Last night

The door bell had him instantly open his eyes. He was ever alert as an alpha should be even in his sleep. Gritting his teeth he checked to see if his mate had been disturbed too and smiled at her closed eyes and even breath.

His hand shifted to cup a naked breast under the sheets and squeeze it. Her sharp intake of breath proved he'd been right to believe she was awake. Chuckling, he lightly caressed her nipple with his thumb. His reward was her arcing towards his touch and moaning her need.

Even after being mated for three centuries, they still fired each other. In some ways they desired each other even more. "How do you always know?" She asked breathlessly.

He kissed her, a kiss dominant because he knew he didn't have time. "I know everything about you." He stated with a smug smile, ignoring the second bell ringing on their suite door

His mate gifted him with a sour look that had his grin widening. With the swiftness that choraled his alpha status he shifted his hand to between her legs and plunged two fingers into her wet heat. He'd known she'd be ready for him, his mate creamed herself with his slightest indication of desire. Bryce always made sure to reward that eagerness for him.

"Bryce!" She screamed as he pumped into her with ruthless pleasure.

She was so wet, so hot and soft. He wanted nothing but to bury himself inside her but someone ringing his bell at this time of night meant urgency. "Temptress." He accused softly as he reluctantly removed his fingers from inside her and stood up.

"Bryce." She said again, begging and he smiled.

He looked at her lying there, needy, her eyes sultry and soft. Desire wafted off them both and her slim body was silhouetted by the silk sheets. Her dark caramel skin looked dewy and soft against the cream sheets.

Bryce clutched the top sheet with one hand and pulled it down to expose her delectable breasts. He was obsessed with them, they both knew. Their golden brown tips were hard with her desire, pierced through with golden barbells bearing his family crest.

"I want to find you like this when I come back." He stated.

His mate gave him a knowing smile, a seductive one as she shifted on the bed with sensuous slowness. Her hand went to where his had been a moment ago. He could see the outline of her movements because of the thinness of the sheet. Her hand stroked herself, legs spread wide to display her slow erotic petting.

"I'll keep myself ready for you my alpha." She teased, using a submissive tone that she knew would torment him even more than knowing she was waiting for him like this.

With a growl from his wolf, he tore himself from the sight of her. He was hard and getting into his jeans to the accompaniment of her soft moans was hell. The ringing of the door didn't help. Bryce turned to once again look at his mate and met with her knowing smile. He sucked her essence off his two fingers watching as her eyes dilated and became even softer.

"I'll be disappointed if you gave yourself an orgasm." He growled.

"Yes sir." She submitted in that deceptive little voice. Her eyes though were amused and demanding.

He couldn't help leaning over and inhaling one of her nipples into his mouth. It was succulent heat, the cool metal giving more of an erotic edge. Why was he torturing himself? He loved the feel of her pebbled nipple rolling against his tongue, loved the sweet taste of it. If he had time, he'd gorge himself of her delectable mounds.

"Come back soon." She demanded as he once more tore himself form her.

He heard her whimper as he closed the door to their bedroom and had to will himself to go on. He found one of his warriors at the door. "Yes." He asked, projecting the calm of an alpha in charge though his mind was still very much enslaved by his mate.

"The first beta is on the line for you." The warrior informed with respect.

He frowned, though he made sure it didn't show on his face. "Has something happened?" He asked as he moved towards his office.

"He seemed angry." The other man stated.

"Hmm." He couldn't think of any threat their pack might be under, not one that would need to b told to him instead of his father.

Once they reached his office, the warrior took up position besides it and Bryce gave him a nod of approval before he closed the door, walked to his desk and picked up the phone. All the rooms in the alpha's pack house were sound proofed against even were hearing so he had no worries he'd be overheard.

"C.J.?" He questioned.

"Did you know?" His friend demanded, belligerent in a way he'd never been in all their lives.

He let the frown mar his face. "Know what?"

"That your son rejected Cari for her sister?" Loathing laced those two words and Bryce felt the punch of the statement all the say to his bones. "Tell me you had nothing to do with that? Tell me I didn't confide in you my worry for my little girl while you were telling and showing her she wasn't good enough?"

"What are you talking about C.J.?" He asked, though the words his friend spoke were clear despite their anguished aspect. He couldn't believe it. Not of his son.

"Xander wouldn't do that." He stated.

He growled his warning down the line, his wolf arising at the foul language his beta replied him with. C.J. didn't head his warning as the scalding words continued unrelieved.

Even though they were friends, Bryce couldn't allow the disrespect. He growled louder, a sharp sound that would discourage any member of the pack. He understood his friend's pain, understood a father's need to protect his child. If Cari was telling the truth.

As much as he loved the girl, she had been distant of late. Bryce had assumed the she-wolf was jealous that her own mate was taking too long to come around. She was taking that jealousy too far. He'd never have thought the sweet girl he'd known would do this.

"Bryce?" His gamma came to the line and Bryce could hear C.J. still swearing in the background.

"What?" His wolf was still in his voice.

The gamma sighed. "C.J.'s father confirmed that he and your father made sure Xander mated Claire and not Cari."

"That can't be." He denied.

His friend sighed. "Cari didn't say anything Bryce, the Beta told C.J. that your father commanded her not to say or do anything to show that she was the true Luna."

He groped for his chair, pain gripping his heart like a vice squeezing. It was an abomination to deny a mate moreso for an alpha. But to take your true mate's sister as yours? That was more than vile. How could his son do that? What had he done wrong that Xander would be that kind of man?

And his own father? No! The Alpha wasn't like that. His father wouldn't destroy an innocent child like that. "Why?" He asked, a feeling of defeat washing over him.

"She's not a shifter."

He closed his eyes, his head hanging in despair and shame. It was all his fault. He must have done something wrong for Xander to be capable of doing something like that. And his father? What had happened to the man he'd admired all his life?

"I'll...I"ll..." he didn't know what to say. What could he do?

His gamma gave a defeated sigh. "C.J. plans to inform the Alpha king." Though his friend had nothing to apologize for, his tone was.

Bryce squeezed his eyes shut, pain defeating his strength without much effort. What could he expect from a father whose child had been wronged. "Can you give me time to talk to Xander?"

He had to talk to his son, to confirm it all. Be just couldn't believe his boy would hurt his true mate like this. A goddess given mate was everything for their race. Bryce could hear his gamma conferring with his beta, could hear the emphatic no C.J. replied with.

"My daughter has suffered for too long! I'm not going to allow them the time to think up further ways to hurt my baby!"

This was going to be a nightmare. What had possessed his father and son? Could they really have done this? Had they thought they could get away with such evil?

"Bryce..." his gamma sounded even more helpless.

"I understand." Was his tired reply. "I'll still ask Xander for his side and see what to do from there."

"You know the Alpha king will still come to investigate?" He cautioned.

"I hope Xander didn't do this." He confided.

"She was suffering from a mate's betrayal when C.J. got her here." His gamma informed.

"Okay." He straightened in his seat and took a deep breath. "I'll talk to my son."

Once he'd hung up he looked at the time and gave a rueful smile. Though it was the middle of the night here, the king's pack were eight hours ahead. Which meant their day had long started.

Just his luck.

'Xander?' He mind linked his son.

'Dad? What is it?' He felt his son come alert with the clarity expected of an alpha. Though sleep still echoed his thoughts.

'Tell me Cari isn't your true mate?' His demand held a plea, a need to keep the version of the son he thought he had alive.

'D...dad.' the hesitation in his son's voice killed it all.

He'd wanted to believe the Beta was trying to discredit his father for some reason, maybe to take over the pack. Wanted to believe that Cari had turned from the sweet girl he remembered into a manipulative, conniving schemer. But this? He hadn't wanted to believe this of his son.

'Please tell me you didn't.' He couldn't help pleading again, weary hurt lacing his voice.

'Grandpa told me...I had no choice.'

For the first time since he was a child Bryce felt tears fill his eyes. He closed his mind to his son. The man couldn't even own up to what he'd done. At twenty-nine his son was still very young but he should've matured enough to at least own up to his mistake, his decisions.

Reluctantly, he reached for the phone again knowing he had to report to the king. If he didn't it'd be worse for him and his pack. Not to mention he owed it to his friend and his daughter.

"This is first alpha Bryce Lockhart of the Darkpaws." He stated the moment his call went through.

"The king has been expecting your call first alpha." The female at the other end stated. "I'll put you through."

"First alpha." The king acknowledged as he came online.

"Your majesty." Bryce deferred.

"What is this mess I'm hearing." While his voice was benign, there was steel in his tone.

"I didn't know your majesty." He stated, like a pup without any sense of diplomacy.

"That is what I've been led to believe." The king stated mildly.

"My son confirmed that he chose his true mate's sister instead of her."

"Twins as I understand?" The king questioned.

"Yes."

"We have so much to talk about."

"Yes." The alpha sighed.

**

After he hung up with the first alpha, the king summoned his son. Sitting back, he kept his face passive as he took in the splendor that was his son. The crown prince stood tall, taller than even he himself who was considered a giant among their kind.

Unlike him, the young man had a streamlined slender build. More regal than his own oversized muscular bulk. But then he had married into royalty and looked more like a brutish thug. His son on the other hand had inherited a refined version of his own features.

He would make a great king when his time came, the king mused. Which made him grateful he wouldn't have to suffer as the Darkpaws' first alpha was. His son had an innate grace that could never be taught. Prince Massimo would never even think to step outside propriety.

Which for the king was a double edged sword. While he was proud of his son's ethics, a part of him wished the boy would do something wild at times. He suddenly grinned at his son knowing how the boy preferred to be a bit formal in the office wing. "Sit down my boy," he invited.

The crown prince sighed as he complied. "You do that to irritate me don't you father?"

King Fredrico gave his son a cheeky smile. "You could always order me not to." He suggested.

Everyone knew the crown prince was more powerful than his father. The king had been a powerful alpha before mating the current queen and his power had increased with the mating. Still, it wasn't at par with his wife as a royal by birth and his son was even more powerful than his mother.

"Dad." The boy almost whined to the king's boisterous amusement.

"I had an interesting complaint from the first beta of the Darkpaws." He said at length once his mirth was under control.

The prince's face cleared of the sour look it'd held and took on a serious cast. "One of the highland packs?" He questioned and the king grinned his pride at him.

"Yes. It seems the first beta's daughter was set aside by the second alpha as a mate in favor of her twin."

The prince frowned at that. "Why would the beta lodge a complaint? That is not unheard of. Twins have exchanged true mates since the beginning of our kind."

The king nodded his agreement, his face serious and a bit angry. "Yes but the other twin's mate had not shown up and still has not."

Prince Massimo drew in a sharp breath. "How long?"

The king's eyes were flinty with outrage as he met his son's identical blue gaze. "Ten years."

"Dear goddess!" The prince swore, something he never did. "How could any male stand to torture his true mate like that?! And the sister? Did she know what she'd done?"

"Yes," the king ground out. "From what the beta pieced together his older daughter knew she was taking her sister's mate but led her to believe she didn't."

The prince growled his displeasure. "Why didn't the younger twin report this to us?"

"The Darkpaws' Alpha commanded her not to show or tell anyone, not to even leave the pack grounds. I don't think most of our people know they can report an abuse of the alpha command to us. We're going to have to remind them."

"Damnit," he swore again. "This could have been resolved with the couple getting only a slap on the wrist. Her mate is already here at the castle!"

"Yes." The king agreed. "We're going to have to set an example of this situation."

The prince nodded. "We'll command them to appear before the throne, before all the alphas of the realm and deal with them."

The king's smile was raw, deadly. "No son, this calls for a more personal touch. I have ordered the first alpha to ensure the girl leaves the pack for a time. She needs time to heal before we descend upon them."

The prince raised a regal brow. "Descend?" He queried.

"Yes. Nothing like the king himself coming to pass judgement to put a point across. That Alpha knew he should have brought the girl to the castle to await her mate, but he didn't. Such disregard for a pack member is unacceptable."

Prince Massimo nodded his agreement. "Ten years?" He asked again, incredulous.

"Ten years." The king agreed.

"The girl is strong."

"She is of beta blood and the true mate to an alpha."

"Many would have given up."

"Yes."