The Rejection Ultimatum

Dominic just stood there, staring at her with a helpless frown creasing his forehead. He looked like a deer caught in the headlights, trapped between the mate who built his pack and the young girl who constantly stroked his ego. Deep within Saskia’s consciousness, her inner wolf, Vara, snapped her jaws, baring phantom fangs at the sheer audacity of the man standing before them. The heavy, suffocating tension in the suite thickened with every ragged breath Saskia took. The biological heat surging through her veins was a relentless, burning fever. Her body demanded the physical presence of her Alpha, craving the heavy knot and the primal claiming that came with their bond, but all she felt in her chest right now was a sickening wave of bone-deep disgust. He remained at the beck and call of a jealous child's whim, even in the middle of this sacred biological window.

"You just wanted to see her," Saskia sneered, her voice dropping into a lethal, venomous register that echoed off the walls. "So here she fucking is, right inside my private suite. The one single place you know I do not want her. Go ahead, Dominic. Leave. Go be with her. I will suffer my heat on my own."

Dominic opened his mouth, his eyes darting nervously toward Kelsie, who still stood near the entryway clutching her fake, calculated tears.

"It is clearly what she wants," Saskia continued, her tone dripping with raw contempt. "And we all fucking know the rule by now. What Kelsie wants, Kelsie gets, right?"

Refusing to entertain this toxic circus for another second, Saskia turned her back on the intruders. She stalked furiously across the carpeted floor toward her inner bedroom. Every step felt heavy. Her muscles trembled from the suppressive weight of her cycle, but her pride kept her spine steel-straight. She crossed the threshold, grabbed the edge of the heavy oak door, and slammed it shut with a deafening crack that rattled the doorframe. The noise echoed through the suite, a physical manifestation of her shattered patience. She leaned against the cool wood for a brief second, closing her eyes. Kelsie did not need proof of this heat. The younger she-wolf just needed to intrude, to mark her territory, to remind everyone that even during a sacred mating cycle, the Alpha bowed to her demands.

Just half a day. Saskia had been in heat for barely a few hours, and that was all it took for Kelsie to butt in and ruin it. If Dominic could not see the manipulative games that young girl played right under his nose, he was a lost cause. Their mate bond was bleeding out on the floor, and he was the one holding the knife.

Saskia pushed off the door and sank onto the edge of her mattress. She fought the feverish ache pooling between her thighs, trying to think through the mess of her life. What did Kelsie possess that she lacked? It certainly was not innocence. Those two were having sex all the time. The younger girl had already gone through three heats since being mated to him—her initial claiming heat and the yearly cycles. They spent their days tangled in the sheets while Saskia balanced the ledgers.

A soft click broke the silence. The bedroom door opened and closed with quiet hesitation. Dominic had followed her inside, leaving Kelsie out in the sitting room or the hallway, desperately attempting to manage the catastrophic fallout of his own stupidity.

The moment he stepped into the dim light of the bedroom, Saskia opened her eyes. The raw anger from moments ago vanished, replaced by an icy, terrifying resolve. She turned her gaze on him, pinning him to the spot.

"If you tell me one more single time that it is difficult to please both of us," she stated, her voice soft but flat, carrying the weight of a death sentence, "I will reject you here and now. I will sever this bond permanently and call a random warrior to resolve any lingering heat bouts post-rejection."

Dominic flinched, his jaw tightening, but he remained silent.

"I am not hard to please at all," Saskia continued, methodically laying bare the glaring imbalance that defined their daily existence. "I never interfere in your bond with her. In fact, I give way to it always. I step aside, physically and emotionally, to give you both space. Yet she cannot even accept that my body went into heat. She is the one you are constantly trying to please, not me. I stopped asking for your attention months ago when you put her in our suite and told me to get out."

The profound injustice of the situation physically ached deep inside her chest. A dull, throbbing pain radiated from her heart. Why did she even have to explain this to him? The blatant disrespect was obvious to everyone, even to his own unit warriors.

Dominic let out a heavy, incredibly weak sigh. He stood near the foot of the bed, looking down at her. He did not yell. He did not rage against her threat to walk away. She wondered briefly if he actually believed she possessed the sheer willpower to leave him. He probably assumed she was bluffing.

He walked closer and sat down on the edge of the mattress next to her, the bed sinking under his massive frame.

"I am sorry, Sask," he murmured, his voice cracking slightly as he pathetically attempted to justify his violation. "I only pulled her into the room because I needed to close the door to the hallway. I could not leave it open with your scent everywhere. I told you I would not leave you in your heat. I meant that. So, I had no choice but to yank her in and shut the door to protect you from the prying eyes of the pack."

Saskia slowly shook her head, profoundly disgusted by his staggering ignorance.

"You could have stepped out and closed the door behind you," she pointed out, her tone laced with cold venom. "But no. You not only brought her to the door, you put your hands on her. You held onto her the entire time she stood there playing the victim. It was a fully conscious decision on your part to bring her into my space and touch her."

Dominic stared at the floor, unable to meet her gaze.

"How do you think she would react if you walked me into your suite when she was in heat, just because I asked you to prove it?" Saskia demanded. "She would pitch a massive fit. Come on, Dominic. What happened to your brain cells over the last two years? Did they just start dying off? This is no different than my birthday. Or our mating anniversary last night. You were supposed to be here with me all night, and she called you away to be with her."

She leaned forward, her eyes burning with unshed, bitter tears. "Those days are supposed to be just you and me. But Kelsie constantly cries fake insecurity. She tells you she needs you to prove your love, specifically to derail my time with you. She does it on purpose, and she gets away with it because you let her. No, strike that. You want to go to her. It is that simple."

Saskia looked at the man she had loved for over two decades and saw a stranger. "You got yourself a brand new, twenty-year-old sex kitten," she muttered bitterly. "And that young girl is clearly infinitely better or more attractive in your blinded eyes than the dedicated mate you have had faithfully by your side since we were nineteen."

The words hung in the air, heavy with the ghosts of their shared past. "Twenty-two years," Saskia whispered. "Twenty-two years of flawless loyalty, and now I am nothing to you anymore."

Her mind flashed back to the dark, agonizing years following the sudden, brutal death of his parents. They had died in an ambush orchestrated by the very loan sharks the previous Alpha owed money to. Saskia and Dominic had been thrust into leadership with a target on their backs and an empty vault. She remembered the freezing winters where they turned off the packhouse heating to save money. She remembered sweating actual blood over spreadsheets, skipping meals so the young pups in the orphanage could eat, and crying silent tears of sheer exhaustion in the dark shadows of the Luna's office. She spent her best years scrimping, haggling with suppliers, and working grueling hours while other girls her age enjoyed their youth.

She dragged this entire pack out of crippling financial ruin with her bare hands. And now? Now this shiny new, uneducated second mate reaped the endless benefits. Kelsie possessed no degree, no discernible skill set, and had not earned a single dollar for the pack in the two years she had lived here. All the younger girl did was recklessly blow their hard-earned funds on frivolous, luxurious shopping sprees in the human world. She ordered designer clothes online directly from the Luna's desk—Saskia’s desk. Meanwhile, Saskia still ate her meals alone in her suite, still patched her old clothes, still stressed over the budgets to keep them afloat, while Dominic paraded his new obsession around like a shiny trophy. She was becoming obsolete to the very Alpha she had saved.

He stepped closer, his boots heavy on the floorboards, his desperate expression pleading for a mercy he had not earned. He reached out and took her hand in his. His skin was warm, his large fingers wrapping around her trembling ones in a grip that used to bring her immense comfort. Now, it just felt like a trap.

"It is not like that, Saskia, I promise," he said frantically, his voice cracking under the pressure of his own lies. "And I am sorry I brought her into your suite. I was not thinking. I was just mad at her for not believing me in the first place, and I needed to sort it out."

Saskia immediately challenged the hollow excuse. She pulled her hand out of his grip with a sharp, aggressive jerk, stepping back to put distance between them.

"So what you are really saying is you do not spend any time with me at all because it does not suit Kelsie that you do, right?" she asked, cutting straight through his pathetic excuses.

"No... of course not," he sighed heavily, his shoulders slumping. "It is really not like that."

Saskia turned her face away, staring blankly toward the French doors leading to the balcony. "Yes, it is. You have two mates. You should be allowed to spend your time with whichever one of us you want to. No questions asked, and no explanation needed from either of us, correct?"

"Yes," Dominic nodded slowly.

"But you only spend one night a week with me. Actually, no. You spend a few hours of one night a week with me in this room. And then what happens? You get called away by Kelsie. So, by that logic, you are only doing exactly what Kelsie wants, are you not?"

"I want to spend time with you," he insisted, his voice tight.

Saskia whipped her head back around, her eyes flashing with dangerous fire. "Really? Because what is stopping you? You are the supreme, undisputed Alpha of this entire pack. What invisible force is preventing you from simply demanding and taking that time with me?"

Dominic opened his mouth to reply, then snapped it tightly shut. He had no answer. The silence stretched between them, thick and damning.

Saskia let out a dark, hollow laugh that held zero humor. "You cannot answer that simple question without severely incriminating either your own cowardice or Kelsie's extreme toxicity, can you?"

Dominic looked away, staring at the floorboards. "I do not want to talk about this anymore," he murmured defensively.

"I am sure you do not," Saskia mocked softly. "It is barely lunchtime on day one of my cycle. I have to wonder, Dominic. Will you stay here all day and all night? Or will you wait for me to finally fall asleep from heat exhaustion so you can immediately sneak back down the hall to her? Will I wake up suffering the agonizing pain of a heat bout, only to find the space beside me empty? Will I be left to face the ugly truth that you really do not want to be here with me?"

"I am not that cruel, Saskia, it is just..." Dominic trailed off, unable to finish the sentence. He could not defend his undeniable track record. He had done exactly that in the past.

As Dominic fell into a brooding silence, Saskia’s sharp mind began to rapidly race. Her instincts, honed by years of surviving pack politics and managing hidden debts, started piecing together the bizarre timeline of the morning’s events. Kelsie had shown her true, ugly colors today. For two relatively peaceful years, the younger she-wolf had never once interfered with Saskia’s biological cycle. She had never accused Saskia of faking the pain.

Why now? Why, out of nowhere, was Kelsie suddenly claiming that the heat was a complete lie?

The memory from just moments before Dominic left the room hit Saskia like a physical blow. He had eagerly mentioned his deep desire to have a strong heir with her this year. He wanted to try for a pup.

A sudden, chilling wave of clear logic washed over Saskia. Did Dominic mention that desire to Kelsie? Did he foolishly brag to his second mate that he planned to breed his first mate?

The dark, horrifying answer settled deep into Saskia's bones like winter frost. Yes. He must have told her. And that meant Kelsie orchestrated this entire morning’s interruption on purpose.

Saskia analyzed the brutal reality of their biology. Kelsie knew that a new pregnancy would instantly and undeniably draw Dominic’s daily, obsessive attention back to Saskia. An Alpha’s biological instincts toward a pregnant mate were fierce, primal, and all-consuming. If Saskia carried his pup, he would demand to sleep in her bed every single night just to be close to his unborn child. Her pregnant scent would become intoxicating to him and his inner wolf. They would crave her presence, becoming fiercely protective, guarding the pregnant Luna with terrifying devotion.

That primal shift would inevitably, organically rebuild the fragile, fractured bond between Saskia and Dominic. Kelsie would be forced to stand on the sidelines. The young girl would have to watch Dominic fawning over Saskia, touching her in public, whispering sweet baby talk behind closed doors. Kelsie would lose her monopoly on his time, his body, and his heart.

And Kelsie was vindictive, petty, and cruel enough to prevent that at any cost.

Saskia realized with cold horror that Kelsie would never allow another she-wolf’s pup to threaten her position. The young girl harbored extreme, unhinged malice. If Saskia managed to conceive, Kelsie would orchestrate the physical loss of that unborn child. Whether through daily stress, slipped poison in her tea, or a staged, violent accident on the stairs, Kelsie would ensure that the pregnancy never reached term, just to permanently prevent the reconciliation from ever happening.

A protective, ironclad resolve locked into place deep within Saskia’s soul. She refused to ever risk an innocent child's fragile life in a sick, twisted competition against a monster.

She made her decision right then and there. She would remain permanently on her wolfen birth control. No pup would come from this heat, or any future heat. Let Kelsie have the honor of going through pregnancy. Let Kelsie bloat and suffer and give birth to the pack's future heir. To Saskia, it truly did not matter who physically carried the child. She possessed no petty jealousy over motherhood. As long as Dominic’s royal Alpha bloodline was safely and securely preserved for the future of the pack she had bled to build, that was all that mattered.

She would survive this heat cycle alone if she had to. She would endure the burning fever in her veins and lock her heart away in a fortress of ice. Kelsie could have the man, but Kelsie would never get the chance to murder her child. She settled back onto the pillows, turning her face away from her Alpha, letting the punishing silence stretch between them as the next wave of her heat began to crash over her.