reality. Not to sound insensitive, but this will feed that media circus I mentioned earlier.”
Mila puffed out a breath. “Her father will now officially want us both dead and buried.”
“It will never come to that,” Dominic said, his voice low and menacing. “I’ll kill him before I let him touch you.”
“Not if my cat gets there first.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Three weeks. It had been three weeks of “lying low” while they waited for the protests outside pack territory to stop and for the media attention to die down. If Emmet Pierson had been feeding it by making statements to reporters, the drama might have dragged on. But he’d been extraordinarily quiet since his daughter’s attempted suicide.
Rosemary was still in a coma, and Mila imagined that her father felt partially to blame for it. If his past behavior was anything to go by, Emmet would eventually displace that guilt onto someone else—probably Dominic.
Dean had also lapsed into silence. According to Adele, he still wasn’t taking her calls. If he had, she probably would have told him that she’d finally told Joel the truth. Mila only knew this because Joel had told Luke everything while in a drunken stupor at a local bar.
Joel had moved out of the house he shared with Adele, although only temporarily—he needed space to “think.” From what Luke said, Joel was mostly upset that Adele had been communicating with her true mate behind his back, just as Mila had anticipated.
Each time Mila’s phone rang, Dominic tensed, and she knew he was expecting it to be Joel; expecting the other male to declare that he wanted Mila. While she doubted that would ever happen, Dominic wasn’t so sure. He also wasn’t so sure that they should be going out tonight, but Mila was done “lying low.” He’d tuck her away in his sock drawer if he could. “We all agreed that this is the right move,” she reminded him.
Sitting on the bed, he watched her through broody eyes. “Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
Crossing to him, Mila straddled his lap and linked her fingers behind his nape. “I know why you’re worried, and I get it. But my cat is chomping at the bit. She won’t last much longer if I keep her confined here. Don’t think I can’t sense how edgy and restless your wolf is, Dominic.” Her cat was the same. The feline had been seriously moody, lashing out at Mila and just about anyone who came too close. “We’re hurting our animals by keeping them here.”
“And we could hurt them by leaving.”
Mila sighed. It was hard to be annoyed with him when she could feel his tension just as easily as she could feel her own. The strength with which she felt the echoes of his emotions had increased over time, and she knew the imprinting bond was close to forming. Could almost taste the promise of it.
“We already had this conversation in Trey’s office,” she said. “Everyone voted that we continue our lives as normal, starting with me performing at the Velvet Lounge tonight.”
“Not everyone. I voted that we give it another week. Emmet—”
“I’m well aware that he’ll eventually strike one way or another. However, I’m not convinced he’ll do it via the extremists.”
“I am.” Dominic splayed his hands on her back and pulled her closer. “Emmet will blame us for what Rosemary did, and he won’t let it go. The extremists are like loaded guns, and Pierson can easily aim them in our direction. He used the media to rile them up before. They haven’t acted yet, but they’re probably just biding their time—and probably at his order.”
“Maybe. But we can’t live like this, Dominic.” She caught his face with her hands. “Let’s stick to what we agreed earlier. We resurface, give him the opportunity to strike in whatever fashion he chooses, and then we deal with him—we end this once and for all.”
Dominic clenched his teeth. “Mila—”
“It’s unlikely that he’ll act tonight. He’ll want to lure us into believing he has no intention of coming at us. That way we lower our guards and make things easy for him. But we won’t. We’ll be ready.
“Besides, humans can’t enter the club unless they’re mated to a shifter, so there’s no way for the extremists to get inside. Which is why I don’t think Trey, Taryn, and Dante need to come with us tonight, but I won’t fight it. Alex and my parents will be joining us later, remember? I’ll be safe at the club.”
Dominic