Chapter 31

Dominic

I am in a medical chair, my arms and legs restrained.

I don’t know how I got here, or even what day it is.

I am young. I am afraid.

There are tubes in my arm, but I am not in pain. This room seems clean, so at least I am not in a filthy dungeon or cave lair.

Still, this is not right.

The monitors and screens around me start to come into focus, but the data means nothing to me.

Why am I here?

My wolf sounds different, disassociated from my self.

I recognize figures in the outer circle of the room, in preparation for something. As I stir and mumble, my brain clearing fog, these others take notice.

Two strangers come toward me, and one holds a mask with a hose.

I wonder if will flow with oxygen or ether as my nose and mouth are covered and cool air hits my face.

The world starts to flicker around me, and I turn my head trying to take in as much as I can about this place before I black out.

The last thing I remember, is the other person in the room— the person who is strapped to chair next to me.

My eyes flash open as I escape the nightmare.

I have had this nightmare before, once, ten years earlier.

Why is this vision returning to me, now?

I stretch out on the bed. Mira is not next to me, and my half-awake brain registers a flare of panic.

Pulling myself up and looking around the room, I see her, asleep in a chair. Her legs are flung over one of the arms, her head on the other. An old medical book is cradled in her arms, as if it were a sacred text taken with her to the tomb.

Her face is somber, but peaceful. Her brow is steady but soft, an eyebrow sometimes fluttering as she dreams.

What does she dream about?

My mind wanders back into the woods with Mira. It is hard not to think about what happened between us.

That kiss.

She is kind to ensure that I was distracted and out-of-control and it was a mistake in the heat of the moment.

But I was fully lucid, fully aware of what I was doing. The moment is seared into my brain and into my senses. I can still smell her hair as I pulled it through my fingers.

I close my eyes and take a breath, reminding myself that this isn’t real. Mira is a contract Mate, and she wants to keep it that way.

The guilt creeps in, as my mind takes me back to my first Mate. Though I know I have to accept that she is gone, that I have to move on, some part of me still feels that I am abandoning that oath and promise.

But I could wait forever, and Celeste would still never come back, and I would waste this life on wishful thinking instead of fully living it.

I look back at Mira.

She is here, in the present, and we can be good for each other.

I want to protect her— not as if she is weak or vulnerable, but because she brings her own strength to the Pack, and we protect one another.

And if my feelings for her are confused, it is only a natural reaction to pretending to be in love.

Almost in response to my thoughts, Mira shifts in the chair, squirming to get comfortable.

Leaving the bed, I walked over to her sleeping form. Doing my best not to disturb her, I removed the book from her hands.

It’s titled, Sorcery in Science: old magic for modern medicine. Looking briefly at the pages, it seemed this book was equal parts lore and logic, and explained scientists and doctors experimenting with the supernatural in order to test ancient prophecies and myths.

I recalled last night’s dream with a twinge of pain.

An odd book choice, even for Mira.

As I examined the tome, Mira stirred and noticed her hands were empty.

Her eyes went wide as she saw I as looking through the book.

“It’s research,” she blurted sleepily, “sort of.”

“I see,” I answer.

“Just…fascinating studies, and hypotheses,” her words came slowly, as if she was choosing them as she went.

“I’m sure,” I said.

I could tell she was hiding something, but didn’t want to push her.

“And it kept you up all night?”

She hesitated.

“I couldn’t sleep, I guess,” she said, looking around the room.

“What is bothering you?”

“It’s nothing,” she said defensively. “Reading helps, sometimes, and I didn’t want to bother you, so I figured I would just, you know, work…”

She wasn’t ready to tell me, so I let it go.

“You work too much,” I said, handing her back the book.

She sighed. “I know.”

She rubbed her eyes to wake up, then smiled.

“Maybe I should just call out again, use up more of those sick days,” she sounded playful, but almost an act.

“I think you should,” I answered with sincerity. “Take the day off.”

“Seriously?” she raised her eyebrows at me, a challenge. “And what would I do instead?”

“There is something I want to show you.”

Mira

Dominic didn’t say much about where we were going, just that we were going to be outdoors would be gone for a few hours.

We packed some light snacks and water, and he had his Betas carry the message that we were taking personal time away from the Pack.

No one knew where we were, but if they asked they could use their imagination as to what sort of romantic outing we were on.

We walked into the woods, and I felt the tension in my shoulders melt away.

I can see it has a similar affect on Dominic, noting the very slight smiling at the edge of his mouth, tweaking his normally brooding face.

I stop occasionally to look at a plant, and he asks me what I know about them.

“This will be a huckleberry bush, in a month or so,” I say, already tasting the sweet berries that will ripen on the branches.

“And on this oak tree, too there delicious Laetiporus sulphureous, or ‘chicken of the woods,’” I tell him.

“Delicious? Does it taste like chicken?”

“Not really,” I admit, “but it takes on a similar texture when you cook it.”

He smiles and quirks his head a bit to the side.

“And down here, careful,” I point to a bush on the side. “Stinging nettles. Wonderful healing properties on the inside, highly contagious toxin on the outside.”

“You seem to know a lot out here,” Dominic said.

“I love it out here,” I tell him. “It’s always been a haven, especially when I was young.”

We are both quiet, thinking about being young.

“If only these Luna trials were about plan medicine,” I add with a laugh. “I would pass the test with flying colors!”

“Don’t underestimate yourself,” Dominic says seriously, placing a hand on my arm. “A Luna needs to show strength and wisdom in many ways, and I have no doubt you will rise to any challenge you face.”

I stared at him, my mouth falling slightly open. Every time he spoke this way, with the utmost faith in me, I believed it a little more.

No one ever encouraged me with such confidence and certainty. Coming from this Alpha wolf, who’s presence brought fear and respect from any he encountered, made me feel invincible.

“Thank you, for saying that,” I said shyly.

He squeezed my arm, then took his hand away. The heat lingered from where he had touched me.

“We’re almost there,” he said, walking forward.

At some point on this walk, in spite of my excellent sense of direction, he did manage to get me lost in the woods. I don’t think I could’ve found this place again on my own.

We emerged through trees and rough bracken suddenly onto a rock ledge. It overlooked a large plain below, with a long body of water swirling in the center. I could hear the trickle of water below us that told me the source was deep in the rocks below our feet.

“It’s incredible,” I managed to say. “I didn’t even know this was here, or on a map.”

“I’m not sure it is,” Dominic said, sounding a bit smug.

“How did you find it?”

“My mother,” he said with feeling. “She brought me here when I was young, it was ours.”

He voice broke off, and I wondered what else might have said.

“How beautiful,” I said, stepping a bit closer to him so my arm by my side brushed his. “Thank you for sharing it with me.”

He looked down at me, then back out over the ledge, his expression hard to read.

“I don’t come here often enough,” he said softly, “I’m not sure I’ve been here, since she—“

Dominic stopped himself, and I felt his body stiffen beside me.

“Since she—“ I tried to probe him. “Since, your mother…?”

“No,” he snapped. “She was, someone else. Someone from my past.”

He wouldn’t say more, but I could tell his was feeling uncomfortable.

“Maybe we should head back,” I said, deflated.

“Sure, if you’d like,” he said, offering a small smile as he turned away from the sublime view in front of us.

As I watched him walk away, I had a realization.

Dominic was in love with someone else.