He gave her a reassuring smile and hoped it would ease her troubled mind somehow. “I’m not your father. Didn’t I tell you that already? I’m not going anywhere.”
“But what if I push you away? What if I can’t stand you leaving all the time? What if what happened this morning happens so much that I get sick of it just like my mom did?”
He reached up to stroke her cheeks, still damp with tears. “You’re not your mother.”
“But…” She gulped for breath. “I hate it when you’re not here. It’s so weird, like half of myself leaves with you. It hurts so bad… What if I—”
Dominic’s brows snapped together. “What if the world stops turning and the sky falls, and the oceans turn to blood? What then? You can go on and on about what-ifs until you’re blue in the face, but it won’t change anything. It’ll only drive you crazy to think of all the ways life could go wrong.” He forced her tolook at him, one finger beneath her chin. “Right now, I’m here. That’s all you need to worry about. The future can take care of itself.”
Erica’s lips tugged, unsure whether to cry again or smile in spite of herself. “I don’t want to be like my mom, and I never thought I’d say something like that. I don’t want to make a mistake.”
“So, what will you do? Keep running away from relationships so you won’t get your heart broken?”
For a terrible moment, she looked as if she was ready to agree. She got that same torn-asunder look as she had when she told him that she hated the bond they shared. He held his breath, waiting for her response. Why couldn’t she stop fighting and just let him love her the way he needed to?
“No. I know I can’t… Not anymore… But I’m just so confused. Imagine if you had lived your entire life a certain way, with certain beliefs, and then one day it just all got flipped and now nothing’s the same.”
He smirked. “I know exactly how that feels. Every shifter does.”
Dominic could have gone on and on about how hard it had been to become a Prime Alpha, and how he still fumbled through this process, working against the tide while he tried to figure it all out and still earn everyone’s loyalty. Last night had been a turning point, but there was a long road ahead of him.
“Do you know what I do when I feel like that?” By the desperation in her gaze, he knew she listened closely. “I get away from everything. Just to clear my head. It always helps.”
Erica looked around the house that must not have seemed so special anymore, to the memories that she crushed on the ground as if they meant nothing to her. She would come to regret her actions in a few hours.
She nodded to his unspoken offer, and he fished out his phone to make the call.
“What about the pack?” she asked as she rubbed the last of her tears away.
“They can do without me for a night or two. Right now, you’re more important.”
*
Dominic arranged everything and, within a few hours, Erica found herself with several appointments rescheduled and in the passenger seat of his truck. When he mentioned going away, she thought of someplace as far away as Springfield. Maybe even Chicago. But Larson Caves Park just outside Tolstone wasn’t what she had in mind. It was just far enough away from civilization that she forgot they were only ten miles or so from town, but still close enough that if a serious emergency came up, Dominic could be packed up and back within a few minutes.
With the bed of the truck loaded down with a tent, a couple of sleeping bags, and the minimal supplies needed for a day or so of roughing it in the woods, Erica wasn’t all too sure about this plan. She had never been camping before and didn’t know the first thing about wilderness survival. Then again, she had a wolf shifter with her. How lost could she possibly get?
“Curtis is one of the rangers here,” Dominic explained as they turned down an unmarked trail. “He’s also part of my pack. He’ll make sure we have some privacy.”
Erica slid him a glance and wondered when this fairy-tale illusion would shatter. Just like everything else, she had turned pessimistic and a little cynical. How much longer before he gave up and dropped her and her emotional baggage off somewhere? How many more meltdowns would he endure? There weren’tenough words in the dictionary to describe how absolutely foolish and embarrassed she felt for the way she behaved. It was like something in her just cracked open, and she couldn’t stand it anymore. He said he wouldn’t leave, but her father must have told her mother that countless times before he finally did, at her insistence.
For the thousandth time, she caught herself comparing them to her parents. Ever since she came home after her talk with Cole, she wondered if her parents had a whirlwind romance like theirs. Did they have sex after only knowing each other for a week or so? Did they feel undeniably attracted to each other? How long did their love last before it began to fade? When did her mom find out about shifters? Did she feel this incredible pull to be with her lover every waking second of the day? And if she did, then why the hell didn’t they try to stay together? Why couldn’t Erica be a good enough reason to make their marriage work?
She heaved a heavy sigh and tried to fight back the wave of regret and confusion.
Erica wanted to hate them both. Hate her mother for forcing Cole away and then hate Cole for not trying harder. Over and over, she tried to rationalize it, to come up with some excuse to defend them and the choices they made, but she couldn’t.
All she was left with was an aching black hole of a heart that Dominic repeatedly poured into. No matter how hard he tried to distract her with nice words and plans of what they would do out at the park, nothing stuck. It all went in one ear and out the other as long as this open, gushing wound continued to bleed.
They came to the campsite, which was more or less a shady clearing surrounded by tall pines and oaks. Only a tiny speckling of blue sky could be seen through the canopy of branches above them. Out here, there was nothing but the occasional warblingof birdsong and the rich, earthy smell of the forest. Erica would have found it tranquil in any other circumstance.
Dominic hauled their disassembled tent from the bed of the truck and carried the bundle of canvas and thin frame components over his shoulder. He set it down near a patch of heavily trodden grass almost at the center of the clearing, no doubt the same spot other campers had used. At first, he had told her to take it easy while he set everything up, but it didn’t matter how fried her nerves were, Erica wasn’t going to just sit around while he did all the work.
After some half-hearted protest on his part, Dominic gave in, and together, they assembled the poles and stretched the canvas across the frame. Within a few minutes of fumbling, the tent was set up, and she blinked at how small it was.
“Isn’t this supposed to be for two?” she asked as Dominic went to retrieve the cooler and other supplies.
“I figured after last night, you wouldn’t be so shy about cuddling up.”
