Chapter 239
Ellie’s POV
“Dominic.” I took a step closer, dropping my hands at my sides. “I can explain-”
“Explain this.” He set the bottle on the step beside him.with a thud that echoed in the night air and made me flinch. “You disappeared, Ellie. Not even halfway through the festival that you insisted on taking a part in.”
“I didn’t want to leave,” I said.
Dominic scoffed. “Like hell you didn’t. You led me on, didn’t you? Made it out like you actually cared about your duties for once just so you could turn around and run off with him the moment everything seemned like it might be okay.”
“Lucas gave me a ride somewhere,” I replied quickly. Too quickly, I realized a moment too late. “It wasn’t… whatever you’re imagining it was.”
“Right.” He stood, turning to face me fully now. Only a few feet stood between us, and yet right now, it felt like miles. Somehow, though, he still seemed to tower over me, making me feel small and insignificant. ” Just like that night you spent ‘in the library’-” He added that part with air quotes- “was just my imagination.”
I stared at him. “I did fall asleep in the library that night.”
“So what was this, then?” Dominic gestured to me, to the now-empty festival grounds, where the grass was still matted down and brown in spots from booths and people walking over it. “Don’t tell me you spent the day sleeping, too.”
“I told you,” I said as calmly as I could muster, “that Lucas drove me somewhere.”
“Oh yeah?” He folded his arms. “Where did he drive you, then? Enlighten me.”
My lips parted, but I couldn’t say it. Because no matter how heavy that knife in its bag felt in my inner jacket pocket, I knew that if I told him I went to Pine Hollow to track down an assassin, he would have questions. Questions that I couldn’t even begin to answer.
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How could I explain to him that I had lived an entire life before this one? That I had been killed by the very assassin who I spotted today? That, by running away from the festival, I had potentially saved Dominic again?
He wouldn’t believe me even if I tried to explain it to him. He was too angry for that, and clearly drunk, too.
So I remained silent.
Dominic laughed wryly. “See? You don’t even have an excuse,” he said.
I looked at the ground. “I just… I can’t explain properly. But I assure you, it’s not what you’re thinking.”
“Sure. It’s never what I’m thinking when it comes to Lucas, isn’t it? You danced with the fucking guy at our wedding. You took his word as fact when he planted those lies about our vows into your head. You’ve been siding with him since day one, and yet I’m the crazy one for seeing it for what it is.”
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+30 Bonus
“H’s not
“I don’t want you to see kim anymore, Ellie.”
His words fell between us. I pulled my head back, looking up at him in surprise. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. From now on, you’re forbidden from seeing Lucas. I don’t want you near him. I don’t want you speaking to him. I want his number deleted from your phone and I want his name erased from your mind.”
“You can’t do that.”
“Oh, yes I can.” Dominic’s eyes narrowed to slits. “If you’re so convinced I’m such a controlling asshole, then maybe I’ll just be one.”
“But-”
“He’s been distracting you from your duties. I realize that now. All this aloofness, all of your mishandling of pack affairs-it’s all because of him. I won’t let him affect my pack like this. So as long as you’re my Luna, you are to stay away from him.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Or maybe I could. It was par for the course, anyway; exactly on track with the Dominic I knew from my past life, Cruel. Controlling. Never letting me make my own decisions, and refusing to listen to me when it truly mattered.
“You’re being unreasonable,” I said. “Lucas and I haven’t… I’m not having an affair!” I threw my hands up in the air. “My aloof behavior is because of you! You and no one else!”
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