“Fuck,” I cursed under my breath as I held Dominick against my body and walked us toward the hotel room.

My body was buzzing with the need to go find those two guys and give them a real beating. I didn’t want to hurt them too badly before, so while I had hit them, I had been holding back so as to not break their bones or something, though I could have done so, quite easily.

What the fuck was wrong with those idiots?

There was absolutely nothing wrong with Dominick, or how he looked. Sure, he was a little pretty, but so what? I knew, instinctively the reason I had no problem with Dominick’s looks was because I was an Alpha and he was an Omega, and we were both shifters while the offenders had been human. Dominick’s looks would have attracted any Alpha that had interest in him, so of course I saw nothing wrong with it. Humans, though, were stranger people than us shifters, so as far as it didn’t concern me, usually, I just left them alone.

There was no way I could this time, though. How fucking dare they!

I had been all set to ignore the whole thing, even if it was all happening right in my face. But Dominick looked fine, and I’d figured if he wasn’t going to turn it into a big deal, then neither was I. That had changed, when I saw his eyes start to glisten with tears after a while, head down, body trembling, and his hands holding tightly onto the beer bottle.

By the haunted look on his face, I knew there was definitely a story there, but it didn’t matter right then, because my instincts pretty much took over from there. There were a bunch of idiots bullying my Omega, to the point that he could make a face like that and nearly cry, when everything he’d shown me so far made me think he was strong. I was his Alpha, so why the fuck was I not doing anything?

Really, if that attendant hadn't appeared to get me to calm down, I really would have hurt them in some permanent manner, and I could only frown in unhappiness to know that I couldn’t anyway, in case they got the police involved. One of the top rules taught in shifter one oh one at a tender age, was that shifters were supposed to act discreet around humans. Starting a fight with them wasn’t being discreet. It would be better to let go while it was still a minor thing.

Still, I was incredibly upset as I walked us back to our room.

Once we got to the room, I had to hold myself back from slamming the door, and led Dominick over to the bed, nudging him until he sat down on the bed. He blinked his bright, wet eyes at me, and my heart completely went soft.

This is my duty, I thought to myself seriously, full of determination. To protect my Omega!

Besides protecting him, I had to make sure he was okay.

Once he was seated, I went to the night stand, where there was a landline. I picked it up and dialed for room service. Luckily, I’d picked the package that came with meals included to the cost for staying a night in the room, for both dinner and breakfast. Once the line was picked up, I ordered something to eat so it would soak up the alcohol in Dominick’s blood. He hadn't had much, but I was pretty sure he hadn't done a lot of drinking before. It would have been better if he’d eaten before the alcohol, but Dominick was a shifter, not a human, so it wasn’t like he could have that strong a hangover, if he even got one at all.

As I waited for the food to come up, I paced around the room trying to get rid of some of the nervous energy still rolling through me. Rarely did I ever involve myself in violence, especially when the cause or the reason for it didn’t have a thing to do with me. Usually, with a few words, I could stop it, or I could walk away. I had held by these two philosophies always, and not just because I’d been taught by my martial arts teachers that just because you could fight didn’t necessarily mean you had to.

This had everything to do with me, though. It wasn’t something I could walk away from, and I had been pushed to the point I didn’t want to just sort it all by talking. Dominick reacting the way he did had caught me off guard, and my reaction to how he’d acted had surprised me.

By the time the knock came on the door, and I opened it to let in the waiter pushing in a cart of food, I was just starting to calm down.

“Just leave everything outside your door and give a call down when you’re done,” he told us. “Someone will come pick up the dishes.”

I nodded and waited for him to leave, then locked the door behind him and turned to Dominick, who was looking at the food in front him with blank eyes.

“Eat,” I said, my voice coming out a little rough, and I cleared my throat and tried to speak a little softer. “It’ll make you feel better and fall asleep faster, so eat it all.”

“What about you?” Dominick asked quietly.

“I’ll take a few bites, but you haven’t had anything since you ate in the car, and that was hours ago. You could stand to eat a few more meals. Just…do that, I need to go to the bathroom, okay?”

I waited for his nod of acknowledgment, then waited a bit more to see him start eating, before I went into the bathroom. I moved to the sink, turned the tap on, and splashed some water on my face so it could help me to cool down a bit. Then I held onto the edges of the counter and looked at myself in the mirror.

My face was still set in an irritated expression, my lips pressed flat together. I closed my eyes and took in a few calming breaths, getting myself to calm down, until it no longer felt like my skin was itching to let my wolf out to deal with the mess. Shifting in a town, even one so small, was an idea just fraught with disasters.

When I was calm enough, I pulled away from the counter, washed my hands and wiped my face, then left the bathroom.

Dominick had eaten quite a bit, more than half the plate of food was gone, and I let out a sigh of relief. If he could eat that quickly, then he must be a little okay. He had slowed down, and when I stepped out of the bathroom, he put the plate down and looked at me.

“Are you done?” I asked.

He nodded his head, and pushed the plate slightly toward me, silently indicating that he’d left the rest of it for me. I really didn’t feel like eating, but I knew I had to, so I sighed and went to sit down beside him. Instead of taking the food first, though, I looked over at him, inspecting his face. His hair was falling out of the style he’d put it in that morning, strands of it falling over his forehead, and I held back the impulse to reach out and stroke those hairs back.

“You can take a shower or something to cool yourself down,” I said. Looking at the food. “Just make sure it’s warm, it’ll make you feel much better.”

When he didn’t move for a long time, I looked over at him, to find him watching me as he bit down on his lower lip.

“Would you eat first?” he asked.

I arched an eyebrow at the note of anxiety in his voice, but did as he wanted. I picked up the fork, and started to eat what he’d left on the plate. It felt a bit awkward with Dominick watching me so closely. I didn’t turn to check, but I was pretty sure he didn’t look away. Still, I ate it all, then put the fork down and pushed the plate aside.

Then I turned to Dominick, who was still watching me, and frowned.

“Why didn’t you try to stand up for yourself?” I asked.

That was what I didn’t understand. There was a reason he didn’t talk back to me, even when I could tell he wanted to. It was because I was his Alpha, even if I was just an Alpha, he had to be careful around me because of pack hierarchy. But his reaction to those guys had annoyed me. At least, even with me, he could show some defiance, but it had totally looked like what those bastards had said was getting to him, and he hadn't moved to do a thing about it.

It bothered me.

Dominick seemed to be surprised by the blunt question, and his expression froze. Then, he looked down. His hands, clasped together in his lap suddenly tightened around each other, until I could see his knuckles grow white and I feared he might break his own fingers.

“Dominick,” I said, my voice lowering. “Tell me? Why would you let those guys talk about you like that and not do anything? Clearly it bothered you, so you should have spoken up. People like them…”

My voice trailed off as I remembered the shit those bastards said, my anger coming back full force. I looked away from Dominick, clenching my hand into a fist and digging my fingers into my palm as I tried to calm myself down. It took a minute, and when I felt I wouldn’t be glaring at him so that it spooked him while I was looking at him, I turned back to Dominick. He was sneaking peeks at me, his shoulders hunched as he tried to make himself appear smaller. I couldn’t help but frown.

“I don’t know,” Dominick said, lowering his head further, his voice so quiet I wouldn’t have heard him if I didn’t have good hearing.

My frown deepened. “What do you mean, you don’t know? Even if you were worried about there being more of them than you, when I got back to the table, you could have done something. There’s no reason to keep your mouth shut when other people bother you, okay? I’m your Alpha now, so I will always back you up.”

The words were out of my mouth before I could think too much about them, and I pursed my lips, wondering why I’d just said that. It was true, definitely, but it sounded a little cliché, just saying it like that. I wondered if Dominick even believed me. And like he heard that little question in my mind, his eyes looked up at me. There was surprise in his expression, and behind it, disbelief.

Clearly, he didn’t trust me that much yet, but it wasn’t much of a surprise so I wasn’t let down. It wasn’t that he didn’t find me dependable, but because we hadn't known each other nearly enough yet to build that kind of trust. I didn’t even blame him for his reaction, but a part of me couldn’t help but feel dissatisfied. I pushed it aside and ignored it for the moment.

“Go and have a shower, now,” I said, waving him off. “Or you could draw enough water for a bath. If I don’t hear the shower, I’ll assume you went with bath, and if you’re not out in an hour, I will be coming in after you.”

He hesitated for a moment, then got up. He moved to the bathroom door, then paused and turned around.

“Um, I don’t have a change of clothes here, all the luggage is in the car…”

“It’s fine, you don’t have to worry about that. There are a couple of robes in the bathroom, you can change into one instead of your clothes first, if you want. It doesn’t matter. Do you need help, or anything?”

He shook his head rapidly. “No, I’m fine.”

Dominick shot me a last look, before opening the door and disappearing into the bathroom. I arched an eyebrow as the door closed behind him. Why did I feel like the way he watched me had changed again? One more time plus the several times it had happened since we first met.

With him in the bathroom, I frowned to myself as I thought of Dominick’s non-answer. What had he meant by, ‘he didn’t know?’ It wasn’t a straight answer, definitely not one I could accept, but I knew it wouldn’t be good to push this.

I decided to forget it for the moment and went to make a call to have the plate taken, and moved the dishes outside the door, into the hall, like the waiter had said. Then I sat back on the bed and waited for Dominick to finish up. I could hear the shower running in there, so he’d probably decided on that, and I waited for him to be done.

By the time he got back, I was almost back to normal. I could think more rationally, and I was sure I wouldn’t be overcome. There wasn’t much more I could do about the situation anyway, so there was no point in blowing it all out of proportion when I could just let it all slide. It had happened already, and overthinking on it was beneficial to no one. I did know, however, that I needed to make sure it never happened again.

Now that Dominick and I were mated, I would be in a lot of places where he would be, but that didn’t necessarily mean we would go everywhere together. And, thinking of him being out on his own and having people bully him like that while he did nothing didn’t sit well with me. What would he do if they decided to get physical? It would be so easy to hype up a situation like that, and all sorts of worrying scenarios ran through my mind in that time he’d locked himself up in the bathroom.

So when he stepped out, I had my eyes trained on the door. When I saw him, though, I was frozen for a moment. Dominick was freshly showered with his old clothes on, but in slight disarray and his hair completely out of its previous style. He had his hair falling over his forehead, and the look made him seem even younger than he was. My heart beat erratically for a moment, and I felt like I couldn’t speak.

Then, I shook my head and regained my senses. I forced myself to act normal, and patted the space beside me for Dominick to sit down for a bit. He hesitated for a moment, then came closer, and sat down in the exact place I’d patted. I arched an eyebrow, thinking how not that long ago, he would have at least put some space between us.

“Dominick,” I started, keeping my voice as gentle as I could make it. “I… can't say I know what it was like for you in there, or whatever you were thinking when those guys said all that they did to you. But you can't let something like that happen again, all right?”

He didn’t make any reaction for a long moment, and then he tentatively lifted his head so he could meet my eyes. I met his gaze with a serious one of my own, trying to impart to him the importance of my little pep talk.

“The next time something like that happens, you have to say something and stop it, okay? I didn’t try to do anything, not because it didn’t bother me, but because I thought it was your right to speak up for yourself. I only spoke for you when you seemed to be a little overwhelmed.”

His head rose higher, until he was properly looking at me.

“You want guys like those to stop quickly, or the situation can only elevate and become and even bigger problem. Lucky for you, you weren’t alone this time, which is probably the only reason none of those idiots even tried to get near you. When people drink, they sometimes get bolder, so someone drunk off their ass would have tried to get closer to you to bother you more. Do you understand me?”

He nodded his head slowly.

“So always remember not to let the situation get to that point, and if someone does come after you, there’s nothing wrong with walking away. You don’t deserve to be slandered by a couple of hicks, all right? None of them know you, or anything about you, and they were just stupid humans spouting bullshit when they know nothing. Next time, tell yourself that, and you’ll find speaking up will become a lot easier.”

Dominick nodded again, looking surer of himself with the movement this time.

“Thank you,” Dominick said, his eyes sincere. “For what you did and said back there…for defending me, thank you.”

I was frozen for another moment before I looked away with a cough. “It’s nothing,” I said, then stood up.

Whenever I slept, it was usually naked for the sake of comfort, but because there was someone around, I left all my clothes on, minus my jacket. Then I had Dominick get up so I could drag the sheets off the bed. I had to bend a little to hold onto it, and I winced. Dominick saw the look, but I shook my head at him before he could ask. He hesitated, biting down on his lower lip, but said nothing.

Even though my two opponents had been humans, neither of them had been weak. I had hit them, they had also hit me, and when I bent down even slightly, it just made it more obvious how my side hurt, and when I felt that, I realized my right hand also hurt from the fight. I moved to lie down on the bed, lying on the side that wasn’t hurt, then I waited.

Dominick got in on his side, lifting the sheets to get under them. Unexpectedly, once he did, he moved until he was right next to me, then snuggled up to me.

My body stiffened for a moment, and his own mirrored the move. As I slowly relaxed, so did he. I looked down at the head of blond hair that was buried in my chest, wondering what he was doing. I thought the entire situation was just a bit weird.

Why was Dominick being cute and cuddly? And was he actually rubbing his face against my chest? Was it because I fought off those two men?

Well, of course I did. I was an Alpha. I wasn’t going beyond my duty by protecting my Omega.