The Predator and His Prey

Chapter Twenty-Six

Jade sat on the bed, the pillow crushed to her chest as tears streamed freely down her face. She could only stare at him, his story, his tale, his history so bare and raw. She had known he had his reasons for taking her, for forcing her to be part of his life. He never intended for her to know as much as she did, she could see that now because she was never supposed to be sitting there listening to what hunted him.

He was tough, he showed it in so many ways, and it wasn't the kind of tough one got just by rolling over. No, it was the kind that came with battle scars, wounds, history, horror. Aimi had said there was something in his life, in his soul that pulled him to Jade. That a scarred soul would call out to another. Had her soul been calling to Dominik? Or was Dominik always calling out to her?

He was standing before her, pacing the floor as his body changed before her eyes. His skin growing that rich fur she grew to associate with his other side, his nails turning into claws, and his face was distorting, morphing in a way to resemble the snout of a wolf. But unlike other times where he fell on all fours, turning fully into the large beast, he remained a man, sort of. He paced the floor, looking at her as his breathing raged out of him, panting trying to control himself. He paced the floor in a way that Jade could only describe as a wild animal in a cage. His whole stance and body language was giving off a feeling of danger and trapped. All Jade could do was stare.

Dominik growled out, the sound harsh and low in her ears before his body, the half beast half man that he had formed into, moved swiftly towards the window. Jerking it open roughly before he turned and looked at her with one look, his black eyes hiding any feelings or thoughts before he jumped out the window. The howl pierced through the air, causing a shiver to run down her spine as she listened to it, the noise so raw and full of emotion, of hurt and pain, of anger and lost.

She didn't know how to respond, how to think, how to feel. His story so fresh in her mind, his story so dark and brutal. Could she blame him for the beast he was? Not the beast that jumped out of the window, the one who stood on two legs, half man and half animal, but the beast his soul and mind were? Could she blame him for that when his life was forged from such fire?

They say that those born from fire are turned into steel, could she argue that? Could she argue that Dominik Kinkaid was indeed steel? He was hard and cold, rough and brutal, but was it all a shield? Or was that who he truly was? Was he born from that fire and formed into cold steel? Her mind was working overtime, her heart breaking for the young boy in the story.

She could almost picture a Dominik before that night. Like any young man, his whole life ahead of him with a family who loved him, a family that died to ensure he didn't. She could picture if the fates had been kind to him that night, what his life would have been like. He would have grown up in a pack like Blue Moon, with family and friends. He would have found a mate; he wouldn't have turned into such the cold man he was. He would have laughed more, that laugh that Jade had only seen a few times but each time sent her heart racing in a way that should have been deemed illegal. He would have had kids, maybe like the twins, with green eyes to match his.

But that wasn't what the fates had planned for him. Life moved forward, choices were made and in the end Dominik paid the price for the choices others made that night. In the end, he was born from fire, from death and blood. He was born from rage and anger, from pain and sorrow. The life he could have had before that night was lost to him, and as his howls filled the night Jade wondered if he cried out for that future he too knew he had lost. She could feel the tears streaming down her face, the hot heat burning her skin as she clutched tightly to the pillow.

She had wanted to go to him, to comfort him and hold him. But she could not move as she had watched him pace the floor and shift before her eyes. He wasn't the fur ball she had grown to know; he was a beast. Becoming the very thing he told her of in his story. The connection, the bridge that connected those two thoughts not missed on her. His last line before he turned fully echoing in her ear.