into question their blind faith in his benevolence.
“Fine. If Wyatt does straighten up, then he can stay. Nathan will be dealt with—that’s decided. If he’s got an active warrant, we’re turning him over to the authorities. But I won’t tolerate any more of these incidents from any of Wyatt’s pack… Especially Wyatt.”
Hank added, “I think we should still keep a good eye on him, though. I got a call from Kaelyn a couple of hours ago. She’s been hearing some things from her pack that she thought we should know.”
