Hollow Heat

The third agonizing bout of heat finally broke, releasing Saskia from its suffocating grip. She lay on the tangled sheets, her chest heaving as she dragged air into her burning lungs. The harsh, unyielding morning light of her second day in heat filtered through the suite's heavy curtains. It brought zero physical relief to her aching muscles and no emotional comfort to her fractured heart. Only cold, devastating realizations remained in the wake of her solitary suffering.

She pushed her trembling body off the mattress, dragging her heavy limbs across the floor toward the bathroom. She needed to wash the sweat and the scent of the fever from her skin. She turned the shower dial to maximum heat, stepping into the enclosure and letting the scalding water beat down on her shoulders. She stood under the spray, desperately trying to cleanse her body after enduring three brutal rounds of heat symptoms yesterday.

Dominic followed her into the bathroom. His lingering physical presence in the small, steam-filled room felt fundamentally wrong to Saskia. In the past, his nearness during a heat cycle provided comfort, safety, and an undeniable magnetic pull. Now, it felt like an uncomfortable, obligatory chore he forced himself to complete. The suffocating silence hanging heavily between them served as a stark, unavoidable reminder of the brutal truth. His life, his focus, and his deep affection now revolved around his younger, manipulative second Mate. Saskia had become a secondary obligation.

Attempting to awkwardly bridge the massive physical and emotional gap he created, Dominic stripped and stepped into the spray of the shower. The glass door slid shut behind him. He closed the distance between them, pressing his wet, muscular body directly against her bare back. His hands slid around her waist, wandering up her slick stomach.

He leaned down, pressing his lips to the wet skin of her neck. "I am going to physically show you how much I love you," he whispered softly into her ear. "I want to prove I am not only standing here because your biological heat requires me to be."

Saskia felt no spark. The mate bond beneath her skin remained dormant, recognizing the lie in his actions. She did not hesitate. She forcefully brushed his wandering hands away from her body. She twisted out of his grip and stepped to the opposite side of the shower enclosure, refusing to accept the hollow, performative gesture.

"You do not need to try and fool me anymore, Dominic," Saskia said. Her voice lacked any warmth, cutting through the steam like a blade. "I understand you are only standing there under the strict, inescapable biological obligation of our Mate Bond. You feel the pull of my heat, and nothing more."

Dominic let out a harsh sigh. The water cascaded over his broad shoulders as he frowned at her. "I am trying to show you I still want you. I am trying to bridge this gap."

"But you would not be standing in this shower if my body was not bleeding out its heat cycle, would you?" Saskia stated coldly. "Your actions do not show me anything. Perhaps you just hate the uncomfortable silence stretching between us between these bouts. We used to talk. Now, we just stare at each other."

She crossed her arms over her chest, ignoring the scalding water pounding against her skin. "That silence shows you the massive distance existing between us. You hate looking at it. But if you want to stop hiding behind this biological excuse, confront the heavy silence right now. Let us actually finish our lingering argument from yesterday regarding Kelsie's extreme disrespect toward me."

The mention of his second mate caused an instant shift in Dominic’s demeanor. The tentative attempt at affection vanished. He shut down. The muscles in his jaw locked tight, and his notoriously short Alpha temper flared at being called out.

"No," Dominic muttered bluntly, his tone turning hard and defensive. "I am not finishing that conversation. I did not like where it was going, and I am not having it now."

"Avoidance is your preferred strategy, is it?" Saskia challenged, her eyes narrowing through the steam. "You prove you are unwilling to openly discuss the toxic shadow your other Mate casts over our rare personal time. You prefer to remain blind to her actions."

"Do not bring her into this," Dominic snapped, stepping back toward the glass door. "I refuse to discuss her while we are spending our personal time together. There is no need for it unless your only goal in bringing her up is to maintain this distance between us."

"I was not the one who dragged her into this private suite and started the argument in the first place, was I?" Saskia retorted smoothly.

Dominic’s chest heaved. Refusing to engage, he shoved the shower door open and stalked out of the bathroom. He left her standing alone in the steam, proving once again his cowardice when it came to his precious second mate.

Saskia shook her head, turning her face into the water. She finished her shower meticulously, scrubbing every trace of his touch from her skin. She dried off, dressed in fresh clothes, and cautiously walked out into the main living area. Finding the bedroom empty, she moved toward the kitchen.

Dominic stood by the stove in a tense silence. He had prepared food and brewed a fresh pot of coffee. A steaming mug sat waiting for her on the island counter. He kept his hand resting on the gas burner dial, refusing to look at her as she walked into the room.

Saskia approached the counter. She pulled out a tall stool and sat down, staring at the cup of coffee. She reached out her hand to take the mug.

Before her fingers could brush the ceramic, the fragile, tense peace abruptly shattered.

Without warning, Dominic’s muscular body went rigid. His hand froze above the stove. His eyes snapped wide open, flashing with a sudden burst of pure Alpha gold. His absolute attention was instantly pulled far away from the kitchen.

He inhaled a sharp, jagged breath. He physically sensed a sudden, violent bout of heat crashing through the packhouse. But as the scent hit his sensitive Alpha nose, his brow furrowed in deep confusion. His gaze darted toward Saskia for a fraction of a second. The scent blooming in his mind did not belong to the woman sitting in front of him.

Dominic blinked, reeling in a state of deep shock. He murmured the young girl's name into the quiet kitchen. "It's… Kelsie."

Without a single second of hesitation, without even a backward glance toward his first mate, Dominic turned away from the stove. He headed straight for the main door of the suite, his boots pounding against the floorboards.

A profound, soul-crushing hurt pierced Saskia's chest as she watched him abandon her. She immediately masked the pain with a sudden spike of defensive, sharp anger.

"Where exactly does your sudden departure leave me?" Saskia loudly demanded, spinning around on her stool. "I am your Luna. I am suffering in the middle of my own biological cycle, and you are running out the door."

Dominic merely paused for a fraction of a second, his large hand gripping the brass doorknob. He did not turn around to face her.

"I now have two Mates in heat at the exact same time," Dominic declared bluntly, his voice devoid of emotion. "I will simply have to tend to both of you."

He pushed the door open, stepping out into the corridor. "I will be back whenever your next bout of biological pain arrives," he promised hollowly.

With that cold declaration, he slammed the heavy wooden door shut. He abandoned her in the suite without uttering another word.

Saskia sat alone at the kitchen island. The silence of the empty suite pressed down on her shoulders. She stared at her untouched, rapidly cooling coffee. Her analytical mind began to race at lightning speed, slicing through the remnants of her anger.

Something about this exact situation felt fundamentally, biologically wrong.

Kelsie was a young she-wolf. Biology dictated that a wolf of her age naturally only experienced one single heat a year. That specific biological event had already cleanly passed several months ago. It made zero sense for her body to drop into a spontaneous heat cycle right now. Furthermore, Saskia possessed deep knowledge of ancient historical texts and revered pack lore regarding multiple-mate dynamics. The texts dictated a divine rule.

The Moon Goddess Elyria designed multiple-mate bonds with absolute precision so that the she-wolves' biological cycles would never overlap. This divine intervention was created to permanently spare bonded females the horrific, agonizing pain of suffering through a biological heat alone while their shared Mate was helplessly occupied elsewhere. Two mates bonded to the same Alpha would never experience simultaneous heat waves. It defied the laws of their creation.

Suddenly, the mind-link snapped open in Saskia's head.

*“Saskia,”* Gamma Wyatt’s voice echoed in her mind, carrying a heavy tone of nervous hesitation. *“Kelsie is also in heat. I am initiating the emergency clearing of the hallways.”*

*“I am aware,”* Saskia replied sharply, dismissing his hesitation with cold authority. *“I saw Dominic sense it. He went right to her.”*

*“And… you?”* Wyatt asked, his mental voice faltering.

*“He said he will return when he senses my next bout,”* Saskia answered, keeping her tone flat. *“Leave it alone, Wyatt.”* She cut the mental link, refusing to discuss her humiliation with the Gamma.

A dark, terrifying suspicion rapidly took firm root in her brilliant mind. Kelsie’s sudden heat was not a natural biological occurrence. The malicious young girl had induced it herself. She utilized the exact same horrific black-market tactics she had just falsely accused Saskia of using yesterday.

Refusing to remain in the dark regarding the severe threat Kelsie posed, Saskia pushed herself away from the kitchen island. Ignoring the rising physical pain throbbing in her lower abdomen as her body warned of an approaching bout, she walked straight into the living room and opened her secure laptop.

She bypassed the standard security protocols and logged directly into the restricted pack intranet. She spent the next two grueling hours diving deep into classified medical archives, ancient biological records, and illicit contraband reports. She meticulously researched the dark science of chemically induced heats.

Her eyes scanned line after line of restricted data. Soon, she uncovered a vital, dangerous truth about synthetic manipulation.

The records detailed a profound, undeniable difference in both the physical manifestation of the heat itself and how an Alpha Mate biologically reacted to it.

If a she-wolf merely doused her skin in concentrated natural or synthetic pheromones, she would undeniably smell authentic to anyone standing in the same room. However, a bonded Mate would not actually sense the heat telepathically through their soul-bond. The psychic link required genuine biological changes in the female's body to trigger the mating call. Surface pheromones lacked the underlying biology to send that telepathic signal across the packhouse. It served only as a short-lived chemical illusion that washed away in a few hours.

However, the danger escalated dramatically depending on proximity. If an un-mated male, or a bonded Mate, physically walked directly into an enclosed room with a she-wolf heavily covered in those illicit pheromones, the intense chemical cocktail would hijack their brain. The sheer concentration of the scent in a confined space overrode rational thought and soul-bond mechanics.

The Alpha would biologically react with extreme, feral fury to the scent. The chemical overload forced the male to mate her aggressively, treating the situation as if the heat were real and desperate. The male would lose control, driven only by the overwhelming biological need to breed the source of the scent.

It was a dangerous, short-lived chemical illusion. And as Saskia read the final reports on the screen, a cold chill ran down her spine. This was exactly the kind of illegal, effective tactic utilized by the vicious black market to rapidly subdue and control stolen she-wolves.

Saskia kept her eyes glued to the glowing screen, reading the brutal details of the contraband reports. The black market operatives used these synthetic pheromones to force un-mated Alphas into frenzy states, compelling them to claim kidnapped females against their will. The sheer volume of the chemical scent flooding an enclosed space bypassed the Alpha's higher reasoning. The male became a slave to his primal instincts, attacking the female with relentless, feral mating strikes until the pheromones finally dissipated into the air.

Kelsie understood exactly how these illegal substances worked. The manipulative young girl recognized that if she simply sprayed the pheromones on her skin, Dominic would not sense it through the mate-bond from across the packhouse. Kelsie needed to pull him into her room first.

Saskia leaned back in her chair, the puzzle pieces clicking together in her mind. Kelsie orchestrated the timing perfectly. The girl waited until Dominic felt the tension inside Saskia's suite, waited until his Alpha temper flared over their argument. Then, Kelsie deployed the trap. The sudden spike of scent Dominic sensed in the kitchen was likely a minor burst of real pheromones Kelsie managed to leak, just enough to catch his attention and draw him out of Saskia's suite.

Once Dominic crossed the threshold of Kelsie’s enclosed bedroom, the heavy, concentrated dose of the illicit chemical cocktail would hit his lungs. The synthetic pheromones would flood his system, hijacking his brain. He would not stop to question why Kelsie suddenly dropped into a second heat cycle in one year. He would not stop to question the divine lore of the Moon Goddess Elyria. His feral fury would take over, forcing him to mate Kelsie aggressively on her bed.

Saskia slammed the laptop shut. The sharp crack echoed through the empty living room.

She sat in the agonizing silence, her own biological heat beginning to flare in her veins once again. Her muscles tightened, and a heavy ache settled deep into her bones. She closed her eyes, enduring the physical torment alone. Kelsie had successfully stolen their Alpha, utilizing dangerous black-market illusions to break the sacred rules of their mating biology. And Dominic walked right into the trap without a single backward glance at the Luna he left behind.