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“Old friends become bitter enemies on a sudden
for toys and small offenses.”
-Robert Burton-
LUCREZIA
I wake up the next morning feeling at odds. Last night, Dom’s sweetness got to me and I almost kissed him—not that I think he noticed. I’m having a hard time understanding my own feelings, and this new attraction to Dom rather than Lucas.
Still, the dread I feel has nothing to do with that particular drama. The sky outside is gray, and overnight we were blessed with freezing rain. It’s enough to make my walk to work precarious, and I curse and slide all the way there.
Somehow, I make it in without falling on my ass, and open the shop. Lucas sent me a few emails the night before on more reports he wants to run, so I get started on them.
An hour later, the guys file in one at a time. There’s a line of three cars outside, so Dom only stops for a hug, then heads straight into work. For the next few hours, I go through the motions of entering quotes in the system, taking payments and answering questions from each client. The remaining two customers leave their cars in overnight, and before lunch I find myself alone at the front.
It’s normally not something that bothers me, but between the freezing rain and the morning, I’m even more unsettled. Outside seems deserted, no one out messing with the bad weather—not that I blame them.
I busy myself with filing away receipts by month and fall upon Eliza’s. The image of the bitchy model from days before runs through my head as do her words. Does Tommy know you’re here?
Between agreeing to the façade with Dom and running into those bikers, I’ve forgotten all about it. How did she meet my ex? And worse, did she tell him where I was?
The door rings open again and I mutter, “Be with you in a second.”
A silence, then his voice freezes me. “Take your time, babe.”
I shoot to my feet, knocking over my chair. It can’t be him, but sure enough, a few feet away Tommy stands. His blonde hair is slicked back with gel, his brown eyes cold and unfeeling. He smirks at my obvious surprise, stepping closer.
My eyes slide to where the guys are, hoping they won’t notice him. One thought runs on a loop in my head: I can’t believe my dickhead of an ex is here.
“What the hell are you doing here, Tommy?” My question comes in a hiss, but I’m happy to hear there is no weakness in it. I don’t want to be alone with him, so call me selfish but I don’t move out of the shop—implications be damned.
“You’re a hard little bitch to track down.” He’s now in front of my desk, leaning over. I’m still too close, but my feet won’t budge. When he extends a hand towards my face I cringe, moving out of his reach. His smirk widens and my heart starts pounding an all-too-familiar panicked rhythm.
Dominic
His stink hits me first, and I drop what I’m doing. I glance towards the reception desk and see a guy with Luz. He’s standing way too close for comfort, which alone has my wolf in a frenzy.
Then I notice her body language, the way she’s putting as much distance as possible between them, and all my attention zeroes in on them.
The prick reaches for her, and I growl low. Luz moves away, avoiding his touch.
Without even realizing it, I’ve stepped forward. A hand on my shoulder stops me, and I look at Lucas. Tristan and Finn both went out for lunch, so it’s only me and him in the garage. Despite his restraining grasp, his darkened face is also fixated on Luz and the stranger.
“Who is he?”
He doesn’t sound too happy about the newcomer, and I want to snap. What the hell do you care? Sanity returns before I say anything stupid, and I realize that this is what we wanted, me and Luz: to get him to care.
“Don’t know.”
Movement draws our attention again, this time when the stranger goes around the desk, invading Luz’s personal bubble.
“Let me go.” It’s not a request, but Lucas frowns at me.
“He’s human. You can’t go in there and act your usual hothead self, Dom. Relax.”
In a split of a second, the stranger grabs Luz’s arm. She freezes, then her cheeks flush and I can see the anger in her—but my wolf also smells fear.
“What the fuck did this guy do to her?” I don’t realize my words are aloud until Lucas tightens his grip. Without his iron hold, I would be across the room lunging for the guy.
“Dom...” Lucas’ tone is a warning.
“I get it!”
But still my eyes linger on them. When he takes a step closer, I yank myself out of Lucas’ grasp and move. By the time I reach them, storming through the doors linking the garage with the reception area, Luz got herself out of his grasp. I smell something metallic—blood—and a quick look confirms the scratches on his arm.
“Draga mea.”
Luz turns to me, emotions flashing across her face—fear, surprise, but above all, relief. It makes my heart squeeze, but that's short-lived when a river of lava boils within me.
I step around the guy, pushing him out of her working space. My arm goes around her shoulders, pulling her into my side. Off balance, she has to rest her hand on my chest, and I relish the light touch.
Not once taking my eyes off the stranger, I kiss the side of her forehead. “Who’s your friend?”
She releases a shaky breath, and with it, an introduction. “Dom, meet Tommy.”
Lucrezia
I’d have to be a fool not to sense the testosterone in the air. And I don’t mind it. Yes, Dom is only pretending, but it’s a good act. Tommy is too busy staring at us with hate to realize how much trouble he walked into.
“Didn’t know you had a new boy toy.” His smirk is still on full-force, and I don’t bother answering. What’s the use, when all he wants is to rile me up?
“Hey, I’m talking to you!”
I glance over in surprise. Is he daft to try this in front of Dom? A bubbling laughter escapes me at the thought, but Tommy doesn’t appreciate it.
“You crazy little—”
Dom moves with an agility I did not expect. One minute he’s my big cuddle bear, the next he has Tommy grasped by the throat, flattened against the wall and a few inches off the ground. Tommy whimpers, and turns a nice shade of crimson.
“Dom,” I whisper, “Let him go. He’s not worth it.”
For a moment, I fear he won't listen. Then he cocks his head as though listening to music only he can hear. A sixth sense has me turn, and I see Lucas across the distance. His face is as dark as Dom’s, features hardened by anger.
The air itself is stifling with heat. Tommy is losing breath, his face turning an ungodly shade of purple now.
“Enough.”
It’s a vibration, a rumble... Whatever it is, it’s coming from Lucas—yet he never spoke. Then, as if that alone was the magic order, Dom lets Tommy go.
He glares at Lucas, breathing heavily, and turns back to my ex. Hovering over him, Dom scowls, his tone heavy with malice. “Get out of here, scumbag, while you still can. If I ever see your sorry ass around Luz or this place again, I will finish this.”
The last part is said in something close to a snarl, and Tommy goes pale as a ghost. He gets up on shaky legs and we watch him leave, but not before throwing me one last dirty look.
Once he’s gone, Dom stays frozen for a few moments, breathing through flaring nostrils. I glance around, but Lucas vanished. I must have imagined that, there’s no way...
I shake my head, but my thoughts are derailed when Dom turns to me. His eyes are a soft blue again, and he holds out his palm to me.
“Let’s take a drive.”
After a brief hesitation, I grasp it and follow him out the door. I have no doubt what he means, nor can I avoid the questions in his gaze. It’s time to answer them.
Dominic
Being around Luz calms my wolf, but at the same time stirs him up in different ways. A complete contradiction, but as euphoric as any drug. The drive is silent at first, then we chat about insignificant stuff while I take us into the mountains.
After an hour or so, I worm my way to the subject gently—or as much as I can. “We might have made progress today.”
“Hm?”
I would give anything to know what she’s thinking about.
“Lucas.” It’s a near growl, my wolf way too near the surface. I mentally pet him down, calming him, before continuing, “He was watching earlier, seemed concerned about you and Tommy.”
“Oh...”
Her tone is distracted, almost disappointed, and definitely not as exhilarated as I expected.
“What’s wrong? I would have thought you’d be happier.”
“I am! It’s just... sorry. Lots on my mind.”
“About Tommy?”
Luz is quiet, but it’s an unnatural stillness. I pull the car over while she gathers her thoughts, then exit and open her door.
It feels old-school when I offer my hand to help her out, but she takes it with a secret little smile. She pulls her scarf tighter and we walk along the cliffs, our feet crunching in the snow.
“I know a nice spot a few miles off, if you feel up for a hike?”
Luz nods blindly and I take her hand in mine, leading us upwards. Whatever is going on in her head, I have a feeling she needs time to process it and to figure out how— if—she wants to share it.
I keep quiet while we walk, lending a helping hand when needed but otherwise restricting my touch only to holding her hand. With each passing hour, the wind picks up as the sun drops in the sky, until it’s close to sunset.
Luz stops mid-step, her eyes darting around. I can read the uneasiness in her expression, and squeeze her hand in reassurance. “We’re two minutes from shelter, and I promise you’re safe with me.”
Her reaction is, like everything else, a complete contradiction. While her expression softens, her body is still tense with wariness. Hoping to ease it, I point over my shoulder. “There’s a cave off to the side of this path. It’ll give us some shelter from the wind, and it has a pretty awesome view.”
Curiosity seems to win over her hesitation and Luz nods, then we’re moving again. Just as I said, within minutes we move off the beaten path and to what first appears like a wall of solid rock.
I drop Luz’s hand and move around it, pushing off the boulder that’s actually masking the entrance to the cave. Luz’s eyes widen at the discovery, and she takes a few steps closer of her own volition.
“How did you find this spot?”
I shrug, dusting off the rock in the middle of the entrance. “We go on a lot of hikes, me and the guys.”
Satisfied the flat top is now clean enough for her, I gesture to it and Luz takes a seat. I shrug out of my jacket and drop it to the ground, flopping onto it with a grunt. Whatever Luz has to tell me, it’ll be hard enough without having me in her personal bubble. This way, I’m close enough to touch but not enough to distract.
“You’re not cold?” Her breath comes out in white puffs of smoke, but I grin.
“The hike warmed me up.”
After lingering on my profile for a bit, Luz finally glances downhill and a sweet little gasp escapes her. My body tightens with images of other ways I could elicit that sound from her lips, but I grit my teeth and shake it off. Now is so not the time.
My wolf disagrees. Mine.
While Luz takes in the breathtaking frozen lake below and snowy mountaintops, I spend all my energy trying to wrestle my counterpart into submission. Eventually, he relents and moves to the back of my mind, and I release a frustrated breath.
With the blood red in the sky, water at our feet, the entire world covered in a blanket of snow...everything stills. Then the peace shatters with Luz’s confession.
“Tommy assaulted me.”
Lucrezia
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Dom turn abruptly but refuse to look at him.
“We’d been dating for a bit. Three months to be exact. He thought he was entitled to something, but I wasn’t ready. One night, he took me for a drive, and tried to rape me in his car. He would have almost succeeded if it hadn’t been for the crowbar I found. I smacked him in self-defense over the head, then ran.”
Memories of that night tug at me, increasing my heartbeat. I try to focus on my breathing, like when I used to have panic attacks. Without even realizing it, I start picking at the skin around my fingernails—until Dom rests his larger hand over mine.
I’m still avoiding his gaze, but I turn my palm upwards to grasp his, then draw in a shaky breath. “A nice old man picked me off the side of the road and drove me to the police station. I filed a report, they took pictures of my bruises. Tommy showed up later wanting to press charges against me. He might have gone to trial, but I didn’t want to stick around. I’m a foster kid, I come from nothing, and him... Well, his parents were loaded. I left town to start a new life and ended up here.”
I’m surprised at how easily it all rolls off, and the relief overcoming me at telling Dom. And for the first time since it happened, I don’t feel ashamed. No more. The mantra I’ve repeated over and over since that day sinks in: it was not my fault.
Lost in my thoughts, I don’t catch onto Dom’s stillness until he whispers something.
“I’m going to kill him.”
When someone says that, it’s easy to believe they’re just words. But as I turn to him, taking in his clenched his fists, his flaring nostrils, and the pure rage in his eyes... There is no doubt in my mind that Dom means what he says.
I tug on his hand, in an effort to ground him. “Dom, he isn't worth it.”
“Luz...” At a huge cost to himself, Dom inhales deeply. “You don’t understand. I have to kill him.”
“That’s crazy talk!”
He takes another deep breath at my outburst, then his free hand caresses my cheek. Despite the anger still in the rest of his body, he’s so tender it brings tears to my eyes and a lump in my throat. No man has ever touched me with such reverence.
“It’s stupid,” I whisper as tears drop, one after the other. “I only now realize what a dick he was. I blamed myself for so long, for what happened, thinking I had led him along, because I was a virgin and I hadn’t been with a guy in that way.... As if I would be stupid enough to give it up to the first guy that came!”
In my rant, I don’t realize Dom’s frozen again. Not until I sniffle, then look up and notice the most peculiar expression on his face.
“Um... Dom?”
His hand grasps my chin, searching my eyes.
“You... are amazing,” he half-whispers, half-growls, then drops his mouth to mine.
It catches me by surprise, but not for long. His kiss is as tender as his touch is, not once pushing past a barrier he has erected himself. That, more than anything, makes me realize what the kiss really is.
There’s no seduction in it, though the man is pure sin and his mouth knows what it’s doing. Rather, there’s a sweetness to the way his lips move against mine, giving me all the time in the world to pull back.
When he stops, I blink and fall into his ocean-dark eyes. This isn’t fake. There is no Lucas around, no need to pretend. But what I feel, the tugging in my heart, in my body, it’s impossible to restrict.
For months after the incident, I blamed myself. Nights on end, after first moving to Rockland Creek, I had nightmares of Tommy’s hands on me. Now that the truth is out there, that I’ve told another person, I realize it’s time to forgive myself, to break free of the limitations I set upon myself.
Not giving in to the kiss would have been letting Tommy win, to forever have control over my reaction to a man. So I do the exact opposite, and press my lips to Dom’s again. At first taken aback, he snaps out of it quickly enough and takes over the kiss.
Rather than pull back, I let him. I deserve to have a hot guy kiss me, and to enjoy it without feeling guilty. Vaguely, I hear myself moan before I give in completely, no restraints, and stop thinking altogether. I trust Dom, and I know he’ll respect my boundaries when the time comes.
Dominic
I’m only semi-aware of my hands moving to Luz’s hips, gripping her tighter against me. I couldn’t resist her now if I tried, and I would lie down and die at her feet if she asked me.
She cannot understand what her confession—what Tommy did—does to me. How can I explain to her the million deaths I’ve already envisioned for the bastard? My wolf is ready to pounce—to hunt. To make right what was done wrong.
Only her plea held me back as strong as Lucas’ order to let Tommy go. I meant the kiss as comfort. Then she surprised me by kissing me back, and now I’m drowning, and the ocean’s name is Luz.
My light. Calling me out of the darkness.
I break the kiss, panting, stirred beyond imaginings. She told me too much, but she doesn’t understand that. She’s completely, innocently unaware of how much my wolf wants the innocent that she is, not just to claim but to protect and forever keep safe.
She is the purest snow, meant for me alone. But Lucas...
I shut out the thought. Lucas won't go near Luz unless he proves he is worthy. I won't let anyone near her... myself included.
“Dom?” Those emerald eyes stare at me in wonder and confusion for stopping the kiss.
I run my thumb on her bottom lip, then whisper, “You were nowhere at fault with Tommy. A man has a choice to control himself. To treat a woman like a lady. He chose not to. And I swear to you, Luz, he will pay.”
With a huge effort, I put some distance between us, reining in my desire to kiss her again. I want to do right by her, and my wolf is much too present in my subconscious mind to trust that he won’t try to take over. So I do the reasonable thing and grasp her hand in mine. “Let’s enjoy what’s left of the sunset.”
As she drops onto the jacket, leaning against me, I make a single promise with the blood-red sunrise as my witness. Pack justice will prevail, and Tommy will pay. Whether or not Lucas agrees.
∞ ♦ ∞
Later that evening, I drive Luz back home, holding her hand the entire way. It feels soft, precious in my larger one, and infinitely more fragile.
When the car comes to a full stop, I turn in my seat to face her. She seems reluctant to leave right away, and I’m not sure I’m ready for her to either. “What you told me today, you have to believe me when I tell you how precious your trust is.”
I caress her cheek, and she nuzzles into my palm. “I know.”
“And I will never betray that, Luz, believe me. But I need to tell Lucas.” Panic flares in her eyes, and I scoot closer. “I will not tell them what happened, not unless you agree. But I have to at least let them know Tommy tried to hurt you and that he’s dangerous. We will protect you, you have my word.”
And I will seek justice for this. That part, I keep to myself. No sense scaring her with statements she cannot understand.
Luz bites on her lip, looking so damn vulnerable it’s all I can do not to rush her out of here onto some deserted island, to make sure she’s never harmed again. Still, my brave girl ends up nodding. “Okay. You can tell them Tommy is a slime ball... But please don’t reveal everything he did unless it’s necessary.”
Her trust in me warms my heart, but words fail me. So I express it the only way I can. My hand moves to her neck, pulling her mouth to mine. I intended the kiss to be soft, but Luz leans further into me, demanding more until the seat belt digs into her chest.
She pulls away with a gasp, her eyes glazed and lips red from my ministrations. I smile, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “You should get going, you need rest.”
Instead of moving, she stares at me, her brow furrowed in concentration. “Why do your kisses feel so right?”
Because I’m right for you, not Lucas.
I swallow past the words stuck in my throat and instead grin. “Because I’m a great kisser?”
Her features ease into a smile. “You had best stop kissing me when we don’t have an audience, then. A girl might fall for your acting skills.”
Before I can retort, she unbuckles her seatbelt and shoots out of the car. At the door, she turns around one last time and blows me a kiss. I wait until she’s gone upstairs and am about to start the engine when I notice a dog crossing the street.
No... Not a dog. It’s larger, and the back is hunched like it’s disfigured. In the darkness of the street, the creature turns and I see yellow gleaming orbs, and a foaming mouth.
My first thought is something like, What the fuck? The second, quickly following, is that this must be the creature behind the killings. But it’s the third one that has me rooted to my spot, heart pounding.
What is it doing near Luz’s place?
The creature finishes crossing, then disappears into the crack between houses. I throw off my clothes, glancing around to make sure there’s no human. When I’m satisfied I’m alone, I step out of my truck—naked—and lock the doors. Then I tuck the key behind my tire and morph into a wolf.
The scent hits me, causing me to retch. It’s pungent and heavy, enough so to bring tears to my eyes like onions would if I was human. I shake my head, inhaling deeply to neutralize its effects on me, and follow in its stead.
I spend a full hour doing the tour, checking every nook and cranny, without finding the blasted creature. Dejected, I refuse to leave Luz alone for the night, so I do the next best thing. Still in my wolf form, I climb on the fire escape and squint through her bedroom window.
Mate, you free to go find Tiny?
Finn’s question takes me by surprise. He must be in wolf mode already, and I feel slightly guilty turning him down. But there’s no way I’m leaving Luz alone.
Not tonight. Tomorrow.
She’s sleeping by now, a blanket thrown over her body. I will let nothing happen to her. In wolf form, I fall asleep in a corner. If anyone plans to come by, I will have their hide.