Chapter 23
[ 1,445 words ]
Dominic’s POV
They couldn’t be mine. Could they?
I leaned back in my chair, staring at the ceiling as if the answer might suddenly materialize there. The math wasn’t complicated, six years ago, Samantha left. The twins were about five. The timeline fits too well. Too damn well that got me thinking if they were my kids.
But then again, Samantha couldn’t have hidden something like this, not without slipping up. I knew her. If they were mine, wouldn’t she have stayed? The Samantha I knew would have never let that kind of opportunity slip through her fingers. She was always so desperate to prove herself, to claw her way into my life, to have my love and attention. She wanted to matter to me, to the pack, and she would have done anything to get there. She would have used the kids to get to me.
I scoffed, shaking my head as bitterness crept in. If they were my kids, she wouldn’t have run. She would have used them — paraded them in front of me, dangled them like a prize, something to make me fall for her. That’s who she was back then. The girl who couldn’t go a day without trying to win me over, trying to convince me she deserved more than the wolfless nobody everyone saw her as.
But since she was wolfless back then, she could have had kids with anyone. I frowned at that thought. If she did, I would have carved the man’s heart and gifted it to her if it happened in my territory.
Regardless, she left. No explanations, no goodbyes. Just gone. And now she appeared to have twins.
But there was no bite mark on her, she was not claimed. I pushed the empty glass of whiskey back to the desk and heard a knock in my room.
“We’re ready,” Ethan informed as soon as he entered. We were going to visit the site where Samantha and Dominic were ambushed by these unusual rogues that suddenly appeared in the region.
I pushed myself up, shrugging on my jacket. “Let’s get this over with.”
As we neared the parked SUV outside the hotel, I spotted Olivia standing by one of the cars in the convoy, her father, Richard Bennett was beside her. He looked every bit the seasoned warrior he was with his penetrating gaze and rigid posture that proved the countless battles he had fought.
Ethan fell into step beside me as he asked. “You think we will find anything useful out there?”
“We’ll see,” I muttered, unwilling to entertain speculation but this problem with the rogues needed to be fixed immediately. Rogues are like pests that if they are not irradicated immediately, they would grow into a bigger problem.
Olivia and her father entered their car and I, together with Ethan hopped in the assigned SUV for us. The drive was quiet despite the occasional running of my mind back to Samantha and the twins. Killian may not confirmed that they were her kids, but… the resemblance they had with Samantha can’t be just coincidental. They must be her kids, but if that was the case, the question was with who? A growl erupted in my chest at the thought of her having another man.
“Something wrong?” Ethan asked.
“Nothing. It’s just that… you also think the twins resembled Samantha, right?” I blurted out, trying to ease the thoughts in my head. I could not be the only one who noticed it.
“Yeah. She had been away for years. It would not be a surprise if she already had a family of her own,” he trailed while keeping his eyes on the road, driving.
I felt my wolf claw his way out but I held him down, “Say that again, Ethan? Did you forget that she’s my wife?” I retorted, shooting the sharpest glare toward him. I knew that she was once Samantha’s friend but he was not in the place to utter such comments to his Alpha.
Ethan cleared his throat and shifted in his seat. “I apologize but —”
“Shut up. Just drive,” I grumbled, knowing that I would not like what would come out of his mouth again.
When we arrived, the scene was eerily quiet with only a few of the forensic investigators gathering more evidence in the scene to be analyzed especially since the rogues were unusually different. They were either evolving or someone was developing their bodies and manipulating them like attack dogs.
The clearing bore the marks of violence, showing the battle that had happened in the past night. The ground was churned up, patches of grass and soil scattered haphazardly. Deep claw marks marred several tree trunks and some had their barks splintered and broken. A faint metallic scent still lingered in the air — blood, though it had faded with time.
I crouched near the center of the clearing and dipped my fingers brushing in the soil. There were faint impressions, the kind left by boots and paw prints, though the recent rain had muddied them beyond recognition. But still, the traces were noticeable.
“This is where they fought,” I uttered.
Olivia walked past me and scanned the area. “The rogues did not hold back,” she murmured, pointing to a tree with deep gouges carved into it. “These marks are fresh, likely from the ambush.”
Ethan knelt beside one of the claw marks, running his hand over it. “This was not a random attack,” he said. “Rogues do not operate like this unless they have orders.”
Richard nodded in agreement, his gaze fixed on the remains of the fight. “Whoever sent them wanted to deliver a message, or they had deliberately targeted them, either both or one of them.” And I clenched my fist at the thought of Samantha being put in danger again. I would not let that happen.
I stood and narrowed my eyes as I scanned the clearing. “Where were the bodies taken?”
“To the pack morgue,” Richard replied. “The ones that survived the initial attack were interrogated, but they did not reveal much before…” He trailed off, his meaning clear.
“They were silenced,” Ethan muttered, standing up.
My jaw tightened. This was not adding up. Rogues did not just ambush without a reason. Someone had orchestrated this.
Ethan’s voice broke through my thoughts. “I overheard something earlier,” he spoke hesitantly.
“What?”
“They mentioned Samantha, she was here that night, right?”
“What did they say?” asked I.
He hesitated, and his gaze was flicking to Olivia and back to me. “They said she was probably the target.”
For a moment, the world seemed to tilt as I felt my frown deepened. I clenched my fists, staying calm in this situation. We would not get anywhere even if I flipped the lands here.
“She was the best Luna I’ve ever met,” Ethan said suddenly, as if reminiscing about her days back in my pack. “Smart, strong, loyal. I have never seen anyone like her.”
“She left. Stop talking about her like she’s some saint.” I remarked, although a part of me did not mean the words, despite coming out harsher than I intended.
Ethan tilted his head, a faint smirk tugging at his lips. “And yet, here you are, thinking about her.”
I turned away, refusing to dignify his comment with a response.
Ethan stepped closer, his voice dropping to a near whisper. “If she’s coming back into your life, Dominic, you need to figure things out. Starting with Olivia. You’ll have to get rid of her.”
I glanced at Olivia who was examining another tree. “What about Olivia?”
“She’s not going to like playing second to a ghost,” he simply replied. “And that’s what Samantha is to you right now — a ghost you can’t stop chasing.”
Before I could respond, Olivia’s voice rang out. “Dominic! Over here!”
We turned to see her standing near a patch of disturbed ground with a serious expression on her face as if she had found something disturbing.
“What is it?” I asked, striding over.
She pointed to a jagged claw mark etched into the base of a tree. “This mark…”
Before I could respond, Olivia stiffened as her eyes narrowed on the deeper part of the woods. “Wait, look.”
We all turned, following her line of sight. Between the dense trees, there were shadows that moved so fast that we almost did not catch them, as if something, or someone, was watching. A faint rustle carried through the air, reaching our senses.
“There’s something out there,” Olivia whispered, her hand instinctively moving toward the dagger at her hip. “Be prepared.”
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