Chapter 4

Nova

“That lady called me an Omega,” the little girl, Aria, cried, pointing at the woman standing before me. “And she was bullying me and the nice human lady, saying that only low-ranking wolves make friends with humans!”

Dominic’s gaze sharpened as he looked at me and the blonde woman. His golden eyes seemed to narrow, assess, and judge. I lifted my chin boldly.

The woman shrank considerably and began wringing her hands. “I’m sorry—I didn’t know—” She suddenly whirled on me and pointed her finger at me. “It’s all her fault! I was just trying to talk to your daughter and this human wouldn’t get out of the way! She was trying to manipulate your daughter into picking her!”

That wasn’t true, of course, but I steeled myself anyway for what was sure to come. Dominic, given his prejudice against humans and the bad impression I’d made earlier in the garden, was going to finally kick me out. A werewolf would always side with another werewolf in situations like this.

But I found myself surprised when Dominic looked straight at the woman and declared coldly, “You and your little clique can leave.”

The woman’s mouth opened and closed several times like a fish out of water. “I—You—What?” she blurted out. Her face reddened to an alarming shade of crimson. “Do you know who I am? My father is the Alpha of the Rosecroft family!”

That name rang a bell to me; the Rosecroft family was one of the wealthiest in Wintercrest. This woman was likely the heir to a massive fortune, which just solidified my earlier suspicion.

She was probably only here to find a way to seduce Dominic and combine their families. For all I knew, the woman’s parents had put her up to it. She didn’t actually need the job.

Dominic, however, remained unshaken by the name.

“Good for you,” he said, hardly even looking at her anymore. “Now get out of my house and away from my daughter.”

He waved his hand dismissively, and a moment later, two security guards entered the room. They briskly escorted the woman and her friends out, leaving me and just a few other applicants standing there.

Once the woman’s shouts had faded into the distance, Aria pointed at me. “I want her to be my nanny. I like her.”

I wasn’t all that surprised; I’d hit it off with Aria quickly, perhaps even more quickly than any child I had nannied for before. I couldn’t help but smile a little, thinking that it would be nice to nanny for a girl this sweet.

But Dominic seemed displeased. He didn’t even look at me.

“She’s a human, Aria,” he said flatly, as if he were describing the process of paint drying on a wall. “You’re too quick to give her your trust. You don’t know what she’s capable of.”

The very first thing he had done upon meeting me was accuse me of seduction, and now he was acting as if I might harm a child?

But at least he was a good father, if nothing else, I thought bitterly.

I didn’t feel as if I needed to worry anymore about the child’s wellbeing; clearly, Aria didn’t need my protection because she had a father who cared.

But that also meant that there was nothing left here for me.

I grabbed my purse and turned toward Dominic.

“If my employer is going to be a werewolf as prejudiced as you, then I don’t want the job anyway.”

I turned and stormed out without another word. Although, as I left, I couldn’t help but notice the way my heartstrings tugged at the thought of leaving behind the quiet, gentle little girl with red hair so much like my own.

…

Dominic

Dominic watched the woman storm out, red hair fluttering behind her like a trail of fire. The shade reminded him of Aria, and the way she clenched her fists as she strutted off was amusingly similar to the way Aria threw tantrums.

Nova, she’d said her name was. It was an uncommon name, and she was an uncommon human with the way she had stood up to him.

But Dominic knew he would forget all about her soon. So would Aria.

“Don’t worry, princess,” Dominic said, brushing a stray strand of hair out of her eyes. “We’ll find you the best nanny possible. There are still lots of people here to meet.”

Aria wrinkled her freckled button nose at the other women who were standing awkwardly in the middle of the room. “But I wanted that one. I don’t care if she’s a human. She was nice to me.”

Dominic’s jaw clenched. Six years ago, it was a human-caused accident that took his wife and nearly took his daughter from him too. His wife had been eight months pregnant at the time; it was only by some miracle that the doctors had been able to deliver Aria safely before it was too late.

It wasn’t that Dominic particularly hated humans, it was just… He had a hard time trusting anyone after what had happened. And besides, werewolves typically knew how to care for pups better, just as humans knew how to care for human children better. It was biology.

And yet…

Six-year-old Aria still didn’t have a gift. She hadn’t even shown any signs of having one. Sometimes, she almost seemed more human than werewolf.

If she was wolfless, of course Dominic wouldn’t care. He would love her just the same as he always had—intensely, fiercely, and with every fiber of his being. Aria was his little princess, the light of his life, the one thing worth living for.

But he had taken her to the doctor for testing, just in case there was some developmental issue. After all, it was a father’s duty to check, right?

Later that night, after Aria was sound asleep in bed, Dominic was sitting in his study going over paperwork. Today’s applicants had all turned out to be duds; after Nova left, Aria had refused to see any of the others.

Not that it mattered, anyway. Most of them didn’t actually need the job and were just there to seduce him for his fortune and the chance to be the Luna of Wintercrest.

Typical, really. It was yet another reason why Dominic struggled with trust.

Just then, a knock on the door pulled Dominic out of his thoughts. “Come in,” he called out, and a moment later, the door opened to reveal Adam—his Beta.

“Alpha,” Adam said, crossing the room and bowing his head politely. “I have the test results from the doctor.”

Dominic took the folder, almost hesitant to open it. He inhaled deeply and inwardly reminded himself that he didn’t care if Aria was wolfless or not—she was still his little girl, and he would make sure she knew it no matter what.

But when he opened the folder and read the results, he didn’t expect to find what he did.

“Genome: Human. Percentage: 100%.”

Dominic couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Aria was a human. Not a werewolf at all.

Had the hospital made a mistake and swapped Dominic’s daughter with another?