⚠️️WARNING Mature Scene Below. TRIGGER WARNING Abuse and trauma. Read with caution. As a reminder, this is a mature story. To skip the mature content/scene, please go to the second half of this chapter. ⚠️

All alphas were supposed to be the strongest in their pack. Females who had yet to find their mates would often feel allured to their leader.

Ulrich didn't always count on fate. It hurt that Olga continued to ignore his own needs.

He tried his best to be patient but he didn't want to take advantage of his mate and make her do something she wasn't ready for. Well, they already had done it. The alpha supposed Olga just didn't need to do it as often as he needed.

There was something the town of Frost Lock had yet to discover his pack doing. Ferals were dangerous because they were known for being raised on human blood and any other animal conveniently nearby. Ulrich usually didn't kill females, but back in his younger days, he did frequently after having sex with them. Killing them always was a thrill especially in the heat of passion.

Part of him felt no remorse about it. At the time, he was a lone wolf. He needed to feel close to someone but not too close. 

Ulrich growled while the brunette moaned beneath him. The old outdated motel room smelled like cigarettes and bleach. The walls were painted in a vomit brown-orange color and the green carpet was worn down to a dirty stained brown. He didn't know when he started the 'sessions'. The secret nights of the so-called sex therapy had been happening long before he met Olga. 

He thought Olga would smell other females on him but she never commented about it. He guessed she didn't care.

Mary had been with his pack for some time. They laid in a mess of sheets. He trusted her. She always was the only one who was brave enough to share the alpha's bed when he couldn't find a human. Things between her and Ulrich weren't so simple though. After all, most ferals knew to stay out of the alpha's private life. 

Of course, Ulrich didn't kill her or hurt a hair on her head because she was extraordinarily beautiful, and not only that, she was extremely smart and Ulrich relied on her intuition and advice, her help.

Her almond-shaped eyes were a warm brown for Ulrich, but on anyone else, they were much colder and calculative. After all, she didn't exactly have the best upbringing and because of that, she had taken a liking to psychology. She graduated with her doctorate and easily mastered the use of empathy to suck out all the nitty-gritty secrets kept by psychopaths such as herself. She had information on every wolf in town and she didn't have to sleep with any of them to get it but one.

As far as strangers were concerned, she was a sweet doe-eyed counselor. And with the town run by werewolves and humans, there were plenty of clients she could rake in. 

Her favorite part of it all was finding what made people tick. It made her feel superior to everyone. It made her feel safe to have such information. What made her feel safest, and most validated, was Ulrich's hands all over her body.

Years ago, her mate had died in a car accident. The truth was sadder, Mary had met Ulrich first and the two never stopped seeing each other even before her mate passed.

The she-wolf knew Ulrich was a special man. She knew everything about his past. Sometimes, the moon goddess made miracles happen in strange ways. Clearly, his mate wasn't cut out for him. She sighed in bliss feeling the feral alpha's hot mouth sucking on her neck. His claim mark. It throbbed heavily as she continued what she called sex therapy for one of many clients. Her black hair swept behind her back as she tossed her head, arching her back, he grabbed her butt from behind until she cried out. Mary smiled as he entered her swift. Soon, she would be finding out everything about his mate, her new client.

Eventually, they broke apart and laid together in each other's arms.

"So, tell me what you like about her."

"Not now."

She couldn't hide her smirk as he rubbed her back.

"Why not?" she purred.

"It is none of your business."

Red-faced, she was grateful for the dark.

"May I ask if this is her business, Ulrich?"

"Yes," he answered stern. 

She could smell Olga still all over Ulrich. So, Mary hugged her naked body to his in an effort to change that. Their affair was a means to a nearing end she knew. 

Time was running out.

"Are you going to tell her about your mother?" 

"Why would I want to do that?"

Mary tried not to smile, but it was so satisfying to hear she had one part of him, terrible as it was, a secret snippet of his past, the abuse that had turned him into who he was as she guessed, she would be able to keep it all to herself.

She crawled back on top of him. 

"You know, you'll never get over your intimacy issues." She smiled like a cat cornering a mouse as her statement made his serious expression melt into that of a scared little boy. "If you don't confront them," she whispered. 

"I know."

It was part of what she considered fun, testing boundaries, masked behind the word therapy. She grabbed what the man's mother had in the same way he had described to her many winters ago. Just like his mother had done, she put it in her mouth. She watched the man's face freeze up, his body beneath her went rigid before his whole demeanor changed. 

Ulrich growled ferociously, but Mary was unfazed. He remained frozen in memory, while she remained perched on top, feeling above the disturbing truth of his past. The abuse. In the darkness, tears rolled down his face as the phantom of his mother had her way as she had decades ago. The vile woman did not stop until nature forced him to eventually give her what she wanted. 

Ulrich wanted to push her away but doing that would push away the problem as Mary had convinced him.

Mary continued ignoring the man's warning signs.

"Get off of me."

Mary didn't like his tone. "I'm just trying to help you heal." She knew he was still deadweight beneath her. Still completely under her control. "Relax. You are doing great. I'm not going to make you pay for these sessions, remember? We already talked about that."

Ulrich twisted around a little while she resumed touching and caressing a memory that did not belong to her. He had never felt so infuriated and helpless at the same time. It was always how the sessions were. 

Eventually, Ulrich assumed his torture had ended after another hour. Mary hugged him, rubbing her hand in a gentle circle over his chest as she laid beside him, keeping a safe distance. He was still trembling. Still feeling his mother. Usually, the memories disappeared when Mary quit the blowjob. 

Ulrich felt like his mother was still right beside him when he had seen her body torn to bits by his pack ten years ago.

He blinked, after a rush of angry energy, a scream ripped through the air. He sat up finding Mary sprawled out on the floor below the bed.

"You pushed me!" she cried out, making extra effort to sound hysterical and afraid. She watched his face turn from rage to alarm. She wanted an excuse to leave. Usually, he didn't lose his temper like that. It certainly had never turned on her during his sex therapy. "That's abuse," Mary scolded him with a raised chin. "The cycle of abuse, Ulrich. We're trying to get you out of it. We are going to have to have another session next week to go over this again," she said in a purposefully calmer, collected tone.

Ulrich nodded, he took a deep breath knowing there was no harm in free sex. He didn't feel like he was getting anywhere with the sessions, but he enjoyed being close to someone he knew, and told himself he needed, for so long. After meeting Olga, he was unsure of where things with Mary would go.

He left it in the hands of the moon goddess. 

***

Sashka slugged down her beer watching Olga pull into the gas station. She had been looking out for the woman. Unfortunately, Frost Lock had a high crime rate. Sashka knew who was doing the killing. Jax knew. Everyone knew. It was time to make sure Olga was the reason it had stopped.

At least, that's what the pack decided on. To Sashka, it was more than that. It was personal.

She wasn't angry or jealous, but curious to find out more about the woman who could draw the attention of a feral alpha. She was walking around landmines. Sashka already knew she was being cheated on. She pitied the woman. Jax had smelled the other she-wolf on Ulrich when they brought him into the den.

She wondered what kind of lies the bastard was feeding the poor woman.

Sashka knew Olga would catch on soon and it would be too late.

"Hey!" she hollered. Olga rolled down the window.

"Oh, hello!"

"I want to talk to you about something. I know it's really none of my business, but you need to hear this. Not here though."

"Alright."

Sashka led the way to a small diner. The two women sat across from each other. Olga ordered a plate of pie and Sashka settled on soup.

"Have you ever smelled anything strange at the cabin?"

Olga sighed. "No. Is something wrong?" she asked. Her voice rose, "What did Ulrich do?"

"He's cheating on you."

There was really no easy way to say it.

Olga set down her fork. She told herself she shouldn't have given a rat's ass about what he decided to do. But really, the man claimed she was his gift from their goddess. If he was seeing someone else, he was good at hiding it.

"How do you know?"

"We could smell it...when he came to the station."

"How?"

Olga watched the woman's hesitation.

"I have an adopted sister. Her name's Mary. I could smell her on him. She's, unfortunately, known for jumping back and forth between packs. Her mate died a few years ago."

There was no hiding anything. Olga cried. She felt disgusted for thinking for a second she was special or that he really meant anything. Jax, everyone, had been right about him all along. She was the lucky one to be his mate. The lucky one to be humiliated because of their twisted ways of dealing with other packs.

Sashka tried to comfort her. She rested her hand over Olga's.

"We can get him out of town," Sashka said carefully, "if we can prove he's trespassing. The first step you need to take though is getting a restraining order."

Olga nodded numbly. She promised herself she would never give him the privilege of seeing her face again.

She wasn't stupid. She always regretted the very few times they decided to be...intimate. Some part of her wanted to believe Ulrich could be different but she had been made an idiot.

At least, Sashka came forward. She figured they waited because they were depending on her to keep Ulrich "happy".  She wanted to be furious but at the same time, she fully understood their fear of him and had very much felt it herself at times. According to their society, she was supposed to be with him regardless of his temperament or criminal activity.

It was old news.

But pretending to be in love made him a disgusting person on a whole other level.

"Thank you for telling me. I don't really care," Olga forced herself to say. "He's crazy, I'm sure you all know-"

"But he's your mate. You have to feel something for him—even if unwanted."

"Not anymore."

After a few more minutes of discussing pack business, the two women went their separate ways. Olga had been tempted to ask. She didn't want to know how old the other woman was. She didn't even know how old Ulrich was.

I don't care, she thought while stepping into her car.

Olga started the ignition. 

There was one thing she still clung to and took comfort in. She never had claimed him. Eventually, she figured she would forget about any emotional ties because there shouldn't have been any to begin with. 

❄️

A/N: What do you think about Mary? Stay tuned...