The Werewolf Prince and I (34 page)

 “Ask him,” Rafaella screamed.

Misty shook her head. “I won’t stoop to your level.” It took every ounce of Misty’s self-control not to break down. Rafaella was so convincing. But she had to trust Domenico. She had to. “And just so you’d know, we have been mated.” She lifted her chin. “Every night.”

Someone in the crowd burst into laughter.

Misty paled, knowing that laugh was meant for her even if she did not understand why.

And then Rafaella began laughing as well. “
You!
God, what an idiot you are! And your mind is in the gutters! When we say ‘mated’ we’re not talking about sexual intercourse, you idiot. We’re talking about mating as the true joining of two mates…of you becoming like us.” Rafaella laughed. “But you’re not, are you?”

She walked away, head held high.

Chapter Fourteen

Dear Diary,

I can’t think of a thing to say except…

It’s over.

“Misty, we have to talk.” Domenico couldn’t believe how hard a time he was having controlling his voice. His heartbeat was so loud it was near to drowning his words.

But Misty didn’t look back. She kept on walking and walking and by the time he caught up with her, they were out of Lyccan Hall, past the front doors and the cynosure of all the guards in attendance.

Misty flinched when Domenico’s fingers wrapped around her arm.

“Misty, listen.”

She shook her head.

“Let me explain---”

“It’s too late,” she cut him off in a whisper. “Rafaella did the explaining for you.” The other woman’s words filled her mind. She couldn’t believe how foolish she had been.

Domenico cursed. “Rafaella---”

He stopped when Misty flinched at hearing him speak the other woman’s name and he cursed. He turned her around so she could face him and then wished he hadn’t.

Misty looked broken.

All the words of explanation he had thought of died in his throat. Suddenly, all he could say was, “Misty, I love you.” His voice was hoarse. “Please…”

“You may love me, Domenico,” she whispered, “but you don’t love me enough.”

“I was wrong. I should have explained about mating---”

She flinched again.

It made him want to punch something. Could he ever stop hurting her? It seemed like everything he had to say was going to cause her pain. “I was hedging my bets.” He swallowed. “I didn’t mate with you because I wanted to be sure of every step I make…that everything I did would help me hurt my father---the way he had hurt me before.”

Domenico knew that revealing the truth would only cause him to look worse in Misty’s eyes but he wanted the truth to be out completely. “I…was blinded by revenge. I did marry you to spite Dio, but it was only at the start and…I fell in love with you.”

Her smile was sad and void of hope. “But not enough to make me your mate in the truest sense.”

“We can mate now---”

She flinched.

“Misty---”

“No!”

Domenico whitened.

Misty swallowed back her sobs. “I don’t want to be mated with you…in any way. I can’t believe you’d think I’d want to.”

He could feel her drifting away from him farther and farther with each word she uttered, and it frightened Domenico. She couldn’t leave him. She couldn’t. He wouldn’t be able to survive it.

He reached for her again, but she took another step back. The movement hurt more than a sword to his heart, and the distrust in Misty’s eyes seared him like boiling acid.

He had promised to love her. He had promised to protect her and cherish her and yet here she was, her body shaking at the effort she was exerting to keep her tears at bay.

Domenico swallowed. “Misty, please. I was stupid back then. I’m not going to hurt you again. You’re my life.”

“No.” She closed her eyes. “I’m not.” And then she whispered something inaudibly. A strong gust of wind blew into the night, and tension suddenly cracked in the air.

Domenico stiffened, expecting an attack. And then he looked at Misty, about to ask her to go back inside so they could talk – just talk – but what he saw made him shout, “No!”

“No!”

She was disappearing bit by bit.

“Misty, don’t---”

She was gone.

“Misty!”

“Misty!”

He fell to his knees. “MISTY!”

~~~

Misty had been gone for three days now.

Domenico hadn’t slept for all those days.

He could not and would not forgive himself if something had happened to Misty.

How stupid, how stubborn, how proud he had been. And right now, with Misty gone, he couldn’t even remember why it was so fucking important to always have a back-up plan.

Those plans were supposed to help him in case things between Misty and him would not work out. In case he couldn’t make Dio regret his words with Misty’s success.

But now he realized too late that all those plans meant nothing.

Dio had regretted his words. He had done so long, long ago.

And there was no back-up plan. There couldn’t ever be. If Misty was gone - Life. Did. Not. Work. Out.

Misty’s siblings were still here with him, and Domenico drew comfort from the fact, knowing that it gave him a connection to Misty, tenuous it may be. He had also apologized to them with utter humility, had revealed to them the extent of his mistakes, and they had…forgiven him. But their eyes told him that if Misty chose to leave him, they would go with her without question. And if Misty chose to hate him, they would do so, too.

Their loyalty pleased him, even though it did mean potentially losing not just Misty but her whole family in the process. He had truly lucked out with Misty. He had not only gotten a princess without compare but also family members that were a true credit to the pack.

Someone knocked on his study door.

“Come in,” Domenico said flatly.

Kevin entered the room. “You have a visitor. The Castellano pack leader…”

Domenico shook his head with a frown. “I don’t want to speak with anyone---”

Misty’s brother cut him off grimly, saying, “He has a message from Misty.”

Domenico stalked past Kevin immediately without a word. He saw Aurelius seated in his living room and demanded right away, “Have you seen her?”

Aurelius shook his head and stood up. “My son---”

“The ghost?”

“---has relayed your wife’s message,” Aurelius finished. He handed Domenico a scroll that sparkled as if it was made of crystal.

Domenico rolled it out.

Seeing Misty’s brother frowning in confusion and fear, Aurelius explained somberly, “It is a sworn statement that in the event there is a need for a call to arms against the vampires and those who ally themselves with them, the Faeries would willingly end their self-exile from humanity and earth to battle with the Lyccans…in honor of their adopted sister, Misty Wall.”

“Where is she?” Domenico asked, white-faced.

Aurelius was suddenly unable to meet his gaze and Domenico felt fear enveloping him. He had faced death countless times but he had never been this terrified.

“Aurelius, dammit,” he said hoarsely. “Where is my wife?”

“With this pact,” Aurelius said slowly, still not meeting his gaze, “Misty said she has fulfilled her obligation as wife to the Moretti Heir. With this…she is asking for the cutting of ties.”

“No!”

Kevin strode forward. “What do you mean?”

“It’s…something more permanent than divorce or annulment which humans use to terminate a marriage. With the cutting of ties, Misty has sworn never ever to see Domenico again.”

SOON TO COME: Book 2 of the Werewolf Prince and I

CHAPTER ONE

“Misty, Misty, oh my God, Misty!” Daryl came running into the courtyard, his two-inch wooden sandals making clopping sounds on the brick ground. He skidded to a stop – just to kiss his partner, Milo, on the lips.

The love shining in the gay couple’s eyes made Misty’s own eyes burn, and she hurriedly looked away, trying to distract herself with the shimmering beauty of her surroundings. Because that was how everything was her in the realm of Faeries – shimmering. Probably the only thing that wasn’t shimmering was her heart, which had been crushed to pieces by a no-good---

No, no, no
. She wasn’t going to get to that. She wasn’t going to be melodramatic about it. That part of her life was over.

Daryl finally managed to pull himself away from Milo. “Misty, oh my God---”

The alarm in his face finally got to her, and the sword she had been holding fell from her suddenly nerveless fingers. She had been spending most of her time in the realm of Faeries practicing her sword-fighting skills, finding some strange sense of peace with the clashing sound that swords made. She didn’t have to feel when she was fighting. It was…peaceful.

“What is it? Is it my family?”

“No. Well…not really…there had been an attack against the Lyccans and one of their kind had been tortured.” His eyes were bleak. “It’s your sister-in-law…Estrella.”

After sixteen months of licking her wounds, Misty finally left the realm of the Faeries. As the emissary and liaison officer of the Faeries for the Lyccans, it was her job to make sure that the pact between the two races would be carried out.

The whispers and the stares began the moment she walked inside the majestic main hall of the Lyccan Council. She climbed the grand staircase to the committee office in the second floor, where Daryl’s father, the Castellano pack leader, waited.

“Misty,” Aurelius greeted her warmly. The white-haired old man gave her a slight bow.

“Sir,” she said, returning the bow with one of her own. She didn’t want to do it, but courtesy made her go through the motions. That bow wasn’t because she was the Faeries’ chosen emissary. It was because she was still Misty Moretti in his eyes, wife to the heir of the Moretti pack leader.

Just the thought of anything associated to Domenico Moretti
hurt.

“How are you?”

“I’m fine.” She gave the older man a reassuring smile. He was one of the few Lyccans she trusted. Everyone else…was suspect. She told herself she had to feel that way about them, that she couldn’t be naïve about them anymore. She still remembered every painful second of the last time she had been in Lyccan Hall, when Rafaella had shown her how foolish she had been. How
gullible.

The doors crashed behind them. Aurelius turned, but Misty didn’t because she knew who it was. She wished she didn’t but the way her skin prickled told her no matter what, she still wasn’t able to ignore his presence.