Dominic stared intothe campfire as the dry logs popped and crackled, the veins in the wood glowing with embers. In the distance, the sounds of the night enveloped them, their nocturnal song like a balm to his wolf spirit.
Between his arms and legs, Erica had curled up with her head resting on his shoulder. It was almost miraculous how a change of scenery could purify a soul. Not a single bit of unease was left between them after their long hike around the lake. All that remained was that peace he had tried to diffuse through their mating bond since that morning when she first found out about her father. Her heart was calm, and the storm in her mind had quieted, but this was just the first day of many where she would have to face the truth of her past.
For now, he could enjoy this time they had together, away from the pack and any obligations that could have forced them apart. He hadn’t even touched his phone since he’d left it in the truck console when they arrived, but he made sure the radio paired with Curtis’s at the ranger station was close by, his only method of contact with the outside world.
Above, the night sky was clear, revealing its stunning constellations, the ones that the city lights of Tolstone drowned out every night. He rarely took the time to admire them and the sliver of moon that hung in the sky. He often didn’t have the time. Here, with a warm blanket draped over both himself and Erica, he felt he could enjoy it all so much more.
It had been so long since everything felt this right. To think it took everything falling apart to make it happen. It was terribleto fathom, but Dominic was glad that Erica’s world had to come crashing down when it did. Only then could he catch her and make her see that he was serious. He wanted her. Only her. For all his life, if she’d only let him in and let him take care of her. He never imagined that one single person could come to mean the world to him like this.
Erica stirred, her heartbeat quickening as she awoke from her short nap. She looked up to him, her sleepy hazel eyes reflecting the glow of the fire.
“Hey,” he whispered. He wished more than anything he could kiss her right then and there, but with how explosively passionate their kisses had been so far, he restrained himself. Those sorts of kisses wouldn’t heal whatever wounds she suffered now, and neither would sex. Maybe now, they could take things slow like she wanted to. Though it was damn hard to watch her sleeping like that and not imagine how the rest of the night would turn out, crammed together inside that little tent.
“Hey.” Erica’s voice broke a bit as she stretched out her legs, the heels of her boots digging into the earth in front of the fire pit. “I fell asleep.”
“You had a long day.” Dominic planted a loving kiss on the crown of her head and breathed in her scent that had been touched by the wild.
“How about a long week?”
He smiled against her hair. “That too.”
Her fingers gripped his shirt, and he fought the way his cock hardened as her nails brushed his abs.
“I don’t want to go back home,” she complained as her eyes closed again.
“I don’t want to either, but we have to at some point.”
“Then let me stay with you in your house.”
Either she was still too drowsy to think straight, or she didn’t know what she’d asked. Did Erica actually suggest that she wanted to abandon the home she had worked so hard to buy?
“You don’t mean that,” he whispered with a hint of regret.
Her fist tightened over his shirt. “Yes, I do. I don’t want to go back to that house. It has too many memories.”
“You haven’t been there long enough.”
Her eyes cracked open. “Not just from the last week, but the last twenty years. There was so much riding on that place and now… I can’t stand to even think about it.”
Dominic sighed and held her tighter. “I know it meant a lot to you and your mom, but—”
“No,” she interrupted. “It meant a lot to me because I thought it meant something to her. It was just someplace to drive by to let Cole know that we were there. I could have used all that money for something else. I could have stayed in Decatur.”
As much as he understood her regrets, he couldn’t share them. “If you never bought that house, I would have never met you… And don’t hate me for saying this, but I’m glad everything happened the way it did. If your father stayed in Decatur, you would have never fallen in love with that house, and you would have never bought it… Then I would have never met you. I might have gone my whole life without knowing you.”
He expected her to sit up and get on his case about actually being happy that she grew up without a father, that he was glad she had been misled her whole life into believing something that was just an illusion. She didn’t. Erica only looked up at him, a tinge of something like agreement sparkling in her eyes.
All this time, he had avoided those words that perfectly personified his feelings for her. At first, he rejected them as too impulsive, as something a teenager would throw around without understanding its true meaning. Everything conspired to tear them apart, including herself and her fears about what was amistake and what wasn’t. There were so many obstacles in their way, so many complications that would arise in their future together, but Dominic didn’t care. This was right. This was what he wanted. She was his anchor when everyone else’s problems were ready to send him adrift. He knew these feelings were real.
What he was about to say might ruin it all, but he had to take this risk. If he didn’t, letting her go on thinking he wasn’t dedicated would soon become a regret too.
With only the moon, the fire, and the swaying tree limbs as witnesses to his confession, Dominic whispered, “I love you.”
Her lips parted and her long dark lashes fluttered. The air stilled in his lungs as he waited for an answer, a sign, anything that she would finally accept him and all he had tried to do for her. It was more than he would ever endeavor to do for anyone. If only she could see that.
“I… I love you too.”
A victorious howl swelled in his chest, and he would have let it out if he hadn’t thought it would break the moment. Instead, he claimed the kiss he had coveted for the last few hours, and she didn’t shy away.
