Blair pushed to her feet. “I’ll get it this time.” She wasn’t all that surprised to find Finley on the other side of the door. In fact, Blair had been expecting the visit. “Well hello there.”
Her face diamond hard, Finley balled up her hands. “Your female savaged my sister’s foot.”
Savaged? Pfft. “She chomped on it some, but that was pretty much it.”
“She also urinated on Posy!”
“Her bladder often plays up when she’s annoyed.” Blair wandered into the apartment, counting on the enforcer to follow her. They needed to have this out once and for all, and they didn’t need an audience while doing it.
Seeing Luke uncurl from his seat, his eyes cold, Blair gave him a look, warning him not to interfere. This was between her and Finley … who marched right up to her, all superiority. Ooh, what a mistake.
The enforcer jabbed a finger at Blair. “You’re going to apologize to Posy. Publicly.”
Blair almost snorted. “Oh, you’re funny.”
“Do you think that being Luke’s mate gives you a free pass to do whatever the hell you like without facing any consequences?”
Blair arched a brow. “You think there should be consequences to my animal handling how she was so horribly disrespected? Really?”
Finley jutted out her chin. “You just don’t like that Posy doesn’t believe you’re Beta material.”
“On the contrary, I don’t give a rat’s first fuck what she believes. She’s fully entitled to her opinion. But she isn’t entitled to diss me in public—I won’t tolerate that. Nobody would, ranked or unranked.”
“Sharing her opinion with her friend hardly counts as dissing you in public.”
“Oh, so the hall isn’t a public place where many people wander and could easily overhear her?” Blair slammed up a hand when Finley went to speak again. “She messed up. My animal dealt with it. End of. There’s no need to have a Come to Jesus over it.”
“She’s just a kid!”
“She’s twenty-one. Older than me.”
“And you’re just a kid whether you like it or not.” Finley threw her a condescending look. “I’ve been an enforcer for as long as you’ve been alive. I have more life experience than you. I have more experience as an enforcer than you. I am far more suited to the position of Beta than you. Everyone knows that. You can’t expect them not to comment on it. Personally, I don’t know how you can be so happy to have the status of Beta. It’s not something you earned like I did and … and you … um …”
Luke wasn’t surprised that Finley fumbled and trailed off. Not when she was on the receiving end of one of his mate’s death stares. They were genuinely unnerving.
The enforcer looked away for a brief moment, and Luke then watched as Blair’s eyes went soft and she gave Finley a pitying smile—the same smile she’d given to Myra while verbally shredding her. Uh-oh.
“Look, I get that this is hard for you, I do,” said Blair, her words coming out slowly, her tone gentle and compassionate. “You’ve spent years trying to fight your way up the ranks, trying to prove you have something unique to offer. And here you are, thirty-six years old, still an enforcer.”
Finley’s lips flattened and her ears turned red.
“Over and over you applied to be promoted, but it just didn’t happen, did it?” Blair shook her head sadly. “Not only were you never appointed Beta or even Head Enforcer, you didn’t manage to become part of the inner circle of enforcers who are called on regularly, trusted with risky assignments, and who act as bodyguards. No, despite your best efforts, you’ve simply never succeeded in standing out from the crowd.”
Luke inwardly winced, unsurprised by the flush that bloomed up Finley’s neck and face.
Blair placed her hand over her chest. “I can understand how that would bite. Some people are happy to blend. They don’t need the spotlight. They don’t crave acknowledgment or admiration. Usually because they’re at ease with who they are—faults and all. And that’s their biggest strength, I think. They see they’re not perfect.
“Others, well, they’ve convinced themselves that they have little to no weaknesses. And because of that, they never seek to improve themselves. They never evolve on any level. They remain static, never learning new lessons or growing in personal strength. In essence, they hold themselves back but don’t even see it. It’s heart-wrenchingly sad.”
Finley’s eyes flickered as she swallowed hard.
“You say you earned the position of Beta,” said Blair, her voice still soft. “But what did you really ever do to earn it? Spending years in the role of enforcer doesn’t count. Being a highly dominant female doesn’t entitle you to hold the position either. Nor does the fact that you’ve tried taking on Beta female duties for years, particularly when you were specifically told not to. You knew all that time that someone else had a claim to the position, but you ignored and disrespected that—which is totally un-Beta-like behavior, by the way.”