Page 112 of Reforging Onyx

Chapter 44

Dominic

Onyx lifted his head as the witches rose, glaring after Enzo as the man walked out of the room with the others in tow. Only when they were gone, and he and Dominic were alone, did Onyx say flatly, “He wants me dead.”

Dominic hummed in agreement. “He does,” he said thoughtfully. “And he was sent to goad you — both of us — into a reaction.”

Onyx nodded. “He pretty much confirmed someone in the house is talking to the Council."

Dominic raised a hand. “Not here, my tiger. Come.” Enough time had passed that his guests would have been seen out, but even so. “Walk as you did before, behind my shoulder, until we reach the room.”

Dipping his head in another nod, Onyx fell into step behind Dominic as they walked through the house, returning to the safety of his room.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Onyx breathed out slowly, going to sit on the edge of the bed. “I’m not leashed because I’m afraid of your wrath,” he muttered.

“No, you are not,” Dominic agreed. “Which is something that stays between us… and Shane,” he added after a moment. “I have been sloppy.” He sighed. “Which is inexcusable, but now that the leak has been confirmed, we must take actions to minimize what can get out.”

Onyx snorted, looking up at Dominic. “Yeah, I’m not going to go around telling everyone.” He sobered quickly. “They’d take me away from you, and I…” Onyx shook his head as he trailed off.

Dominic crossed the room to stand in front of Onyx. “You did well tonight, Onyx. Very well.”

“Trust me, I didn’t want to do well. I wanted to rip his throat out like the feral creature he kept calling me,” Onyx muttered darkly.

Dominic chuckled as he started to let Onyx’s hair out of the adornment holding it back. “I would have enjoyed that, I think. Though I would have enjoyed the resulting war with the Council far less. Nonetheless, you did well.”

Onyx shrugged. “I didn’t have to do anything,” he pointed out. “Just sit there.”

Dominic hummed. “Ever your strong suit,” he said with a faint smile. He finished extricating Onyx’s hair from the adornment. “What would you like for dinner?” He had eaten the majority of his meal, so he wasn’t hungry, but Onyx hadn’t had more than a few bites of food.

“Are there any leftovers?” Onyx asked hopefully, looking up at Dominic. “It was good.”

Dominic leaned down and gave Onyx a light kiss, which Onyx returned, if a bit more warily than Dominic might have liked. Then he crossed over to his desk and pressed the intercom button. “Make a plate of tonight’s dinner and bring it to my room,” he instructed before going to start getting undressed.

Onyx took his shirt off and changed into his usual shorts. “So…” he said after a moment. “It’s bad, right? Like really bad?”

Dominic sighed. “It is far from ideal. Just how bad? Difficult to say. There are some who would use you as a weapon, and there are likely many who would rather you dead than anyone’s weapon. Exactly how many there are of each, and what support lies where, I haven’t been keeping as close a track of as perhaps I should have been. I have been complacent in thinking that there were none save the Council who would intervene in my ownership of you, and believing, perhaps wrongly, that they had no interest in the matter.”

He changed out of the black and gold suit into soft slacks and a shirt.

“The factors that brought this change are undoubtedly in part because of the attack,” Dominic continued. “Exactly how much they know is unclear, but they must know — or suspect — something. That, on the heels of the change in my treatment of you, and your response to it, will have been what alarmed them.”

Dominic sighed again in frustration. He should’ve anticipated this. The fact that he hadn’t was galling. He’d thought little of the reactions beyond the household, believing that he could keep everything contained until… until when? Indefinitely? Until he could parade Onyx around like a tame housecat at his feet instead of the tiger that he was?

Until Onyx had been ready to play the part.

Somewhere along the way, he had realized that Onyx could not be both parts: the barely contained tiger outside of public view, and the docile adoring pet in public.

He’d chosen the tiger.

“So what are we going to do?” Onyx asked.

We.

Dominic smiled faintly. “No small part of tonight was to find out whether you are my weapon,” he replied. “And whether the Council now has to concern itself not just with my power — social, political, and magical — but with your magic as well. And while Enzo believes that you are contained, or at least contained enough that he has no grounds to bring challenge, he is not convinced that I can control you. And I’m not certain whether that is a good or bad thing.”

He started to say more, but a servant appeared with Onyx’s dinner. Once she’d left it on his desk and the door was closed behind her, he sat at his desk and leaned back, fingers tapping as he thought out loud.

“They do not yet think I am an open threat, but they are not convinced that I won’t become one,” he explained.