Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 129756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 649(@200wpm)___ 519(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 649(@200wpm)___ 519(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
Her lips thinned. “We might not love each other now, but that doesn’t mean we can’t feel that way. We just need to take the time to get to know—”
“What we need is to go our separate ways.” Done wasting his time on this shit, Dominic turned his back on her and headed for the gate. “There are other shifters, Rosemary. Talk to them, make your offer to them.” They’d tell her the same thing, and then maybe she’d realize she was pissing in the wind.
“You don’t want to walk away from me, Dominic.”
Slipping through the gate, he glanced back at her. “Oh?”
She licked her lips. “I didn’t want to tell you this because I was worried you’d freak out. When I’m around you, I swear I feel my wolf starting to stir. Not awaken, exactly. But . . . it’s like you disturb her sleep. As if you make that sleep lighter. It could be that we’re true mates.”
His gaze flicked upward, and he almost laughed at the sheer ridiculousness of that statement. “Go home, Rosemary.”
“You know it, too, Dominic. I know you do—you gave off all the signals of a male who’s found his mate,” she said, her words coming sharp and fast. “You may not want a mating bond, but what about your wolf? Wouldn’t he like the gift of finding his mate? Don’t you see, Dominic? We could all get what we want out of this. It’s the perfect solution!”
Locking the gate, Dominic firmly stated, “We’re not true mates, Rosemary.”
“But my wolf—”
“Doesn’t exist. Even if she did, it doesn’t change that this situation will not work for me. Like I said to you earlier, you don’t know a damn thing about what I want. You just think you do.” With that, he stalked off.
“It doesn’t surprise me that you’d walk away from this!” she yelled. “It just proves I was right, that you don’t want attachments!”
Ignoring her, Dominic spoke to Gabe. “If she comes back, send her away.”
Gabe nodded. “Got it.”
Hoping to walk off his anger in the woods, Dominic didn’t hurry back to the caves. “Signals,” she’d said. He hadn’t given her any fucking signals. He hadn’t led her on by word or deed. Hadn’t done anything that would give her the false impression that he was looking for something serious.
She was wrong in thinking he didn’t want a serious relationship eventually. He’d come across countless females in his time who’d claimed they “knew” why he didn’t commit, who’d been so certain that they’d seen through him. They’d tossed out all kinds of theories—he feared commitment, he was pining for someone he couldn’t have, he’d become relationship-shy after a woman he’d loved had betrayed him.
They’d all been wrong.
It had long ago become instinct for Dominic to keep a large part of himself separate from others. His parents lost their first son, Tobias, when the kid was ten. His mother, Allegra, had crashed the family car after falling asleep at the wheel, and the brother he’d never known was killed. She’d never stopped hating herself for it. Grief had begun to drive his parents apart, so they’d had Dominic to “fix” their relationship, to “heal” them and bring them back together.
The problem was that they’d never been able to fully see Dominic. They’d always compared him to Tobias. Always marveled over their similarities and frowned at their differences.
In many ways, Tobias had been held up to him as a measuring stick. No matter what he’d done, Dominic could never quite meet their expectations. And when someone didn’t see you, when they’d twinned your identity up with someone else’s and made you feel both unknown and unwanted, the world could be a very lonely place.
As an adult, Dominic could see that his parents had held back from him out of fear that they’d lose him just as they’d lost Tobias—they hadn’t wanted to feel that same level of pain again. But as a child, Dominic hadn’t seen it that way. He’d felt unimportant, unloved, and not good enough. Felt like he didn’t belong.
He’d not only maintained an emotional distance from his parents, he’d also developed a habit of keeping that same distance from others. He’d subconsciously hidden his pain and anger as well as his true self, only giving people small glimpses of the real Dominic. It was something he hadn’t really noticed until the day his mother left when he was just thirteen—deserting both him and his father—and Dominic hadn’t felt more than a twinge of hurt.
His own mother had abandoned him, but he hadn’t felt the expected level of betrayal and pain. As if the true impact of her actions just hadn’t been able to touch him. He’d realized then just how much he’d withdrawn from others. Realized that he’d built a metaphorical shell around himself.