Mila tilted her head. “I didn’t realize latent animals slept. I thought they were just unable to surface.”
Pierson’s smile went a little hard around the edges. “That is only in some instances.” He smoothed a hand down his black suit jacket. “Two articles were recently posted online about her devastating circumstances. Have you not read or heard of them?”
“I don’t keep up with the news. It’s all sad and depressing.”
“True enough. I will give you a quick rundown of the situation. Rosemary’s husband divorced her when she was unable to conceive a child, so she was already in a fragile emotional state when she came across her true mate. He could have made her so much better. Instead, he made her worse. Rejected her for being unable to shift. She tried to commit suicide.” His breath hitched just a little too dramatically. “She’s doing better. She started talking again, although she doesn’t say much and still spends long periods of time simply staring at the wall.”
Struggling to keep her tone even, Mila said, “While I sympathize, I’m not sure how this relates to me.”
Pierson took a deep breath and straightened the lapels of his jacket. “It has come to my attention that you are involved with a male shifter from the Phoenix Pack.”
“Dominic, yeah.”
“He is Rosemary’s true mate.” He threw out the sentence like it was a bomb, and her cat predictably rumbled a menacing growl, lashing out with her claws. “He didn’t just reject her, Miss Devereaux. No, he swept her off her feet and formed a true-mate bond with her. Then he threw her away. Perhaps it was all a game to him, or perhaps he couldn’t stand the weakness that she possesses as a latent shifter.”
It was becoming harder and harder not to pop this guy right in the face. Silently encouraging her cat to stay hidden, Mila said, “It doesn’t make sense that Dominic would ever hold prejudice against latent shifters. His Alpha female was once latent.”
“Then it was simply a game for him. He hasn’t even visited Rosemary since she tried to kill herself. Hasn’t expressed an ounce of remorse and refuses to admit that she’s his true mate.”
“And you’re sure that she is?”
Pierson’s eyes hardened. “Rosemary recognized him as hers.”
Mila shrugged. “It’s not uncommon for people to make that kind of mistake. They can confuse infatuation with—”
“It was no mistake,” he clipped, his tone leaving no room for argument. But Mila got the feeling that he very simply needed to be right. Needed to have someone to blame other than himself for what had happened to Rosemary.
Lifting her chin, Mila said, “I’m sorry, but I find it difficult to believe that Dominic would ever do the cruel things you’re accusing him of. Plus, if his animal was truly mated to another, I doubt it would accept my presence in his life.”
Pierson took a step toward her. “I came here to give you a friendly warning. This is not a man—if you could even call him a man—that you should want in your life. To him, women are objects. Toys. He has no respect for them. And he’ll hurt you just as he’s hurt others. If you have any sense, you’ll get rid of him.”
“I appreciate the warning.” Mila tipped her head toward the door, gesturing for him to go.
Nostrils flaring, he said, “Be smart, Miss Devereaux. Don’t let this creature ruin your life.”
Baring a fang, her cat lashed her tail like a whip. “You’re not really concerned for me. There’s another reason you want me to separate from him. What is it?” But Mila already knew. Pierson had decided that if his daughter couldn’t have Dominic, nobody could. Not just as revenge for Rosemary, but because he didn’t want Dominic to be happy. She also had the feeling that Pierson would carry on this hate campaign for years if he wasn’t somehow stopped.
“There are plenty of reasons why you should cut him from your life. Only one of those pathetic shifter groupies wouldn’t see that.”
Mila’s gaze snapped to the door as it swung open, letting in a stream of traffic noise and the scents of hot bread, meat, and peppers as Dominic stepped inside, deli bag in hand. His blue gaze was hard and intent on Pierson, who went tense as a guitar string the moment he noticed the newcomer.
Sensing her male’s anger, Mila’s cat became even more agitated. Dominic’s body language was casual and relaxed, but he was spilling a dark, ominous energy that almost clotted the air. It was like being in the same space as a jungle animal while it lazed in the grass, watchful and alert—you were acutely aware of the threat they presented and knew that their cool composure could change at any given moment. It was intense enough to make anyone feel like prey, even a female as dominant as Mila.
Settling his focus on her, Dominic prowled toward her, each step slow and predatory. Any anger had been swiftly buried and, God, she seriously envied his ability to be so emotionally unreactive in shitty situations.
“You’re back,” said Mila with a smile. “Good, I’m starving.” Knowing she needed to get him away from the human before he could provoke Dominic into doing something notable for his next bullshit article, she grabbed Dominic’s arm, intending to lead him to the break room. Evander would get rid of—
“I guess you are a shifter groupie after all,” Pierson sneered at her.
Just like that, Dominic’s posture went from deceptively casual to blatantly menacing. Mila closed her eyes. Shit.
With an overwhelming drive to protect and defend buzzing through his veins, Dominic placed his body between Mila and Pierson. His wolf’s chest rattled with a guttural growl as he stood snarling at the human, the animal’s legs quivering with the need to lunge. Dominic could have ignored practically anything the human tossed out, but not an insult to his woman. Never that. “You need to be gone,” he said, his tone cool and calm.
The bastard really didn’t get how much of a fuckup he’d made. It was one thing for the human to play games with Dominic; it was a whole other thing to involve Mila. Coming to her place of work and breathing her air was going too far for Dominic and his wolf.
If Pierson was a shifter, he’d have understood that. He’d have understood just how hard he was pushing by paying a visit to Dominic’s woman and letting this shit touch her. Shifters had killed for less.
“It’s you who doesn’t belong here,” sniped Pierson, his voice shaky with an apprehension he was striving to hide. “This isn’t shifter territory. You’ve got enough of your own species chasing after you—you don’t need to be polluting the lives of humans.”
Dominic took an aggressive step toward him but kept his voice low as he said, “Hear me, Pierson. You. Need. To. Go.”
“I second that,” said Evander, moving closer.
Mila fisted the back of Dominic’s shirt. “Don’t let him provoke you. He wants you to lay your hands on him. He wants you to throw him out.”
“I know that, baby.”
Maybe it was simply Dominic’s use of the endearment, maybe it was the way his voice had softened—Dominic wasn’t sure. But Pierson’s spine snapped straight, his hands balled into fists, and his face turned red and mottled.