Along the railing on the third floor, two wolves are at each other's throats—Axe and a woman who wears the rage of what can only be a scorned lover. I gulp, feeling her razor-sharp attention fixed on me. Nostrils flaring. "There's the source of that rotting smell," she sneers.
Dominik snakes his hand around my elbow, lowering his voice. "C’mon. If Shay’s ship is going down, she’ll try to take everyone with her.”
Axe’s eyes dart downwards, which costs him. Shay’s fist connects with his jaw. The jab gives her the time to fling herself over the balcony, gracefully landing with her feet on the floor. Not three paces away from us.
On instinct, Dominik shields me with his body, but not before I can get a good look at her.
Shay’s beauty has no comparison: long legs built for a runway, bronze skin, turquoise eyes, and luscious golden-brown hair. She's the perfect specimen, armed with sharp canines, which are ready to rip my throat out.
"Dominik." She grins. "You reek more like human trash every time you come around."
"Always a pleasure, Shay," he purrs. He then turns to face his brother, who has just swiftly leaped over the stairs in a similar maneuver. Axe’s jawline is cherry red. "I take it your girlfriend didn't take the news very well."
Girlfriend?
Axe glides past Shay, who promptly drops her smile. "I see your affinity for tangling with trouble hasn't changed."
Dominik doesn’t miss a beat. “Did I say girlfriend? My mistake. I meant two-faced skank.”
My stomach roils with confusion as I step out from behind the Alpha's brother. "Would anyone care to explain what the hell is going on here?"
The female cocks her head and rakes her gaze over me, likely pondering how glorious it would be to do so with her claws. "Ah, she speaks."
Axe attempts to reach for me, but I draw back. His face twists in frustration. “I know how this looks, but we are no longer involved. Haven’t been for a while.”
Roaring, Shay interjects. "Are you shitting me? Last fall, Axe told me he had ‘more pressing priorities’ than our relationship. I figured he was traveling more to deal with the tensions brewing in the east, but no, he’s been looking for his mate. Foryou."
“Relationship?” Dominik chuckles. “That’s cute.”
“Walk away, Dom,” Axe warns under his breath.
Shay hisses, the sound more viper than wolf. “She willneverbe one of us.”
Splitting pain rages inside my skull, shame flushing my cheeks. How many times did I hear the same hateful words hurled at me back at Glacier Meadow?
“Stand down,” Axe orders, squaring his shoulders. He then pans his eyes in my direction. "Let me explain.”
Despite being towered over by all that rigid muscle, Shay refuses. “All this time, I was proving myself to you. You didn't care that I loved you. It was never going to be me."
“Love? You wouldn’t know love if it kicked your bleached teeth in,” Dominik sneers brazenly.
Something inside of me senses that perhaps the history between these two is far more complicated than what lies between Shay and the Alpha. But now is not the time to raise the question.
Axe’s voice drops an octave, its tone demanding submission. "Enough, both of you.” He pivots, fully shielding me from Shay. "If you want to do this here, then so be it. But you will calm down and show your future Luna somefucking respect."
Frozen, my breath catches.
"Let it be clear for everyone in this room that you hold no status with me other than serving as my emissary. I never lied to you, Shay. While we shared a bed for a time, I never gave you any expectations as to how our nights together might progress. You, on the other hand, misconstrued that as some kind of sway over me, believing that you could bargain for the power that only a true mate has. I caught onto your antics. That is why I dismissed you.”
Jealousy slugs me in the abdomen.What the hell? I don’t even know this man . . .
Sharply pivoting towards me, a malicious expression crosses her face. “Look at you, flimsy little bird. I doubt that weak spine of yours would hold up, should Axe decide to stoop so low as to fuck?—”
The Alpha interjects with a snarl so thunderous her mouth snaps shut.
Brushing past him, she doesn’t look at me. Though she pauses her stride to whisper, “Do yourself a favor and leave. These wolves are going to eat you alive.”
Dominik offers his hand to me. “Still want to watch this soap opera?”
