by Cheryl Davis
“I said move now,” Thomas said and looked at each of the security guards, letting them all know they were included in his directive. “I won’t repeat myself again.”
Sage and Liam moved up along either side of Thomas as a show of strength even though they were all sure it would not come down to force.
The guards looked at each other, turned and walked away without saying a word. The doctor turned and tried calling them back, only to be ignored.
Thomas crossed his arms and tapped his foot, losing his patience with the doctor. Not waiting for Thomas’ order, Sage stepped forward and moved the doctor himself while Liam moved to open the door to Viola’s room, only to find it locked.
“It’s locked sir,” Liam said, looking back at the doctor.
“You will produce the key right now. Any more insubordination from you and I will have you up on charges for disobeying direct orders. Sage will be instructed to take you down to the prisons and put you in a cell until you stand trial for your actions. Do not test my patience right now,” Thomas said as the doctor’s eyes widened with fear and he nodded his head.
Sage released the doctor and the man reached into his pocket, pulling out a large key ring, with at least fifty keys on it. His hands were shaking so badly it took him a few times fumbling with the keys to get the right one and hand it over to Liam.
Liam wasted no time unlocking the door and opening it wide for everyone to enter. The doctor followed the group so he could monitor to make sure they didn’t make his patient’s condition any worse.
Dominic went straight over to the bed and picked up Viola’s hand in his. He hated the IV line running into her arm, but knew it served its purpose so he left it alone even though his instinct was to pull it out.
He looked up at Cora and she nodded her head in encouragement. Nobody in the room objected to him being the one to try this experiment with Viola, except for the doctor, who shut up when Thomas threw him an annoyed look.
Dominic reached out, smoothed back Viola’s hair and sat down carefully on the side of the bed. He leaned his body close so his chest rested across hers and whispered in her ear, “I’m here Beautiful One. Come back to me. I am not letting you get away from me this easy.”
He wasn’t sure what happened, but he felt his powers responding to Viola in a way he’d never experienced before. He could feel the transfer from his body to hers as his instinct to save his mate took over.
Not sure how to stop it, he let his instincts control the transfer, trusting it would stop when Viola’s body was back in its proper balance.
It was a minute later when his powers stopped flowing into his mate and he could feel the difference in her body temperature. Her skin felt normal again, not radiating heat like the sun as it had before.
He rested his cheek against hers for a moment before moving to sit up. As he was straightening, Viola’s eyes fluttered for a second before opening slowly, squinting at the harsh lighting in the room.
“What happened?” she asked, looking around at all of the smiling, relieved faces gathered around her.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Dominic heaved a huge sigh of relief when he saw her beautiful hazel eyes open and heard her voice. It was music to his ears.
“How? I don’t understand,” Dr. Brown sputtered, moving from the back of the room to Viola’s bedside to take her vitals.
“Like we told you, she had a power imbalance and it was killing her, but you wouldn’t listen. In fact, if you had succeeded in keeping us away from her, you would have been guilty of her death when it occurred,” Sage said with a lot of irritation in his voice.
“I was doing what I thought was best for her since all of her tests came back negative,” Dr. Brown said, becoming defensive.
“Considering you have no experience with patients who possess both Solarian and Lunarian powers, it would have been in your best interests to take what we were telling you more seriously than you did. I can sense people’s emotions Sir. You listened to what we had to say with a deaf ear and annoyance. You felt we were wasting your time so we went to someone who has had experience with doing a power transfer successfully. We had permission from her parents to do what we did, which overrules your permission. If I were Thomas, I’d replace you,” Sage said with disgust.
“Wait, I almost died?” Viola asked with wide eyes.
“Yes, Beautiful One, but you’re going to be fine now.” Dominic said, brushing her hair back.
“I don’t understand. I was tired from everything that happened…” Viola started to say when Cora stepped forward.
“I am so sorry Vi. I should have noticed when we had our little argument in the hallway that something was wrong, but I was too caught up in being angry with you for jumping out of that SUV the way you did. You went back in your room, locked the door and passed out. Dominic was the one who suggested to me that we have you checked out by medical when I came back downstairs. I think he was sensing the imbalance in you even though he didn’t realize it,” Cora said and sat down on the bed across from Dominic.
“Really?” Viola asked, looking up at Dominic with appreciation in her eyes.
“Yeah, I guess that’s what it was. I just had this nagging feeling something was wrong with you and you were in danger,” he said, looking embarrassed.
“Thank you Dominic,” Viola said from the bottom of her heart. She reached up and brushed her fingers across his jaw before letting it drop down and grasped his hand in hers.
“He has been amazing Vi. He’s the one who figured it out about the imbalance and transferred some of his Lunarian power into you to bring your powers back into alignment. He truly is your savior,” Cora said with appreciation and admiration for the way he’d taken care of her twin.
“I don’t know what to say. Thank you just doesn’t seem to be enough,” Viola said, looking at Dominic with awe.
“You don’t have to thank me Beautiful One. Just seeing your eyes open, hearing your voice and knowing you are healthy are all thanks enough for me,” Dominic said, wishing everyone would back off. He’d done what anyone else in the room would have done for her.
“It’s not enough. You went above and beyond Dominic. I am proud of you son,” Thomas said and put his hand on Dominic’s shoulder, looking down at him with pride.
“Any of you would have done the same,” Dominic replied.
“But we didn’t. You did all of that. You have more than proven yourself worthy of my daughter. You have proven you will do whatever it takes to keep her safe and protected. If you choose to follow destiny and become mates, you have my blessing,” Thomas said with a nod before leaning down and placing a gentle kiss on Viola’s forehead and moving away from the couple.
Viola followed her father with a shocked expression on her face. Never in a million years did she ever expect that little speech from him nor the kiss on her forehead.
“Wow,” was all she could manage to say.
“Who was that?” Cora asked, just as surprised as her twin was.
“I don’t know, but I may learn to like him,” Viola said and both girls giggled.
“Someone want to tell me what happened to Thomas? He’s being unusually nice,” Sage asked in a whisper.
“I’ll fill you in later,” Cora whispered back.
Sage nodded and went over to where Thomas was having a not so pleasantly animated conversation with Dr. Brown.
Dominic could not take his eyes off of Viola’s face. He was so relieved she was going to be alright that he didn’t know what to do with himself. Cora and Viola were having a conversation between the two of them and he didn’t notice when Angelica moved over to his side.
“You did a wonderful thing today. Don’t underestimate yourself or sell yourself short. You are worthy of her. Don’t let your past dictate your future or you will end up miserable,” she told him, wisdom shining brightly from her eyes.
Dominic’s head turned sharply as he was startled by her words. Viola and Cora’s conversation halted as the
y watched and listened with rapt attention.
“I’m sorry Ma’am, I have to disagree with you. I don’t deserve her. She deserves so much better than me as her mate,” Dominic told her with a deep sadness in his eyes.
“She has chosen you whether you feel you are worthy of her or not. Fate has chosen for the two of you to be together. Tell me, what do you know that fate and my daughter do not? What makes you feel like you are not worthy of her?” Angelica asked him.
“I know of my past. I am not a good guy. I have made bad choices and chosen the wrong path more often than I have ever done the right thing. I have committed horrendous acts. She deserves better than me. Far, far better than me,” the honesty in his voice ringing loud and clear.
“Do you know what makes you worthy of my daughter, Dominic?” Angelica asked in a soft voice.
“Nothing. There is not one thing that makes me worthy of her, Ma’am,” he said, sorrow in his voice and eyes.
“Oh, yes there is. Would you like to know what it is?” Angelica persisted.
When Dominic said nothing, Angelica looked over at her quiet daughters and smiled with pride at them before turning back to him.
“You are a very special person who loves with all of his heart. Yes, you’ve been lost for quite a while, because of circumstances out of your control. You were very young when your family was ripped away from you in one of the most horrible ways possible. Of course you made wrong choices because that’s what you were taught to do from a young age. That is forgivable. What makes you worthy is when you had the opportunity to make the right choice and help fight for the greater good of our people, instead of continuing down the path of destroying our people, you chose to fight for the greater good. You’ve saved more lives than you can imagine by alerting us to Anna’s plans so we could minimize the damage she caused. You were the one who found out what Anna was planning to do to our daughters and alerted us to this so we could extract them and bring them to safety. You were the one who caught that Viola was in mortal danger and then figured out what was wrong with her and fixed it so she’s healthy and strong, after a bit of rest that is. All of that makes you worthy of her. None of us make perfect choices. All of us make mistakes. That is all a part of life,” Angelica told him in a gentle, but firm, voice. The conviction in her words making even Dominic’s eyes water.
“But I kidnapped her and delivered her to Anna,” Dominic objected.
“Although I do not condone that choice, I do understand it. Besides, it’s obvious that fate had a hand in your decision as the two of you are destined to be mated to each other. If you fight it, you will cause pain to not only yourself, but Viola as well, because we are not made to survive without our mates. Think long and hard before deciding you’re not good enough for her, because you’re hurting more than yourself by denying what is destined to be. I trust you to make the right decision,” Angelica told him confidently, leaned down and gave him a brief hug before walking away, leaving Dominic and the twins staring after her stunned once again.
Chapter Twenty-Five
After being held for twenty-four hours for observation, Viola was relieved to be released from the medical facility and heading back to the mansion and her own room. Angelica had already had all of the things they’d purchased during their outing/mission brought from the Victorian house and placed in her room so she’d have immediate access to everything.
Walking into her room, she closed the door behind her and grabbed her things for a nice hot shower. Being in medical made her feel dirty somehow, she thought it had something to do with all of the different people’s hands probing everywhere on her body. Getting clean and into some comfortable clothes was her first priority, before going to meet with her family.
The steady stream of hot water from the shower felt wonderful so she stood there forever before cleansing and getting out, drying off and dressing. She took the time to blow dry her hair and apply a light dusting of makeup before heading down to the dining room where they’d agreed to have an evening meal together and talk.
Things had been awkward between her and Dominic since Angelica’s speech in her medical room and she was desperate to find out why he was pulling away from her. She prayed he was not planning on leaving her because of his feelings of inadequacy.
When she entered the dining room, Dominic stood up and pulled her chair out for her as he’d done the last time she’d entered after he had. She loved that he was such a gentleman. It made her feel special, because no guy had ever done for her the things he did for her. He made her feel cherished.
As soon as she was seated, the dishes of food began being passed around and everyone teased, laughed and chatted amongst each other. The only one who didn’t seem to join in was Dominic and Viola didn’t understand why.
She kept giving him worried looks, but he was consistent about avoiding meeting her gaze. Reaching out with her mind, she found his and asked, “What’s wrong? Why won’t you look at me?”
“Let it go Viola,” he said and blocked her from his mind. Looking hurt, she pushed her chair back from the table and left the dining room without saying anything to anyone.
Upon Viola’s abrupt departure, everyone stopped talking and looked back and forth between the door Viola had just gone through and Dominic, who kept his eyes down on his plate.
After a few moments, Angelica said something to the group and directed everyone’s focus away from Dominic, to his relief.
Viola stood outside of the dining room for a few minutes with her back against the wall waiting to see if anyone pressed about why she’d suddenly left the table without a word, but no such questions came. With pain and confusion stabbing her heart, she ran through the house and out through the front door. She had no particular destination in mind, she just had to get away from there before she exploded. Fear was clawing at her from the inside out because of Dominic’s withdrawn behavior.
Without realizing where she’d been heading, she ended up in the gazebo again. Tired and out of breath, she collapsed onto one of the benches and burst into tears, the conversation from the day before between Dominic and her mother replaying itself in her head, over and over again. The only break from that memory was the one of the conversation between herself and Dominic, when he’d told her himself he didn’t deserve her.
Viola didn’t know how long she sat there in the moonlight sobbing and replaying those memories in her mind. It had to be quite a while because the air turned quite chilly as time wore on and the moon rose higher in the night sky. Still, she made no move to return to the house and the loneliness of her room.
“Why? What do I have to do to get him to see reason? We fit together as one,” Viola said as she closed her eyes and wished for answers. Only silence greeted her questions.
Lying down and curling up into a ball on the bench, she tried to clear her mind of Dominic and their confusing situation. She forced herself not to think of Anna, Camilla and their destiny. Focusing, she went to that place in her mind that gave her some sort of peace and tried to retreat for a while.
Her mind would not cooperate with her however. She kept trying to figure out how to break through Dominic’s low image of himself and get him to realize how perfect they were together. She didn’t want anyone else but him. If she was to embrace her destiny, she had to embrace him as her mate like she was trying to do.
Staring up at the moon, she willed the answers she was looking for to come to her, but continued to come up with nothing.
Cora found Viola lying on the gazebo bench stewing an hour later.
“Hey Sis. I thought you could use an ear to listen. Things seem tense between you and Dominic,” Cora said as she lifted Viola’s head, sat down and rested it on her lap. Viola made no move to get up.
“I don’t know what’s going on with him. I wish that I did.” The frustration Viola was feeling, poured out into her words.
“Want me to talk to him?” Cora offered.
“I don’t think it’ll do any good,
” Viola told her with a grateful smile.
“It might, we’ve gotten to know each other pretty well over the last day or so. Maybe I can get through to him,” Cora said with a shrug and jealousy raged through Viola.
“What? Isn’t Liam enough for you? You’ve got to go after Dominic too?” Viola screeched, sitting up and moving away from her sister.
“What? No! We’re just getting to be friends. You took that the wrong way,” Cora said, raising her hands up as a sign of surrender.
“Calm down Viola,” Sage ordered as he stepped into the gazebo.
“Why should I?” Viola’s jealousy was taking over.
“Because your powers are tied to your emotions and that is what caused your power imbalance to begin with. Do you want a repeat of what happened?” Sage snapped back.
Viola opened and closed her mouth several times, wanting to make a snide remark, but couldn’t refute what Sage had said.
“We’re here to help you Vi. I don’t want Dominic, he’s all yours. We all have the same goal of helping him to realize he’s meant to be with you, despite how he feels about himself,” Cora said, standing and walking over to her sister.
Viola took a deep breath and looked at the two people standing close to her. She saw the love and concern in their eyes and the jealousy she was feeling evaporated.
“I’m sorry. Everything is so crazy right now and I’m terrified that Dominic is going to walk away without giving us a chance,” she told them as her shoulders slumped, and she sank down onto the nearest bench. Tears were welling up in her eyes again and she brushed them away with impatience.
“Well, the first thing we need to do is get your emotions under control. You don’t have enough training in reining in your powers to let your emotions fly the way that you have been. Second, we need to come up with a plan to knock some sense into that mate of yours,” Sage said, sitting down next to her and wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
“Sage is right Vi. We’ll get him to come around,” Cora said, sitting down on her other side.