Chapter Three
Dominic
Dominic had set out early in the morning to go and retrieve Atticus’ daughter. He had been right, once Dominic had shifted and got his muscles moving through the woods, it had only taken him a couple of hours to find her school. Having her attend a school inside of the kingdom yet through the woods so that it was easy for her pack to reach her had been a smart move by Atticus. Of course, he assumed it was Atticus who had chosen that destination for Olivia, most likely a compromise for letting her leave the pack at all.
As he neared the edge of the woods and was about to spill out into the kingdom, Dominic slowed his pace. A little unsure of just where the woods ended, he decided to stop behind a large tree and take out clothes from the sack he wore around his neck. When he first began shifting, it didn’t take long to realize that sometimes a shift was unavoidable. When emotions coursed quickly through a shifters body, it was sometimes hard to keep the wolf inside quiet and an unintentional shift would occur, and tattered fabric would be left scattered around on the ground.
Once the wolf was ready to calm itself and shift back to human form, he was left naked and most often embarrassed in public. It did eventually become easier to control the wolf inside but even still, Dominic had learned to always carry a sack of clothes just in case. It was also handy to have spare clothes in case he purposefully shifted quickly before he could change. Though he hated the unexpected need to shift because it did ruin a lot of clothes.
Dominic emerged out of the woods in jeans and a bulky hooded-sweatshirt but barely out of breath from his run. No one who saw him on campus would even suspect that he was a shifter. While the people in the kingdom knew that there were shifters among them, civilians very rarely knew who those shifters were. They kept their identities a secret as best as they could and lived in harmony among regular people. Especially being royalty, no one in the kingdom knew that the royal family were comprised of shifters.
The scent he’d smelled on the scarf became stronger the closer he got to campus and by the time he finally made it there, he was almost dizzy with the scent of her. The throngs of students milling about the campus didn’t bother him in his quest to find her, as he felt like he was being pulled by a string directly toward her. The moment he saw Olivia, even though he’d never seen a picture of her, he knew it was her.
She stood there outside of the school, a bag flung around her, arms wrapped tightly around her body, watching for him. Her brows were furrowed in discontent and her lips were pushed out in the sexiest little pout he’d ever seen. Suddenly it wasn’t just the scent of her that made him dizzy but the sight of this blonde, wavy haired beauty that made him lose all control of his thoughts.
When Olivia turned to him, her eyes were the color of blue glaciers, Dominic could feel his wolf stirring inside of him, making him feel primal, animalistic toward her. Something in her face reflected his own thoughts and he was relatively aware that his legs were still moving but he had once again lost his words.
Just mere steps from her, Dominic knew he had to say something. Anything.
“Olivia?”
She nodded yes without speaking.
For some reason he was dying to hear her voice.
“Dominic,” he introduced himself.
They shook hands and a shock went through his body, making the wolf inside of him restless. He did his best to ignore it, pushing his wolf back inside. He had to keep the shift at bay until he was back in the woods. It had been years since he’d felt so close to shifting without meaning to do so.
“We should go, I promised your father I’d have you back quickly.”
His voice came out gruffer than he intended and quickly he spun away from her, afraid that if he looked in her eyes another minute his wolf would spring out of him.
Steps squished behind him as he led Olivia across the grass of the campus and back toward the woods. Inside of him something more was stirring, his steps moved faster afraid that he would shift right in front of everyone at any minute. He was sure there were eyes on him as he nearly began to run toward the safety of the trees but all he could feel was Olivia’s cool stare at his back.
“Could you slow down?” she asked. He could hear the heavy breathing coming from her as she tried to keep up with him.
He grunted and took a few deep breaths himself, slowing down the pace and trying to control his own body. His slowing of a few paces allowed for her to catch up to him so they were now walking alongside each other.
Just a few more steps, he told himself, as the warmth of her body radiated to his. I can shift in a few more steps.
“Do I know you?” she asked him.
Afraid his own voice would betray how unsteady he felt, he simply shook his head.
“I do, I’m sure of it,” she said.
Her gaze raked over his face and her heat began to feel like burning. What the hell was happening to him?
“You’re the prince!” she exclaimed.
“Shhh!” he hushed her sharply. He was already having a nearly impossible time keeping himself together, the last thing he needed was his celebrity status as a prince to make things worse.
“Why would my dad be sending you to come get me? How do you even know him?”
Dominic’s eyes shifted towards her, taking a chance at glancing at her porcelain looking skin.
“I was sent to be part of your pack,” he answered simply.
“Our pack? Why?”
“There was a… disagreement… within my family. My father thought it would be best if I come to stay with your pack for a while. To be able to protect the kingdom.”
Now that Olivia had placed him, he felt her eyes move from examining his face to looking at the bulk of his body.
“So, the prince has become a protector?”
Finally, the woods were within reach. He didn’t want to answer any more questions. He just wanted to return to her pack—well, their pack, and drop her off in Atticus’ cabin.
“What was the disagreement?” she prodded further.
“Do you always ask so many questions when you first meet someone?” he snapped.
She scowled at him. “This should be a fun trip back,” he heard her remark under her breath.
Finally, they had reached the woods. Behind the same tree he’d dressed behind, Dominic let his inner wolf rip through him. Olivia stared at him, wide eyed, but her expression unreadable.
He waited for a few moments, feeling slightly better now that he’d shifted, but still off balance in her presence.
“Aren’t you going to shift so we can get going?” he asked impatiently.
Her eyebrow cocked in question. “I don’t shift.”
Dominic waited for her to give an explanation to that statement, but she didn’t. She just crossed her arms and stuck her hip out in a stubborn stance.
“Alright, why don’t you shift?” he finally asked.
“Because I’m not a shifter.”
Her tone of voice had changed from questions and wonder at him to pure annoyance.
“What do you mean you’re not a shifter?”
“I mean exactly that: I can’t shift.”
“How can the daughter of an Alpha not be able to shift?”
Olivia’s eyes broke away from him for the first time since he’d seen her on campus. Her gaze fell to the muddy floor of the woods and she took a moment before she spoke again. This time, he didn’t feel impatient as he waited for her answer, he was simply curious.
“Because I’m not pure shifter. I’m half human. My mom, she was a human. I didn’t inherit my dad’s abilities.”
Dominic hadn’t known that about Atticus or about his daughter. He had assumed that such a strong pack Alpha would have married a woman of equal female shifter strength. But a human? That was a surprise to Dominic and the way shifters usually operated.
“Why didn’t Atticus tell me this yesterday?”
“Because being and Alpha and having a daughter who can’t shift isn’t exactly something to be proud of. Not to mention having to let me ride on your back isn’t a thing most guys want to do. So, are we going to get moving or not?” It was Olivia’s turn to be impatient.
Dominic bristled at the thought of Olivia riding on his back. He could hardly stand the feeling inside of him at just being in her presence, how was he supposed to handle her riding on his back?
“Well, it’s not like I’m going to make this trek on foot. I could always just go back to my dorm, it’s where I’d rather be anyway.”
She turned to leave, and Dominic couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Atticus had been completely right about how difficult she was.
“Fine,” he grumbled and bent low to the ground so she could climb on.
She turned back toward him and hesitated only a second when her fingers brushed his fur.
A hot surge ran through him as she climbed on and laced her fingers through his thick fur, her legs wrapped around his body. What had seemed like a short and easy run before was sure to suddenly feel like an eternity now.