DOMINIC
I check the digital clock hanging on my wall for what must be the hundredth time today.
Still no news.
What is taking them so long?
How hard is it to get moving from the settlement to back here?!
The knob of my office door begins to turn, and I look over in expectation only to see my mother walk in.
Right.
She is still here
My hand instinctively goes to my cheeks where she had slapped me last night.
I still haven’t forgiven her for that.
And so, with an annoyed huff, I turn away from her and head to my chair.
“What do you want?” I grunt at her.
“Were you expecting someone else?” she asks as she walks up to the desk.
“I am busy. Get to it already. Why are you here?”
“Is that the way to talk to your mother? We haven’t seen each other in years, and you are already trying to rush me out.”
“You should have thought about that before you slapped me yesterday. And in front of my beta, no less,” I retort
“You deserve that slap and more. I had heard rumors of how insane you had become. Of how you had become an embarrassment to the werewolf community but I thought to myself: “It couldn’t be that bad. They are just rumors, things like these are usually exaggerated.
“But then I get home and I see just how low our pack has fallen. And to think that it will happen in my lifetime. By my son, nonetheless. I have never been more ashamed.”
“What are you talking about?” I growl at her. “The pack is thriving -”
“Thriving?! Did you say thriving?!” She demands as she leans her hands on the desk. “Have you taken a look around your pack? A really good look? How can you call this thriving?!”
“Mother-”
“Spies! You sent spies to other packs?! Your father might have been ambitious but he never did that!”
“It was necessary!”
“Oh, was it?! What about the murder of your Luna? Hmm? I might not have liked Clarisse for you but she was a somewhat efficient luna. You killed her. And there is your insistent desire for war on a coalition that did nothing to you? What about how you beat up your beta?!”
“He disrespected me!” I snap back as I rise to my feet. “In front of Viktor!”
“He saved you from making yourself the number one enemy of the entire werewolf community!” She snarks before returning around to pace the study, similar to how I was doing before. “Known for killing off your own members. Killing them! Causing more than a hundred wolves -a hundred Dominic!- to vanish from our pack. To run from our pack. From you! They renounced their ties to you. My Goddess! I should have seen the kind of alpha you were going to be when you raped poor Louisa,” she mutters.
“Oh, not again with that!” I scoff.
“Yes!” She says as she whirls around to face me. “Again with that! Your mate! Your own fucking mate! If you could do that to her then I should have seen that nobody else would be safe with you. And there is the fact that I still don’t know what you did to her and don’t bring up that wretched lie that she ran away. I could smell her on you. And on your cohorts. But that is not the issue now. I want to know your plan to lift the pack from the shirt hole you have buried us in.”
“I didn’t -”
“What!” She snaps before taking a deep steadying breath. “What,” she begins again. “Is your plan to get back our members and restore our image?”
“I am not concerned about that right now,” I tell with a flippant wave of my hand.
“You- not… what?!” She rages. “What do you mean that you are not concerned about that now? What are you concerned about?”
“About getting an heir,” I tell her. “It is about time I had one.”
“Oh, my goddess. Somebody help me, I am going to kill this boy.”
“Don’t be dramatic.”
“Don’t be-! Dominic!”
“What?!”
“Are you actually toying with me? Or do you honestly think that having an heir now is what is important?”
“Of course, it is important. I need to start preparing him to take over the pack when I die.”
“Huh… okay. Okay. Let’s assume for a moment that I agree with you. How do you want to get an heir?” She asks with a sneer. “In case you have forgotten, the whole reason your dear Clarisse couldn’t carry a child to term was because she was not your mate! Because she was not Louisa. You went against my warnings that you won’t be able to have a child saying that she was strong enough to bear it. So, please. Tell me. Have you found someone stronger than you lead, female warrior? Sorry, your late lead, female warrior.”
“Actually,” I tell her with a smug smile. “I don’t need to.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t need to find a she wolf because I found Louisa. She will be the one to bear my heir.”
She stares at me for so long, I wonder if I have broken her.
“Louisa,” she states with a blank tone.
“Yes.”
“The Louisa that you said ran away. The one that you killed.”
“I did not kill her,” I mutter. Thankfully, she survived. Looks like the goddess is still on my side. “She is very much alive. In fact, I am pretty sure you must have heard of her.”
“I have?”
“She goes by Rowan Blaze. The leader of the Winter Wolf Coalition.”
Another long silence of her staring at me before she speaks up again.
“What?” She asks with a disbelieving scoff.
“You heard me. Rowan is the leader of the coalition I wanted to get rid of. Thankfully, that did not happen.”
“Okay. Okay,” she says before leaning away from the desk to watch me. “And what exactly is your plan to… convince her to have your heir?”
“Why would I need to convince her? She is my mate. Of course, she would want to have my heir.”
“Oh, my goddess,” she says with a low gasp. “You… you are delusional. You… are sick. And I don’t mean that as an insult …you are actually sick. Mentally.”
“Enough mother. You will see.”
“What have you done?” She asks with mild trepidation.
“I already sent someone to go get her-”
“Oh, my goddess!”
“-and they should be arriving any time soon.”
“Oh, my goddess!” She says again.
Honestly, those words are starting to piss me off.
“What makes you think that she would come to you? That she would ever accept you?!”
“Like I said, I am her mate.”
“You… you abused her and made her feel small and inconsequential when she was here. Turned her into a maid and an object of ridicule. Demeaned her parents’ sacrifice to this pack. You raped her and then tried to kill her. And as if that was not bad enough, you started a frenzy about going to war with her people, and somehow in that… demented brain of yours, you think yourself so great… so amazing, such a catch that she would overlook all of that and still come to you so that you can do it all over again. Are you rabid or something?!”
“Enough, with your poison, mother!” I finally snap as I get to my feet and head to the door. “You will see how wrong you are when she shows up-”
A knock interrupts us and I send a triumphant smile to her.
“See, that must be her,” I tell her and she just rolls her eyes at me as he folds her arms and waits
I scoff at her before pulling the door open only for my smile to drain away.
There is no Louisa.
Only the wolf I had sent to get her
“Where is she?” I demand.
“I… I am sorry, alpha,” the wolf stutters with his head bowed. “I was… she didn’t…”
“Speak man!”
“There was no response from the coalition, alpha!”
I can’t believe all this is happening beacuse of one pathetic, wolfless bitch.
She thinks she is a big deal now, huh?
And my mother thinks she is better than me.
Me!
I wonder what she would say if she knew her precious Louisa was whoring herself to the son of her husband’s killer.
No response, huh?
Well, let’s see whether they will dare do the same to me.
I am coming for you, Louisa.