Mated to the Capo (Mafia Wolf Shifters) (Encantado Shifters Book 1)

by Georgette St. Clair

  “I don’t want you,” Dominic bit out. “You’re no good to me. You never have been. You do nothing but get in my way, and I’m sick of carrying your deadbeat ass. As soon as I claim my mate, I will be leaving the city, and I will not be taking you with me.” He saw the look of dark hurt in Romano’s eyes. Life outside the pack would be too dangerous. And the only way to get rid of the big, loyal bastard was to make him hate Dominic.

  Romano’s face went blank.

  Dominic turned and walked away quickly. He made it around the block before he shifted, threw back his head, and howled in rage.

  Thoughts of Zoey floated in his head. She needs me. He couldn’t go feral and give up now. With agonizing effort, he grabbed hold of his wolf and wrestled it back inside him. His wolf didn’t want to go, and it fought him all the way, making the transition sheer torture. He broke his bones to force them back into human shape and dragged his fur back under his skin.

  He couldn’t think as well when he was a wolf. He needed to be able to plan, to strategize.

  He crouched on the ground, panting.

  Think, stupid bastard, think! Was Arturo going to cancel the blockade and let the van with Zoey escape? No, he probably wouldn’t do that because the van full of Bianchi wolves had invaded Moretti territory, and Arturo needed to capture and kill them.

  If Dominic was no longer a Moretti, then Zoey was no longer Arturo’s concern. Zoey thought Dominic was hard-hearted and calculating—Arturo made Dominic look like a girl scout.

  A familiar voice sliced through his fog of panic.

  Romano came barreling toward him, furious.

  “Fuck! I’ve lost her, dammit!” Dominic howled his sorrow. “Go away, Romano! I can’t save you. I can’t save anyone!”

  “I never asked you to save me, asshole!” Romano barked at him. “I asked you to let me serve by your side, and that’s where I am as long as I’m breathing.”

  Dominic fixed his bleary gaze on Romano. “I don’t deserve you. And I have to go look for Zoey now.”

  “Cin just called me. She’s got a line on where they are. Street kid network; they all keep in touch with each other. 37th and Harris. And no, you don’t deserve me, but you’re fucking stuck with me.”

  He was talking to Dominic’s backside because the second Romano said the street names, Dominic had gone wolf again and tore down the street.

  “Are we there yet?” Zoey chanted as they drove. “Are we there yet? Are we there yet?”

  “Shut up!” Luigi, Primo’s nephew, bellowed in frustration. “Dammit,” he complained to Salvatore, Primo’s first in command. “Just let me kill her!”

  Salvatore shook his head. “Your uncle said no. She’s more useful alive. For now.”

  Luigi’s lip wrinkled in a snarl. “Doesn’t mean I can’t slap you around some,” he growled. “Say ‘are we there yet’ one more time. I dare you!”

  Zoey grinned, her eyes glowing with malice. “Are we there yet? Are we—”

  Luigi’s fist shot toward her face. Salvatore was faster and grabbed his wrist. “Your uncle said no! If you hit her too hard, she’ll die!”

  “So what?” Luigi yelled. “Nobody disrespects me like that! Let the fuck go of me!”

  He struggled, and Salvatore held his wrist. Luigi and Salvatore fell to the floor in the back of the van, wrestling with each other. Zoey took the opportunity to jump to her feet, lunged for the back door of the van, and fumbled for the lock.

  Before Salvatore and Luigi could grab her, the door flew open and she fell out onto the street. The van was only moving at a crawl because they were cruising around the west side, trying to find a way to get past Arturo’s men. They’d been complaining about it the whole time.

  They were on a tiny side street. Zoey shot down the street, heart in her throat, and made it to the main road, but a growl behind her made her spin around. She stared at two large, angry wolves. Salvatore and Luigi faced her with their tails swishing.

  There was no point in running, but she wouldn’t make this easy for them.

  “You fleabags are going to have to drag me back,” she yelled. “I’ll gauge your eyes out, you mangy poodles!”

  They froze, turned, and ran.

  Wow. Was she a badass and had never known it?

  “Yeah, you better run!” she yelled at their retreating backs.

  Then she saw what they were running from: two more enormous wolves were barreling down the street toward her. Dominic and Romano.

  They reached her and shifted back to human form, and Dominic grabbed her and squeezed her so tightly, she groaned in protest.

  Zoey looked up at him, blinking away tears of relief, love, and gratitude. “What took you so long?”

  Chapter Twenty-one

  B efore they went into Dominic’s apartment above the restaurant, Romano tromped up the stairs to make sure it was safe. Then he went back downstairs and gestured at them to go inside.

  “We’re here instead of Arturo’s?” Zoey said, flopping onto Dominic’s couch. “I mean, I’m certainly happy to be closer to Sergio’s restaurant, but wouldn’t it be safer at Arturo’s right now?”

  “Romano, wait in the hall,” Dominic said.

  Romano obeyed instantly, leaving the apartment and closing the door behind him. Dominic sank down onto the pillow next to Zoey, his eyes hollow and his face grim.

  “What’s wrong?” Zoey had never seen Dominic look so … lost.

  “Nothing’s safe right now, Zoey,” Dominic said grimly. “Arturo believes I put his niece in danger, and therefore, he has kicked me out of the pack. As a lone wolf, I can’t offer you the same kind of protection I would have before. If you want me to relinquish my claim—”

  “What did you just say to me?” Zoey spluttered. “That’s … I don’t … I’m seriously tempted to punch you right now. The only reason I don’t is because it would hurt me more than it would hurt you.”

  “You’re not relieved to be rid of me?”

  Zoey thought she might explode, she was so furious. “You win first prize for being the dumbest wolf on the face of God’s green earth. Abandoning a mate claim … your wolf would be okay with that?”

  He shook his head in resignation. “No. My wolf would go crazy. And it would take me with it.”

  “And you didn’t think that was information you should share with me?” she yelled and punched his arm. “Ow! And now you hurt my hand!”

  “I would do anything to keep you safe. I would die for you. And that’s why I’m willing to set you free. Right now, I’m a lone wolf caught in the middle of a pack war, and you’re my mate, which paints a big fat target on your back.”

  “You’re not lone; you still have me!” Romano called from the hallway.

  “Stop listening!” Dominic growled. “Good God. Can’t a man do something heroic and self-sacrificing without an audience?”

  “How about cowardly and insulting?” Zoey said angrily. “How could you think so little of me that I’d abandon you at the first sign of danger? And how dare you give up on yourself like that?”

  “I knew she was a keeper!” Romano yelled.

  Dominic leapt to his feet. “I will kill you,” he shouted at the door so loudly, the walls shook and a painting fell to the floor.

  “I’m going to wait downstairs so you can guys can not-have sex!” Romano shouted back, and they heard his footsteps pounding down the stairway.

  Dominic sat down again.

  “I will consider being your mate,” Zoey said, struggling to contain her hurt and fury, “on one condition. You stop hiding things from me. Right now, you’re treating me like a bed partner, not a real mate or wife, and I will not accept that. I deserve better than that.” She blinked away tears. “You’ve made me feel like I deserve better, but every time I start to get close to you, you do something to push me away. Don’t try to deny it.”

  Dominic chewed his lip, anguish sparking in his eyes. “You’re right. Romano was right too, which I am never going to live down, b
ut most importantly, you’re right. And I am so very, very sorry. You do deserve better from me.”

  “Then tell me why you shut me out.”

  “Because everyone I’ve ever loved has died,” he said bleakly. “And I’m afraid I can’t keep you safe.”

  His pain settled around her like a damp, chill cloud. “Who did you love?”

  “My parents. I was ten. My father was low-level mafia, human mafia, and my mother was collateral damage when their car exploded. I was sent to live with an aunt and uncle, along with their ten kids who resented my taking food off the table. I joined the army the day I turned eighteen. My fiancée, Phoebe, was my high school sweetheart. She waited for me to come home from overseas. She was relocated to a portal city when I was twenty-two, and I moved with her. She died because I failed to protect her.”

  Engaged. To someone else. Jealousy warred with pity, so bright and bitter that it snatched her breath away. It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t kind, but there it was. “What happened to her?”

  “The ogre invasion of Bitter Hills.”

  Zoey winced. That had been a bad one. There had been a magical flare-up in the Chaos Realm, tearing open the portal near Bitter Hills, Colorado, until it was triple the size it had been. Ogres had flooded through in the hundreds. Thousands of humans had died.

  Dominic grimaced and looked away. “Unfortunately, I survived it. Barely. The ogre picked me up and threw me fifty feet. I heard her die, Zoey. I heard her scream, and then I didn’t hear anything.” He shuddered, and the color drained from his face. “I was in the hospital for weeks. When I got out, I decided to go wolf. I didn’t expect to survive the transition; I didn’t care either way. But I knew I never wanted to feel that helpless again. You can’t win against magic in a fair fight, so I needed to be magic myself. I wanted to be able to protect those I care about.”

  “I’m very sorry. I’m not going to lie to you … part of me is really jealous. I know that’s not fair at all. It’s horrible, really. I just … it feels so good to have you love me, Dominic. It really does.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I want all of you.”

  He cupped her chin in his hand, and all the love in the world poured out of him. She could feel it warming her and filling her.

  “You have all of me. You are my everything.” He paused and looked at the door.

  “What is it?” She followed his glance.

  “I just wanted to make sure that son of a bitch Romano didn’t sneak back up here and eavesdrop. It’s okay, he didn’t. If he was there, he couldn’t stop himself from chiming in about how he told me so. And I’d be skinning myself a new rug.”

  Zoey burst out laughing. Tears streamed down her cheeks, dammed-up emotion flowing from her. There were many scary things in Encantado, but the only thing that had genuinely terrified her lately was the fear Dominic would never open himself up to her.

  “I’ll get you tissues.” Dominic hurried to the kitchen and returned with a box.

  “I love you so much.” She sniffled and dabbed at her face. “Tell me about the wolf bite. About bonding.”

  He frowned. “When we shift to our wolf form and bite a female hard enough to break the skin, no matter the time of month, it forms a mate bond. That’s why we’re very careful not to bite a female accidentally. I know you’ve seen playful nips, but we have enough control over our animal to make sure it doesn’t go too far. Once we’ve mate-bitten, the wolf craves the female’s presence. It becomes attuned to her feelings and wants to please her. And if the female is a wolf, which most of the time it is, she instinctively reciprocates. If she’s human, her feelings have to develop more naturally, and it takes longer. I should have been more sensitive to that.”

  “We’ll work it out. Maybe … maybe it would be better if we left and went to some other portal city until this feud is over.” She shook her head. “No, I can’t because my friends are stuck here. Will Arturo let them stay with him?”

  “Yes. Once he offers his protection, he wouldn’t withdraw it without reason. I’m the one he’s angry at, not them.”

  “All right. Should we tell Romano to come back in?”

  Dominic grinned fiercely. “Hell no.”

  “Ooh. I know that look. It’s a little scary.” She returned his grin. “I like it.”

  Tenderly, he pulled down her pants, and she stepped out of them. Then he grabbed her shirt and ripped it open, buttons flying off.

  “Dominic!” she screeched.

  “Sorry.” He smiled. “I’m an animal. Can’t help myself when I’m around you.”

  “I forgive you … on one condition. There’s something I’ve been wanting to do since the first time I laid eyes on you.”

  Before he could speak, she sank down on her knees in front of him and unbuttoned his pants.

  “Oh God,” he groaned. “Zoey, I should be the one pleasing you, since you’re my … oh, baby.”

  His protests ended when she took him in her mouth, swirling her tongue over the thick head of his cock. She lapped up the pearl of pre-cum, and then traced the rim of his cock with the tip of her tongue.

  His labored breathing sent flashes of pleasure through her body. She took him into her mouth again and tipped back her head, letting him thrust into her as he held her head in place.

  “So. Fucking. Good.”

  Zoey moved her head in rhythm, her cheeks hollowing as she sucked. His breath quickened, and she stroked his balls with her fingers, lightly scraping her nails against the sensitive flesh.

  “Zoey!” Dominic cried out, and she felt his balls tighten.

  He tried to pull out of her mouth, but she grabbed his hips and held him in place, and he came—hard. She swallowed every drop of his release, and he stood there shuddering and panting, stroking her head.

  “Fucking hell,” he groaned finally, and then grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry.

  “Hey!” she squealed as he carried her into the bedroom.

  Dominic grunted out two words that let her know she was in for a world of pleasure and maybe a little bit of delicious pain.

  “My turn.”

  Chapter Twenty-two

  “O h God, so good,” Zoey moaned. “More. Don’t stop. Don’t stop, Dominic!”

  Dominic looked down at her empty plate. “You really like my cooking, don’t you?”

  She jammed her fork into the pancakes and flashed him a grin. “Just keep feeding me the deliciousness, and nobody gets hurt.”

  She was glad they had the apartment to themselves. Romano, under great protest, had been sent packing last night so Dominic could molest Zoey without Romano hearing and yelling his approval. He had gone back to pack property but insisted he’d return in the afternoon so he and Dominic could talk about their future.

  Dominic slid his spatula under the pancakes on the frying pan and expertly flipped three more onto her plate.

  As he joined her at the table, Zoey poured on syrup and slathered on butter. She took a bite of fluffy pancake and groaned in appreciation.

  “That’s right. Eat up. You’ll need your strength. I’ve got plans for you.” He waggled his eyebrows lasciviously.

  “I’m about to get married to an insatiable pervert,” she said. “How did I get so lucky?” She licked butter off her lip, then realized his gaze was suddenly focused on her mouth.

  “You’re going to lick me like that after breakfast,” he assured her. “And I’ve got some creative ideas for the maple syrup.”

  “It’ll get the sheets all sticky!” she protested.

  “True,” he conceded. “Okay, we can do that part in the bathtub. Don’t try to argue with me,” he added sternly. “Arguing with your mate is a punishable offense.”

  She ran her tongue around her lips and was rewarded by hearing him suck in his breath.

  “But how will you punish me?” she teased.

  His lips curled up in a smile, which quickly faded. His gaze flicked toward the window to the left.

  “What?” Sh
e followed his gaze but didn’t see anything.

  “Did you hear that siren?”

  “Not this time, but now that you mention it, I have heard more sirens than usual this morning, headed north.” Their gazes met across the table. North. Toward the area where she’d lived up until very recently, where a lot of her friends still lived.

  They had both turned off their phones last night. They hadn’t watched television either. The entire city could be burning down.

  “I’ve heard a lot more sirens than you have,” Dominic said. “I wasn’t really paying attention at first. But …” His brow wrinkled. “I am going to call Romano.” He hurried over to his cell phone where it was charging on the counter and pressed the power button. “I will have him watch over you while I go north. I don’t want to leave you, but I have an obligation to the city.”

  As he spoke, sirens blared.

  Zoey hadn’t heard those sounds in months, and never this far south. Shelter in place. Magical emergency.

  Whoop, whoop, whoop.

  Three siren blasts, then a pause. She was used to only one siren blast at a time. Three blasts meant a city-wide alarm. She’d never experienced one of those. That was bad. Some of her friends were still at Arturo’s, which was built like a fortress and could probably withstand dragon-fire, but a lot of them were still in District 17.

  What could it be? Trolls, ghouls, dragons, ogres? It could be anything.

  Someone started pounding on the door. Dominic sniffed the air as he hurried to answer.

  “Arturo,” he said and yanked open the door.

  Arturo loomed in the doorway, eyes blazing with an eerie glow. Carlo and Ottavio and a half-dozen foot soldiers stood in the hallway behind him.

  “There are dozens of ghouls and at least five ogres rampaging the city,” he said quickly. “Giuliana escaped my guards and headed up there so she could start healing. My men can’t find her. I’ve been trying to call you. We’re heading up there now.”

  “You left me on my own after my mate was kidnapped,” Dominic said. “And it’s your overbearing nature that drove Giuliana to run out there on her own, without the protection of the pack. If anything happens to her, it’s on you.”