Chapter Eighteen

Dominic’s ears rang and his mouth tasted like blood.   He tried to shake Giuliana’s hand off him, and she tightened her grip on his wrist.

“Hold still so I can heal you, you ass!” Giuliana barked.

“I’m healed enough!” Dominic groaned and stumbled to his feet.  “We’ve got to find her.  And you need to go back home.”

He was in the middle of a scene that echoed a long ago nightmare.  Did the Bianchi pack know? Was that why they’d attacked him when he was with his mate?  She was gone.  He’d failed to protect her. 

He’d failed – again.  Despite everything, despite being bitten, training as a foot soldier, working his way up through the ranks – he still couldn’t protect those he loved.

The twisted wreck of the limo was sideways in the middle of the street. The scene was crawling with cops, but they were very careful to stay out of Dominic’s way.  Most of the cops were on the Blood Oath Pack payroll – and they also needed to be able to call in the pack members whenever things went magically sideways. 

The explosion had sent their car spinning, and then the door had been ripped from its hinges.  Their driver was dead.  When Dominic lunged from the car, he’d been stunned by a hail of silver bullets. They couldn’t kill a warrior class shifter, but they’d knocked him out, and he’d sprawled on the ground, fading in and out of consciousness, until Giuliana showed up.

Romano was being healed by Dante.  The stream of blood from his nose had slowed, and his eyes were back in focus.

Other pack members were on the scene too, some in wolf form, sniffing around.  Unfortunately, Zoey had been pulled into a van and his scenters had no idea where the van was.  

 The only good news was that Dominic – right before he passed out – had called headquarters, and they’d been able to seal off the roads that bordered their territory.  The van had tried to cross back over to the east side, but they’d run into a roadblock and driven off.

The van had vanished, though.  It could be anywhere.

And now more bad news was storming up – in the form of Arturo, with Ottavio and Carlo on his heels.

Giuliana stepped away from Dominic, folding her arms defensively in front of her face.

“What the hell is my niece doing out here at the scene of an attack?” Arturo bellowed.  The bones on his face rippled and his ears were pointy and fur-tipped.

“I came without asking him.  He was semi-conscious when I got here and started healing him. The minute he gained consciousness, he tried to push me away and send me home.” Giuliana was pale her voice was weak.

“You’d say anything to cover for Dominic,” Ottavio snapped at her. 

“Bite me, asshole,” she spit at him. “You’d say anything to get another Capo in trouble.”

“You are coming home,” Arturo growled at her, “and you will not leave the house without a squad of bodyguards. Ever again.” 

Giuliana’s face went white with anger.

“You will regret this,” she informed her uncle.    Her back was stiff with fury as she let two foot soldiers escort her to an SUV.

Arturo spun on Dominic with a snarl.  “And you! Letting her come here?  It’s only the fact that I owe you my life many times over that keeps you breathing.  You are no longer a Capo.  You are no longer in my pack.”

Dominic stared at him in shock and swallowed hard.  Just like that.  His pack, his family, his protection, his identity – snatched away from him.

“Yes, sir,” he said tonelessly.

That meant that he was searching for Zoey on his own.

“I respectfully request release from the pack, to go with Dominic,” Romano said.

“I don’t want you,” Dominic bit out.  “You’re no good to me.  You never have been, you do nothing but get in my way, and I’m sick of carrying your deadbeat ass. As soon as I claim my mate, I will be leaving the city.  And I will not be taking you with me.”  He saw the look of dark hurt in Romano’s eyes.  But he wouldn’t do that to Romano.  Life outside of the pack would be too dangerous. And the only way to get rid of the big, loyal, dumb bastard was to make him hate Dominic.

Romano’s face went blank.

Dominic turned and walked away, quickly.  He made it around the block before he shifted, and then threw back his head and howled in rage.

Thoughts of Zoey floated in his head.  She needed him.  He couldn’t go feral, couldn’t give up now.  With agonizing effort, he grabbed ahold of his wolf and wrestled it back inside him.  His wolf didn’t want to go, and it fought him all the way, making the transition sheer torture – but he did it.  He broke his own bones to force them back into human shape, dragged his fur back under his skin. 

He couldn’t think as well when he was a wolf.  He needed to be able to plan, to strategize.

He crouched on the ground, panting.

Think, you stupid bastard, think! Was Arturo going to cancel the blockade and let the van with Zoey escape? No, he probably wouldn’t do that – because the van full of Bianchi wolves had invaded Blood Oath pack territory, and he needed to capture and kill them.

But if Dominic was no longer Blood Oath, then Zoey was no longer Arturo’s concern. Zoey thought that Dominic was hard-hearted and calculating – Arturo made Dominic look like a girl scout. 

A familiar voice sliced through his fog of panic.

It was Romano, yelling his name.   Romano came barreling towards him, furious.

“Fuck! I’ve lost her, damn it!” Dominic howled his sorrow.  “Go away, Romano! I can’t save you, I can’t save anyone!”

“I never asked you to save me, asshole!” Romano barked at him. “I asked you to let me serve by your side, and that’s where I am as long as I’m breathing.”

Dominic fixed his bleary, wretched gaze on Romano.  “I don’t deserve you.  And I have to go look for Zoey now.”

“Cin just called me, she’s got a line on where they are.   Street kid network, they all keep in touch with each other.  37th and Harris.  And no, you don’t.  But you’re fucking stuck with me.”

He was talking to Dominic’s backside, because the second Romano said the street names, Dominic had gone wolf again, and was tearing down the street.

*****

“Are we there yet?” Zoey chanted, as they drove. “Are we there yet? Are we there yet?”

“Shut up!” Luigi, Primo’s nephew, bellowed in frustration.  “Damn it,” he complained to Salvatore, Primo’s first in command.  “Just let me kill her!”

Salvatore shook his head. “Your uncle said no.  She’s more useful alive. For now.”

Luigi gave her a dirty look. “Doesn’t mean I can’t slap you around some,” he growled.  “Say ‘are we there yet’ one more time.  I dare you!”

Zoey grinned, her eyes glowing with malice. “Are we there yet? Are we-”

Luigi’s fist shot towards her face.  Salvatore was faster, grabbing his wrist.  “Your uncle said no! If you hit her too hard, she’ll die!”

“So what?” Luigi yelled. “Nobody disrespects me like that, nobody! Let the fuck go of me!”

He struggled, and Salvatore held on to his wrist.  Luigi and Salvatore fell to the floor on the back of the van, wrestling with each other. Zoey took the opportunity to jump to her feet, lunged for the back door of the van, and fumbled for the lock.

Before Salvatore and Luigi could grab her, the door flew open and she fell out onto the street. The van was only moving at a crawl, because they were skulking around the west side, trying to find a way to get past Arturo’s men.  They’d been complaining about it the whole time.

They were on a tiny side street. Zoey shot down the street, heart in her throat, and made it on to the main road, but then a growl behind her made her spin around.  She stared at two large, angry, wolves.  Salvatore and Luigi, who stood there facing her with their tails swishing.

There was no point in running – but she wouldn’t make this easy for them.

“You fleabags are going to have to drag me back,” she yelled. “I’ll gauge your eyes out, you mangy poodles!”

They froze.  And they turned.  And they ran.

Wow.  Was she somehow actually a badass, and she’d never known it?  “Yeah, you better run!” she yelled at their retreating backs.

Then she saw what they were running from – two more enormous wolves who were barreling down the street towards her.  Dominic, and Romano.

They reached her and shifted back to human form, and Dominic grabbed her and squeezed her so tight she groaned in protest.

She looked up at him, blinking away tears of relief and love and gratitude.  “What took you so long?”