His Alpha aura pressed against me as he spoke. Subtle. Practiced. That low-frequency hum of dominance he used when he wanted compliance without argument. I had bent under it a thousand times before. Tonight, something in me resisted. Not my wolf. She was still silent, still curled in that dark place. Something older than her. Something that lived in my blood before I ever had a wolf at all.
"He's right, Seraphina." Corvina drifted out in her nightgown, her voice dripping with sweetness. Her scent preceded her, that honeysuckle and warm vanilla so thick it coated the back of my throat, and beneath it, faint but unmistakable, the chemical undertone of heat-amplifying herbs. She had been using them. I could smell it now, under the sex and the sweat. She had manufactured this. "Theron and I are just taking care of a physical need, that's all. I swear it won't affect your mating bond. As long as he's willing to look after me and my pup going forward, I'll be perfectly content."
She tilted her chin up and smiled. A deliberate baring of her throat that was meant to look submissive but landed as mockery. She knew exactly what she was doing.