They might have stayed like that for hours until one finally bested the other, if not for Grayson.

Grayson stepped forward looking even more haggard than usual. “We get it; you both have big fucking dicks. Now put them away so I can get home to my bruid.”

Slowly, the heavy-ass were on top of him transformed back into a man. A naked man who’s hand and legs pinned Dom’s. Dom still held Zeke’s head in his hands. The man’s short beard chafed his palms.

Zeke bent his head, getting in Dom’s face then growled. “Back up, vampire, before I eat you.”

Dom understood it. The man was an alpha and Dom was in his territory at his home. No way would Zeke back away, but Dom wouldn’t let the man slide on his slight against Felicity.

Dom tightened his grip on the weres face, letting him know he could snap his neck if he wanted to. “Don’t talk about Felicity Shaw if you want to keep living.”

Zeke’s eyes wobbled left and right unsteadily, and then he snapped his teeth in Dom’s face, his hot breath panting on his cheek. “Move!”

Dom rolled out from underneath the were then stood in a smooth move. “No more attempts on my life or you’re going to find out just how many people I know, some who think weres are little more than big dogs. You leave me alone and you and yours won’t get to meet them.”

“Don’t threaten me, Dominic. You’d never get passed my people. We’re better than you.” The were paced naked and agitated, his fists curling then uncurling. His athletic body was coated in a sheen of sweat and splattered with mud and grass stains.

“I will win the presidency, Zeke. You would do well to remember that. It’d bode well for you to have me as a friend on the council; not as an enemy.”

Zeke snapped his teeth at Dom. “If you win.” He flashed a smile. “I have a feeling you won’t.”

Zeke’s smile made Dom tense. That was a knowing smile.

Fuck. Zeke had done something or he knew something. Something that Dom didn’t know.

“Leave her out of this. Women have no part in this.”

Zeke’s crazy eyes glowed brighter. “Women have everything to do with this. Now get off my land, vampire.”

Dom licked his lips. “Thanks for the snack.”

The alpha growled deep and loud in his throat. His guards tensed but Dom gave a mock bow and left with his team.

In Grayson’s SUV, they headed for home.

“The bastard’s crazy as they come. Capable of doing anything to win,” Gray said.

“Yeah,” Dom said distractedly. “He’s up to something. I need you to find out what it is. He’s got an ace up his sleeve or something he believes is an ace.”

“That man’s a whack job. I’ll stay on top of it.”

“He made an attempt on my life. Felicity was with me,” Dom said as an afterthought.

Deep lines ran across Grayson’s forehead as he grimaced. “She growing on you?”

“Fast and hard.”

Grayson sighed. “You need to decide, Dom. I already looked into her. She isn’t the type to play mistress to you.”

Dom rubbed the stubble on chin as he gazed out into the dark night. “Do you think it’s possible I could win the election without Julianna?”

Grayson sucked in a deep breath. “You’re seriously considering this?”

“Just considering all my possibilities.”

“It’s never been done,” Grayson said.

“It’s never been tried either,” amended Dom.

“I think it’s possible, but what the fuck do I know. I’m not in to politics, man. As long as she has her own campaign to back on. Something that the women vampires can believe in and go for. Her coming from a poor life might work to make people like her.”

“And if it doesn’t then I lose and Zeke wins.”

Dom hated little else more than losing. He always found a way to win everything he wanted.

“Fuck, I hate this. I want her, Gray. I can’t stop thinking about her.”

Grayson’s dark eyes grew shadowed. Damn, Dom hated seeing that look his eyes. His brother’s mate was a mess. His bruid was an alcoholic. She drank as if it was her full-time job. It hurt Dom to see his brother troubled but he knew there was nothing he could do. The struggled rested between Grayson and Anita.

“Take her and get it out of your system,” Grayson said.

Dom winced at the thought. It wasn’t like that. He wanted to know more about her. He wanted to get to know her. What he wanted was more than just feeling her naked body against his, though he wanted that and would get it, soon. She seemed to have as much resistance to him as he did her. With luck on his side, the least he could do would get her in his bed.

“What if I take her and it doesn’t get her out of my system?” he asked softly.

Gray sighed, lit up a cigarette. He rolled down the window so the smoke flew out it in a stream. Dom caught the scent of poppy. Damn, it hurt knowing his brother had to lace his own hand-rolled cigarettes with that shit. It was the only way to help him get relaxed.

“Then you need to figure out what you want more. Her or the presidency.”

Dominic stared out the window lost in the thought. He wanted both. And he’d get both if it was the last thing he did.

“How is Anita doing?” Dom hated to ask.

His brother never wanted to talk about it. Dom hated that his brother had to gruel the burden alone. It’s how Gray preferred it. Said in the past that he didn’t want Dom and the rest of the family tied up in their problems. Dom finally left them to it after a while. Didn’t mean guilt didn’t eat at him over it though. Not when he wanted to help. But what help was there to a drunk who didn’t want to be fixed?

Gray’s frown had become permanent some time during the past ten years. After the second miscarriage, Anita had taken a turn for the worse. Dom couldn’t really blame her, and he didn’t think Gray could either. That’s why he didn’t push her to stop as much as he could. They were both clouded in guilt and pain.

Gray took a long pull on his cigarette. The red glow lit his lined face and stubble jaw making him look like an old cowboy sitting in front of a campfire about to tell a story.

“She’s the same. Or worse. Fuck, I don’t know. It’s one nightmare after the next.” He rubbed a hand across the back of his neck.

“Can I do anything?” Dom already knew the answer but asked anyway.

“No. Not a fuckin’ thing. Yesterday...” he coughed over the smoke, his voice turning raspy, “yesterday I came home to find her butt-ass naked on the living room floor and some vamp fucking her.”

Dom stiffened. Anita’s usual antics were comprised of vomiting, shaking, and falling over, needing to be carried everywhere, slurring, and sometimes hitting those around her if she had the energy. He’d never heard of this. She’d cheat on Grayson after all this time?

Gray caught Dom’s look and shook his head. “Don’t worry it’s not the first time. This was just the first time she had passed out during and he kept going.”

Dom started to speak but Gray held his hand out.

“I took care of it.”

“And the vampire doing it?”

Gray flicked his butt out the window and lit another one, the scent of poppy filling the car with its sweetness. “Don’t worry about it. I took care of it,” he said gruffly.

Dom bet he did. The man knew how to protect for a living but he also knew how to take life.

Grayson used to love Anita with an intensity that anyone who wasn’t blind could see. They fought sure, but they loved each other too much to let the fights bridge them apart. Then came the miscarriage. It had been hard, a brutal slice of pain that went through the whole family. But they had survived it, all of them. Anita had even started to smile again; her laughter came back after a few months. Then she’d gotten pregnant again and miscarried for the second time. That’s when she took to drink. Grayson’s life hadn’t been the same since.

The problem was Grayson blamed himself for her miscarriages. He still loved his bruid. He couldn’t let her go. He had tried to get her help, but she wouldn’t take it. Grayson was stuck between a shitty rock and another shitty rock. He’d live with her in this misery until the day he died. And there was nothing Dom could do about it.