Chapter Sixteen
Olivia
He left her. Olivia’s thoughts kept swirling through her mind that he had left her. Someone who lived a few minutes away had been attacked— nearly killed— and Dominic who was supposed to be her protector, had left her there alone.
Once again, she felt like a fool for thinking that Dominic was anything more than the animal that he was. Had it only been a few hours before that she thought that something had broken down between them? That when they had made love that time, the pain of their pasts had surfaced and they had been there to take care of each other?
God, he was good, very good to even fool a strong-willed girl like herself. She’d never fallen for a man’s sharp tongue and sexy charm before, but she had fallen stupidly for Dominic. But it was all too much, too intense, too much happening.
Just a few days before she had been happily studying chemistry— well not happily studying chemistry, but studying chemistry in her little single dorm attached to her suite with a roommate that she liked well enough. Now she was hiding in a log cabin in the woods, in weather that hadn’t seen sun in what felt like forever, the threat of danger very real. And of course, she was being protected by a man who drove her insane in every sense of the word and the only person who had ever made her feel that way. Yet considering how quickly he pulled away from her and cut her off, she was the only one who felt that way.
Everything was too much, she couldn’t sit in that little cabin anymore. The restless feeling inside wasn’t like those of her childhood where she wanted to escape because she felt overprotected and bored. This feeling inside of her was different, it was the burning of tears, the prickle of loneliness, and the deep cuts of a heart ready to shatter.
She wasn’t going to sit around and wait any longer to let herself fall apart further. Back in Dominic’s room she started to stuff things in her bag. There was no way she was going to stay another minute in the house being suffocated by Dominic and the threats that surrounded her. There was a tiny ray of hope that she would get out of the house before Dominic came back from his race through the woods. She didn’t want to have to explain herself or even worse have to say goodbye to Dominic.
But as luck would have it, just as she was zipping her bag, she heard the cabin door open. Dominic called her name, but she could feel the clog of tears in her throat and couldn’t manage to call back to him. She heard his heavy footsteps as he walked back to where she was in the bedroom.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
Olivia looked up at him and saw that he wasn’t looking at her but at the bags she was packing.
“I’m leaving. I can’t stay here anymore. I need to go back to school.”
She had been hopeful that she’d be able to keep her voice sounding steady and resolute but her emotions were betraying her, wavering with all the thoughts that she was thinking.
“What are you talking about? You heard what Atticus said last night and you heard what Patrick said today. You can’t leave.”
“Well, I can’t stay here! I can’t even breathe here. Do you have any idea what it’s like to have spent your life trapped, having your every move watched?”
Tears were streaming down her cheeks but she wasn’t going to stop them. This explosion of emotions was coming fast and furious and she couldn’t stop any of it. It was finally spilling over and Olivia slumped down onto the bed. It sagged next to her as Dominic’s heavy weight sat next to her. He placed his large hand on her back and the warmth spread through her, calming the storm that was brewing inside. Her sobs turned to hiccups and words started to tumble from her lips.
“When my mom was killed by a rogue wolf, she’d stood no chance. The wolf had been trying to take over a pack and had set his sights on ours. He was trying to take down Atticus and take his place as Alpha but my mom got in the way. She was human, the wolf didn’t know that, and he’d fought her. She couldn’t fight back and was slaughtered.”
Olivia took a breath, finally feeling like a weight was lifting off her chest with each sentence she spoke. She’d never talked about her mom’s death, not really. She didn’t remember much of it and didn’t want to ever hurt her father by asking for the details. But she did know that other than losing a mom that day, she lost any bit of breathing space she’d ever have.
“After that, my father was crazy with the need to protect me. He knew I would always be in the same situation as she was in, that I’d never be able to protect myself so he over compensated for the fact that I couldn’t shift by watching over me like a hawk. All the time, I was so stifled, so stuck, when I finally got the chance to break away I took it and went away to college. But now I’m back, in the danger that he was always worried about, and I just want to get away.”
Dominic’s hand was rubbing circles on her back and she was feeling the flow of her blood slow down, her heart rate return to normal. The hiccups of tears had subsided and nothing was left of her voice but a slow whisper.
“But I can’t let you leave,” he told her.
“Just because he wants you to, you don’t need to sit and babysit me. I’ll be fine on my own.” For the first time in her life, she wasn’t sure that was entirely true.
“I’m not protecting you because Atticus told me to. I’m doing it because I need to protect you. I need to know that you’re safe.”
Olivia looked up at him and saw genuine emotion swim through his eyes. Why was he so complicated?