(WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE AND DEPICTIONS OF VIOLENCE)
As that commonly recognized quote goes ... "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."
That noted, if one were to build upon this concept, with that aforementioned 'woman' being a 'mother' who happens to be 'scorned' by a grievous misjustice wrongfully inflicted upon her innocent child; one could only imagine that that 'fury' could easily become ten-fold in its wrath ... as Alpha Julian and the others are about to find out.
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At the Alpha's manor, moments after Teresa leaves the detention center...
An infuriatedly incensed Teresa abruptly bursts into the Alpha's private study; aggressively kicking both solid oak doors open with one powerful kick, while wildly screaming at the top of her lungs...
"What the fuck, Julian?! I demand that you release my daughter this instant!!"
With the only exception of the erratic movement of her chest heaving heavily from her overly deep, exasperated 'anger breathing', Teresa stands there as motionless as a statue; her body rigidly tense, with her fists tightly clenched and pressed into the sides of her thighs. Her teeth and jaw are clenched as tightly as her fists; while she fiercely glares at her brother with piercing eyes that seem as if she were 'throwing daggers out from them' directly at him.
After witnessing this apparently brazen audaciousness exhibited by Teresa, Delta Colin can't seem to rein in that contemptuous disdain he holds for her, and gruffly shouts out...
"How dare you; you insolent she-wolf ... just who in the hell do you think you are?! You impertinently come barging into the Alpha's private study during a closed-door meeting while disrespectfully addressing your Alpha with vulgarity as you make ludicrous demands ... acting like some uncivilized, feral beast..."
A condescending smirk emerges upon the Delta's lips...
"Just like that wretched, crazed, little rogue she-wolf of yours. I see now where she gets that unruly behavior of hers. What's it they say ... oh, right ... 'the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree'; now does it?"
Without even the slightest of indication, in a sudden flash quicker than 'the blink of the eye', the statue-like Teresa savagely lunges at Delta Colin. And before anyone in the room realizes what's happening ... or can react in time to prevent it from happening ... Teresa mercilessly clasps his throat in her hand with a painfully excruciating vise-like grip; steadily clamping down and impeding his airway.
The Delta's eyes instantly bulge out from their sockets and tear up, as he desperately struggles to gasp for air.
Alpha Julian immediately barks out in his most authoritatively commanding Alpha tone, "That's enough, Teresa!! Let go of him ... now!!"
Teresa doesn't make the slightest effort to turn and look at the Alpha; instead, she displays those piercingly glaring, 'dagger throwing' eyes, locking them directly onto the Delta this time; fiercely 'boring into' the Delta's fleeting consciousness. She ominously utters out from the side of her mouth through clenched teeth...
"'That's enough' you say, brother? Oh no ... I'm just getting started."
The Gamma makes an attempt to stealthily move in on Teresa; but this ends up being nothing but a futile waste of time, because the always vigilant Teresa quickly catches this out of the corner of her eye. She malevolently warns him...
"Ray; back the fuck off, or I swear I'll snap this asshole's neck like a twig. ... And then I'll come for you." She glances over his way. "Don't think I didn't hear about the inhumane manner you ordered Sasha to be restrained in. You are so lucky that Sarah ordered those bastards to treat her more humanely, or I would have gone after you the second I..."
Teresa looks back upon the gradually fading Delta and grins...
"'Impertinently came barging in' ... 'acting like some uncivilized, feral beast'; was it?"
The Alpha brusquely interjects, "Teresa, I'm not going to say this again; let go of Colin, now! Sasha's already being detained in the detention center; do you want to be locked up in the cell beside her? Trust me, if you keep on behaving the way you are now, I'll be more than happy to make that happen."
Teresa emits a terse, unamused sounding laugh...
"Really? I don't think so, Julian. Because now is the time for you to trust me when I tell you that you really don't want to put me in the detention center. ... In fact, that's the last place you want to send me now."
Intrigued, with his curiosity piqued by that seemingly straightforward statement on the surface, yet still underlyingly cryptic; with one eyebrow furrowed and the other raised, the Alpha inquires...
"And why is that?"
Teresa turns around to face her brother, and then ominously warns him...
"Because if you refuse to release my daughter this instant and continue to keep her locked up in the detention center ... and then go put me in there with her ... come tomorrow, you won't have a detention center left standing. I will personally tear it down; and take out anyone who tries to get in my way."
Though not an actual Acrilian she-wolf herself, Teresa has always possessed the fiercely tenacious spirit of one; and Julian ... as well as everyone else who knows Teresa ... very well knows this.
As a matter of fact, before having resigned to take care of her adopted daughters, Teresa was recognized throughout the Rainier Pack as a highly skilled and most formidable member of their Security Defense Force.
No other SDF member ever dared challenge her, and most their pack's enemies feared her. And it's no wonder, because Teresa always was ... and still is ... a force to be reckoned with.
A familiar female voice is heard from the study's doorway...
"Don't take that as an empty threat, gentlemen; I honestly believe that she will do it."
Teresa turns her head and gratefully nods to the Luna...
"Thank you so much, Sarah; for looking after Sasha before. And also, thanks to both you and Jacqueline for taking care of Katarina during all this. I truly appreciate it. I'm in your debt."
"Nonsense ... Teresa; there's no need for all that. It is what family does..." The Luna glances over at the Alpha, "They look out for and take care of one another."
The Luna enters and approaches Teresa; then takes a brief moment to look upon the bluish complexion of the nearly unconscious Delta ... who's now only being held up by Teresa's tightly clenched hand around his neck; after having recently gone totally limp when his knees buckled out from under him...
"But if you really do feel so obliged ... you may want to loosen your grip just a little; before your brother has to go through the trouble of finding a new Delta for the pack."
The Luna conveys a small, yet genuinely friendly smile to Teresa, who in turn, reciprocates with one of her own...
"Yeah, I suppose you're right." Teresa looks down at Delta Colin and replaces that friendly smile with a slightly malevolent grimace. "Not that that would be such a bad thing if you think about it."
Teresa releases her grip from the Delta's throat; and he immediately drops to the floor like a sack of potatoes. He then begins to look like a recently reeled in fish flopping around on the ground as he writhes about gasping for air, trying to catch his breath.
As he takes in air, the coloring of his complexion finally starts to return to its normal 'rusty' shade. The Delta begins to slowly stand to his feet; and once upright, he rebukingly glares at Teresa while struggling to attempt admonishing her in a somewhat hoarse tone...
"Have you gone insane, you insufferable..."
Teresa rapidly protracts the claws from her right hand's fingertips and menacingly wavers them inches in front of his face, as she malevolently threatens...
"Not another word out of your mouth, or I promise you I'll rip out your tongue."
That coloring which had finally returned to his face quickly fades away as his complexion instantly turns pale from fright. After what Teresa had just done to him, the Delta is certain that she would readily fulfill that promise in a heartbeat.
He frustratingly huffs under his breath, then sulkily plods over towards the Alpha's grand, large mahogany desk; then takes refuge behind it, using it as a barrier between himself and the seemingly 'unhinged' Teresa.
Teresa retracts her claws and intensely glares at the Delta with fiercely piercing eyes. She adamantly tells him, in a monotonic tone...
"Just so you know ... Colin ... I honestly think that you're somehow involved in what happened tonight. I can't prove it ... yet ... but in time, I'm sure I'll be able to expose you as the true rat that you are."
The Delta's complexion becomes even paler; and Teresa displays a smirk conveying disdain on her part for him...
"I never trusted your sneaky, conniving ass before ... and I never will." And having said that; she turns to look at her brother. "Now, Julian; about Sasha's release."
The Alpha immediately replies, "Teresa, no more talk about Sasha's release; I'm afraid at this moment there's nothing that I can do."
Teresa's ire begins to steadily rise even further as she glares at the Alpha with an incredulous expression etched upon her visage as she retorts with an underlying flippant tone...
"What do you mean there's nothing you can do ... last I recall, you were the Alpha of the Rainier Pack. ... You still are the Alpha; aren't you?"
Teresa takes a moment to scan around the room, briefly making eye contact with each of the other male-wolves in passing. She then makes direct eye contact with her brother, and quips in a more evident flippant manner...
"Or have the residing inmates present here finally taken over the asylum?"
The Alpha angrily snaps, "Watch it, you impudent she-wolf; or I'll...!"
Teresa curtly cuts off the Alpha by defyingly snapping back, "Or you'll what?!"
This isn't the first time the two Alpha-level siblings have aggressively confronted one another, each jockeying for position over the other ... butting heads like two dominance-driven rams fighting over that ideal mountain ledge ... but this is turning out to be probably the most 'explosively intense' round that they have ever fought. So much so that Luna Sarah feels it absolutely necessary for her to take it upon herself to step in and diffuse the situation as quickly as possible...
Using any means necessary.