Unfortunate Mating

TESSA MERCER

I bobbed my head down, taking the head of his penis deep into my mouth. I focused on the rhythm, determined to get a reaction out of him. Down, up, and around. I coated my tongue in spit, making sure there were no teeth scraping against his skin, gliding my lips down the shaft until the tip triggered my own gag reflex. I swallowed down the discomfort, forced myself to breathe through my nose, and kept going. I was desperate to hear him groan, or moan, or give me any sign that I was driving him into ecstasy.

That is what a man is supposed to do when his mate pleasures him orally. He is supposed to grab her hair, curse in pleasure, and lose his mind.

But Beta Trent Vance just lay there on his back, staring at the ceiling with a flat, unbothered expression on his handsome face.

My jaw ached. My neck cramped. I brought both my hands up, stroking the base of his dick while I worked my mouth relentlessly over the tip. Still, nothing changed. He remained soft against my tongue. A barely hard penis. It made zero sense to me. My lungs burned for oxygen, and the muscles in my cheeks were giving out.

I pulled my mouth away, gasping for a deep breath of air. A string of saliva connected my swollen lips to him before snapping and falling onto his thigh. I sat back on my heels, kneeling between his spread legs on the mattress.

"Am I doing it right?" I asked.

I hated asking that question. I had to ask it every single time we tried to be intimate. I could never understand why I could not pleasure this man, no matter how hard I tried.

Trent lowered his chin. His cold, dark eyes locked onto mine. "No. You never do."

His voice held zero emotion. He did not censor his disdain. Other men might guide their mates. They might tell their partners what felt good, what stroke to use, or where to put their hands to maximize the pleasure. All I ever got from Trent were flat insults and endless complaints about my lack of skill.

I dragged the back of my hand across my mouth, wiping away the spit. "I am really trying my best, Trent. I do not know what I am doing wrong."

He let out a harsh grunt, shifting his weight and pushing me aside to get off the bed. "My problem with you, Tessa, is your total lack of experience. You are easily the worst sexual partner I have ever had."

I flinched as if he had struck me. My chest tightened, a familiar heavy ache settling in my ribs. He always played the comparison card. He loved stacking me up against every other she-wolf he had slept with in the past, measuring my worth against women I did not even know. It felt like a brutal slap to the face every single time.

"Trent, you have to understand that I—"

"No, I am not ready to understand anything." He cut me off, grabbing his dark trousers from the nearby chair. "You are yet to understand me. You do not know what I want as a man."

I bit my lower lip. I had tipped him off again. I gave him the perfect excuse to unleash his terrible temper, something he seemed to look forward to doing whenever I failed to meet his impossible standards.

"Fuck," Trent spat, pulling his trousers up his muscular legs. "Why can't you just be like the other girls? Why can't you get it right for once? The other she-wolves I have been with were never this novice. They were never this unteachable."

The sheer injustice of his words sparked a flash of heat in my chest. My frustration boiled over. "What have you ever taught me, Trent?" I shot back, rising to my knees on the messy sheets. "I always ask you what you want. I beg you to tell me what feels good. But you deflect. You push me away and start comparing me to other women. You just use your favorite line to call me inexperienced!"

I watched his broad shoulders tense. I knew it was dangerous to talk back to him, but the blame felt suffocating. If he wanted his dick sucked a certain way, he should just use his words.

"Are you raising your voice at me, Tessa?" Trent turned around slowly. He paused, leaving the button of his trousers undone. A dark, threatening scowl creased his forehead.

I froze. The anger drained out of me, replaced by an icy dread that pooled in my stomach.

"Do not think that just because we are unfortunately mates, you can disrespect me," Trent seethed. He took a slow, deliberate step toward the bed. "Have you forgotten so quickly that I am the Beta? I am the right-hand man to the Alpha. I am second in command of this entire pack. You dare raise your voice at me?"

I shrank back against the pillows. I instantly regretted letting my emotions slip. He always turned cold and rigid when he felt his authority was challenged.

*Unfortunately mates.*

The words echoed in my skull, ringing in my ears like a death knell. Did he just say it was an unfortunate fact that the Moon Goddess paired us together?

"I am sorry, Trent," I pleaded, lowering my head to show my submission. "Please forgive me. All I am trying to say is that I am your mate. I want nothing more than to bring you happiness. I want to pleasure you. But if I am not doing it right, I would appreciate it if you taught me what to do."

Trent scoffed loudly. He grabbed his heavy leather belt and began looping it through his trousers with aggressive, jerky movements. "Tessa, I am a busy man. I do not have the liberty of time to go about and teach you the basic duties of a mate. You are a grown woman for God's sake. You should know how to pleasure a man. Who taught the other women? Or are you just plain daft? Are you too stupid to figure out what to do and what not to do?"

His words were icy needles. They pierced straight through my skin and lodged deep in my heart. A mate was supposed to protect you. A mate was supposed to shower you with affection, build you up, and encourage you with sweet words. Trent only wanted to tear me down and make me feel like a useless burden.

A thick lump formed in my throat. My eyes burned with the threat of unshed tears.

"I do not even know why the Moon Goddess made a mistake pairing up a man like me with a boring girl like you," Trent continued, buckling his belt with a sharp snap. "You are fucking boring, Tessa. Jeez. The worst of all the girls I have been with. Thinking I have to be fated to you for the rest of my damn life is just painful to think about."

That was the breaking point. The final, brutal blow that shattered whatever resolve I had left. It was the terrible cherry on top of his ugly cake of condemnation.

The tears spilled over my eyelashes. They streamed down my cheeks in hot, rapid tracks. I scrambled off the mattress, my weak legs giving out beneath me. I hit the hardwood floor, curling my knees to my chest. I buried my wet face in my palms and let out a loud, broken sob.

"Trent! Why are you always so mean?" I cried out, my voice cracking under the weight of my misery.

He let out a loud huff. "Great. Now you are fucking crying."

He hissed through his teeth and started pacing across the bedroom. The heavy thud of his boots hit the floorboards in a relentless, agitated rhythm. I sat there on the cold wood, sobbing my heart out. My chest heaved. I gasped for air through the tears, letting all the humiliation and rejection pour out of me. I waited for him to say something. A word of comfort. A shred of remorse for tearing my self-esteem to pieces.

Nothing. He just kept pacing back and forth, ignoring my pain.

The minutes stretched on. The silence in the room was heavy, broken only by the pathetic sound of my weeping and his restless footsteps. I felt small. Unwanted. I felt like a failure of a mate who could not even get her partner hard.

Then, the footsteps stopped.

Trent stood directly in front of me. The steel toes of his boots were mere inches from my bare legs.

I sniffled, slowly lowering my trembling hands from my wet face. I tilted my head up to look at him, expecting to see a twisted scowl. Expecting him to yell at me to get out of his room and out of his sight.

Instead, I saw his features soften. The harsh lines around his mouth vanished. The coldness in his eyes melted away.

"I am sorry for how I spoke to you just now, Tessa," he said.

I blinked, stunned into silence. Did Beta Trent Vance just apologize to me?

His tone was no longer sharp. The booming, authoritative voice he used to command the pack guards was gone. He sounded calm. He sounded empathetic and gentle.

I wiped my eyes with the back of my wrist, thinking my blurry vision was playing tricks on me. But no. The remorse on his face remained steady. This was a new discovery. I had never seen him backtrack like this before.

"Did you hear me, Tessa honey?" he murmured softly. "I just said I am sorry. Please forgive me."

*Honey.*

He called me honey. He never used pet names with me, but my desperate, starved heart clung to the word anyway, soaking it up like rain in a drought.

"There has been so much going on in the pack currently," Trent sighed, running a hand through his dark hair to mess it up. "It is making my job so overwhelming. I am stressed as hell. I am sorry for lashing out at you. It was wrong."

I sat there on the floor, utterly dazed. My brain struggled to process the mental whiplash. Ten minutes ago, I was the worst sexual partner he ever had and a mistake made by the Moon Goddess. Now, I was receiving an apology, a sweet pet name, and a genuine look of regret all in one breath.

Before I could find my voice, Trent reached down. He hooked his large hands under my arms and lifted me off the floor with effortless strength. He set me down gently on the edge of the mattress.

Then, he dropped down to his knees.

The powerful Beta of the pack knelt on the floor right in front of me, bringing himself down to my height. He raised his hands and used his rough thumbs to carefully dry the remaining tears on my damp cheeks.

"I am sorry, baby. Please smile for me," he whispered, trailing a warm finger over my bottom lip.

A flutter of warmth ignited in my chest, chasing away the cold dread from moments before. How could I stay mad at him? How could I hold a grudge when this handsome, dominant man was kneeling at my feet, looking up at me with such tender affection, begging for my forgiveness?

A small hint of a smile touched my lips. I leaned into his touch, starved for his validation. "I forgive you, Trent."

His smile broadened, reaching his dark eyes. "Thank you. Let me make it up to you. I want to take you to a special place today."

My heart did a little excited leap in my chest. "Oh? Where is that?"

"A secret spot," Trent replied, his eyes gleaming with a hidden emotion. "But I promise you that you will love it. Put on your clothes, my love. Let's go."

A secret spot just for the two of us. A romantic surprise to make up for our terrible morning argument. All the agonizing emotional pain and humiliation from earlier evaporated into thin air, replaced by a naive, hopeful excitement that bubbled up in my throat.

He did not need to tell me twice.

I hopped up from the bed, leaving him behind as I eagerly searched around the room for my scattered clothes. I grabbed my underwear and my dress from the floor, my mind racing with romantic possibilities. I could not wait to see the surprise he had in store for me.