7. Dominate This 

~ RIG ~

I was awakened the next morning by my father, appearing in my bedroom, unannounced.

Awkward, since I wasn’t alone. But also, unnerving. Dad wasn’t one for familial chats.

I had only a second of warning—footsteps on the stairs that my instincts recognized. I sat bolt-upright just as the door swung open and my father strode in, scanning the bed, me, and the crumpled lump under the quilt next to me.

My father’s nose wrinkled, but he spoke through the mindlink. ‘A human? Really Rig? You’re disgusting.’

I growled, but gently shook the girl awake, who blinked and smiled at me, then looked horrified when she caught sight of Dad in the doorway.

“I think you better go,” I muttered, then stared at my father until he took the cue to turn around and let the girl get out of the bed without being watched.

Wolves were far more free with their bodies than humans—yet another reason my father had such disdain for the “weak fuckers.” But this one clearly had good instincts, because instead of arguing with me, as soon as Dad turned, she leaped out of the bed, yanked on her dress and boots from the night before, and darted past my father as if he might pull a gun on her, giving me only a passing glance—though she packed it with heat and promise—as she scuttled out the door.

That was one way to avoid an awkward morning-after, I supposed.

I raked a hand through my hair and got out of bed, dressing slowly so my father wouldn’t think I jumped to his call.

“What’s going on?” My voice was husky from sleep. But dad turned with a smile that flashed like a blade. 

For a second I wanted to tuck my tail under my balls and submit. But the urge passed quickly, to be replaced with a bristling desire to stand my ground.

I got my size and looks from my father, but I had my mother's dark coloring. Dad’s brown hair and slightly finer features were somehow softened by his lighter coloring. Though anyone who believed the Alpha King was actually soft was in for a fucking wake up call. 

My father was ruthless in the extreme. 

"I have great news, Rig," Dad said, watching me with a strange eagerness that set my teeth on edge.

“Oh?” I asked carefully.

“Your mother and I have found the mate for you. Your mother is already planning the announcement—we’ll combine it with your birthday party since everyone will already be there.”

I had years of living with my father’s cruelty to thank for the fact that I didn’t immediately react.

A mating announcement already? Alphas didn’t usually mate until twenty-five at least, sometimes later. Especially males.

“And the better news is, she isn’t even a stranger to you, so we can already be sure that your chemistry is superb.”

My blood ran cold, my wolf snarling and snapping for release. Surely he couldn’t mean—

“We’ve selected Natalie Shaw. Her father is a powerful wolf, her mother was incredibly fertile, and our packs have always aligned. It couldn’t have worked out better, really… could it?” my father said, his gaze flat and his tone edged in warning. It wasn’t a question. This was a moment for me to play the game.

Fucked if I was going to do that.

Rage, hot and searing, coursed through my chest. My hands clenched to fists at my sides and I held his gaze.

“I am not taking that bitch—”

“Now, now, Rig. Don’t be hasty,” Dad said through his teeth, sliding across the room faster than human eyes would have caught, to stand in front of me. I didn’t flinch. He kept his voice light in case anyone was listening downstairs—the door was open. But his expression left no doubt what he would do if I defied him.

I wanted to bite out his throat. There was no way on God’s green earth that I would ever touch Natalie again—let alone mate with her. Natalie was my first real girlfriend. The first female that had held my attention long enough to take the title—and she held it for almost two years. Dad knew we’d broken up in the last year of high school because Natalie cheated.

But apparently, he didn’t care. He stepped right up, toe-to-toe with me and sent through the link, We have an agreement. Don’t forget Avery.

I felt it like claws on my gut.

Avery, my kid sister, was only sixteen now, but growing up fast. Yet, by wolf-traditions, until she was at least twenty—or mated to another Alpha—she was required to remain under Dad’s pack protection.

I huffed to myself. Avery was under far more threat at home with our cruel father than she’d ever be out in the world.

I knew that. Dad knew that—and he used the fact to relentlessly motivate me in whatever direction he chose. Because no matter how strong I might be, my father would always be stronger than Avery.

‘This was never part of the agreement,’ I snarled back through the link. My father’s eyes narrowed at the scent of a challenge.

When I was seventeen, I’d finally matched my father for size. And the day I’d realized that was the first time I took a stand against his abuse. We fought. Really fought. And I lost—but only barely.

I could still remember laying on the ground, and the look on my father’s face as he leaned over me. He had smiled, lips peeled back from his teeth, sweat on his brow, and the scent of my blood in his nose raising his bloodlust so his eyes kept shifting to his wolf.

The fucker had won on that occasion, but it had been close. And I was only an adolescent. I knew now what my father must have realized then: That the day would come when I would be bigger and stronger, capable of a true challenge.

But true to dear Dad’s manipulative, controlling form, he’d made himself look like the good male, reaching out a hand to help me off the floor.

‘You remind me of me at your age,’ he’d sent through the link.

I shuddered, wanting nothing less than to be like my father. But I was submitted. Humbled. And so I didn’t respond.

Dad had huffed—the softest sound I thought I’d ever heard from him.

‘You will earn your place atop the hierarchy one day, Son. I’m certain of it.’

I had frowned. I hadn’t challenged my father for dominance of the pack, only for freedom from his cruelty. But I realized the result would have been the same if I’d won.

I hadn’t thought about that.

Clearly my father had.

“I’ll make you a deal, Rig,” Dad had said softly while I stared, waiting. “You take your place under me in the hierarchy, you let me and your mother choose an appropriate mate, and when you turn thirty, I’ll give you the crown. I’ll bow submission to you. You won’t even have to challenge for it.”

My breath stopped. For him to offer that had seemed an impossible gift. My brother Stephen had died only months earlier. Stephen had always been the heir. But Stephen was dead. I didn’t know how I hadn’t thought about it before, but of course… of course my father would want me in the role with Stephen gone. Dad was obsessed with bloodlines and dominance. He’d rather have me there than any other wolf, even from our pack.

He'd sent me an image then—of myself standing over a gathering of the wolves, and all of them bowing. Including my parents.

It had stopped me in my tracks.

To stand at the top, acknowledged by the King Alpha… my dominance would be unquestioned. And I wouldn’t even have to fight for it?

But that would be years away—almost as many years as I’d lived at that point in my life. So I’d raised my nose to the proverbial wind and realized that my father had to be getting something out of this, too. And I’d taken the risk.

“You leave me alone. You let me live my life, and you keep your teeth out of my neck. I’ll agree to your mate, and I’ll wait for the power—but you let me live in peace.”

Dad had smiled a chilling, victorious smile and offered his hand to shake on the agreement.

I had felt uneasy about it ever since, but Dad had been true to his word—allowing me to choose my friends, my schooling, even this house. He hadn’t raised a hand to me or mentioned the agreement since, though I’d known the day would come.

Looked like Dad was finally tugging on that leash.

“I never agreed to Natalie! Never!” I snarled.

“You agreed that we would choose your mate.”

“I didn’t think I’d need to specify that you don’t pick a cheater. Surely that would be obvious?”

“Why do you care, Rig? Her role as Luna would be primarily political. I’m not asking you to love the whelp, just take her to bed and get her with pup a few times.”

“I am not touching her ever again.”

My father rolled his eyes as if I was being dramatic, but I just growled. He tensed, his eyes snapping to meet mine, glowing with Alpha power.

“What choice, exactly, do you think you have?” he said through his teeth.

“I have the choice to go rogue. I have the choice to bond another mate. I can choose to challenge you for your dominance—”

“I would like to see you try, pup. I will neuter you with my teeth.”

I snarled, and Dad met me, growl for growl.

We’re the same size, the same height. I’m younger, so probably faster. But Dad is more experienced in combat.

It would be a battle for the ages, and for the first time in years, I found myself tempted.

Dad must have scented the shift in me, because his eyes flashed his wolf’s. “Be very careful, Rig. That is a step you can’t reverse. And you’re hardly coming to the challenge from a position of strength since we had an agreement.”

I snorted my contempt at that. But even though Dad sank down in his stance, he didn’t leap.

“Not Natalie,” I growled. “Our agreement was never for her.”

“There were no conditions set. We have already entered negotiations with Natalie’s father. It will be extremely tricky to reverse, especially when there’s no known problem—”

“Well, there is a known problem, Dad. In fact, there’s two. I have two conditions. And you can take them or leave them: If you want to stick with this agreement, if you don’t want to worry about a challenge from me, you find me a mate that isn’t Natalie. And you let Avery transfer to my pack. She comes to live under my roof. You do that, and you’ll get your peace. But if you don’t—”

“You are not in a position to threaten me!”

I smiled to show my teeth. “Are you sure, Dad? Neither of us will know until I do. So you choose: Any mate that isn’t Natalie, and you let me take Avery, or I won’t stop until I take you down, or you kill me and have to pass the Alpha to your brother’s kids. I vow it.”

Eyes narrowed, Dad tilted his head. He hadn’t taken a defensive position. But he glared, his upper lip pulling into a sneer. I knew a moment of smug satisfaction. Dad couldn’t stand the idea of not keeping King Alpha in his direct bloodline.

“You don’t get Avery until you take the mate,” he snarled. “We choose the mate, you take her, then you get your annoying sister.”

I gave a full-body shudder in the wake of the restraint it cost me not to take his throat for that insult. But a moment later I swallowed, then held out my hand. “Deal.”

Dad’s sneer turned into a smile. “Smart boy,” he whispered, as if the whole thing had been a joke between us.

My expression of disgust didn’t change.

But dad shook my hand, then turned on his heel, his lips pulling into a beaming smile that made my stomach sink.

It was Dad’s smile of victory.

We didn’t speak any further. I followed him, every inch the Alpha King as he stalked out of the house like he owned the place, waving goodbye to my stunned and confused packmates who submitted to him as he passed.

I should have felt like I was the one who’d won. I’d cornered my father and my father had given in. So why were my insides coated in dread?

When his car roared out of the driveway, then off into the distance, I heard one of my brother’s footsteps trotting up the stairs to interrogate me. I didn’t hesitate to slam the door so hard, the frame cracked.

That was when I realized what I’d agreed to.

A mate already? And announced on my birthday? No relief for Avery until I had taken the female?

That was why it felt like I’d lost. Why I felt manipulated. Dad had known all along what I would do, and he’d played me like a violin.

By insisting that I take my sister—and by agreeing to my father’s condition that I couldn’t until I’d mated the chosen Luna, I’d effectively promised not to have a long engagement. Dad knew I wouldn’t wait. My life as a free, single male would be over.

I wanted to howl. I wanted to bite something—preferably my father.

I lifted a hand to claw it through my hair, and saw it tremble as I reached up. This was going to ruin everything. My year at school. My packhouse. The bet…

I swallowed back a snarl as an image of Cara, the sassy little librarian, bloomed in my mind and from nowhere, the need to possess her bloomed.

I sneered at myself then. “Get it together, pussy.” Shaking my head, I began to pace the room.

There was nothing I could do about my father, who was already in power. There was nothing I could do about being forced to take an early mate—at least it would save my sister. There was nothing I could do about losing the rest of my freedom, except enjoy what was left of it.

Three months. I had three months.

I set my teeth. I’d make the most of those weeks. And when the day came that I convinced the little human librarian that she wanted me, I tear off her clothes and plunge into her, and send my father a mental image and a massive fuck you through the link.

Because Dad hated nothing more than humans. And if he learned his son was “dirtying” himself with human females every day, it would have sent him into a frenzy.

I smiled the smile I usually saved for prey, grabbed my phone and keys, and stormed out of the house without answering the increasingly frantic questions from my packmates.

I had already decided to go find Cara, and seduce her, and remind myself who was truly in control of my future. Who truly held the leash on my fate.

Because it wasn’t my fucking father. I’d make certain of that.