Chapter 72

Dominic

She smells so good.

My wolf was practically bouncing against the walls of a cage hoping to get out. It was only the danger of the situation that restrained me as I held Mira in my lap. Every bump or turn in the road made our bodies move together. We were two lost puzzle pieces that were finally fitting together.

Even more intoxicating was the connection within us, a fusion in a deeper part of us as our minds danced around one another. I had shared brief telepathic moments with my Betas, and as a child I swore I could pick up on my parents once in a while. But nothing had ever come close to this feeling with Mira.

“You feel it too?” her voice hummed like a beehive full of honey.

She kept her eyes focused out the window, but I detected a curious smile at the corner of her mouth.

“I feel it all,” I responded. “I feel you, everywhere.”

I saw her cheeks flush, but she kept her body still.

“I didn’t know it was possible to feel this,” she said, sounding shy. “Is this a wolf thing?”

“No, well yes and no.”

Her eyebrows twitched on her otherwise resting face.

I went on. “It is a thing between werewolves, yes. But not normally— I have never…”

I stopped speaking when she turned to look at me, still facing the window so only I could see her face. Her eyes asked the question before her voice did.

“Is this…are we Fated Mates?”

All the oxygen left my lungs. I nodded before the words reached her.

“I think so, yes.”

Even in the dim light of the van I saw a sparkle in her honey-brown eyes. Silently, reverently, she leaned her head towards mine. She pressed her forehead to mine, connecting the space between our eye brows, the third eye.

Instinctively I closed my eyes, but her image remained on the backs of my eyelids. I could watch her like a film in my mind.

We stayed that way for three seconds or three minutes. Eventually she pressed her hand to my chest to lift herself off of me, turning back to face the front. She wiggled to make herself comfortable, like a cat that has chosen you for a seat.

It was playful, yet proved to be dangerous as I felt my body giving into her movements. I felt my cheeks get hot as Mira noticed a subtle stiffness beneath her. She froze, then relaxed, inviting nothing but not drawing attention to the circumstances.

“Behave,” she said coyly.

I chuckled to myself as I turned my head away from her. As I returned my attention to the front of the van, I observed Lucian snapped his head out of the window and pretend to be preoccupied. So, he’d been watching us. I swelled with pride and satisfaction at that moment of superiority, then gave myself mental demerit for indulging in my ego.

Alpha lessons from my father were creeping in more and more as my ascension loomed closer by the day. And now, with Mira coming back into her wolf, poised to be powerful Luna, I had to keep up my end of the partnership and leadership.

These thoughts consumed me for the rest of the ride. We stopped at the Brooks compound to bring Rae home, and were met with astonishment and an outpouring of gratitude.

“We are only sorry we could not retrieve both children at the time,” Mira was saying to the Alpha, her former leader. “I promise I won’t give up until we find him again.”

“You have done more than could be imagined, Mira,” he responded, holding her hand like a prayer between them. “And with this new information, we are getting closer to bringing the boy back to his Pack as well. Tragedy seems to be uniting us more than ever before.”

This last statement he made to me, and his manner changed as he addressed me Alpha-to-Alpha.

“Julian is a Forrester, a small pack not too far west of here,” he told me. “After Rae went missing, we started reaching out to others to see if they were also missing children, and that’s how we learned of Julian. We couldn't be sure they were together, but we vowed to help each other as we could for the sake of the younger generation.”

“I know the Forresters,” I said, “though I cannot say I know much about them. It is good to see we can put Pack politics aside for the betterment of the larger community.”

“Of course, these Rogues are a threat to all of us,” Brooks said. “I extend that vow to you as well, Dominic Grey, if you would do the same for mine.”

Mira’s energy spiked and rippled toward me, though her body was still.

“It would be my honor, Brandon Brooks,” I returned, offering him a hand to shake.

“I’ll let you get home, you must be exhausted,” he said in farewell, placing a hand on Mira’s shoulder as he went.

“Please tell Rae that I’ll be back soon to check on her,” Mira said after him. “And she has my phone number, if she needs anything.”

“She’s a lucky girl,” Brooks said.

Mira put her arm through mine as we watched him walk away. We stood a moment, absorbing the new alliance and responsibility with this Pack. The Pack that raised Mira when her own was taken from her.

“They are still your family, even though you have mine.”

She turned to look up at me, smiling in recognition. Her glassy eyes revealed her emotions, a mix of nostalgia and gratitude.

The rest of the trip home was quiet, and we said little to the others beyond necessities as our group split up. Lucian seemed like a cranky child as we said good night to him, but he agreed to check in with me the next day. An Alpha follows up with his soldiers, regardless of their familiar status.

Mira bathed and checked herself for any scrapes or bruises from her adventure and escape from captivity.

“I feel sore, but there’s no signs of anything wrong,” she said as she carefully got into bed.

“That could be the adrenaline wearing off, no longer shielding you from the tension in your body.”

I slid my hand down the side of her arm as she lay facing me. Feeling bold, I followed the line to her hip and let my hand rest there. She looked slightly down, but did not protest or flinch.

“Mmm wolf is so tired,” she said sleepily.

Her eyelids fluttered, and then she gave in and let sleep take her.

I startled awake just after a minute, woken by a noise.

Mira was growling in her sleep.

The Pack

The visit at the Brooks compound was a reunion for many, but some were more discreet in their display than others.

While the Alphas made an alliance, two other men were shaking hands and doubling down on a deal.

Lucian was careful not to draw attention to himself as he slipped around the side of the building, using moonlight to guide his way on an unlit path to the tree that was their meeting spot.

Ward was waiting for him, shifting his weight between his feet in anticipation. Lucian approached and stood close to him, closer than Ward seemed comfortable with. He looked like he wanted to back up, but was hemmed in by the tree he had chosen as his backdrop.

His voice was soft and tenuous when he asked a question, but Lucian’s response was loud and clear in the night.

“We’re not finished yet.”