Chapter 15

Lila & Dominic

Lila

Lila froze.

“Are you a werewolf?” the man asked. “Where are your parents?”

She didn’t answer, even though she knew the truth. Lila was a werewolf—she could feel the creature inside of her sometimes, like another kid’s voice in the back of her head.

Sometimes, it would speak to her when she was trying to sleep and it wouldn’t stop, even when she jammed her pillow over her head and sang nursery rhymes to drown it out.

Lila didn’t want to seem like a werewolf, so she always tried to pretend she wasn’t. She would ignore the voice until it went away. She feared that if she seemed too much like a werewolf, she would be taken from her mom.

The voice never went away. Not completely. In fact, it only seemed to get stronger every day.

That voice was speaking now, whispering, “Daddy… That’s our daddy!”

But Lila kept her lips pressed firmly together, even though the man seemed to be getting frustrated by her silence.

No. She wouldn’t tell this man that she recognized him.

Ever since she had begun hearing the other kid’s voice in her head, she had started feeling other things, too.

It had started a few weeks ago, before Lila was kicked out of school. She saw one of the other girls playing too high up on the jungle gym during recess, and for a moment, she had seen a vision of the girl falling and cracking her head open on the ground.

A second later, that very thing had happened. Lila had felt as if time were moving in slow motion as she watched the girl fall. Thankfully, the girl didn’t get too hurt, although she needed stitches afterwards. The teacher made all the kids sign a get-well card while the girl was in the hospital.

Now, that very same thing was happening. Only instead of seeing a little girl falling from the jungle gym, Lila was seeing this man pulling her away from her mommy.

Lila knew, instinctively, that this man—her real dad—was going to try and take her away.

She couldn’t let that happen.

Finally, the man sighed and stood up from his crouching position. “Well, if you’re not going to talk, I’ll have to call the police. Someone must be missing you—”

Just then, Lila heard Auntie’s voice shouting from down the driveway.

“Lila! Lila, get back here this instant!”

Lila stiffened and turned to see Auntie grabbing the bars of the fence, her face pale and her eyes wide. The man turned as well. “Is that your mom?” he asked.

Lila didn’t answer. She refused to speak.

The man huffed, but followed as Lila hurried toward Auntie. She slipped back through the bars and was immediately grabbed by Auntie, who crouched to her level and turned her this way and that, checking her all over.

“Are you hurt?” Auntie cooed. “Lila, I was worried sick!”

Lila pouted. Emma, who was standing off a ways and wringing her hands with a guilty look on her face, must have tattled after all. “I’m fine,” she grumbled, staring at her feet.

Auntie sighed and stood, holding Lila’s hand firmly now. The man was still standing there, watching with his hands on his hips.

“I’m so sorry, Sir,” Auntie said. “We were playing at the playground down the hill and she snuck off when I had my back turned.”

Surprisingly, the man didn’t look angry. But when he glanced at Lila, he did look a little confused. Lila stepped behind Auntie’s legs, feeling uncomfortable with the way he was looking at her. Did he recognize her, too? Did he know she was his daughter?

Was he going to take her away?

“It’s alright,” he finally said. “It’s a good thing I found her, though. She could have gotten hurt trying to climb the side of my house.”

Auntie gasped. “You tried to climb—nevermind. That’s it. We’re going home. And no ice cream!”

Lila suddenly didn’t care about the ice cream anymore. She just wanted to leave before this man tried to take her away.

…

Dominic

The woman and the young girl left, and Dominic watched them go. Something strange and familiar settled in his chest as he watched the dark-haired little girl walk away.

There was something odd about her. Dominic almost felt as if he recognized her.

But that couldn’t be it. The girl just resembled him somewhat, that was all.

Before Dominic could dwell on it, his Beta suddenly appeared at his side. “Who was that?” he asked, nodding toward the two retreating forms.

Dominic shook his head. “No one.” He turned to Adam. “Did you get any results?”

The Beta’s shoulders slumped slightly. “Unfortunately not. There have been no DNA matches so far.”

Dominic felt his heart sink. In an effort to find his biological pup, Dominic had invested in a health program for children entering kindergarten at the age of six. The program provided free check-ups for all children.

He had hoped to find his daughter in a way that wouldn’t raise any suspicions. During a routine lice examination, a single strand of hair would be taken from each child to test against Dominic’s DNA.

But there were no matches.

Dominic’s mood soured as the day went on. He did what he always did when he was in a bad mood—he worked. In fact, he holed himself up in his home office until late in the night, refusing to leave even for dinner.

By ten o’clock, he made his way to the kitchen for a glass of water. He jumped slightly when he rounded the corner and saw Nova sitting at the kitchen island with a cup of tea in front of her.

“Shouldn’t you have left two hours ago?” he asked by way of greeting.

Nova glanced up from her phone. “Aria was having trouble sleeping, so I stayed late. I’m waiting a little while longer in case she wakes up again.”

“Oh.” Dominic paused, and it was then, in the silence of the room, that his stomach decided to growl.

Nova smirked slightly. “I see you’re finally hungry. You missed dinner.”

“I was busy.”

“Want me to make you something to eat?”

Dominic shook his head, already turning to leave. “No, thanks.”

Nova frowned. “I can make you something quickly. Whatever you want. Believe it or not, I’m a good cook.”

Truthfully, Dominic had no doubt that Nova was a good cook; Aria always raved about her meals, especially her chicken parmesan. But he doubted a human could prepare a dish to suit a werewolf’s taste.

Aria was one thing, because she was a human. But for an adult male, especially an Alpha, it might not be suitable. Werewolves required a certain amount of protein and very specific vitamins in their diets to function properly.

Their wolves depended on it, and their bodies would reject anything that wasn’t prepared just right.

“No,” he repeated. “It’s too late, anyway. I should just go to bed. Goodnight.”

He could hear Nova sigh as he left. Really, he was hungry, and his stomach protested as he made his way back toward the stairs.

However, Dominic had just barely made it to the bottom of the stairs when a mouth-watering scent suddenly washed over him. He froze, one foot on the bottom step, and looked over his shoulder.

Whatever Nova was cooking… smelled fucking delectable.