“Who else knows?” Markus snarled, slamming the dining room door shut. Sam froze, his cloth pausing mid-circle on the long mahogany table.

As his mate stomped towards him, Sam suddenly found his tongue, “W-wait, who knows what, sir?” he stammered.

“Alpha Karliah knows so of course your little friend with the wildling hair knows.” Markus blocked him in against the table with his hands either side of his waist as he turned to face him. Sam kept his eyes down, holding them in the centre of Markus’ chest.

“About what?” He mumbled.

“About what, SIR.” Markus corrected,, his jaw tightening to make it even more defined and sharp, damn him and his handsome rugged looks, Sam thought, he should be angry at him for getting in his face… but instead he couldn’t stop focusing on how good-looking he was, and how much more good-looking he became when he clenched his pearly-white teeth, fangs bared, brows furrowed… Get it together, Sam, he thought. “And you know, we both know, we don’t talk about it but we know and I know that you know and now they know.” Sam blinked, his brain struggling to dissect the torrent of words flying at him. With an awful, sinking feeling, he realised what it was that Markus knew, what his friends knew.

“Oh.” He said. “Yeah.”

“Who. Else. Knows?” Markus growled, grabbing Sam’s chin and pulling him closer.

“No one, sir.”

“Not even your necrophiliac friend?” He growled.

“My what, sir?” Sam blurted in horror.

“Charles. The dead one.” Markus managed through gritted teeth.

“Don’t call him that!”

“Or what?” He squeezed Sam’s cheeks between his fingers to the point of pain. “You gonna sic your mommy on me?” Sam jerked back, what did he know about his mother? Markus kept his grip on his face.

“Wh-why would you say that?” Sam’s eyes filled with tears so fast he barely had time to suck in a shuddering breath before they ran over his water line and down his cheeks and onto Markus’ fingers.

“Why are you crying?” Markus asked incredulously. Sam stared into his eyes, his own still pumping out water like a faucet, and felt his rage build inside of him. He couldn’t hold it back, no matter how much he wanted to, there was no need for Markus to bring either of his parents into a silly he-said-she-said. Sam’s jaw tightened and he glared through his tears.

“There are lines you don’t cross, Markus!” His voice shook but it was still the most aggressive he had probably ever sounded in his life, it surprised even him. Markus’ mouth popped open and Sam used his shock to shove away the alpha’s hand, releasing his chin. He marched away, trying to keep his sniffles quiet.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Markus called after him, but Sam wasn’t going to give him any more of his time, not today.

His anger was tinged with embarrassment at being so stupid as to think his cruel mate could ever change.

~

Cassie was waiting for Sam in his room when he stumbled in to sniffle under his duvet and generally feel sorry for himself. She jumped up when he entered, her face full of worry.

“Sammy!” She exclaimed, taking his wet cheeks in her small hands gently and staring into his eyes. Sam sniffed once, then the floodgates opened and he began to sob, his head tilting down and his eyes squeezing shut. Cassie pulled him in and wrapped her arms around him like an octopus, squeezing him in tight and holding him as he released his hurt into her shoulder.

Once he was able to breath without hiccuping, he pulled back and wiped at his face with his sleeve. Cassie looked him over frantically and ran her hands from his wrists to his shoulders to his face.

“Did Markus hurt you?” She asked.

“N-no.”

“Did Markus upset you?”

Sam hesitated, blinked a few times and mumbled, “Yes.”

“What happened?” She brushed her fingers through the hairs resting on his forehead, pushing them back softly. “Sammy, tell me what he said.”

“H-he talked a-about my m-mum.” A sob broke on the word ‘mum’ and a fresh wave of tears slid out.

“What the fuck?” She snarled, her face quickly contorting into an expression of pure rage. “Why would he do that?”

“I don’t- I don’t know.” He wasn’t scared of her, but her furious face had rattled him a little. Cassie could be a small ball of angry when it came to injustice but her eyes had a glint to them that he didn’t see often…

“I’m going to speak with him.” She said.

Sam grabbed her arms gently and whispered, “Cassie, don’t.”

“I will stay with you as long as you need me but I’m not going to stand by and let him speak to you like that.” Her voice had softened but he could still the the anger burning in her eyes, their usual forest green had become dark, almost blackened around the edges.

“But-”

“No one talks about your mum.” She said sternly, he sniffed and nodded. “Wait here, I’ll be back soon, I promise.”

And with that she strode out, leaving Sam frozen in place as he contemplated just how much worse his best friend could make this awkward and painful situation for him. If only she didn’t have such a talent for it…

~

Cassie thumped her fist on Markus’ bedroom door as hard as she could, it left an ache in her knuckles but she ignored it, she had to be strong. Her target pulled the door open with a huff and looked down on her with annoyance.

“What?” He grunted.

“What did you say to Sam?” Cassie snarled, pushing her face up as close to his as he could.

He took a step back with a single raised brow, “Are you squaring up to me?” he growled.

“The fuck are you gonna do if I am?” She said. He glared at her and opened his mouth but she wasn’t going to let him take over, she pushed her way in and shut the door behind her. “How could you hurt Sam like that?!” She exclaimed angrily. “He is pure and kind and-”

“I didn’t do anything, he just freaked!” Markus shouted.

“You talked about his mum!” She practically spat the words at him like venom, her own version of alpha voice. Markus froze for a moment, much to Cassie’s enjoyment, he should feel shocked at what he’d done! He stared off to the side with a look of confusion and then trained his eyes back on her.

“I called Karliah his ‘mommy’ because she’s always fighting his battles for him,” He said slowly before adding much more hastily, “I would never talk about Sam’s parents like that!” with an offended expression.

A long pause sat between them.

“For real?” Cassie asked suspiciously.

“For real, I would never.”

“You swear?” She squinted at him as hard as she could with her mouth scrunched.

“Jesus, Cassie, we lived together for sixteen years and you think I’d do something like that?”

“You’ve proven you would do a lot of shitty things in the last year, Markus.” She said, “Also, even if you didn’t talk about his mum, you were still rude to him, and about my mate!” she waved a finger at him angrily. Who was he to talk about her mate like that? Or her best friend? He should just keep his mouth shut about everyone and everything!

“Well… yeah, but…”

“Karliah would never speak to me the way you do to Sam,” Cassie said softly, trying a different approach, an open and honest one. She and Markus had never considered each other friends, but she hoped he could feel her sincerity when she spoke from her heart and treated him as an equal. Maybe he would realise this was how he needed to communicate with Sam. “and if she made me cry like Sam is right now she would do anything to make up for it. You need to get your shit together or you won’t have a mate to speak down to for much longer.” She stared into his gold eyes and tried her best to only look half as angry as she felt.

“Thanks for the advice,” He growled, “but I don’t think my love life is any of your business.”

“I’m making it my business.” Cassie stated sternly and stalked back to the door, hesitating in the frame to add, “Karliah will be hearing about this, just so you know.”

“I’m not scared of biceps Barbie.” He grumbled sulkily. Cassie looked him up and down slowly, and with obvious disbelief, this man was delirious if he thought he could take her mate on hand-to-hand… maybe if he was armed… with a missile launcher…

“She would snap you in half, alpha arse-munch.” She replied.

“You’re in my house, munchkin, don’t forget that.” He said darkly.

Cassie squinted at him the same way her mother did to her when she was about to say ‘who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?’ but left it at that and slammed the door behind her.

~

Sam was passive-aggressively chopping sweet potatoes and carrots when a knock on the kitchen door drew him from his thoughts, he paused with his knife hovering over the veg, whoever had knocked didn’t need to be told to come in, the kitchen door was always open. After a few seconds of silence, he dropped the sharp tool and turned curiously. Markus leant against the doorway looking uncomfortable. They stared at each other, Sam expectantly and Markus sheepishly.

Finally, Sam folded his arms over his chests and broke the silence, “Sir?” he raised his brows with far more confidence than he felt, in fact his eye-lids still stung from the tears he had spent all afternoon shedding.

“Did… did Cassie tell you about what I actually meant?” Markus asked quietly.

“When you asked if I was going to ‘sic my mommy on you’?” Sam couldn’t believe how well he was holding himself together… Maybe he would make a good alpha mate yet! He pushed the unexpected thought away, those ideas buried themselves in and rotted you from the inside with poisonous hope. He was tired of fake hope. In face, he was tired of this conversation. “Yeah, she told me what you actually meant.”

“Yeah, I just,” Shifting from foot to foot, Markus actually looked slightly embarrassed, it seems Cassie had really given him a bollocking if she could reduce him to a timid teenager… or maybe Karliah had called him, she was definitely the scariest person Sam knew - he regularly thanked the Goddess that they were friends… “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for making you upset, even if I didn’t actually say what you thought I d-”

“Thanks.” Sam cut him off and gave him a tight-lipped smile to let him know he could leave now, he couldn’t make it any more obvious with his body language how much he wanted to do so.

Markus nodded awkwardly and left.

Maybe he should have given Markus more of a chance to explain himself... he thought as he returned to his duties, but then, maybe he was tired of giving Markus chances.