Passion and desire coursed through their mating bond, and Dominic would not be the one to refuse it. She pushed him to the ground, fingers weaving into his dark hair as their tongues took turns exploring one another’s mouths again. It had only been one day, but he’d missed the taste of her.
He thought about what other flavors he missed when the radio crackled to life near the fire pit.
“Dominic, are you there?” Curtis’s hoarse voice broke through a few seconds of light static.
Erica, apparently the only one with a clear head, crawled off of him and reached for the handheld radio. Dominic sat up, and he took it from her.
“You know how to ruin something, don’t you?” he said to Curtis.
Erica laughed and brushed off the dirt on his shoulder.
“Sorry, boss, but I got a call from Cole.”
Dominic looked at Erica, who seemed to sober at the mention of her father. They weren’t likely to have a repeat performance of last night’s lovemaking now.
“I told everyone before I left that they’ll need to take care of whatever it is until I get back.”
“I know,” Curtis replied with conviction. “But this isn’t about you. He needs Erica.”
She slowly shook her head, an unspoken declaration that she was nowhere near ready to face him again.
“She doesn’t want to see him, Curtis.”
There was a pause before the ranger returned with, “It’s kind of unavoidable. Cole’s got a warrant.”
Both looked to one another, and they shared the same tremor of shock.
“A warrant?” Dominic couldn’t mask the growing anger in his tone.
“Yeah. Like, a legit piece of paper that says he has to arrest her. And he mentioned something about her house being on lockdown, but he wouldn’t give me too many details.”
Erica snatched the radio from Dominic’s hand. “For what? I haven’t done anything!”
“I’m just relaying the message.”
Dominic took the radio back from Erica, who looked mad enough to charge back to Tolstone herself and give Cole a piece of her mind. Dominic wouldn’t be far behind her.
“Tell Cole we’ll be back in the morning, and we’ll get this all sorted out then.”
“No!” Erica barked as she stood up and dusted off the seat of her pants. “We’re going back now. I won’t be able to sleepknowing I’m a wanted criminal.” The sarcastic venom in her words rendered him speechless for a few seconds while he tried to sort through what was happening.
Without any approval from him, she began to pack up their supplies around the campfire. Dominic dropped the radio while Curtis continued to try and get a confirmation on what exactly he was to relay to Cole. He went straight to Erica and stood in the way of her carrying the cooler toward the truck.
He needed answers just as badly as she did, but storming off in the middle of the night only to be met by a pair of handcuffs was not his idea of an end to a perfectly good evening. Erica, on the other hand, wouldn’t be reasoned with.
One look from her told him exactly what would happen if he tried to stop her now. She might not have been a shifter, but she had her own brand of dominance that he couldn’t fight. Instead of trying to talk sense into her, he grabbed the cooler from her hand and told her to get the sleeping bags from the tent.
Cole had better not be pulling some elaborate prank to get him back into Tolstone with his daughter, or Dominic would be forced to administer some unorthodox punishments that not even a shifter could bounce back from.
*
Dominic locked the truck doors, probably because he knew Erica would have leapt out of the moving vehicle the moment Crescent Lane came into sight. When her house came into view, she saw yellow and black police tape stretched across the porch railing to bar access to the home.
All the way from Larson Caves Park, Dominic’s alpha face was firmly fixed in place as he glared out the windshield at the darkened asphalt. Erica stayed quiet, despite her burningquestions. He probably knew just as much as she did, but she could see the mind at work behind his eyes that brightened under the glow of the dash lights. She could even see them flicker gold every now and again, proof of the rage she felt as well.
Cole’s squad car was parked along the curb in front of Dominic’s house, its owner leaning against the passenger side with his arms folded over his barrel chest. As soon as the truck rolled to a stop, Erica grabbed for the car door handle, ready to fly out and start demanding explanations. Dominic was too quick for her. As soon as he hopped out, he used his key remote to lock it back again and trapped her inside while the alphas talked.
She strained her ears but could only make out deep rumblings and the occasional harsh word. Fingers were pointed in accusation, arms waved in anger, but neither man seemed to budge in their convictions. If only she knew whose side Cole was on.
