Into the Alpha’s Keep Chapter 74: 74

POV Fenrir Dăneşti

Right after I saw Savannah in that dress and found it, clean, on my bed two days later, I picked it up and went to Marilyn’s house, forcing her to hand over everything she had of Catalina before giving each belonging to Anton and Andrei and ordering them to burn every piece of clothing she had kept for the past fifty years.

She exasperated, moving her arms and more tears ran down her eyes.

"I saw you two at the lake!" she accused, sobbing. "You changed, Fenrir. You broke your promise."

"What promise?"

"That you would carry Catalina forever, just like I would too. You got rid of all her memories and..." Her voice faltered. "You threw away the only thing you had, the only thing you wanted to keep: her ashes."

I swallowed hard.

"You fucked that bitch in the lake where Catalina was killed!" she continued, raising her voice. "I saw how you fucked her in the water, like... like you liked her, like you felt something for her."

"You have nothing to do with this" I hissed.

"Yes, I do!" She took a step, moving closer to me. "We are united by the bond of mourning. And you are tarnishing Catalina's image, replacing her with someone else who doesn't belong there.

A choked sob escaped her lips.

"I never wanted to mate with her, even though she asked so many times, begging me to mark her. But you did it with a wolf you didn’t even know, one that didn’t belong to the pack. With a mutt!"

" She scrunched her nose, disgusted.

"Catalina would be so... disappointed. Not only did you move on, you erased everything that reminded you of her, but you also fucked another female in the place where she was murdered."

"Shut up!" I yelled.

"No! You're going to hear everything I have to say" — she denied, raising her jaw belligerently.

"How dare you? How dare you do all this, to tarnish the image of the only female who loved you? The female who gave herself to you, who died for your..."

I grabbed her arm tightly and leaned in, aligning our faces.

"Died for my cause?" I laughed scornfully.

"Now, explain the logic of that."

"She died because she loved you. Cosmin killed her because she didn’t return his feelings, because he wanted her, but she belonged to you. And you know that very well."

"And since when does that mean the blame was mine?" I pressed, provoking her.

She went silent for a second. "You know exactly why. You didn't want to mark her, didn't want to tie your life to hers, but you did it with the first bitch that stepped into your territory, as if Catalina meant nothing. And even after all my efforts to keep her memory alive and force the pack to respect her and despise Savannah, you went and did the exact opposite."

She howled, full of hatred and contempt.

"You never took me to those waters, didn’t even get near that lake when I was with you, but you fucked her like a damn dog, in the middle of the lake, in the waters where Catalina's blood was spilled."

She rubbed her face, spreading the tears as more fell.

"You are a disgrace! As an alpha and as a mate!" she screamed. She was only trying to... reinforce my pain, reclaim my mourning.

How long had she been doing this without me noticing?

That was my limit. I exploded in a chaotic frenzy. I grabbed her by the arms and threw her away, pushing her several meters away. My eyes were flashing golden as my animal took control, irritated by such disrespect.

"Get out of my way before I kill you" I growled.

She blinked, terrified, her face pale. She seemed to realize what she had said and done.

"I... I... I'm sorry" she gasped.

"Get out of here!" I roared, my voice cutting through the air like a blade, harsh and jagged with the weight of my fury.

Instead of retreating, Marilyn stepped closer, her arm outstretched as if to bridge the chasm I’d carved between us. Her brows furrowed, her eyes catching something in my expression—something that made her pause.

Then it hit me: the cloying, sweet scent of her heat, thick and overpowering, curling into the air like a siren’s call. It slammed into my senses, her body’s primal plea radiating toward me, begging for release, for me.

Most alphas would have buckled under that aroma, their instincts hijacked by the raw need it provoked.

I had always been immune to this. I fucked Marilyn because she asked for it, and I knew how painful it was when you didn’t satisfy yourself during this time.

Now, though, with the mate bond anchoring me, her scent barely registered. It wasn’t the pleasant, intoxicating pull I’d once distantly noted—no, this was a faded echo, stripped of its power over me.

My connection to another had rewired me, dulled the instinct that might have once stirred. I stood unmoved.

"I’m in heat," she warned, her voice trembling as she stated the obvious, a low moan slipping from her lips like an involuntary confession. "I need you!"

My patience, already frayed to its breaking point. "I already told you to disappear from my sight," I snarled, each syllable laced with a cold, cutting edge.

She didn’t budge. Instead, she rubbed one thigh against the other, a pitiful whimper escaping her as tears streaked down her face. "Please, please… I need you," she begged, her voice cracking, her body trembling with the torment of her condition.

A growl tore from my throat, loud and deep, rumbling through the air like thunder rolling down a mountain. It wasn’t a sound of arousal or invitation—it was a warning, primal and fierce, and it made her flinch, her frame shuddering not from pleasure but from fear.

I exhaled sharply, deliberately releasing a flood of pheromones into the air, a scent I’d never turned on her before. It was sharp, acrid, laced with the unmistakable tang of dominance and threat, designed to terrify rather than entice.

The shift in the atmosphere was immediate, her bravado crumbling under the weight of it.

"Fenrir," she sobbed, her voice small and broken.

"I won’t repeat myself, Marilyn," I howled, my voice rough and hoarse as the shift rippled through me, my wolf rising to the surface. He was as repulsed as I was, offended by the pathetic display unfolding before us—her clumsy attempt to seduce me, to drag me into her bed, failing miserably at every turn.

"Fenrir," she whispered one last time, her voice a fragile thread snapping in the wind.

The pheromones I’d unleashed surged outward, a tidal wave of scent so potent it overwhelmed everything else, claiming dominion over the air around us.

It smothered her cloying heat, drowned out the crisp bite of pine and the sharp, medicinal tang of eucalyptus that clung to the trees, and even muted the faint, earthy chill rising from the snow blanketing the ground.

Her wide eyes glistened with terror, pupils dilated as the weight of my presence bore down on her. She turned, her movements unsteady, and faltered—her knees buckling as she collapsed into the snow with a soft thud, a plume of white powder rising around her.

For a moment, she stayed there, trembling, her breath hitching in shallow gasps.

Then, with a desperate scramble, she hauled herself up and fled, her legs wobbling beneath her, weakened by the torment of her heat.

She ran as fast as her frail strength allowed, a retreating figure swallowed by the shadowed trees, her footsteps crunching faintly until they faded into silence.

I didn’t avert my gaze, tracking her path through the forest until I was certain she wouldn’t dare return.

My beast prowled just beneath my skin, its patience frayed to a razor’s edge, a coiled fury ready to erupt. It would have no qualms about ending her if she pushed me further—her persistence, her pathetic pleas, had driven it to a brink where mercy was a distant memory. The air still thrummed with the echo of my growl, and I stood rigid, ensuring her absence was final, the tension in my frame slow to unwind.

I leaned against a tree trunk and let out an exasperated sigh. I tried to ignore her words, but I couldn’t stop hearing them echoing in my mind. She wanted to hurt me and, in a way, she had succeeded.

A rustle broke through my reverie—footsteps, deliberate and steady, crunching through the snow.

I snapped my head up, my lip curling as a fresh surge of irritation flared within me. My beast stirred again, claws itching to rend, ready to tear hearts apart if whoever approached dared to test me further. But then I saw him—Anton, striding toward me with a wooden box cradled in his arms, his blonde hair catching the faint light filtering through the canopy.

"You seem pissed off" he said, raising a blonde eyebrow. He shook the box in his hands. "I brought what you asked for."