Inez smiled mockingly. She didn't even know what she expected. Her cheek was throbbing but more than that, it was her heart that was hurting. She had been humiliated, embarrassed, and rejected all in one night. But instead of worrying about her, her family held her accountable for losing the opportunity that could have brought them to higher heights.
Even if it meant her pride was used as a tissue to wipe Dominic's ass.
She took a breath and swallowed hard before saying, "It is a done deal. He rejected me and I accepted it. There is nothing that we can do about it, so you might as well forget it."
Though she said it, Inez felt her wolf whine inside of her. She was weaker than the other dominant wolf, but she was still very much alive in Inez. Thus, when she heard Inez say that they should forget all about Dominic, the wolf couldn't help but make her presence known.
That she was still grieving and forgetting was not on her agenda.
Inez didn't blame her wolf. Every shifter dreamed of that moment when they would find their true mate. Inez had too. She had envisioned several and multiple scenarios but she had never once imagined a scenario where her mate would hate her guts and would rather kiss a stinky, two-faced bitch than accept her.
Every vision that she had of her true mate had been killed and brutally snatched from her. It just evaporated like smoke. And the reason? Inez didn't even know of it. She just knew that Dominic hated her. And God, she hated him for that too.
How could he hate her? When she had never once done a thing that would let him down. Yet he looked her in the eye and told her that she had backstabbed him.
She should have stabbed him with a pitchfork when they were children and as much as her wolf was mourning the loss of their mate, she growled at that idea in appreciation. Because somewhere beneath the pain, she was stung and angry at the rejection.
In her heart—deep down in her heart, she and her wolf knew that this was nothing but the ultimate betrayal on Dominic's part.
"This is not up to you!" Inez heard the hysterical shout of her mother. Her eyes were wildly flickering as Maria said to her, "I will go and talk with the ex-alpha; he—he cannot do it; how can he?"
Inez didn't stop her mother. Because she knew that no matter what Maria did now, it wasn't going to change anything. She had been chasing after Dominic for six months but the man had never given her the answer that she had been looking for.
That man could be colder and quieter than a corpse if he wanted and it would have been good if he was dead because, at least that way, Inez didn't have to grieve over something that wasn't dead.
Her mother left the room and so did Ricky, but not before shooting her a disgusted glare. He was her brother; he should be standing next to her but god, he was an arsehole to even think things through his head and not his ass.
"Are you okay?" Scarlet looked at Inez, whose left side of the cheek was swelling really badly. Seeing the pain in the eyes of her sister, Scarlet asked, "Why don't you leave the pack, Nessie? How long are you going to suffer like this?"
And honestly, for the first time, Inez asked the same question as well.
"You are in for trouble," a woman with her hair dyed in silver dye walked over to Inez's cubicle and dumped a stack of old files. "It seems like you really pissed off, Alpha Dom, last night."
"By doing what?" Inez asked as she picked up the file that was on the top of the stack and coughed when the dirt furled to her nose. "What are these for?"
Cecil smiled at her in the manner that said 'bless your soul,' before replying in a soft voice, "You have been put on the case of Alpha Sokolov."
"What!?"
Her shout rang throughout the small office, which was more like a storeroom than an office, making many of the shifters turn and glare at her but Inez didn't care.
She didn't say a word when she found a used condom in her coffee; she didn't say a word when she was called the pack's slut and someone dropped a punch of sexy lingerie on her house's door with their number and a dollar.
And she didn't say anything even when she was tripped, punched, and even had her hair pulled.
But this was whole-level different.
Killian Sokolov.
The most difficult client of their events and interior decor company. She had never dealt with him personally but she knew that the man was one of the pickiest men she had ever heard about.
He wasn't a brooder like Dominic, no. He was quite a charmer when it came to dealing with women. Never had she seen him looking angry or broody or losing his temper.
But boy, that Lycan had the ability and skill to make all the interior decorators who went on a meeting with him cry with a smile plastered on his lips. She never once heard of a single meeting going well.
And if that wasn't all. He had never, ever liked the work of their company.
If not for the fact that they had an alliance, Inez would have wondered if he had a bone to pick with Dominic.
The fact that Dominic had pushed such a man in her lap, it left her speechless and angry. What was that man angry about? It was she who was disrespected and humiliated.
Strictly speaking, she should be spitting in the cup of his coffee, so why was he pulling this stunt on her?
"You are not happy," Cecil if nothing but sang.
Inez gritted her teeth and threw the file and asked, "Will you be happy if you were in my shoes?"
Not only did she have to put up with Eve's bullshit, but now she had to deal with this mess.