Healed by the Alpha (Hunted Book Two)

Chapter Fifty Six

Emily

The night passed by blissfully. The fire somehow managed to keep us all warm, but having Dom's arms around me was more than likely the main cause of that. I felt so happy and content, I couldn't remember the last time I'd been this carefree about anything. Malik had moved a few times, adjusting himself to get into a better sleeping position, but he slept through the whole night.

I didn't feel like I had anything to worry about anymore, being with Dom was different. I had thought that Logan was the love of my life, that nothing could ever compare to the way I felt about him. I was stupid. I had no idea what love was, I hadn't even had a relationship before Logan. He was what I needed at the time, he was my Alpha and he really did give me room to flourish and become the woman I was today.

But he wasn't Dom. Dom was calm and gentle and even though Logan brought me out of my very tight and confined shell, Dom was the one that smashed it. I don't know what I would've done without him for all those months. I didn't want to think about it. There was only one thing that I was sure of anymore and that was my absolute adoration of the man next to me.

Like clockwork, as soon as the sun started to rise in the sky, Dom was awake. "How do you wake up like this every single morning?" I groaned next to him as he started to move. He kissed the space behind my ear, "it's pretty easy when you have a good reason to get up." I smiled to myself and pulled his arms closer, "I don't want to go back to Ferdinand. Can't we just find someone else to go and save the word instead?"

Dom's sweet chuckle rocked against me as he tried to keep quiet. "I don't think it works like that, little varg." I groaned again, "why not? Every other Alpha gets to just do Alpha things and be happy with their mates." I froze against him as I realised what I'd just said. "Not that we're mates, obviously we aren't because we'd know by now." My cheeks were turning read, I could feel the heat building in my face. Dom brushed back my hair with his fingers and kissed my head. "It's okay, don't don't have to get all adorably embarrassed about it."

Noises from the other side of the fire distracted me from the internal torment I was putting myself through. Dom's mouth was at my ear, "I need to shift." What? Why? He pushed his hips towards me and I suddenly understood why. "You should probably shift too." He told me, looking down at my body in that possessive way that he did. Usually I would be annoyed by it, but things felt different since last night. Things felt charged. The air around us was stuffy, but that could've just been because of how high up we were right now. When would the lying to myself stop?

Malik started to moan out and Dom stood up to shift. The next thing I knew, Malik had started to shout, calling out every name under the sun and Dom was desperately trying to shift and calm Malik at the same time. "Dude! I'm getting so sick of this!" Malik was shouting, "have some decency around a fellow brother will you?" Dom looked to me for help and Malik's eyes followed his. He screamed and covered his eyes, "not Emily too!" He was on his feet and backing away back into the cave before he could catch sight of anything else.

"What is it with you people?" He was speaking to himself now, "First Dom starts with this whole nudist thing and now he's got Emily into it too?" My eyes met Dom's and we burst out laughing. "I think you've just managed to scar your beta for life." I told him between breaths. He shook his head, "he'll get over it, I've seen his ass plenty of times, it's payback." I did not want to know the occasions that would require that kind of mental image. "We should be heading back, Ferdinand will most likely be waking up soon and none of us will be there."

He was right, the guy wasn't the most conversational or trustworthy man in the universe, but he at least deserved the respect of his travelling companions not to be running off. Though, he was the one that knew where he was going. We'd be completely lost without him right now. "Malik?" Dom shouted down the cave, his voice echoing off of the rocks. "We need to leave so you need to suck it up." The muttering and mumbling under his breath was the only thing we heard as we scaled the rocks back down to earth.

The snow had created a fresh blanket on the ground and I shifted as soon as my bare feet touched it. How the moon goddess could live in this kind of climate without freezing to death was beyond me. The trek back to the camp was shorter than the run last night had seemed, we actually hadn't gone that far. I rounded a tree and saw the green of the tents, I was glad to be back for all but a second before I realised Ferdinand was already up. He was sitting on one of the logs by the fire that was now completely extinguished. He didn't look happy.

I shifted and so did everyone else, Dom stood in front of me covering me from everyone's eyes, his hands were helping to keep himself decent in front of Ferdinand too. Malik was quick to look up at the sky and nothing else. I wanted to laugh, but the look on Ferdinand's face told me that now wasn't the time.

"Before you say anything, there was an emergency." Dom started to explain. Ferdinand held up a hand silencing him. "We're late. We were meant to leave an hour ago. We're going to be late and I'm going to get the blame." Dom looked at him confused, "just tell her that it was me? I mean we wouldn't be late if it wasn't for Malik sleepwalking last night." Ferdinand's laugh was short and bitter, "yeah, I don't think you understand. Anything that happens has to go through me. I'll get the blame regardless and she won't be happy with me."

It was hard to imagine the moon goddess being upset about anything, what did she have to be mad about? She was the frickin' moon goddess! "Come on, we can make the time up, we just won't stop." Ferdinand's glare turned to me, "we can't make up an hour. You can't run that fast?" Want a bet? I thought. I was by far the fastest wolf at Dom's pack. Logan was faster than anyone, but I was faster than Malik and Dom put together. Surely that counted for something? "And what about the rest of us?" He questioned. Ah. Yes. He had me there.

"What if I run off ahead?" His eyes opened wide, "how the hell do you expect to know the way without me?" Ah. Another good point. "Listen, all of this debating isn't gaining us any time here, let's just pack up and get moving?" Malik suggested, thankfully it was something we all agreed on. "We'll have to leave most of the things here. You'll be running for 5 hours straight before we can rest again." 5 hours straight? Was he joking? I'd pass out after 2!

"The moon goddess is expecting us by nightfall. We can not be later than we already are." I get that she's the moon goddess and that she's powerful and the best person that ever existed... but why did we have to make all of this effort when we were the ones doing her the favour? It just didn't make sense to me. Without our help, the dark witches would be able to finish their plan and the moon goddess would be at an even bigger risk? Something seemed suspicious and I didn't like it.

We packed up the tents and threw everything into Ferdinand's car. Ferdinand was checking the distance and fiddling with the necklace around his neck, "you'll need to shift now, we need to start as soon as possible." I ran off to strip my clothes behind one of the trees, the cold air was biting at my skin as soon as the wind kissed my skin. I shifted and my wolf stretched out her limbs. "We have a pretty big stretch of ground to run today," I told her. She howled, "good." She looked over at Dom, who was now shifting too. "I'll get to see him again."

If I had my hands, I'd have face palmed myself right now. Trust my wolf to only care about the company when we had 5 hours worth of travel. I suppose he would make the journey more pleasurable.