What promises did she want? What promises would she believe?
Her life was full of lies and deceit. Betrayal and loneliness.
Only in the last year had she found it possible to trust even a little bit—though she’d held her secrets close.
“Who is behind these attacks on you?” Domino asked, surprised at how the play of her emotions stirred his own, caused his heart to ache and tempered his behavior. From the moment he’d learned that she’d been taken, he’d resolved to find her, to reclaim her. To not allow her out of his sight until the second and third exchanges had been made. And yet now… His grandmother’s words rang in his mind and echoed through every cell.
Her secret heart yearns for a man to prove that all men aren’t like those who have come before him.
It shocked him how desperately he wanted to be the man who proved himself to be different from the rest. How much he wanted her to come to him willingly. Not because of the wolf. Not because of the blood-tie. But because he was her choice.
“Tell me who’s behind the attacks,” he repeated, “and I will see that they end.”
“In exchange for what?”
He grimaced, realizing he should have seen the question coming. But he didn’t want to bargain with her. He couldn’t. It would be a lie if he told her she could leave him now.
“I will do it because I can and I must, Dakotah.”
He moved into her personal space and curled his hands around her forearms. Relief surging through him when she didn’t stiffen or pull away.
She licked her lips and he wanted to lean in and cover them. To savor her taste and explore her mouth with his tongue.
The night was melting away and despite the tension between them, he was hard, hungry. Aching.
Dakotah closed her eyes. Hearing Helki’s words.
The time will come when you will face the enemy who wants you dead, but you will not do so alone. Another change awaits you. This time at the hands of a man unlike any you have known before. A man who wants your life, not your death.
And like Sarael before her, she could feel the truth in them. A truth she couldn’t run from. A truth she wasn’t sure she wanted to run from.
“Victor Hale. His pack is in Atlantic City.” She opened her eyes and met Domino’s. “I killed his son and ended up a werewolf in the process.”
Domino shrugged. “What matters is whether or not he wants to join his son in death. The choice will be his.”
“And us?”
This time Domino did lean in and cover her mouth, his lips gently sucking at hers until she willingly opened them and invited his tongue into her mouth. “You have seen the effects of what you gained from ingesting my blood?” he asked when the kiss ended.
“Yes.”
“It will get worse until the second exchange is made. I will leave the choice of when the exchange is done up to you despite the fact that every instinct I possess demands we do it tonight.” He lifted his hand and stroked her cheek. “I can allow you that choice, but not the choice of whether or not you will remain with me.”
Dakotah nodded, admitting to herself that she wanted to be with him. She was tired of running. Tired of fighting. At least for tonight. “We can’t leave the body here,” she said just as Fane appeared.
He flashed a smile as his gaze swept over the dead man, then Dakotah’s blood-soaked clothing, before landing on Domino. “The trail of your courtship seems to be littered with corpses. How many more nights will I have to spend disposing of them rather than attending to the needs of my own kadine?”
“Don’t bother with this one at all,” Domino said. “Send for the padralls and have them deliver it to the wolves in Atlantic City, along with a message. Dakotah is mine. Regardless of whose blood changed her into a Were, it is only mine that matters now. Victor Hale’s hunt stops now with a blood pledge or a challenge.”
CHAPTER 8
Fane’s eyes widened slightly. “And if he is foolish enough to choose a challenge? Or those around him make the choice for him?”
“I’m taking Dakotah to the house Matteo rented for his claiming of Sarael.”
Fane nodded. “Cable, Kiziah and I will return to Kenton as well. There are more than enough dhampirs and vampires still in the area should their presence become necessary.”
“What does it mean, a blood pledge or a challenge?” Dakotah asked.
Fane’s gaze shifted to her. “A challenge is a fight to the death. Domino in your place against your enemy. Wolf against wolf. Or man against man.”
“And the other?”
“A blood pledge in this case means the wolves guarantee that Victor Hale will no longer hunt or have you hunted. It is a promise made with the lives of every member of his pack—along with any related to them who are in the generation before or after—put up as collateral. If the pledge is broken, then we will call their debt and exact retribution.”
Horror washed through Dakotah. “So the innocent die with the guilty?”
Fane shrugged. “For the most part we leave each other alone, but when their business interferes with ours, we are the masters. We’re alive long after they become dust and ash underneath our feet. Over the centuries they have learned to police their own or we will do it for them.”
Dakotah shivered, unable to pull her eyes away from Fane as she remembered the times they’d joked when he and Cable hung around the carnival. It had been an easy camaraderie, though she’d sensed he wasn’t an enemy she’d want. But now, looking at him, hearing his words, she realized just how ruthless, how alien he was.
Her gaze moved to Domino, who was watching her intently, whose expression gave away nothing, who had the power to take her mind if he desired. She should be terrified of him, but instead her secret heart, the place that still harbored forgotten dreams of happy-ever-after, of a prince charming who would rescue her and take her to safety, kept her fear at bay, just as it had the last time they were in the woods with the body of her enemy nearby.
He was a dark, alien prince. And she was capable of rescuing herself.
Their lives could just as easily be a nightmare as a fairytale.
But she trusted him. With her life.
And that realization did scare her.
“Let’s get out of here,” she said, afraid that if too much more time passed, doubts and panic would rush in and push her into running.
Domino took her arm as though sensing how close she was to bolting. “We will stop by the house here in Ashberg so Dakotah can get cleaned up. Cable and Kiziah are there?”
Fane grinned. “I will call ahead and send them back to Kenton, in case you and Dakotah want to linger long enough to enjoy the fireplace as we did last night.”
And after she’d taken a shower and gotten dressed, that’s where Dakotah found Domino, standing next to the fireplace, its heat filling the room, its flames reflecting off him. He took a swallow from a wine glass and set it on the mantel. She wrinkled her nose at the smell of the pungent herbs mixed with wine. Even from across the room, the odor offended her, burning her nostrils as she moved to stand opposite him. “What’s that?” she asked, tilting her head toward the glass.
“Something to keep The Hunger at bay.” His eyes darkened and his face tightened as his gaze slid over her, the scent of arousal joining the mix of wine and herbs. “Though it does nothing for The Heat.”
Dakotah reached for the glass, grimacing as she brought it closer to her mouth. He smiled slightly but didn’t stop her from taking a sip, though in truth, she barely wet her lips before putting the glass back down on the mantel. “What happens if you don’t drink it?”