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Thinking of who he'd been a decade ago, he couldn't say for sure what he would have done. And that terrified Dominick. Because if he couldn't say for sure that he would have accepted Rosalie's child, the woman he loved more than anything in the world, he couldn't bring himself to blame her for what she'd done.
For keeping his son and heir from him.
Dominick took one last look at Jay, the incredible boy he'd only had minutes to enjoy the company of. Minutes that had won him over in his heart and mind. But after tonight ... after he'd tried to kill his own son ... he was sure Rosalie and Jay equally believed him to be a monster.
He turned away from them both, unable to meet their eyes. Unable to look at them and see all his shame and regret reflected back at him. With his fists clenched at his sides, he began to walk away.
"Let them go," he ordered his guards. "They are not my prisoners anymore. See to it that all of their needs are taken care of. No questions asked. And Rosalie, my offer of educating Jay with the resources we currently have in the castle walls still stands. You have no obligation to me should you choose to accept it while we are still trapped within these walls."
He continued to walk toward the door that took him away from them as fast as possible. To somewhere, anywhere, that would leave him outdoors. That meant his personal chambers, the balcony. That was where he had to go if he was going to get any fresh air.
Fuck. He was a father.
Fuck!
"Wait, Dominick, we need to talk about this—" Rosalie called after him.
But how could she want anything to do with him now? He could barely stand himself for saying and thinking and doing what he'd done. He'd called her a whore. He'd almost killed his own son ...
The door slammed behind him, and he locked the bolt so Rosalie couldn't follow.
The seconds of panic and disbelief blurred together, and then he was pushing open the French doors to his balcony. Cool, near-dawn air hit him in the face, quelling some of the intense heat that was burning him from the inside out.
From a night of bliss in Rosalie's arms to this ... a living nightmare. Where had everything gone so wrong?
With him, of course. He was always the one who fucked it up. Rosalie had been right about him from the beginning. He'd taken her for granted. Treated her like a child because she was a young human, not an ancient vampire like him. And he'd lost everything not once but twice, because of it.
Dominick rested his elbows on the stone railing overlooking the forest beyond, and he cradled his head in his palms. Gods, how could he get out of his mess?
Was it even possible?
He'd been a fool to think he could have it all, coming so close, and yet now he had nothing: no wife, no son, and no chance of ever getting them back. His heart felt like a lead weight in his chest, and with it came an overwhelming urge to make things right. He would try anything if it meant gaining forgiveness from Rosalie and giving Jay the life he deserved. He couldn't live in this bubble of self-loathing forever.
But how could he expect them to forgive him when he wasn't sure he could forgive himself for another thousand years, if at all?
Dominick thought for a long moment before finally deciding to climb over the balcony and jump into the courtyard below. He landed hard on his feet, his powerful bones absorbing the shock of the fall, and then he made his way toward the forest. He didn't know yet what he was going to do, but he needed to get out into the night and run off some of this restless energy before dawn came, and he would be stuck inside for the rest of the day.
He needed to process this now before this uncontrolled agony got out of control.
Racing as fast as he could, he ran through the trees, jumping over bushes and under branches until his feet were sore. Then he continued up toward the curse's barrier and kept going until he found the stream that trickled through his lands, and there, he finally slowed his pace. The water rushed on and on, never wavering. Perhaps sometimes it slowed and pooled in place when there was an obstacle, but those obstacles never stopped the flow of water for long.
The water always got around.
Dominick took off his shoes and resolved himself to become the river. He waded into the ankle-deep water and went on downstream, back toward his castle, letting the cool water steady his mind and body. Now that he knew the truth about Jay, he could make amends with Rosalie. He could do right by them both. It would take a lot of effort, but he knew he could do it.
Everything was different now that he had a child. A precious son who looked just like the woman he'd dreamed of for years. How had he not seen it?
An animal calling in the woods caught Dominick's attention, and he looked up, finding an odd placement of rocks on the bank, spreading into the grass. At first, he didn't recognize them, but when he came closer, he realized they were faerie stones.
But how were there any here when there were no faeries?
"You both have gone and made a real mess of this whole thing," a voice came from behind, sounding bored but almost annoyed. "Really, falling in love again should be so simple for you two, but it's like you both want to be tortured by yourselves for eternity. I thought humans were just gluttons for punishment, and so I expected it fromher, but not you. You should know better, oh-mighty-king."
There was no one there behind Dominick, but then he lowered his gaze into the bushes, where a bright auburn fox wandered out into the clearing beside the creek. A talking fox? At first, it seemed impossible, but he knew that some fae could take wild forms like this. She must be a shapeshifter.
Was this the fox that Jay had mentioned to him by mistake?
"Who are you?" Dominick demanded. "These are my lands, and you are trespassing."
