Chapter 140

Dominic

It was a long drive home, but we felt victorious.

Julian was exhausted and ravenous, and after finishing two cheeseburgers he fell fast asleep in the back seat of the van. Rae spent most of the trip turned around in her seat, watching him. She would occasionally reach out a hand to touch him gently on the arm.

I think she was confirming that he was real, that she wasn’t imagining it.

We didn’t question him much at first. He had a single shallow gash on one arm, but otherwise seemed in good shape. We fed him and let him rest, though an endless list of questions was banging around my skull most of the drive back.

“Was he really a cat?” Rae whispered the question to me.

“Yes, I think so,” I answered, just as quietly.

“How is that…”

“I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head. “You’re sure he couldn’t do that before?”

“No! No way!” Rae said, shocked. “He was only a wolf, I’m certain. We talked about transformations, how it felt. He didn’t like feeling so out of control. He once joked that maybe the doctor could help us with that. Maybe he did.”

“It makes me wonder what else is going on in that facility.”

She grew quiet, gazing back at Julian. She suddenly looked so much younger than her sixteen years.

“He’s safe now,” I said, drawing her attention back to me. “The doctor can’t hurt him anymore.”

Rae nodded, accepting that as enough for now. I recognized that empathy on her face. It reminded me of Mira.

We reached Rae’s house just as the sky was starting to lighten. Wyatt carried Julian inside, and Rae followed. She was already arguing with her parents about staying up to sit with him, and I knew she would eventually get her way.

“Get some rest, Rae,” I told her, using some authority, “you can't help Julian if you’re exhausted too.”

She accepted that, and her parents thanked me with their eyes.

“If it’s alright, I would like to be notified once he wakes up,” I said to the room. “He can decide when he wants to talk to me, we cannot push him.”

“I’ll call you immediately,” Rae said.

She then surprised me by rushing into me and giving me a hug, head head barely reaching my chest. I froze at first, then brought my arms around her back.

It had been a long time since I had been hugged, and I felt toxically masculine in that realization.

“Thank you, Dominic,” she said into my shirt, then pulled away. “I used to think you were a boring old stiff, but you’ve got a heart in there. I can see why Mira loves you.”

Her words almost broke my resolve, the Alpha authority fading as I felt my tear ducts vibrate with activity. This kid wanted to chip away at my facade, and it felt okay to let her.

“We’ll see her soon,” Rae said before she turned and walked up the stairs.

Wyatt came down empty-handed, and we made our way back to Lucas in the van. The exhaustion was starting to hit me too, and I hoped I would fall into a dreamless sleep when I got home.

“Dominic,” Wyatt said outside the house, “about what I said earlier–”

“Forgotten,” I said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

The ride home was spent in comfortable silence, and the gods answered my prayers when I hit the mattress hard and didn’t move or dream for six hours. I groaned as I stretched and rolled over, wishing I could stay in bed forever.

Then I remembered the night before, and I was wide awake.

I paced and tried to distract myself for a few hours while waiting for my phone to ring. Finally, in the early afternoon, Rae’s name appeared on the screen.

“He’s asking for you.”

It was all I needed to hear, and we were back in the car on our way. In the meantime, I had rallied my full Beta team and more with the basic information about what was coming. If this was to be a full rescue mission, I would need my pack with me.

Julian was reclining on the couch when I walked in with Wyatt and Lucas. Rae sat at his feet, the desire to be close to him a sign of the Fated bond.

“How are you feeling, Julian?”

I settled into a chair across from them, though I was anything but settled on the inside.

“I’m okay,” he said, his voice slightly raspy. “I’m better, obviously.”

“I can only imagine what you’ve been through,” I told him, “and the bravery and strength it took to get away.”

“If it wasn’t for Mira, I never would have.”

He saw my eyes change when he said her name. The honest gaze of youth.

“She’s okay, I think,” Julian said, sitting up a little higher on the arm of the couch. “She’s not locked up, at least. Though sometimes her eyes are…different. I don’t know…”

“What’s he doing to her?”

The words came fast and loud, and I held up a hand as an apology.

“Nothing, I don’t know!” Julian was on the defensive. “He treats her well, I think. He likes her. She’s… helping him.”

“She is?”

“Or, she’s…” Julian's brow furrowed, like a child doing a math problem. “She says she’s helping him, but then…well, she helped me escape, so.”

I nodded, swallowing a bitter pill with the second news of my wife.

“She wants to get them all out,” he added, “and I think she will. If anyone can…”

“It would be her,” I finished for him.

I felt proud of her and still couldn’t believe how stupid she was being. But I took a breath, deciding to change the subject.

“Julian, I have to ask,” I leaned a bit forward, “how long have you been able to shift…like that?”

The boy's cheeks turned red.

“I ” know how long,” he said with a shrug, “I’d never done it until I was out.”

“Just a cat?”

“No, I was that hawk too,” he said, pride creeping into his voice. “And others— that’s how I got moved so fast. I felt superhuman.”

It made me smile.

“Well, I suppose you are.”

We all sat with that idea for a moment. What sort of fantasy-science-fiction world had I walked into?

“Can you remember anything else about the facility?” I needed to focus on the practical details. “Do you know how far you travelled?”

“Not exactly, but I think my body remembers the way,” Julian said, searching inside himself. “I think my body can remember a lot now.”

“So you could guide us there,” Wyatt added in, “or at least most of the way.”

“I think so, yeah,” said Julian. “But I don’t know what good that will do. The security is tight, only one way in or out. You’d basically need magic to get yourself in.”

After a moment of discouragement, a wild thought struck me.

“If it’s magic we need,” I said with a smirk, “then it’s magic we’ll get.”