He was right, as much as she hated it. There wasn’t much she could do to help the search, and she’d probably just get in the way, but she couldn’t simply sit around and wait for everything to work itself out. Not only that, but she didn’t want to be in a house alone with a strange man she had never met before. Their confidence in Ronan did little to put her at ease.
Erica turned to Dominic, whose eyes held a mix of apology and fury. “I’m going to get Hank,” he said. “We’re going to track down Wyatt and Nathan and get to the bottom of this. Everything will be right by morning.”
Either he didn’t care that Cole stood by them or he simply got carried away, but Dominic took her about the waist and kissed her on the lips in front of her father. She knew why he did it. As soon as they touched, all the fight drained out of her. She was still furious, still confused, and a little afraid, but Dominic was on her side. Thankfully, so was Cole.
The more she thought about it, the more things seemed to click into place. Wyatt must have sensed the thing she and Dominic shared. His photo shoot was after the mating bond had formed. So, her suspicions were right, that Wyatt had told her about werewolves just to mess with her. Did he not think she already knew what Dominic was? Or was that a test?
If it was, then Wyatt intended to plant seeds of doubt, as well as to throw her off balance. After all, he’d asked her out when the mating bond was already there. Maybe Wyatt wanted to trap her in something or rile up Dominic to do something stupid. Asking her out clearly hadn’t worked, and there was no way she was going to stir the pot by mentioning it now. This must have beenhis plan B. But why? How did this morning’s fight fit into his scheme? She still had so much to understand about wolf-shifter dynamics, but she could puzzle out enough.
Wyatt wanted to get at Dominic because he… what? Was jealous? Resentful? Threatened by Dominic? Was this about her or was it something deeper and bigger than she could understand?
Whatever the shifter lawyer had against her and Dominic, or whatever shifter pack conflict this stemmed from, it wasn’t going to last long. The Prime Alpha was going to make sure of that. So when he handed her off to Cole, she went peacefully, but constantly glanced back over her shoulder as Dominic pulled out his phone to start making calls.
Just when things were getting good between them again, something had to go and spoil it. Erica had said those three words that she never thought she would utter to a man in her life, and they’d been about to make love by campfire light. What could have been more romantic or more sensual and exhilarating than celebrating that momentous breakthrough? She should have thrown that radio across the clearing. Maybe then they could have had one more night before everything went to hell again.
*
“You need to simmer down before we go in there,” Hank told Dominic from the driver’s seat.
Dominic hadn’t even realized that he had let off a slow, steady leakage of dominance for the last several blocks. His eyes, too, burned a bright gold that couldn’t be willed away. He had put on a show for Erica and tried to act like everything would be fine, like this sort of thing happened every day. It didn’t. Thiskind of criminal act was far out of the norm for Tolstone or for any pack that took refuge there.
This went beyond personal. If Wyatt or Nathan were behind this, then they would pay dearly for their betrayal. Not trusting his own control, he called Hank away from a rather sensitive situation at his animal shelter to accompany him. The beta claimed that this pack matter was far more important than a puppy that refused to eat, but Dominic knew the compassionate shifter couldn’t stay with him for long. They had to hit Wyatt hard and fast to get this business over with.
Hank’s van drew closer to the house Wyatt and Xavier shared while they were in Tolstone. The lawyer required his own home on the west side of town, not an apartment like most of his pack were given.
Both cars were parked in the driveway, but only one set of footsteps sounded from inside while the television played some late-night talk show. Their scents covered the property too much for Dominic to make out if both were inside or not.
“You try being in my shoes and simmer down,” he mumbled to his beta.
“Better let me do the talking then.”
They climbed out of the van, and it took so much restraint not to charge through the front door and beat the truth out of Wyatt. As soon as they stepped under the porch light, all movement inside the house stilled. Before Hank could knock, they heard the groan of the sliding back door and pumping feet against the lawn.
Dominic sped around the side of the house and released a bit of the wolf that pushed against the surface to utilize his inhuman speed to catch up with Xavier as he fled the scene. The front door splintered off its hinges when Hank rammed his way in to see if Wyatt was inside. Dominic wouldn’t bother with him right now. If Xavier was running, there was a reason for it.
He followed his scent, the only thing he had to go on, as the beta darted between homes and vaulted over fences. Dogs barked and tugged against their chains to snap at their heels when they dashed by. This was an upscale part of town and at this hour of the night, most families were in bed, but it was damned foolish to run this fast near so many humans. All it took was one look out their window, and they might have seen two unearthly blurs in the darkness.
Xavier was headed to the north, to the undeveloped, forested lots that remained for sale in the neighborhood. Here, no one would see when Dominic finally caught up with the beta.
With one hand clamped around the nape of his neck and the other gripping the seat of his trousers, Dominic pinned him to the ground and roared, a partial shift initiated in the heat of the moment. Nails sharpened into claws, canine teeth elongated and sharpened, and he could almost feel his jaw widening as if he were about to grow a muzzle. Muscles became instilled with immense strength, and he could feel the back of his shirt stretch across his broadening shoulders. Dominance smothered the subordinate shifter like an avalanche of mud, thick and suffocating.
For a shifter who was supposed to be just as powerful as an alpha, Xavier gave in quickly.
“I didn’t plant the drugs, I swear!” he cried, his golden eyes wide with terror.
Dominic wasn’t careful about where he dug his claws as he gripped Xavier tighter and drove him into the soil. “Then who did?” Dominic leaned closer until the beta could feel his hot breath against his cheek. “And I swear if you even think about lying to me again…”
He didn’t have to finish the threat.
“Wyatt had some scent-masking musk.” Xavier’s breaths came out in shuddering bursts as he struggled. “He bustedNathan out and gave him some. They’ve been planning this for weeks. They were going to plant the drugs in your house, but then he realized you were mated and planted them at Erica’s place.”
“Why?” Dominic demanded. The tips of his talons sank deeper into the side of Xavier’s neck. Blood seeped out of the puncture wounds, and the shifter hissed.
“He wants Tolstone. All of it.” Xavier cut himself off with a soft cry when Dominic continued to dig into him. “I didn’t want any part of it. He said if I tried to warn you, he’d kill me.”
“And what do you think I’m going to do?”
Xavier squeezed his eyes shut, and he hated to see the way the beta sniveled and whined for mercy. Pathetic.
