Chapter 31

Dominic

Vivian’s smile froze. “Renee?”

“Yes. She needs a vehicle as soon as possible.” I said it casually, but I didn’t miss the flicker of annoyance in her expression. “I would prefer she had one before the semester started.”

“You’re buying her a car?” she asked slowly, like she couldn’t quite believe it. “She wouldn’t need it if she wasn’t being stupid!” She bared her teeth. “She doesn’t need a car! She doesn’t deserve a car! Think about what she’s done! Didn’t you just hear what I said, Daddy?”

I considered my answer, watching her huff and puff. She was clearly more emotionally invested in Neil than she cared to admit. Something told me there was a good chance that she’d actually be quite flattered by a courtship arrangement.

“Vivian,” I said calmly. ”There has never been a time in which you have spoken and I have not listened.”

Her jaw trembled. “But you’re buying her a car!”

“I’m making sure she has what she needs to get through the year. That’s part of the guardianship agreement.” My voice stayed even, but inside, I was already bracing for the fallout.

Vivian sneered. “You’re not listening to me! She shouldn’t get a car! She shouldn’t get anything! She’s —” She huffed. “She’s ruining everything.”

“I understand that you were looking forward to having your two friends marry, Vivian, but sometimes things don’t work out. In Renee’s case, it was fortunate.”

“Fortunate?” She shrieked. “Tyler—”

“As a father, I would never want you to marry someone, fated, chosen, or otherwise, who would not protect you,” I said. “Tyler was in the wrong.”

She glared at me. “You’re wrong.”

“If I compelled you to marry someone, and he went along with it knowingly, are you telling me you would still love him?”

“You would never compel me, Daddy,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“That's not the point, Vivian.”

She twirled her hair on a finger, but she said nothing, which was answer enough.

I nodded. “She is your friend, is it so wrong for me to treat her well?”

She crossed her arms. “We’re not all that great of friends.”

"Well, friends grow apart,” I shrugged lightly.

She glared at me. “It’s not funny, Daddy. She’s ruining everything.”

“You can’t decide that for someone else.” I sat back, gathering the pages on the table, careful to keep the more sensitive parts covered. “Now, about Neil. The offer to speak to him and his father is still on the table.”

She pursed her lips. “She can’t have a car before I get a new one.”

I chuckled. “None of these cars are chauffer cars, Vivian. You would have to drive it yourself.”

“I’ll just have someone drive me around!” She threw up her hands. “If you get her a new car before me, I’ll never forgive you.”

“Then, I suppose, you will just have to never forgive me.”

Her draw dropped ad she stomped out shrieking. “You’re so unfair! You just like her more than me! You always have!”

The tantrum itself, the words were familiar enough. It was the same argument she gave every time I told her no. My head started to pound, thinking about how moody she would be for the next few weeks until she decided there was something else she wanted.

A part of me considered turning off her credit cards, but that felt childish. The credit limits on them were negligible in relation to the accounts I’d set aside for her. If she blew through her annual allowance in a fit of childish jealousy, that was her business.

My mind turned back to the memory of Renee’s stern and proud expression when she talked about how she planned to honor her mother’s legacy.

I let my eyes drift to the framed photo of Hazel tucked neatly in the corner of my desk. Her smilemet me the way it always did.

I wished that Vivian had shown a little more interest in who Hazel had been.

But maybe she had. Hazel and Renee favored each other in an uncanny way. The same sharp jaw. The same eye shape. They could have been sisters as they were as different in temperament as night and day. Hazel had been a gentle, soft-hearted woman, accustomed to being taken care of. She would have coddled Vivian and said something along the lines of just get her the car, what’s the harm in it?

But Vivian wasn’t destined to be some soft-hearted housewife of an alpha. The alphas of the next generation would have no use for her as luna as she was now.

Renee was a different story. I huffed, recognizing the swell of jealousy at the thought of Renee being someone’s luna. I was tempted to do anything in my power to get Neil hitched to my daughter, at the thought that one day, maybe soon, Renee would be kissing Neil the way she had kissed me.

No. Honestly, not out of a desperate last-ditch effort to garner my sympathy, too scared or too ashamed—too hurt in some ways— to just ask. I closed my eyes and cursed under my breath.

That kiss.

I shouldn’t have let it happen. Shouldn’t have wanted it the way I did. I could still feel the soft heat of her mouth, the little hitch of breath she gave right before—

No. Stop.

I pushed back from the desk and stood. She was a student, my ward, my daughter’s best friend, and a traumatized young woman. Sure, she wasn’t a child, but didn’t I know too well how trauma had a way of turning back and forward a mental clock?

The guilt tangled with something else, something I didn’t want to name.

I crossed the room and reached for my phone. Pulled up the secure contact list and tapped a name I hadn’t called in years.

If I was going to stop this from becoming a disaster, I needed information. I needed to know who Neil really was and what his intentions were with either of them.

This wasn’t jealousy.

It wasn’t.

It was protection.

Right?

“Odd for your number to cross my phone, Alpha Brightclaw. I suspect it’s about that new ward of yours?”

Renee

Darla hadn’t changed a bit. Still as quirky as ever. As fun. As warm. It made it clear exactly where Neil’s softer side came from, given how cold and imposing he could be to those he didn’t know.

Neil returned with the box of pastries. He shrugged out of his jacket and went looking for something under the seat. He pulled out a bucker full of tools.

“That bathroom?”

“Always that one. Thank you dear!”

He chuckled, taking off his cufflinks and rolling up his sleeves. He twirled the tool in his hand as he walked by. While Neil was working on whatever was broken in the bathroom, Darla asked me what I was up to, but I was more interested in why she was smudged with dirt and paint. The more we talked, the more I started to see pieces of Neil’s home life I hadn’t expected. Neil hadn’t grown up in the pack house. He didn’t even live there now, but in his own apartment that had once been Darla’s. There was something she wasn’t saying with her eyes, little hints and nudges that I couldn’t quite figure out. He drove me to campus and walked me to the financial office, promising to meet back up here if I wanted a ride home.

To my surprise, Dominic had taken care of not just the loan repayment, but loaded my campus account for meals and a little extra, too.

No interest. No issues. I reached the campus bookstore for my books and made a note to pick up notebooks and stationery from my usual place. I swiped my card before I could think about it. I hadn’t even asked if the freeze had been lifted. There was no way that Dominic had the time to. Could I use my campus account to cover it?

“Here’s your receipt.”

I blinked, taking it and my books. Marveling and stunned. I headed out of the bookstore, eyes burning with tears and chest tight with the realization that Dominic was truly nothing like Philip.I sent him a quick message.

Thank you.

His reply came within seconds. My heart fluttered like a silly little school girl.

You’re welcome. I meant it when I said I’d take care of things. Let me know if you need anything else.

I stared at the message a little too long. Then locked the phone, huffing at how ridiculous I was being. Hadn’t I said earlier that Dominic was not an option, and if I’m getting into another relationship then I should be looking at Neil or just anyone else who had integrity?

Get it together, Renee.

I turned, headed to the library when a sharp shove from behind sent me stumbling forward, my bag slipping from my shoulder as I hit the ground hard, scraping my palms.

“What the hell—?!”

“It’s the least you deserve, whore!” Her voice rang out, drawing everyone’s attention, and I didn’t have to turn around to know who it was, but I did.

Tyler’s sister stood over me, her eyes burning with rage, her lips curled into a sneer.