Chapter 112

Dominic raised his head and turned to look at his stepmother, who had pushed open the door of his office with a tentative look on her face. Her eyes flickered uneasily as she took in his appearance and sighed heavily.

Aurelia Cherith was his father s second chance mate. She was a tiny little thing when she came to the pack and had remained as one even after so many years had passed. With her red hair and golden eyes, she reminded him of an elf he had once seen in a forest.

She was his stepmother, but Aurelia had been kind to him and had never once rejected him, even though he was not her child.

"Mom", Dominic sat up straight on the couch, sending a bottle of liquor falling down. His expression turned a bit embarrassed when he saw Aurelia lowering her head and looking at the bottle that was spinning on the floor. "What are you doing here?" He asked. noveldrama

"I am worried about you," Aurelia replied as she picked up the spinning bottle and placed it on the table. Her eyes took in the condition of the room, and she sighed heavily. "How long are you going to continue living your life like this, Dom? This is why I told you that you shouldn t do something that you would regret."

"A mating bond is not as simple as you think. Inez was a gift, a special one that the moon goddess gave to you; she was a piece of your half-soul. Rejecting her was equivalent to refusing a blessing that the Moon Goddess had blessed you with."

"She is the one who "

"I know," Aurelia interrupted him in a heavy voice. With a look of excruciating pain on her face, she said to him, "I know... and I understand that your heart is aching for the loss that you have suffered. But so have I. Abertha was my daughter, Dom. Her death hits me the closest, but you need to ask yourself if you ever told the truth to Inez?"

Dominic didn t speak. Because he already knew the answer to that question.

"You cannot demand honesty if you don t return it, Dom," Aurelia said to him as she looked away from him and glanced at the declutter that he had made in his office. "And... I think it s about time you come out of your moping. The pack needs you more than ever now that the witches have started to run rampant again, Dom."

Dom frowned. He ushered Aurelia into a clean chair and said to her, "What have you heard, Mom?"

"I have heard rumours, Dom." Aurelia sat down and released a tired sigh. With her fingers, she pinched the space between her brows and rubbed them softly before saying to him, "There are all kinds of rumours flying around all over the place. And from what I summarised, it seems like shifters are disappearing all over the packs. I wonder how many of our pack s pups and shifters were taken away without us knowing."

Aurelia seemed worried, and her expression couldn t help but twist. She pursed her lips and added, "Our shifters lives are at stake, Dom. This is not the time to grieve. You need to put your big-boy pants on and take charge of your pack. The morale of the alpha is the morale of the pack. If you cannot get your head out of your ass for yourself, do it for your pack!"

Dominic s face flushed in shame.

Aurelia was a submissive shifter. With her father being a human being, she only had half of the shifter blood, and yet at that moment, Dominic felt like his mother looked more like an alpha than he did.

"Forgive me." Dominic sucked in a breath as he tried to suppress the withdrawal symptoms he was going through. "However, don t worry too much, Mom. We will think of something." His brows were slightly furrowed when he thought about the trouble that the witches were causing.

He could not understand what the witches were trying to do this time around. After the last war, he thought that the witches had accepted that balance.

However, it seemed that this was not the case. The witches were back, and with the continuous disappearances of the shifters, Dominic knew that they were back for revenge. This time, it was going to be worse than before.

Dominic rubbed his forehead. He silently wondered what to do when he recalled Remy telling Killian about N.M.H. Maybe they should try breaking into this site as well. But as his worries piled up, another thought started to nag him.

Inez, Dominic turned and looked outside the window of his office. He silently wondered where she was and whether she was safe. As much as he despised her, he hoped that she would never catch the eye of a witch, for even his torment would look like child s play if Inez were to fall into the hands of one.

Maybe he needed to make a visit to Sokolov s territory.

Crack.

Inez looked at the cup that had fallen on the floor, and her brows furrowed instinctively. She wondered if this was a sign of bad luck. She was not a superstitious person, but Scarlet did believe in such things. She would often tell Inez her horoscope, which, unfortunately, was quite accurate.

Of course, it could also be a coincidence, as her days in the Venus pack were all the same. Getting beaten, cursed and then locked up in the dungeon when she fought back. Inez stared at the pieces of the mug, hoping that they would magically fly into the trash can, but they didn t.

"Shame I am not a witch," she mused as she picked up a broom and started cleaning the floor.

It took her three swipes before she cleaned the floor and collected all the pieces that were scattered all over. Dumping them into the trash bag, Inez turned off the coffee machine and went to throw the trash away.

However, just as she headed down to the ground where the trash was thrown, someone caught hold of her arm and harshly pulled her behind the trees.