Blatant Disrespect

The heavy, suffocating fever of a biological heat burned relentlessly through Saskia's veins. It was a crushing, physical weight settling deep in her pelvis, a constant reminder of her biological imperative. Her inner wolf, Vara, paced back and forth inside the confines of her mind, clawing at the edges of her consciousness with feral need. The primal, instinctual drive for an Alpha's knot, the desperate craving for her mate's thick cock to bury deep inside her slick, aching core, pounded through her system like a relentless drumbeat. Her skin felt tight and overly sensitive. A thin sheen of sweat coated her collarbones, dampening the fabric of her loose shirt. Her private sanctuary, the Luna suite she guarded so fiercely from the rest of the pack, smelled thick with her raw arousal. The sweet, cloying, unmistakable scent of a she-wolf ready to mate permeated the air, clinging to the curtains and the plush rugs.

Dominic moved across the room, carrying a porcelain plate loaded with her breakfast. The heavy thud of his boots on the polished hardwood floor grounded her spinning senses for a split second. He set the plate down on the small dining table with a soft clatter, turning his broad shoulders toward her. The tension inside the suite was already stretched thin, humming like a live wire. Sitting across the room on the sofa, Saskia acutely watched his face. She reached for her silverware, trying to ignore the pulsing dampness between her thighs, when Dominic suddenly froze.

His broad shoulders stiffened. His jaw locked tight. Saskia watched as his eyes suddenly glazed over with the unmistakable, distant stare of a telepathic connection. The vibrant color of his irises clouded over, his focus shifting inward to a voice only he could hear.

Saskia dropped her hand. She leaned back against the cushions and snorted, the sound harsh and bitter in the quiet room. She knew instantly, without a shadow of a doubt, exactly who was on the other end of that mind-link. Her mate’s other chosen woman. Kelsie was actively pulling on their shared tether. Even now, during the highly sacred and biologically demanding period of Saskia’s heat—a critical, agonizing time when an Alpha Mate was bound by biological instinct, ancient pack law, and basic decency to remain entirely focused on protecting and satisfying his Luna—Kelsie was maliciously dragging him away. The younger girl had likely just woken up alone in the massive bed of the Alpha Suite, realized Dominic was tending to his first mate, and was relentlessly demanding his immediate return to her side.

"What is funny to you?" Dominic asked. The cloudy haze cleared from his eyes, replaced by a deep, defensive frown as he focused back on Saskia.

Rolling her eyes with profound disgust, Saskia let her resentment bleed into her voice. "Kelsie, was it?"

Dominic shifted his weight, rubbing the back of his neck as a flush of guilt crept up his throat. He looked away, unable to meet her gaze. "Sorry," he murmured, his voice weak and stammering. "It is hard to please both of you at the same time sometimes."

The pathetic excuse sliced through Saskia's remaining patience. She aggressively cut through his weak apologies, the fever of her heat fueling her sharp temper. She leaned forward, planting her feet firmly on the floor, and issued a flat, icy challenge.

"Really? It is hard to please me?" Saskia demanded, her voice a low, dangerous purr. "Look me in the eye, Dominic. Tell me, when did I ever interrupt your designated private time with Kelsie? When have you ever had to drop everything and leave her bed just to please me? Actually, tell me the last time you went out of your way to please me about anything at all."

Dominic opened his mouth, but no words formed. He stood there, jaw working uselessly.

Saskia firmly reminded him of the harsh reality they lived in. "I do not beg for your attention like a pathetic child. I do not play mind games or use emotional guilt-trips to manipulate your actions into walking away from your other mate. Only Kelsie employs those toxic tactics. She does it the second she feels unhappy that you are spending your mandated time with me."

Dominic sighed heavily, his massive chest rising and falling. His defensive instincts flared, his Alpha aura pushing into the room as he pathetically attempted to shield the absent younger she-wolf from Saskia's undeniable logic. "Yes, I understand you are much more mature than she is, Saskia. Please understand she is still young. She is just naturally insecure and deeply overwhelmed by her new role."

Saskia loudly scoffs at his willful, staggering blindness. The sheer denial radiating from him was nauseating.

"Young and insecure," Saskia nodded slowly, a bitter smile twisting her lips. "That is the same excuse you always use. But let us be honest, Dominic. I do not see how she can possibly still be so insecure when, even right now, I am burning up in a biological heat, and she is..."

Saskia paused, watching his facial expressions carefully. She saw a dark, telling flicker of guilt cross his features. The sickening realization hit her stomach like a lead weight. She realized exactly what Kelsie had mind-linked him to say.

"Asking you to leave me and go fuck her, right?" Saskia stated flatly.

Dominic flinched as if she had struck him.

"She clearly knows you cannot," Saskia continued ruthlessly, refusing to back down. "She knows you told your guard unit I am in heat. They would have passed the message on to her. But there she is, still trying to get you to leave me. Still trying to drag my Alpha entirely away from my unattended, biologically painful heat. How do you not see she is a calculated, vicious bitch?"

It was the first time Saskia had not been polite or reasonable with her word choice regarding his second mate. She bluntly pointed out the sheer viciousness required for a she-wolf to attempt such a betrayal. What kind of Luna tries to pull a mate away when they are attending to a sacred heat? It was an unforgivable offense.

Dominic scowled deeply, his hands balling into tight fists at his sides. "I am not leaving you, Saskia. I told her as much."

Saskia tilted her head, her eyes narrowing as she studied his guilty posture. "Oh, did you? Tell me, Dominic. Did you telepathically apologize to her first for not being able to go to her? Or did you harshly chastise her for her blatant disrespect of the pack's oldest laws, and the agonizing physical pain it would cause me if you abandoned my heat?"

The silence stretched, thick and heavy. Dominic stared at the floor, refusing to answer.

Infuriated by his cowardice, Saskia stood up. She verbally eviscerated him without mercy. "You apologized. In other words, you did not even see what she had done as wrong. This is exactly how she took over our suite. Well, your suite now. You are blind to her because you are utterly terrified of losing her affection. You are terrified she will pack up and leave you, proving she completely controls you. But she will not leave. She likes the title too much. I am far more likely to walk away from you than she is."

Dominic crossed the room in two massive strides. His large hand latched tightly onto her bare arm. His voice rose in panic and raw frustration as he adamantly insisted on his loyalty. "I am not going to her, Saskia! I will never leave you to suffer your agonizing heat entirely alone. I am your mate, and despite our difficulties, I love you. You are just mad at me, and I do not know how to fix it!"

He gave her arm a slight shake, his own temper beginning to fray under the pressure. He loudly complained about his burden. "You do not know how hard it is to have two mates who hate each other. I am constantly pulled in completely opposite directions by two demanding women. The crushing strain of it is driving me insane!"

Saskia forcefully shook his heavy grip off her arm. She stepped back, putting distance between them, and brutally reminded him of the cold, hard facts.

"Do not give me that excuse," Saskia snapped. "I have not asked a single, solitary thing of you in over six months. I have left you alone to play house with her. Your complaints of being 'pulled' are entirely invalid. I am not pulling you anywhere."

She turned her back on him, walking away toward the small kitchen alcove. Her incredibly sharp, undeniable truths hung in the air, piercing straight through his fragile ego.

Behind her, the notoriously volatile Alpha temper finally unleashed.

Driven straight to the absolute edge by Kelsie's relentless, whining mind-links echoing inside his head and Saskia's cold, impenetrable logic slicing him open in front of him, Dominic violently lost control.

A deafening crash shattered the quiet of the suite.

Saskia stopped and looked over her shoulder. Dominic stood in the center of the living room, his chest heaving with ragged breaths. He had whirled around and grabbed the heavy, expensive decorative glass bowl sitting on the side console—the very bowl she had purchased at the human markets for her twenty-first birthday. He violently shattered it against the far wall. Thick shards of expensive glass rained down onto the carpet, glittering like broken ice.

A low, guttural roar of raw frustration ripped from his throat. He stepped forward, his heavy boot swinging out. He brutally kicked the solid wood coffee table with bone-shattering force. The massive piece of furniture launched into the air, flying across the length of the room before crashing into the opposite wall. Wood splintered. Books and coasters scattered everywhere in a chaotic mess.

A heavy, ringing silence followed the destruction. The sound of Dominic's ragged, angry breathing filled the trashed space. His fists were balled so tight his knuckles turned stark white. He prowled near the suite's entrance, pacing like a caged beast unable to handle the pressure crushing his shoulders.

Before either of them could speak another word, the suite's doorbell suddenly chimes.

The sharp sound cut through the suffocating tension. Saskia froze. She watched in absolute, paralyzed disbelief as Dominic stopped his pacing. He turned his wild, bloodshot eyes toward the heavy oak door.

Saskia took a quick step backward, her heart hammering against her ribs. She was a she-wolf deep in the throes of a biological heat. Her scent was pumping through the air, thick and sweet and desperate. Opening that door meant exposing her vulnerable state. If there were un-mated male guards standing on the other side in the hallway, they could lose their minds and rush the room. Was her mate insane?

Dominic did not hesitate. He stormed over and violently yanked the heavy door open. He reached out into the hallway. Using his blinding wolfen speed, he grabbed a figure by the arm and literally dragged them straight into the middle of Saskia's private living room.

The heavy door slammed shut behind them with a definitive thud.

Kelsie stumbled over the plush carpet, gasping as Dominic released her arm. The young she-wolf caught her balance, her wide eyes darting around the trashed living room.

Dominic stood over Kelsie, breathing heavily, his chest heaving. He pointed a shaking finger at Saskia. "See!" he grated out, his voice a harsh, raw rasp. "See she is not lying! Smell her for yourself!"

The horrifying context clicked instantly in Saskia's mind.

Kelsie had not just mind-linked to whine for attention. Kelsie had actually mind-linked the Alpha to accuse Saskia of entirely faking her biological heat. The young girl thought Saskia was blatantly lying about the fever, lying about the physical pain, and lying about her slick, aching cunt just to steal Dominic's attention away for a few days. The sheer audacity of the accusation left Saskia breathless.

As Kelsie immediately registered the hostile environment, the heavy scent of heat in the air, and the shattered glass scattered across the floor, she seamlessly transitioned into playing the fragile victim. Her bottom lip began trembling violently. Fake, pathetic tears welled up in her wide brown eyes. She wrapped her arms around her own waist, shrinking back from Dominic’s massive frame.

"You could lie about it," Kelsie muttered, her voice shaking with forced innocence. "I would not know. You barely have time for me anymore. You told Dominic we would work together, but you will not work with me."

Saskia let out a harsh bark of laughter. "Work with you? I am too busy cleaning up after your messes. You spend pack money like it grows on trees instead of having to be earned. I am the pack's head accountant, or have you forgotten that? I track your every dollar. I tally it all up and put it before Dominic to compare it to my own spending."

"Enough!" Dominic snarled, glaring from Saskia to Kelsie. "You two should be getting along by now. Why won't you just get along?"

"It is not me," Saskia stated, her voice dropping to a lethal calm.

"It is her! See? She just blamed me, Dominic!" Kelsie gasped. The young girl looked up at the Alpha, a solitary, perfectly timed tear slipping down her cheek as she played the helpless victim.

Witnessing this ultimate violation, Saskia’s simmering fury completely and catastrophically boiled over.

This was her suite. Her private sanctuary. The one place in the entire massive packhouse where she could escape the constant, humiliating reality of sharing her mate. Dominic had deliberately, violently broken her one, absolute, uncrossable rule. Kelsie was never, under any circumstances, allowed inside these walls.

And now, the younger girl was standing on her carpet, breathing her air, dropping fake tears while Saskia’s body burned with the painful need for an Alpha's knot.

Saskia stepped fully into Dominic's space, ignoring Kelsie entirely. The raw, unfiltered anger radiating from her inner wolf pushed fiercely against his Alpha aura.

"Oh, and here comes the waterworks!" Saskia roared, pointing a finger straight at Kelsie without breaking eye contact with Dominic. "Crying on cue! She cannot even handle a single statement without the tears being turned on! Or do you want this room for you and Dominic as well, Kelsie? Having the Alpha and Luna Suite is not enough for you? Need a third room? How about you take this one, and I will move down to the single dorms! Will that suit you, or should I just reject Dominic right now so you, you selfish little bitch, can have him all to yourself?"

"Enough!" Dominic snapped, his voice booming through the room. "And I am not rejecting either of you! Elyria gave you both to me. I will not ever reject one of you for the other," he grated out.

Saskia was apoplectic. Her final safe haven was now permanently dirtied by Kelsie's presence, exactly like the Alpha Suite Kelsie had already completely taken over and ruined.

"I do not want her in my suite, and you know it, Dominic!" Saskia screamed at her Alpha, the sound tearing from her throat. "It is my one fucking rule! And yet here she is. She has managed to get you to bring her into this room just like she did the Alpha Suite. Now this room is dirty. You cannot even keep one promise to me, can you? But you keep every one you make to her. All I have ever fucking asked of you is that she is not allowed in my sanctuary. Nothing more!"

Dominic shrank back slightly, holding his hands up in a weak attempt to calm her. "I had to prove... I only brought her inside to quickly prove the absolute truth and stop the constant arguments..."

Saskia ruthlessly cut him off with an explosive wave of raw, unfiltered anger.

"Bullshit! You’re the fucking Alpha, she just accused me, your Luna, of lying to you. And you’re stupid enough to try and placate her, when you should have just laid the law down!"