Dividing the Alpha

A year and a half.

That was exactly how long Saskia had navigated the grueling, bitter reality of their three-way mate bond. In the beginning, after she had walked out of the ballroom and forced Dominic to face the consequences of his sudden claiming, she had laid down one strict, uncompromisable condition. She had honorably accepted Kelsie into their lives, swallowing her pride for the betterment of the pack. She accepted the fact that her husband had a second Mate. Dominic had hugged her the day after claiming the younger girl, swore he loved her so very much, and claimed he loved her even more for accepting Kelsie into the bond.

Saskia had only made one request regarding the dynamic where she and Kelsie shared him. Kelsie would reside permanently in the Luna Suite, her designated space, while Saskia would remain in the Alpha Suite. That space was her sanctuary. She had been his Mate and First Luna for two decades. She had earned the right to stay there.

Dominic had looked at Kelsie. The younger she-wolf had nodded, putting on a mask of compliance, and stated, "I am okay with that." Neither she nor Kelsie wanted to share a living space. They were not mated to each other. Separate rooms were standard for a bond like this. Dominic had been relieved and happy they agreed to this arrangement.

The logistics of sharing a mate required strict boundaries. The morning after the claiming, Dominic had pulled Saskia onto his lap in his office. After spending the entire night away from her to deal with his new mate, he wanted to hold Saskia, be close to her, and tell her he missed her. Kelsie had frowned at the display of affection, her jealousy bleeding through the room.

"I think there should be a schedule to make it fair to both of us," Kelsie had stated, refusing to even use Saskia’s name. "Like me, say Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, and you take the alternate days."

Saskia had leaned into Dominic, hugging him back, telling him she missed him too. She watched Kelsie's sour reaction before responding. "I do not think we should put constraints on our Mate like that. I think Dominic can pick and choose each and every night who he wants to be with, as is his right."

Saskia had not missed the math. Kelsie opted to give herself four nights a week and Saskia only three. Right off the bat, the younger she-wolf tried to take control of their mate bond. She had some balls, that was certain.

Dominic, playing the peacekeeper, proposed a different idea. "I will rotate days between you both. I think that is fair. One night with you, Kelsie, then one night with Saskia, on a continually rotating basis. That way, each of you gets a four-night week and a three-night week, exactly half of each month. Otherwise, one of you will get sixteen days and the other only twelve. That is not fair."

To solidify the peace, Dominic swore a solemn vow. He promised Saskia he would never bed Kelsie in the Alpha Suite, especially in their shared bed. When Kelsie pouted at the restriction, Dominic laid down the same rule for her, promising never to bed Saskia in Kelsie’s suite. He assured Kelsie he would open up a few walls and create her a proper, expansive suite just like his and Saskia’s for when they had pups.

Saskia had not objected. She just nodded, telling them both it was a good idea. She knew Dominic was trying to keep everyone happy, trying to make this complex dynamic work.

"We are newly mated," Kelsie had whined, playing the victim card early. "You two have been mated for decades. I want a little more time with you to bond properly."

"You will go into heat in a week and get to have him all to yourself for three to seven days," Saskia commented casually.

"You will interrupt it," Kelsie muttered.

"I will not. I have no interest in separating you from Dominic at all," Saskia assured her. She stood up, walked over to the display case, and picked up the sacred pack blade. She held it out to Dominic. "You should, however, come over here and let him initiate you. He has not done that yet." She was willing to make the three-person dynamic work.

But that fragile peace shattered six months ago.

Saskia had returned to the Alpha Suite unexpectedly in the middle of the afternoon. She walked through the heavy mahogany doors, expecting the quiet comfort of her sanctuary after a long day of pack administration. The living area was silent. But as she approached the hallway leading to her bedroom, she heard the noises.

The wet, rhythmic slapping of flesh colliding with flesh. The heavy, primal grunts of a male wolf. The high-pitched moans of a female.

Saskia’s blood ran cold. She pushed the bedroom door open.

Dominic and Kelsie were stark naked in the center of Saskia’s personal bed. The bed she had shared with Dominic for twenty years. Dominic knelt between Kelsie's spread thighs, his hands gripping her pale hips as he drove his hard cock deep into Kelsie's wet pussy. He thrust his hips with brutal, animalistic force, burying his thick shaft inside her over and over. Kelsie’s legs were hooked high over Dominic's broad shoulders, spreading her cunt wide open to take his full length while her hands dug into his back, pulling him deeper.

The sight struck Saskia like a physical blow. Her wolf, Vara, snarled in her mind. Together, they grated out his name, letting their anger at the horrific betrayal bleed into the room. This was the one thing he promised would never happen.

Mid-thrust, Kelsie tilted her head. She looked past Dominic's sweating shoulder and locked eyes with Saskia. A slow, deliberate smirk spread across the younger she-wolf’s face. It was a silent, arrogant declaration of ultimate victory. She had conquered the sanctuary.

Dominic sensed the intrusion. His head snapped around. His eyes were black, consumed by his wolf Bane, trapped in a feral mating haze. Instead of shame, an aggressive, dominating Alpha aura rolled off his sweat-slicked body, crashing into the walls before he even fully registered who was standing in the doorway. He snarled like a wild beast interrupted during a territorial mating ritual.

"Get the hell out of my bedroom!" Dominic roared, his voice laced with the crushing, heavy command of an Alpha.

Saskia stood frozen, staring at the man she had built a pack with. The weight of his aura slammed into her, a force designed to force submission. But she was his Goddess-given equal. She was immune to the crushing pressure of his command. She did not flinch. She did not drop to her knees. She just looked at her husband’s naked body, looked at the smirk still plastered on Kelsie's face, and processed the reality of her shattered marriage.

"Fine," Saskia replied. Her voice was flat, stripped of all warmth.

She refused to fight for a tainted space. She turned her back on the sickening display, walked out of the suite, and let the heavy doors click shut.

Saskia marched straight to the servant quarters. She summoned a team of pack omegas and waited in the corridor. The moment she felt Dominic’s scent leave the Alpha Suite, she ordered her staff inside.

"Box up everything," Saskia instructed, pointing to her side of the massive walk-in closet. "Every dress. Every pair of shoes. My jewelry, my trinkets, my throw rugs. Take the favorite vase from the living area. Pack the books from my study. Leave nothing that belongs to me in this suite."

The omegas stood paralyzed, their eyes wide with shock. Moving the First Luna out of the Alpha Suite was unprecedented. She had lived in these rooms for two decades. One brave omega stepped forward, stammering a question about why she was dismantling her life.

For the first time since Kelsie had come into the pack and started eclipsing her position, Saskia did not care to keep quiet to protect Dominic's reputation. She made no secret of the humiliating truth. She looked her staff in the eye and spoke with chilling clarity.

"The Alpha ordered me to get out of his suite."

She relocated to a modest, cramped suite down the hallway, directly across from Delta Gareth’s quarters. She supervised the omegas as they carried boxes of her belongings out of the grand sanctuary and dumped them into the small, plain room. By nightfall, she had set up her new reality, making herself comfortable among her packed boxes and familiar trinkets.

Dominic remained oblivious to the permanence of her actions. He thought she was just angry about him breaking his promise. Caught in his primal haze, he had finished his business with Kelsie and opted to sleep in the Luna Suite that night. He left Saskia alone, understanding he was in the wrong and believing she just needed time to calm down.

It took him until the following evening to sober up and face the consequences.

Dominic returned to the Alpha Suite to shower, change, and likely offer a hollow apology for his mistake. He walked into the closet and stopped dead.

Saskia’s side of the expansive wardrobe was barren. The hangers were gone. The jewelry boxes were missing. He rushed through the suite, noticing the missing throw rugs, the empty spots on the bookshelves, the absence of her favorite vase. Not a single thing was left in there to prove she had ever existed in that space. She had permanently moved out.

Panic set in. Dominic had not seen her all day. She had opted to work from her new suite to avoid dealing with a smug Kelsie or a mate who broke his foundational promise. Dominic tracked her scent through the packhouse, rushing down the hallway until he found her.

Saskia sat on a small lounge chair in her cramped new quarters across from Gareth's suite. Books and boxes surrounded her. She had already made herself comfortable. She looked up as Dominic burst through the door, his chest heaving, his face pale with dread at the realization that she had taken more than just her clothes.

"Exactly what is going on here, Saskia?" Dominic asked, his voice cracking with panic. He walked over and sat on the edge of the lounge next to her, staring at her calm demeanor.

Saskia casually closed the book resting on her lap. It was her Luna’s Diary. She met his worried gaze with cold, cynical detachment.

"You broke your promise," Saskia stated simply. "And you ordered me to get out of your suite. I did exactly what you wanted."

Dominic dragged a hand down his face, letting out a heavy sigh. "That is not what I meant, sweetheart. I am sorry for what happened." He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, spinning a pathetic, weak narrative. "Kelsie was upset about never having seen the inside of the Alpha Suite. She just wanted to see what it looked like. She has only ever been in the Luna Suite. She said she does not feel as if I truly see her as my Luna because she has never even walked through the door and seen inside the Alpha’s Suite."

He sighed heavily again, sounding exhausted. "I saw no harm in her walking through it and looking around. She was so happy just to be shown the suite. She kissed me to say thank you for allowing her to see where I lived when I was not with her. Well... we just got carried away, is all. It resulted in sex. It was not intentional."

Saskia’s analytical mind tore his words to shreds. Maybe it was not intentional on his part, but it clearly was on Kelsie’s part.

"In our bed," Saskia pointed out, cutting through his rambling. She read between the pathetic lines. Kelsie had manipulated Dominic into taking her into their bedroom, a place she was never allowed to go unless Saskia invited her personally, just as Saskia was not allowed in Kelsie’s bedroom.

Once again, the younger she-wolf had made Dominic believe she was innocent. She weaponized her fake tears to invade the sanctuary. She got him to take her into that room to help her feel more like a Luna, even though he had already given her a fully remodeled, plush four-bedroom suite. Dominic remained blind to her deceptions. Only this time, Kelsie had used sexual intercourse to get past his logic. She used her pussy to break his foundational promise.

Saskia did not miss the detail that Kelsie kissed him and got him all worked up. She did it on purpose. Saskia knew that from the deliberate smirk Kelsie shot her over his shoulder—a look Dominic never saw.

Saskia did not really understand the younger she-wolf's greed. It was not like Dominic ignored Kelsie. Her Luna Suite was as large as the Alpha Suite. She had her Mate, the title of Luna, a desk in the Luna’s office, and she spent more time with Dominic daily than Saskia did. But it was never enough.

"Well, Dominic," Saskia said, her voice dripping with cold acceptance. "She can now have what she wants. Both the Alpha and Luna suites, cannot she? Seeing as she got you to break your promise to me so easily."

"Do not be like that, Saskia," Dominic pleaded. "It will not happen again."

"You are right, it will not," Saskia nodded. "Because I will never set foot in the Alpha Suite again. You ordered I get out. I had no choice but to do as you ordered. You are the Alpha."

Dominic’s eyes widened in horror at her words. He racked his brain, trying to recall if he had made it an official Alpha command. Saskia knew the command was just to leave the room, not to move out permanently, but in that feral moment, it could have been anything. He and Bane were so consumed with the need to mate Kelsie that they lost control.

"I take it back," Dominic huffed frantically after a full minute of panicked thought. "I rescind it. If I did that, I rescind it. I cannot say for certain if I did or not."

"No need," Saskia flatly rejected his plea. "I now understand my place, Dominic. Your new and younger Mate is the one you want to please. I will step aside for her. She can move into the actual Alpha Suite. I will stay here, as is my place."

She was not trying to make him feel guilty. She simply made the decision never to return to a bed permanently tainted by her scheming rival. He could have the massive suite all to himself, or he could move his new mate in there. She surrendered the space.

"Your place is beside me, Saskia, as it will always be," Dominic stated desperately, grabbing for her hand.

"Hmm," was Saskia's only reaction, offering a dismissive hum to his frantic reassurances.

She pulled her hand away and leaned back in her chair. She harbored zero illusions about the grim future of their pack. Kelsie was currently still undergoing her mandatory Luna training, learning the ropes of pack leadership. But the exact moment that training concluded, Saskia knew with chilling certainty what would happen next.

The manipulative she-wolf had conquered the bedroom. She had claimed the Alpha Suite. Now, she was already plotting exactly how to push Saskia straight out of the Luna's official office. She just could not execute her next strike until her training was officially over.