Alphas of Raven: The Forbidden Triplets

Chapter 3

My body moved on its own accord, eager to find the source of the oak and smoke scent that was driving me nuts.

I had no idea what to expect, for all I knew, it could be my mate or not. The only way to know that would be to look directly into the person’s eyes and let the mate bond snap into place. The scent alone was not enough to confirm.

I mean, I used to even find Sole’s odour enticing, and we know how that turned out.

As I turned to look back, there was no one there, no man at least, except a sun-kissed gorgeous blonde who was now walking towards us.

Could I be mated to a girl?

I had never been into girls, but then who knew what the Goddess had planned for me.

I sniffed the air again to check if the oak and smoke essence was hers, but it wasn’t. I wanted to track the source of the scent that had invaded my senses, but before I could go look, that girl approached Kia smiling and went straight for her lips, giving her a full-blown kiss.

Ooh! How did I miss that? Was Kia gay, or did she go both ways?

Not that it mattered, she knew I would have her back no matter what, but this was just surprising, that’s all.

"Aria, this is Emma," Kia introduced the girl awkwardly. She seemed a little overwhelmed by the kiss.

"We met when I was travelling."

Well, that was some kind of travelling that she was doing. I am sure she had a blast.

"It’s so nice to meet you, Emma. I am Aria."

"Same here, it’s lovely to meet one of Kia’s friends. We should definitely catch up some…"

Before Emma could complete the sentence, Kia cut her off.

"We will just be back, Aria," she called out to me as she hurried out of the pub, pulling Emma with her.

Oh OK! That was awkward, with a capital A.

I just hoped that she was not embarrassed on my behalf. She should have known that she didn’t have to hide this side of herself. And that no matter what, I would never judge her by her choices, and that she could always count on me.

.

With Kia and Emma out of sight, my mind wandered back to the scent. Unfortunately, I could not pick it up again; the trail had gone cold since I had first experienced it.

It was just bad luck, I guess!

Mind you, I was having a lot of bad luck at the time. First, the whole Sole fiasco, and now I had misplaced the scent of someone who could possibly have been my mate.

I was still cursing my luck when I sat back on the bar stool and the newspaper lying on the counter caught my attention.

There I was, plastered with my stunned expression on the front page, with a super catchy headline that mirrored my very own thoughts.

‘Aria White runs out of luck?’ the headline read.

As if that was not enough, someone switched on the television, and as my so-called luck would have it, it opened on one of the reporters sensationalising some news, which surprise, surprise, was about I, me, muah.

‘What will become of Aria White now? Will she end up alone, or will she find love again?’

The anchor’s words drilled through my earlobes.

Perfect, this was just perfect!!

It was like even the universe was trying to find innovative ways to tell me how screwed up my life was. As if I needed a reminder.

I was still sulking on the bar table when someone switched off the TV, thankfully ending the very loud external manifestation of my misery. Too bad I still felt rotten inside.

"Here to celebrate your first day of college?" A warm voice called to me, and I looked up to see a pair of kind old eyes, looking back at me.

"Most of them do, it’s that time of the year," the man continued saying. The old bar tender must have been in his fifties or sixties, the deep wrinkles that were etched across his forehead and around the corner of his eyes, were evidence of a life filled with laughter, sorrows, and above all, experience.

"Yeah, kind of," I mumbled, still looking at the newspaper with my photograph.

"Then where is your drink, young lady?" He asked sweetly, looking at my empty hand, as he very subtly removed the newspaper from the counter.

Of course, he would have noticed that it was me in there; it was hard to miss. Especially since the photograph in the newspaper was not one that looked like the real you, but rather one that captured my likeness as well as any could.

"Here, let’s toast this one." He continued to say as he poured me a gin, "This one is on me, young one."

"Thanks," I said apologetically, "Gin is not my thing, I am more of a beer person."

"Nonsense, you can’t celebrate with beer now, can you?" He said as he poured another glass, "And, Gin & Tonic should be everyone’s first drink, don’t you think?" He concluded as he pushed one of the glasses towards me and picked up the other one himself.

"I am Timothy, by the way."

"Aria,"

"Cheers to your first day, Aria," he said as we clinked our glasses, toasting me for starting college.

Hmmm, that was nice. I liked gin tonic, it was so much better than beer, which always tasted more like a soft drink.

Why is it that I have not had this before? Oh, that’s right, because Sole was a light drinker. I had really made my life all about him.

"You know it has been a tradition at Rangers, to welcome the students, celebrate the start of their college journey," Timothy explained.

"Really?"

"Yeah, it has been happening since the bar opened about a century ago."

"So, this place is that old," it certainly did have the old soul character.

"Actually, it is older than that," Timothy said, "It has been a pub for the last century or so. Before that, it was a Secret Society."

"Secret Society?" Now, that was interesting.

"Yeah, a secret society right here, under this very roof, led by what were to be believed the brightest minds of that time.”

He was a talker, and I am sure it went with the profession, so I was thankful for the distraction.

“It is said that they were keepers of all things related to legends and curses, and special wolves, you know, stuff like that.”

"A secret society dedicated to mythology?" I raised an eyebrow, wondering what they would really do to make up more of the mumbo jumbo stuff.

"From what I know, it was not just some mythology mumbo jumbo,” Timothy explained, as if he had read my mind, “but they were trying to do something more to prove or disprove these legends using science and all.”

How would they do that now? But I kept that thought to myself, there was no need to challenge his knowledge. He was just being nice to me, trying to deflect my attention from all the outside noise.

"For example, they believed that special powers, and even curses manifested themselves in forms of physical markers either in the form of physical characteristics, or hidden somewhere in our genes. They, of course, did not have the means to test everything at that time, but I suppose they did test some.”

The idea was definitely intriguing, and one that was worth testing.

"They were also big-time believers in the legend of the Fin, the one that talks about the near end.”

Of course, I knew, it was one of those things we had all heard as stories in our childhood.

Though I did not remember the whole thing in detail, Fin meant end in French, and that is exactly what the legend was exactly about.

It was a warning about some evil that would bring the end of werewolves and wipe off more than half of the werewolf population, leaving our species on the brink of extinction.

“The members of society had been tracking the declining birth rate for what seemed like centuries now, and they claimed they had proof that the werewolves born per year were lesser and lesser,” Timothy explained,

“And from what I hear is that the number of werewolves has even gone down in last two decades. But then, what do I know. I just heard people talk about all this stuff, and picked it up."

He said dismissing his own words in the end, after alluring me with those theories.

I was going to ask him more about this last piece of information about that secret society, when a series of blinding flashes caught me off guard.

"What is the heir of White family doing here?" the voice came from the man with the camera, who was standing right in front of me clicking pictures of me drinking. No brownie points for guessing that he was a journalist.

Now, now I bet that photograph would not have looked good at all on the front page of the newspaper. It was just day 1 and Ihad already broken dad’s Rule 3, ‘No drinking. We do not want any scandals.’

I was in so much trouble!!

“You didn’t answer my question, what is are you doing in this bar?” he asked, shoving the microphone in my face.

"And why are you fleeing to Ravenwood? Was the heartbreak too much for you to go to the Red School of Arts and Commerce?"

This was meant to be an ambush, another one of their attempts to get something juicy for their readers, but I was determined to not give them anything.

"Just to be clear, you are asking me why I want to go to Ravenwood, over Red School?” I started speaking as I squared my shoulders, and attempted to buy some time so I could calm my nerves enough to formulate a sound response to salvage this situation.

“You want to know, why the hell on earth will someone choose to go to the best university that there is for our kind?" I answered his question with a question.

“I never thought someone would ask me such an obvious question.”

"Are you saying this decision had nothing to do with Alpha Sole and his to-be Luna Rewa?" he counter questioned me. Damn these reporters.

"I hate to inform you that I do not make my career decisions based on others," I said as confidently as I could, my voice was a couple of pitches higher than its usual self.

"And why are you looking at the negative aspect of it," I told him. “I should rather be applauded, after all my actions would also help the newly engaged, giving them the space and alone time that they need."

I looked at him sternly, giving him my well-practiced confidence gaze, to the outs as my heart raced a mile an hour thinking if he would buy it or not.

He had to agree it was a good angle that I had given him. He was not from any publication; I could also offer him an exclusive as well. After all, he did have a solid big bargaining chip, even if he was unaware of it, my photograph drinking. I clearly did not want to get into more trouble with my parents.

The reporter smiled, but before he could say anything a deep, authoritative voice spoke out from the background.

"I would not take that answer if I were you Sam,” that husky voice said, sending shivers down my spine.

“If it was me, I would have gone with her drinking away her sorrows. I mean look at it this way, she is here all alone, in this down-to-earth place instead of one of her fancy bars.”

Despite the nasty comment, there was something delicious about that voice, something I could not place my finger on. It was not until I turned to face Mr Rude that the same smoke and oak essence hit my senses.

My head snapped over to him, looking directly into a pair of obsidian eyes, and it was then that I felt the mate bond snap to life.

‘Mate.’