Dominic>
The Blackthorne Manor had always been the home of the Alpha and his family, but it was never home to me. My home was the second property I had had built for me and my beloved a few years back.
It was roughly half an hour's ride from the Manor, tucked far enough into the western trees that the pack rarely had reason to come this way, which to be fair, was exactly the point of it.
I let myself in without knocking, and found Alice curled into the corner of the chaise near the fire with a book open on her lap that I doubted she was actually reading. She looked up the second the door clicked shut, and her whole face softened almost immediately.
"You're late," she said, though there was no real accusation in it. She set the book aside and rose to meet me halfway across the room,
