None of that could happen though. “You know why I can’t,” she said.

His eyes slashed with anger, brow furrowing hard. “I don’t give a damn about her. I want you. Be my mistress.”

Felicity jerked at his words. She shook this time, in shock. “I will not be someone’s whore, not even yours.”

“It won’t be like that. I don’t want Julianna, in any way. Only you.”

“You can’t really expect me to believe you won’t take Julianna to bed. She’ll be yours to do with what you want. She’s far prettier than I am.” God it hurt to admit that.

“I don’t fucking want her. I want you!” His highly charged words echoed around them.

A soft sound sent both their heads to the top of the staircase.

Felicity cursed. Dom didn’t say anything, didn’t even tense.

Julianna Greenwich stood at the top of the stairs. Her cheeks were red, her eyes wide and stark with pain and something else.

“Julianna,” Dom called.

She turned and ran out of sight.

Felicity stood stock still as Dom kissed her hard, told her to think on it, and then ran after Julianna. That hurt, she thought, rubbing the heavy pain over her heart.

He kissed her then ran off after his bruid.

Fitting.

Felicity didn’t have to think about it. She calmly went to her room, packed her suitcase, and left out the front door without running into anyone. She didn’t have her car with her but after she got through Dom’s gate, she kept walking.

She was not a home wrecker. She could not do this if he was going to mate with her. Felicity pulled her cell phone out and called Beth who finally, thank god, decided to answer. Beth had been incognito since the theater scene with Lucas Blackmoore. In fact, even with her stay in at the estate for the last four days she hadn’t seen or heard anything about Lucas either.

Beth came and picked her up several miles from the estate.

Beth looked tired, her eyes red around the rim, and her forehead creased with lines.

“Hey, honey,” she called as Felicity piled her and her suitcase into the car.

“Hey, back. What the hell’s been going on with you? Ignoring my phone calls, running out of an LBB concert like the building caught fire, and then not returning my calls. You have some serious explaining to do.”

Beth looked contrite as she pulled away from the curb. Felicity watched the gate of Blackmoore manor fade in the side mirror. No Dom running after her like some kind of white knight. She was done for real. She’d return the money he gave her and find a different job, because what she felt for him right now was bordering beyond some petty feelings. And that only spelled trouble for the both of them.

“I’m not ready to talk about it.”

Felicity’s jaw dropped. “You cannot be serious. We talk about everything. You really cannot think to leave me out of this juicy gossip, Beth.” Felicity turned in her seat to level a narrowed gaze on Beth.

Beth’s eyes darted to her, spotted the look, and then she bit her lip. “I just...I’m still processing it.”

“It’s been four days! How long do you need to process?”

Beth laughed. “Longer than that apparently.”

Felicity crossed her arms. “Then it better be worth the wait.”

Beth breathed out a fluttery sigh. “Oh, it will be.”

“Tease,” muttered Felicity.

Laughing, Beth reached and flipped on the radio. Her CD player turned on surrounding them with Lucas Blackmoore’s deep tenor singing about the power of a warrior, strength through resilience, and some other nonsense.

Felicity heard the ringtone of her cellphone go off over the music. That was one of the little vampire perks that came with being supernatural. She pulled the phone out and didn’t have to wonder. She knew who it was.

“Want me to turn the music down?” Beth said.

Felicity shook her head no then answered the phone. She’d be able to hear fine, and a part of her grinned at the idea of Dom hearing his brother singing around her. It’s the least he deserved for kissing her then running after Julianna. God that hurt.

He began with, “Where the hell are you?”

She trembled, her eyes closing. He sounded hot when he was angry. God, she wished she didn’t think that. “I’m going...home.” She hesitated to tell him, but she found it difficult to lie to him.

He paused for a moment. “Why?”

Felicity looked out at the deep night with the yellow streetlights beaming past as they drove. “I told you why. I can’t do this. I don’t even know you.”

“I’ll remedy that. Come back to the house now.”

“No.”

“Then I’m coming to you.”

“No!” she said much firmer.

She could almost hear him grinding his teeth. “If I want to come get you there’s nothing you can do can stop me.”

“Yeah, that’s part of the problem.” A hard, heavy knot grew in her chest like a blooming flower. One that made it hurt to breathe.

“I don’t understand.”

“My opinion needs to matter to you, Dom.”

Another pause then, “It does.”

“It doesn’t if you come after me, if you keep ignoring my wishes. That’s no way to win me.” Oh hell what was she doing now? Was she seriously trying to coach him on how to win her? Bad Felicity!

His voice lowered to a deep tremble. “What do I need to do?”

She could almost feel him giving her the look through the phone. “You know.”

“I am sending some of Grayson’s men to guard you. They will be in your house, outside of your house, and anywhere you go at all times.”

Felicity ignored the pang in her chest. Of course he wouldn’t acknowledge what she just said. That’d mean he’d have to abandon a tradition hundred’s of years old if he didn’t bond with Julianna.

“Fine.”

“Felicity—”

She didn’t want to hear anything else he said. He’d done enough. So she hung up on him and shoved the phone back into her purse. When it started beeping again a few moments later, she didn’t answer.

Beth gave her a worried glance. “Everything okay?”

“Nope.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

“Not unless you wanna talk about what happened with Lucas Blackmoore.”

“Nope,” Beth said.

“Okay then.”

Dom needed to find Zeke. After the attempt on his and Felicity’s lives, the alpha could not stand any longer.

The were Zeke lived with his pack in a town outside of Nixa in southwestern Missouri. He owned the huge chunk of land, the largest out of all the were alphas in the country. His land extended from southwestern Missouri down into northern Arkansas and across to Oklahoma, and even included a portion of the southern tip of Kansas.

Zeke had built a nice little army to protect it too. The men and women of his little coalition were trained well from all the intel Dom had gathered on him. Zeke was a smart man, but a crazy one. He killed his own father to claim the Alpha position, widowing his own mother. He’d yet to take his own woman but his intel suggested it was his top priority. Some rumors even said that not having his mate and being alive for so long when most weres had already found their mate was part of the madness. He craved his mate, he yearned to find her, and as a were he’d stop at nothing until he did.

That’s why Zeke wants the presidency. With two weres already on the council, his third vote would pass the new nonsense he’d been spouting. As of right now, the weres had a strict law about mating rituals. Zeke wanted his population to grow to be even bigger than it already was. To do that he wants to bring forth a new law that will make males seek out their mates and claim them no matter which pack they came from.

Most weres do this naturally on their own, but Zeke wanted to push against nature’s work. Possibly out of his own frustration from not finding his mate. If Zeke did win the presidency and get a law like this passed it would spell trouble for all weres. Weres from different packs were highly territorial by nature. Under Zeke’s law any man, alpha or not, could enter another pack’s territory on the claim of finding his mate. He could technically bed as many as possible under the premise. Packs were very territorial about their own, maybe more so than over their land. There would be bloodshed between packs. Dom couldn’t let this happen.