Wolf Dominion Volume 2
Chapter 36

Fyre’s POV

No fucking way.

No fucking way!

I could not believe my own eyes.

Even with the blood stained rock in my hand and the blood all over my face.

I turn to Ryder, who’s watching his father’s beast acting so strange.

“What the hell was that all about?” Ryder yells at Xrat, who looks over the fallen tree and bares his fangs as he turns around and slips back into the forest. He was such a snappy old grumpy wolf. Ryder grabs my shoulder, “Are you okay, Fyre?”

I pull out of his grip, embarrassed and humiliated.

“Stupid fucking human,” I mutter under my breath.

“That wasn’t a –”

“She’s no one!” I scream at him in a rage, and turn to walk up the bank, Ryder following. I know I was being unreasonable but –

I refuse. I refuse to admit it’s her. I won’t acknowledge her.

I had healed my trauma of being raised in Wolf Dominion to be a Lunette. Punished and twisted until I obeyed just like her.

I had healed by putting it all behind me. After we left Genesis. After they abandoned me in the Dry Canyon and retrieved me only when I was almost dead a second time.

But to see her I feel my mind retreat back to when I was a child. To all that. To all that shit.

Back when I had intense hatred of Wolf Dominion and their loyal perfect slave.

Ryder was everything I hated, obeying and giving into them.

Now – I feel – c-confused.

Ryder, her son, is talking to me but I can’t hear him. My blood rages in my ears. I start to run.

“Race me back!” I call out, hoping he stops asking questions.

I look back and see Ryder run for Fort’s back. He hops onto his Beast while I reach for Scora, who runs beside me.

I climb up her fur and rest on her neck, my head pounding.

She threw to kill me.

My reinforced skull was the only thing that saved me.

Ryder was alive?

Ryder was out to kill?

But it was improbable.

Impossible.

It was impossible on every level.

It was just a human, with abnormal ability.

It was just my fucking imagination, a deep seated guilt eating away at me. I am sure I am imagining everything.

It can’t have been. It just can’t have been.

My head has a splitting pain, growing. I need to see a doctor – I think I’m going crazy. Damn head wound!

“Are you okay, Fyre?” when we’re nearing home base, Ryder calls out to me, calmly, and now I can hear him.

I am lying on Scora’s neck, bleeding profusely down her fur.

“No,” I admit, “I need a doctor.”

“Your adrenaline briefly hid the true damage, it’s going to hurt more now,” Ryder advises, cold and calmly, just like a younger Skye – he admired no one greater than his father, “Keep awake.”

“I am,” I want to hiss but I feel my head suddenly spin and my heart rate flies up with palpitations.

I almost fall off Scora’s neck, as we head into Destor.

I try to stay away but I think there is something wrong.

As we stop at the foot of the new Dominion Hold, where Skye and his family lived – old building covered in moss – I see all the Genesis Kind coming forward to help me down off the street.

I was treated like a Lunette, and Ryder an Alpha who would one day be Dominator.

Queen Seye was like a mother to me. Alpha Skye was more interested in… well… his son. But that’s why I knew him in the first place. We aged together through the worm hole.

Vastian would help me heal now.

And Ryder wouldn’t leave my side.

We were in love, big time.

I know she wouldn’t approve, and she would want to destroy me – but I wouldn’t die to her.

No way.

I wasn’t even going to acknowledge she existed.

She was dead.

And if that was her ghost haunting me? I don’t care. I’d replace a way to kill her ghost too.

Alpha Ryder’s POV

I watch over Fyre, as she lies hooked up to every instrument we use to heal our warriors quickly. Vastian finishes stitching up her head.

Alpha Skye stands with me, arms crossed over his chest – his long blue robe with silver stripes takes up most of the floor.

He won’t take his eyes off Fyre’s forehead.

“Report,” Skye’s tone is lethal and protective, even as he asks Vastian for what he knows.

“She’s fine,” Vastian’s mouth tilts up, in relief, as he looks past Skye to me, “Although… a hair’s breath deeper and she’d have some brain damage. She’s lucky.”

“Human resistance did this?” Skye now turns to me, “You’ve not said a word.”

“I’m not sure what to say,” I respond coolly, “We were by the river bank – skipping stones. This tall woman stood up –” I pause, unable to believe myself even recounting it, “Throws the stones back, with incredible force and accuracy – and almost kills Fyre?”

“Lucky shot?” Vastian asks.

“It gets weirder,” I murmur now, as I see Fyre’s hand twitching. I think she’s going to wake up. I walk over and clasp my hand in hers, so she knows I’m there, as I tell Vastian and Skye, “Xrat was there. And he – protected her? No… ah… he…” I trail off as I see Vastian lose his smile and Skye look abnormally confused, “I theorise that he wanted to eat her – when Scora and Fort tried to attack first, he intervened. Claimed her as his kill.”

“So the attacker is dead?” Skye snaps, slightly more relieved.

“No. She swam away.”

“Did she say anything?” Vastian asks.

“Nothing.”

“Xrat did what exactly?” Skye wants to clarify, still confused.

“I don’t know, he –”

“Argh, Alpha Skye,” Fyre calls out, groaning as she opens her eyes, “Xrat sniffed the vermin and didn’t want to eat her – she probably had rotten flesh. A rotten leg.”

“Smart thinking, Fyre,” I raise a brow, genuinely impressed, “I didn’t think of that. How are you feeling?”

“Fine,” Fyre winks slowly and replaces Vastian and Skye looking at her intensely.

“How did this happen?” Skye barks, his mouth curled into the start of a horrendous scowl. He was as grumpy as his Beast.

I feel my spine straighten, hearing his displeasure always concerned me, but I knew to keep calm.

Fyre loses her smile, “What do you mean? Ryder just told you –” she whispers.

“How did you let a human even leave a scratch?” Skye steps over her hospital bed, his tone more venomous than the Hyrda when she was angry, “When was the last time you honed your skilled? You’re slacking off.”

Fyre’s eyes bulge, her lips quiver, as if she’s about to say something – perhaps out of line.

But then she meets my eyes and she knows what I’m saying.

To breathe. To calm down. To think.

As she exhales, she responds coolly, mimicking my tone, “I won’t let it happen again. I will train. I will –”

“You are a Lunette – they will see you as weak. You paraded yourself back through Destor on display. Wounded by a starved human with a rotting leg!” Alpha Skye’s voice booms, and he’s done. He swipes his robes aside and stalks toward the door, “I will replace a new Lunette for my son.”

“No,” Fyre gasps out, as Skye slams the door shut behind him with awful finality.

Vastian keeps his eyes down, until Skye is gone.

Then he watches Fyre burst into tears.

“Let him calm down, shh, I’ll speak to him,” I hold her hand tighter, “So will Vastian.”

Vastian was still Skye’s right hand, but he was more level headed.

Fyre looks to Vastian and hiccups.

She whispers, choked up, “I-it w-was R-Ryder…”

Vastian immediately stands.

His glare is for me.

“You did this to her?” Vastain snarls, “Ryder? Tell me.”

“No!” I bark back, looking down at Fyre, my heart beating fast. Did she just betray me? To avoid embarrassment?

“N-no, I –” Fyre hiccups, trying to regain her deep breaths.

Oh.

It hits me.

I suddenly realise.

“Yes, it was me,” I stand tall and talk as an Alpha to another Alpha, “It was an accident. It wasn’t a human.”

Fyre was a genius.

This was perfect.

“Why didn’t you tell Skye?” Vastian asks, exasperated, “An accident?”

“We were sparring and I got rough, I didn’t want to be responsible for her death if she died… but… you saved her. I was far too mean,” I state, evenly, “I apologise for keeping my actions to myself until now.”

“Hmm… I’ll tell Skye,” Vastian wipes sweat off his forehead, “Your aim is always accurate, but you need to work on your defence,” he advises Fyre, as he heads for the door and leaves.

No sooner are Fyre and I alone.

I smile down at her.

She smiles back.

“T-that’s not what I meant,” Fyre whispers, “But thank you.” I furrow my brows. What did she mean then? “Kiss me?” she asks. She sounds scared and reserved.

I want to ask her why but – there is something in her eyes I’ve never seen before.

She looks… terrified.

Why is she terrified?

I don’t want to push her about it.

I lean down and lay my hands on her cheeks, my thumbs rubbing away her warm tears, as I lean down and kiss her lightly.

It starts as a light touch.

But she immediately grabs my collar of my shirt – and tries to pull me in.

“No,” I chuckle, “You nearly died,” I hover over her, admiring her strength, “Rest. We don’t strike them dead until next week. We have so much time. And even then there will be no real battle. We’ll worry about the Dominions rising when that happens. By then we will be together out front, and maybe… maybe… you’ll be crowned a Luna in the victory.”

“Luna,” Fyre’s eyes light up with the dream, “Yeah – yeah, that sounds nice.”

She’s smiling.

But still.

She looks scared.

“So. What did you really mean?” I bring it up now, lowering my tone, curiously.

“What? Nothing,” Fyre breathes, fast, “Nothing, just kiss me again.”

“No,” I smile as I stand upright, and watch her chin quiver in annoyance, “I’m not letting Vastian represent me alone in this. I’ll go speak to Skye as well.”

“He does what he does because he loves you so much,” Fyre reasons, sighing and closing her eyes, “I’m going to get some shut eye. I love you.”

“I do too,” I smirk and she laughs under her breath, husky with exhaustion.

She likes that little inside joke of ours.

I was arrogant. I did think highly of myself.

But why wouldn’t I?

One day I would be Dominator of Destor.

I was born and bred for it.