Chapter 30

Dominic

It was like that first drink of water, after waking up from a nightmare.

It was like the first strawberry to ripen in the summer, spilling juice from your lips and tasting like sunshine itself.

It was like nothing I’d ever felt before.

I let one hand get lost in her hair, while the wrapped around her waist pulling her into the air and into my chest.

Her fingers traced my jawline, my neckline, my chest. She pressed her palm against my heart and I felt it press against my ribs, trying to reach her.

I don’t know how long it lasted, but the world began and ended in that kiss.

Somehow, in the same moment, we both realized what was happening.

Her eyes were still closed when I opened mine, and a soft laugh fell out of her mouth. She looked up at me then, and I would have given her anything she asked of me.

“Um,” she said, “can you—“

“Yes, anything,” I said too quickly.

“Can you put me down now?”

We both laughed then, breaking the tension.

I carefully placed her feet on the ground and took a step back from her. She leaned back against the tree behind her, crossing her arms over her chest.

I looked at my own hands. They seemed to belong to someone else. They were cut up, and I could already see bruising and swelling on my knuckles.

As I stared at them, Mira’s hands appeared in view. She gently took mine, turning them over and inspecting them, her brow furrowed in concentration.

“Nothing looks broken,” she said softly.

I looked at her, noticing her own injuries.

“Did I,” my voice was hoarse, “did I hurt you?”

“I’m okay,” she said fervently. “You didn’t do it on purpose, it wasn’t you.”

“It was, it is— Mira, what’s wrong with me?” I felt myself slipping, as if an abyss was calling to me to disappear.

“No,” she said, her hand on my cheek. “It isn’t you. This, this, is you.”

Her hand went to my heart for emphasis. I nodded once, my throat too dry to speak.

We stayed quiet for a moment, listening to the trees.

My mind wandered all over, trying to piece together the fragments of the last few hours but coming up short. I felt frustration like a furnace in my chest, then closed my eyes and focused on the cool breeze drying the sweat on my face.

Behind my eyelids, I replayed our kiss.

My eyelids shot open, and Mira was staring at me with a similar sheepish look on her face.

Was she thinking about it too?

“Mira, I—“

“You were out of control, I know,” she said, thinking she was finishing the sentence for me. “It’s okay.”

“Right, out of control.”

I felt the urge to say more, but had no idea what those words might be.

Better to accept it as an accident, as being caught up in the moment.

“Let’s go home,” she said.

The walk back was long, and by the time we arrived home we were both exhausted and aching from our time in the woods.

We snuck in through the back entrance to my room, and found Wyatt and Lucas waiting for us.

“Sir!” they said almost in unison, approaching but not reaching for my wounded body.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” I gave them a knowing look. “Mira found me. She brought me back.”

I looked at her, and for a moment we were alone in the world again.

Lucas cleared his throat.

“Are you sure you two are alright?”

I looked to my Beta, the one man who I could count on to stay neutral under stress, whose emotions were a mystery. He raised one eyebrow at me, then looked to Mira and back at me. One corner up his mouth quirked up suggestively.

“Yes, we’ll be fine,” I said, brushing past him and out of his view. “But it’s clearly been a long day, and we should try to get some rest.”

“I’ll need to look at your wounds, Dominic,” Mira said behind me.

Lucas and Wyatt shared a look, but knew better than to say anything.

“Right.”

I turned back around.

“I trust you made excuses for my absence?”

“Yes, sir,” Wyatt piped up. “I said you and Mira were having a quiet evening off the compound. He seemed pleased, and didn’t ask any questions.”

“Good, thank you. Now please, leave us.”

The Betas heard the command in my voice, and retreated quickly from the room.

I stood in the middle of the room, unsure what to do.

Mira’s eyes softened, as if she could sense my awkwardness.

She walked past me towards the bathroom, lightly touching my arm as she passed.

“I’ll run some hot water.”

Mira

Thankfully, Dominic’s wounds were not as bad as before. Where once there has been deeper lacerations, probably from escaping through a fence, this time there were only superficial cuts.

It seemed he didn’t have trouble getting out this time, and I wondered if there really was someone who let him out on purpose. That problem was not to be solved now though, so I kept quiet.

Dominic hissed.

“Sorry,” I said and laid off the pressure on his back. “I know it stings.”

“It does’t sting,” he said like a cranky child. “Your hands are cold.”

I couldn’t help but laugh.

“I’m glad you can at least feel something again. You’re usually numb for a while after one of these episodes.”

He got quiet again.

My mind was racing through all that I’d discovered recently, from my research to working through my past to hearing about Dominic’s. There was so much I wanted to say to him and to ask him, but I wasn’t sure how to bring it up without upsetting him.

“Mira, I need to tell you something, to explain,” he said.

I was still cleaning his back, so I codlin’t see his face.

“You can tell me anything, remember? We can trust each other.”

“Yes,” he said, taking an extra breath. “These episodes, they aren’t random. They aren’t a sickness of a disease.”

“Okay…” I trailed off to give him space.

“They are a part of me, sort of,” he was struggling. “It’s my wolf. It’s too strong.”

He paused, then turned his body to look at me.

“My power goes beyond what most have, far beyond. No on in the Pack, at least that I’ve ever known or heard of, has been on the same level. I’m not saying this to boast, it is just the truth. And I think you should know it all, since you are my Mate.”

My heart responded more to the word Mate than my mind. I nodded my head slightly, just to show I was still listening, still with him.

“I’ve gone through therapies and treatments, and nothing has helped. I worried for so long that there was no cure, that I was cursed to destroy myself.”

Tears welled up in my eyes as I heard the pain in his voice.

“There was no hope, until tonight, until you,” he said, adamant. “You brought me back. How did you bring me back?”

“I’ve been researching, testing new remedies,” I told him. “I wasn’t sure it would even do anything, but I had to try.”

“And I’m so glad you did,” he put his hand on mine.

“Let’s not worry about it all tonight,” I said, squeezing his hand. “We can talk more about it tomorrow.”

Almost as soon as we had lain down in bed, together but still separate, Dominic’s breathing was heavy and I could tell he was asleep.

I sat up for a while longer, restless, ruminating on all the information I’d gathered. Thinking of my dormant wolf, Dominic’s over-powering one. Wondering if we still had secret enemies plotting our downfall, or if we could come through this triumphantly, together.

When I finally fell asleep, the nightmare came upon me quickly.

I was strapped to a table.

There were strangers around me, in white lab coats, but with foreign patches and names I didn’t recognize.

They were Rogues.

They were testing something.

And I was their subject.

Sudden pain overtook me, even as I slept, and it felt like my soul was being ripped from my body.

I woke suddenly, shivering and covered in sweat.

I knew what had happened to me, the trauma that had taken my memory and my voice and nearly drove me insane.

My wolf was lost— it was stolen from me.

And I had to find a way to get it back.