Mated To The Alpha Brothers

CHAPTER 3

“You’re our mate, Elara.”

I turned around in a haste when the words shot out of Caius’ mouth. As someone who lived in a village where everyone talked about the existence of werewolves and how they lived their lives, I knew what it meant to be a mate.

“What do you mean by that? How do you know my name?” I asked. There was now fear in my voice, and I didn’t even try to hide it. I looked from one brother to another, waiting for an answer while trying to run away at the same time.

“I know this is going to be difficult for you to hear,” Elias finally spoke for the first time, “but you need to listen to us.”

“How do you know my name!?” I repeated, louder this time. “How did you know I was in danger? Did you…”

My eyes fell to the wolves who were lying on the ground as a thought wrapped itself around my mind. It was a far reach, but I had just found out that werewolves were real. Nothing could be far fetched right now.

“Did you plan this attack? Did you make these wolves pawns for you to rescue me?” I asked. If they confirmed it directly or indirectly, it would let me know that these men were even more dangerous than I had thought them out to be.

“

The looks on their faces at my accusation let me know that they had not planned it, or they were pretending as if they had not. I couldn’t be so sure.

“Just listen to us, please. You—”

“I will ask this one more time. If you don’t give me a straight answer, I don’t know what I would do, but it’s not something you would like. How do you know my name?” I asked, stressing each word with desperation and frustration infused into them.

They all shared looks before Rafe shrugged at Caius as if signaling him to be the one to tell me the truth.

“We’ve been keeping an eye on you,” Caius said.

If I was breathless when that wolf had pounced on me earlier, I was close to death now. I could almost feel the blood draining out of my face. This whole time, I had been getting watched by these three brothers, and I had no idea about it.

“You have something to do with my dreams,” I said, sounding more like I was alleging it than I was asking it. They responded with confused looks, which meant there was something bigger at play. What were the odds that the same dreams I had been having for months would come true in the same manner?

“We have nothing to do with any dream of yours. What we do know is that we do feel a connection. It’s a long story, Elara; one we cannot possibly discuss here or now. What we do know for sure is that you have been selected by the moon and the moon goddess to help us out with the war that’s been brewing on the surface with the Umbria clan.”

I stared at all of them one by one, the confusion most likely palpable on my face. After everything that Caius had just told me, the only thing I could understand was that they were not responsible for the nightmares I had been having.

“This war… You’re saying I’m supposed to help you fight some type of war?” I narrowed my eyes at them.

“Not directly,” Rafe was quick to say. “We don’t know if you’re supposed to take part in the war or not. What we know right now is that with you, we can defeat them. So if you would just give us a chance to explain—”

“No.” It was a whisper, one so quiet that I was sure they had not heard me at first. Then, they went rigid as they heard me and that was enough for me to know that they had heard me.

“I don’t want to be a part of this,” I added.

Yes, I wanted something different from the life I was getting at Woodcreak. And yes, going with these three men would be such an adventure. But that was not what I wanted. These people were savage animals, and just because they could switch to look like humans didn’t make them like me. I would still be afraid of them regardless.

“I can’t.” I shook my head. “I need to head back to my village. Please, just let me go.”

They all shared one last look at each other before stepping aside for me to walk off. At first, I thought they were only tricking me and waiting for me to walk off before pouncing. Then, I ran and ran until I was sure I couldn’t hear footsteps behind me, and I stopped.

“What’s chasing you? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” a woman I soon recognized as the wife of the village butcher asked me as I almost bumped into her. From the basket she held in her hands and the aroma of freshly roasted meat oozing from it, I could tell she was heading for the festival.

“It’s nothing. I’ll be heading home,” I told her with as much composure as I could, but my last few words came out as a squeak. I didn’t have the time to say anything more as I rushed back to my house, making sure to bolt it locked.

I couldn’t believe they just let me go like that. I shook my head in an attempt to rid myself of the thought of them all. Those three faces with their blazing eyes that tore through the darkness…

No. It was dangerous to even have them on my mind. I had to go to sleep.

~

I couldn’t sleep. Not just that night. It was the night after that, and then the nights that followed.

I had lost count of how many days had passed since I had the encounter with three werewolf brothers. It soon started to feel like a fever dream, even though I knew it was anything but.

“You look sick. Did something happen on the night of the blue moon festival?” the butcher’s wife asked me when she saw me after I had almost bumped into her the other night. I could only manage a ghost of a chuckle and a mumble of “I’m fine”.

I had no idea what I was doing now. My thoughts were jumbled and unraveled at the same time. It had been too much information to process in a short amount of time.

When I’d told the brothers that I wanted no part of this, I meant it. But I couldn’t shove aside how my heart pounded just thinking about them. The fact that I was at home and not with them should have been a relief, but it was not.

That evening, I had decided to seek them out after losing the fight with myself to not do it. I walked into the woods under the bright moon, my heart pounding and my mind racing to turn back around.

“Hello?” I called out when I found a small opening into a cave which would only fit me. I sat there, not sure if they would know I was out there but deciding it was worth a shot to find out.

I didn’t know how long I sat in the cave, but it was long enough for me to start sweating profusely out of nowhere. At first, it seemed normal for someone sitting in there. But I soon realized that the best was coming from within.

As if my body was waiting for me to make that realization, it flared up in even more heat and was now accompanied by pain. It was something I had heard one too many times from the people in the village about wolf and their mates.

I was in heat.