him, relief at being exactly where he’d needed to be for what felt like too long.
There’d also been a greedy possessiveness. It had crawled over him, clawed at his gut, urged him to mark her—something, as a rule, he never did to a woman. And it had taken everything he had not to bite hard into Mila’s neck as he exploded inside her.
He’d never needed to fuck someone so hard before, never wanted to see his come sink into a woman’s skin, never needed to be permanently etched into a person’s memory. The problem was . . . he was pretty sure she was now etched into his.
He hadn’t had his usual ironclad control with Mila. Hadn’t even dug for it, if he was honest. No, he’d wanted to take her that roughly. Wanted it to be a night she remembered.
Another thing he never did was feel awkward if he got caught leaving in the middle of the night. She’d made light of it, hadn’t seemed to care. That should have made it easier. It hadn’t. Because, for the first time in his life, he truly had felt shamed by it. She deserved better, but he didn’t have “better” to give her, so he’d left. What he’d really wanted to do was crawl back in that bed with her.
He hadn’t originally had any intention of sticking to a one-night stand, but he wasn’t sure it would be a good idea to have a repeat of last night. Not given how many of his rules she’d tempted him to break. Not given that his wolf had become quite possessive of her. It would be bad for the beast to develop an attachment to her, considering she was immigrating to Russia and planning to mate with some bastard called Maksim.
His wolf snarled, and Dominic snapped his teeth. The thought of another male’s hands on her made him feel far too dangerous.
Reaching Trey’s office, Dominic rapped his knuckles on the door. The Alpha had summoned him by text, saying there was a “delicate matter” that needed to be discussed, so Dominic wasn’t surprised to find both his Alphas and Betas, the Head Enforcer, and the other four enforcers inside the room.
Both Alphas were tense as bows, and that raised his wolf’s hackles. Something was wrong. The others were exchanging uneasy looks, clearly no wiser than Dominic about why they’d all been summoned.
Sitting on the leather rolling chair behind his desk, Trey gestured for Dominic to close the door behind him. He did so and then stalked farther into the room, his nose twitching at the scents of air freshener, stale coffee, and hot ink from the printer. Except for the whooshing of the ceiling fan, there were only the sounds of birds chirping and trees rustling filtering through the partially open window. The hint of a breeze carried with it the ozone scent of rain.
“What’s happened?” asked Dominic.
Trey ceased tapping his pen on a sheet of paper that rested on his desk. “I received a call from Emmet Pierson twenty minutes ago.”
Dominic’s wolf peeled back his upper lip. “What did he want?”
“Let me guess,” said Roni, her face scrunched up in distaste. “Rosemary went whining to him that her visit here came to nothing.”
“Yes, she did,” said Trey. “But that’s not all. Rosemary tried to kill herself last night.”
Jaime’s mouth fell open. “What?”
Just as stunned, Dominic could only stare at his Alpha.
“She swallowed a bunch of pills.” Trey rubbed at his nape. “She’s in the hospital now. The doctors pumped her stomach. She’s alive, but her father says she’s not responsive—just sitting there, staring at the walls.”
Dominic cursed under his breath. “He blames me, doesn’t he?”
Trey nodded. “The day she left here, she went straight to him; told him that you’re her true mate and that when she made that same claim to you, you laughed at her and sent her away.”
Dominic’s wolf bared his teeth. “She’s not my true mate.”
Trey raised his hands. “I never thought she was.”
“I don’t think she even believes it herself. Not really.”
Perched on the edge of the desk, Taryn tilted her head. “Why do you say that?”
“She didn’t make that bullshit claim until I told her she was wrong about me wanting to be a perpetual bachelor. I think she just blurted out that we were true mates in the hope that it might make a difference to me.” Dominic raked his fingers through his hair. “Fuck.”
“That’s not all.” Trey gripped his pen tightly. “Pierson made a