Dominic walks past some of his members as they spend their time looking distracted but each stop what they are doing and nod their head to him before busying themselves again. When you truly start to watch them you can see how their ears tip to listen and their eyes shift to watch their surroundings. Telling him all is fine here. “You see, I do not care if you like me or not, or that you agree with me. The fact of the matter has nothing to do with my feelings, I am used to hatred,” Dominic tells us as he continues to lead us through his area before walking behind his cabin and into the woods. “Right now, your knowledge of me is only the short periods of times you have had to deal with me, but your family and mine had a strong relationship, why this allyship has lasted as long as it has after all that has transpired through the years. While one of your fathers hates me, the other was my best friend.” His glance towards me has me stopping in my tracks until a hard push to my back from Beta Nate has me walking again as he chuckles. He enjoys these things too much.

“When I was younger, every summer my sister and I would spend our vacation here and, in the winters, Dustin would come and spend his with us. Barrett never stayed longer than he had to, but Dustin would beg every time to stay, and reluctantly his father would agree.” A small laugh is let out under his breath. “Our alliance was strong."

“As we grew up and got older, Dustin and my sister made the discovery they were mates.” This time Scott stops in surprise and just on cue Nate gives him a shove to keep moving. “You mean to tell me my Uncle Dusty was your sister’s mate?” he scoffs and Dominic gives a curt nod as I see his eye swirl slightly, one of the only times I have noticed any kind of shift in him. He is more wild than man; they all are. “Amaris and Dustin were one of the greatest pairings I have gotten to witness in my lifetime.”

“Amaris?” I ask, noticing he had said it to Sophia and he turns slightly towards me, “yes I named Sophia after my sister to honour her, it is a tradition we have held in my family for a long time, though her mother had her heart set on Sophia we compromised.”

“What happened to her?” now that I have someone with answers, questions start to tumble out; all the questions I have had rattling through my mind day and night may finally be answered. And for once I tell myself I want to know. Dominic stops walking and I noticed we have come to a small clearing in a thicker part of the dense forest that runs through most of this pack. He takes his time before he speaks, looking around it, almost seeming like he is lost in a memory. “As we got older, we travelled more so that we could make partnerships and trades but also for me to learn my place and position. Amaris would beg our father to take Dustin along with her, when he told her no and that she needed to learn his pack's dealings instead, I went to Dustin with the first offer I would ever make a wolf. I asked him to come to our pack and be my beta and he agreed.” He says simply as he slowly turns towards us.

“He didn’t just agree, did he?” Scott's eyes hold a judgement in them and Dominic smirks at him. “He jumped at the opportunity to get away from here. Hated it, everything that was expected of him, no time for himself, always working. His parents dispised how much time he spent with us, Barrett didn’t care for me or my sister, found us to be, arrogant. Imagine that.”

“Why tell us this now? Think I’ll just take your word for it?” Scott questions him and Dominic swiftly moves, coming nose to nose with him. “Trust me when I say this youngster. I can wipe you all entirely off this earth to the point not even the Moon would have something to take home for your final resting place. I cared greatly for your uncle, I mourn him each and every day the same as I do for her. This place was once a second home for us and ours for your family. You have no idea the betrayal I have held and set aside over the years. I have stuck my neck out even for you. Do not question my motives again.” He growls and snaps in Scott’s face and for once Scott clamps his wolf down, taking a step back away from him. Dominic fixes the sleeves of his shirt, continuing as if he had been mildly interrupted.

“Dustin and Amaris would travel with me for my duties but oftentimes they would leave and take the chance to treat it as a vacation while I did my work. Your Grandfather and my father both disapproved believing the need to be home and following the line made for them. The relationship between packs started to bend and break. Your father blames me for Dustin leaving because I made it seem lazy. The truth is Dustin had always been the fun and more spirited one. He was a shitty beta with a horrible work ethic and too much time on his hands spent lollygagging. Even when I was trying to convince Nate to come home with us from Ireland, Dustin was the one who cooked up the plan for us to get his mate, Priscilla, out and run from the island. None of us have been allowed to step foot on it since.” He starts to rub the side his face and Nate laughs loud and hardy.

“I never caused the rift; it was much more than simply my offer. So, you may want to blindly follow your father and fuel your hatred with your own opinion of me, but I have always and will always care for this pack and what will happen to it. I do not come every year without my warriors for good cause. Most of the wolves here have their mates or know they are not here.” He takes a step back as his hand goes to his chin and he holds it while the other hand crosses over his arm and his eyes close steeling himself for the other part of this explaination, “as for what happened to them. My sister drowned one day when they were travelling. They had decided to go to the beach, the only issue was the tides were higher than normal and there had been storm warnings and winds, but they went anyway.” He pauses for a moment at the memory as his demeanour turns grim and sully. A glimpse of pain slips out as he bites down onto himself to clamp down on his emotion. “She had swam too far and the undercurrent pulled her down, pushed her so far out of his reach, he could never get to her in time. It was a hard loss for all of us. I knew. Even at home I could feel the emptiness settle into me and only an hour later we received the call that she had died. To go my entire existence with someone for them to be ripped away in a moment… I went to Dustin full of blame and rage, hitting him over and over. He took every blow I gave until I was finally pulled off of him. I demanded he be banned from the packlands and he went back home. Dustin had stopped existing.” He clears his throat slightly as his hands slowly lower to his sides.

“We did not talk for a few years after that. Until one day he started to call, wanting to speak with me but I always refused the calls, letting them go to the answering machine. This is an important part to remember in this story,” he raises a fingers as he looks between us both to see if we are paying attention and I side-eye Scott while he only shakes his head before telling Dominic to continue. “Rufus is only a few years younger than us, two at most, his father was a disgusting and cruel male. You think what Nathanial has done to Kent was torture, it was a kindness in comparison to what that male would do.” Glancing at Nate his arms are crossed so hard his nails are digging into his skin, leaving small puncture wounds.

“what’s the difference between you two? You want people to fear you and respect you, what’s the damn difference?” I can taste a bitterness bubbling up to coat the inside of my mouth with this conversation that only seems to drag on, where before I wanted answers, now I demand it to be over.

Dominic’s head tilts as he watches me silently before a slow, small smile grows, “well for starters, I am not overcompensating for my shortcomings by taking lands and pissing down over the line to show how bigger and better I am. I don’t need to.” He says and once again Nate howls with laughter.

“yer all wee lads in a pissing contest on who is well hung.” He tells him and Dominic shoots him a sinister glare while Nate’s smile is murderous. How these two work so well together and call each other friends is a strange concept to witness.

Dominic pulls the conversation back to us as we shift on our feet and he starts to walk again into the woods, pivoting on his feet. “Rufus and his father always struggled to gain ground in this pack, you are right Alpha Scott, this pack has always held strength despite its lower numbers. They shifted their angle and tried to take another pack nearby, hoping to do just as they had now and use the pack as numbers to infiltrate but that pack had put out the call for aid and your grandfather answered that call. He killed Rufus’ father, leaving his pack completely in shambles and Rufus had run with some others.”

“It had been a few years before we would see him again. I had thought them to be gone until we learned of Dustin’s death, attacked outside the pack lands by a small group of rogues. But I did not believe it, not only was Dustin a skilled fighter, I had the recording from him on my answering machine. Like always, he called in the middle of the afternoon, telling me he had news and how sorry he was, only this time, his words were cut short and the rest of his recording was the attack with Rufus giving the orders. I shared it with my father, he told me we couldn’t be too certain who’s voice it was, but he brought wolves with him for the funeral nonetheless. I made a critical error. When he refused to believe me I took matters into my own hands and flung out my accusations about Rufus before letting him show himself. When the rogues came, he switched, stating he was there warning us, he sent in the pawns while he kept his worst wolves back, wolves like Kent.” He says with a dark tone and as I piece together the parts to this bigger puzzle, it dawns on me: He grabbed Kent for revenge and satisfaction in knowing how much he would suffer at the hands of his goliath of a beta.

"They believed him, believed the rogues had killed Dustin, that my voicemail meant nothing more than to give an accurate timeframe.” Dominic’s anger rises and birds scatter from the trees, displacing themselves around to get away from the power rolling off of Dominic. He stands panting hard before pushing his hair back as he once more composes himself. “I have held the guilt of this for a long time. The betrayal of them believing that asshole over myself, starting an alliance after helping him to make a small place of land for himself to start over again. But the hardest part was knowing every day Dustin called, it was because he wanted to tell me all about you.” He says as he looks at me and I can feel the rising of my heart beating itself against my ribs. “He changed, started having life in him again. Of everything he lost he found himself again and a few short months later you had been born. They did not tell you because when you were born the attacks were still fresh, open wounds. Everything was. Your grandfather couldn’t bring himself to look at you without remembering what he lost in the process.” Dominic states and I remember how Barrett had told me they were ordered not to tell me the truth. How many times did he have to look at me and be reminded? I can feel part of myself starting to curl as I had as a small pup, but the wolf pushes me to stand back up taller.

“Now you know why Barrett and I butt heads, why I am doing this and what fuels my motives, my hatred for Rufus and why he is a danger to not underestimate. He was raised in cunning cruelty. He is trying yet again to take this pack down but at this point, it is all revenge. Submission will not be his goal here,” he warns as he looks over at Scott and Scott looks down as I can see the gears in his own mind spinning and moving. “All this fighting amongst ourselves is only opening the door for him to come in and wipe us out.” He speaks barely above a whisper with things starting to weigh down on him and Dominic shrugs his shoulders,

“your intelligence truly beseeches you,” Dominic’s voice once again holds that cool tone and Scott glares before his back is smacked hard by Nate. Watching them I realize come what may with my living situation, right now the pack needs us, all of us and Rufus has to be taken down, “what do you need us to do?” I ask as I look at him and Dominic smiles slightly, “be prepared and be cautious, this may happen at any moment.“

As we come out of the clearing, I continue to watch Dominic, giving quick glances to Nate over my shoulder. They both seem t walk more relaxed. The edge they normally have to them isn’t there and their shoulders are not as tall as I have seen, When Luca’s brown wolf comes out at the other end and runs up alongside him, Dominic’s fingers slowly run through his fur as a larger smile starts to grow across his face. “I surround myself with those who I care about and whom I trust to let my guard down with. What I show the rest of the world, that is not who I am, it is who I need to be. As he will need to be," a nod towards Luca as the wolf runs up ahead towards the cabin where Sophia sits on the porch with Keno while Dominic holds my eyes for the moment as he catches me observing and I nod my head to him in understanding before he glances at Scott. He takes a moment to hold Dominic’s eyes before he also nods to him and we make our way to my porch.

Keno barks aggressively from where he lies on the steps towards Luca’s wolf as he climbs up to the bench where Sophia sits. He lays down next to her before he shifts back with a wide grin on his face and Sophia shoves him down before bending over the side and throwing his shorts at his face. The dog growls at us as we approach and I look down at him as I let the wolf peek out making his fur rise but he tucks in his legs and tail, “boo yourself," I mutter at him before taking a seat beside Sophia.

“You outta be nice to me since ya want my help with somethin’ ” Luca deadpans her as he pulls up his shorts and Sophia leans back on the bench, putting her legs over mine.

“I never once said I needed your help, I was askin’ if you wanted to come with me to work. Our last day is coming up, staff gets to dress up for Halloween. It’ll be fun.” She rolls her eyes before trying to coax him. Luca rubs his chin, mocking at pondering on the offer before he shrugs his shoulders. “Maybe I’ll go, might be fun, never know who I might meet up with” he grins and Dominic smacks him in the back of the head causing him to rub it.

“Good because I need people to help me pick my pumpkins and load them into the truck.” She tells him and he points an accusing finger at her as she gives a crooked grin back at him. “You will be helping your sister, take Conner with you,” Dominic stares his son down as Luca opens his mouth to backtalk her before he closes it shut, “yes sir,” he tells him and Dominic relaxes back letting Luca lower his shoulders. Dominic takes an opportunity to smack the back of his shoulders and back hard making Luca flinch, “Be good and be safe,” he tells him before bidding us a farewell and Nate simply waves before they walk back into the woods.

“don’t suppose I could interest you in pumpkin harvesting?” Luca turns to Scott as he rubs his right shoulder with his left hand as he tilts his head from side to side.

“Not a chance, good on you though to volunteer.” Scott smiles before smacking him in the same spot Dominic had and Luca hisses at the contact. “Y’all need to quit it!”

“I think you weren’t picked on enough growing up, makes you soft,” Scott says as he starts to walk around to the front of the house as he waves goodbye to us. “I think you don’t know what it's like to have siblings!” Luca shoots back as he walks out after him before calling out. “we’ll be back in the morning to look over those transfer papers Cage”

Sophia turns her head quickly to face me at those words, “transfer papers?” Her eyes narrow on me and my hand goes to the side of my neck as I start to rub it while they narrow more.

“Your brother offered me a position in his pack, and I was thinking about taking it,” I tell her and she slowly crosses her arms, sitting back more away from me on the bench. “Don’t give me that look. I was going to talk with you about it before I ever agreed to anything. I wanna know how you feel.”

Sophia gives me a skeptical look as her brow raises, “how do I feel? Let me see these papers,” she puts her hand out in demand and I slip them into it, waiting patiently for her to go through each section and part. “My brother wrote this all up for you?” she asks between page turns as she glances at me while I merely nod my head and she hums as she starts to read again before passing them back.

“Why do you wanna leave Cage?” she asks me finally after a moment of silence.

Looking out over the backyard of my cabin I watch the tree line just beyond it. “I don’t feel like home here anymore,” I confess to her as I glance back and she watches me with concern written all over her face. “What you mean by that? You grew up here. Your grandmother lives here, your friends, everything you’ve known.”

Shaking my head and looking back at those trees while starting to reminisce on old times I realize the only friends I had growing up were Scott and Charles. As good as a friend as Sam is, we didn’t become friends until our last year of high school. A lot of these wolves and me hadn’t gotten along in school or in our younger years. Not until I finally started to put on bulk and learn the skills needed to hold my own. They may not have been the aggressors or guys I fought with, but they stood and watched, never cheering me on or offering help. The more I think about it, the more I start to learn and realize it wasn’t until later in life my pack accepted me. Always the outsider. I preferred training the pups because I wish it didn’t take so long for me at that age. I get to watch and shape them to be better and do more, and part of me knows then I don’t have to deal with the older wolves, the ones my age.

Sophia’s hand softly comes up, rubbing over my shoulder slowly, pulling me out of my thoughts. “This place has never felt like a home, Soph, never. I wish it had, but it didn’t. Grams and Pops were home. My friends Scott and Charles gave me a home, but not this place, not these wolves. I haven’t been living in this pack, only surviving in it. Hoping and praying to finally meet my mate and have a life I had always dreamed of having. Hell, look at me and Charles, we can hardly stand each other now.” I can feel the shaking in my voice as my body starts to tremble from the pressure of my heart ramming my chest with how I have felt for so long and finally able to confess aloud. “Now that I’ve found you and I have more answers than I ever did. I don’t want to be here anymore. I love my grandmother and Scott and the pups but it isn’t enough to make me stay. I understand if this isn’t ideal for you and if you don’t want to. We can work something out or go someplace else if you prefer.”

“The only thing that ever held me here was Wayne,” she rushes out quickly. “My aunt and uncle would miss me but I’m only here because I have nowhere else to be.”

Glancing over at her, Sophia is biting at her bottom lip, “but how does living near your father make you feel?” I ask and she looks away from me as her head shakes slightly.