Mated by Contract to the Alpha


    <b>Chapter </b><b>116 </b>


    Dominic’s POV


    <b>42 </b>


    I paced the length of the vi’s living room, checking my watch for the third time in as many minutes. 8:47 PM. Reba should have been home hours ago.


    “Sir,” Diana approached cautiously, “would you like me to prepare dinner?”


    “Has she called?” I asked instead of answering.


    “No, sir. No messages.”


    I dismissed her with a nod, pulling out my phone to call Reba again. Straight to voicemail, just like the previous five attempts. A knot of unease tightened in my stomach.


    I had been harsh earlier–my jealousy getting the better of me when I’d seen her with that professor. His scent had been all over her table, and while my human side recognized the innocent nature of their meeting, my wolf had seen only another male encroaching on what was mine. Now I regretted letting her leave me without resolving things


    between us<b>. </b>


    As I moved to call Marcus, a dull throbbing began behind my temples. I paused, recognizing this sensation from earlier in the day–around 6:30, I’d experienced a simr unexpected headache during a conference call, along with a strange sense of rm. At the time, I’d dismissed it as stress.


    Now, with Reba missing, the significance clicked into ce. The mate bond. It had been trying to warn me.


    “Raymond,” I barked into my phone. “Bring the car around immediately. And get Marcus on the line.”


    Within minutes, I was issuing orders to every Beta and Delta in my inner circle. “Search the building, starting with her office. Check security footage. Find her.”


    As Raymond drove toward Sterling Tower, my instincts screamed that something was deeply wrong. The headache had faded, reced by a hollow sensation that felt like dread.


    “Faster, I growled, and Raymond pressed the elerator without question.


    At the building, security had already been alerted. Marcus met me in the lobby, his expression grave.


    “No sign of her on the executive floor,” he reported. “Security says her ID wasst used at the fifteenth–floor stairwell at 6:22 PM.”


    I closed my eyes, concentrating on the faint connection I could feel with Reba. It was weak but present–a tether I could follow. Without waiting for Marcus, I moved toward the stairwell, my senses heightening as adrenaline flooded my system.


    The moment I pushed open the stairwell door, her scent hit me–along with the metallic tang of blood and the sour note of fear. My vision sharpened, the world taking on the blue–tinged rity that came with my wolf rising close to


    the surface.


    “Reba!” I called, my voice echoing in the concrete chamber.


    There was no response, but I didn’t need one. I could follow her scent now, strong and direct. I descended the stairs rapidly, taking them three at a time, until I reached anding where her scent was overwhelming.


    And there she was, crumpled against the wall, her body unnaturally still. Blood matted her hair where her head had struck the edge of a step, a small pool forming beneath her.


    “Reba,” I whispered, dropping to my knees beside her. I could hear her heartbeat–steady but slow–and the shallow rise and fall of her breathing. Relief flooded me, quickly reced by cold rage as another scent registered.


    Elizabeth.


    Her scent was all over this stairwell, mixed with the acrid smell of aggression and–most damning–partial transformation. She had shifted, or begun to, in Reba’s presence.


    I gathered Reba carefully into my arms, cradling her head against my chest. Her skin was cool to the touch, her face pale beneath a forming bruise. As I lifted her, her eyelids fluttered but didn’t open.


    Marcus appeared at the top of the stairs, his sharp intake of breath telling me he understood the severity of the


    situation.


    “Call Dr. Winters,” I ordered, my voice barely human. “Tell her to meet us at the Silvercrest Medical Center. Now.”


    “Yes, sir,” he responded automatically, the formal address acknowledging the power he could surely sense rolling off


    me in waves.


    As I carried Reba’s limp form up the stairs, I felt my control slipping. My vision pulsed between normal and the electric blue of my wolf’s sight. I looked down at the woman in my arms, her vulnerability tearing at something primal within me.


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