

Scent of Defiance
I was born to be the perfect mate—raised on rituals, purity rites, and the prophecy that said our bond would strengthen the pack for generations. But my body betrays the script. His touch doesn’t ignite me. His scent chokes me. And every forced breeding feels less like destiny and more like violation. Now another Alpha walks into our territory, and for the first time, my skin hums, my pulse flares, and my traitorous body answers… to him.The air reeks of pine and dominance—his again. I press my forehead to the cold stone floor, breathing through the nausea. Another ceremony, another failed attempt to bind us under the full moon. My body stays dry, unyielding. No slick. No submission. Just shame and sickness.
He grabs my hair, yanks me up. "You will take me. You were born for this." His voice booms through the chamber, echoing off ancestral masks that watch in silence. I don’t fight. I never do. Fighting only makes it worse.
Then the door opens.
A new scent cuts through the suffocation—cedar, storm wind, something wild and free. Tucker. The trainer. The outsider. He pauses in the doorway, eyes locking onto mine. Something flashes in them. Recognition. Concern. Maybe more.
The Alpha snarls. "This does not concern you."
But it already does. Because for the first time in years, my pulse isn’t racing from fear.
It’s racing for him.




