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1183 Words
Chapter Three
ARIA'S POV
I didn't sleep that night.
How could I? Tomorrow I'd turn eighteen, my wolf would fully emerge, and I'd feel the mate bond completely. The bond with three men who'd made my life a living hell.
I lay on the thin mattress in my tiny room—really just a converted storage closet—and stared at the ceiling.
Water stains marked the corners. I'd memorized every single one over the past four years.
My wolf was restless. She kept pushing at me, wanting me to go to them. To our mates. She didn't care about the past four years. She didn't care that they'd treated me like dirt. All she knew was that we'd found our other half. Three of them.
"They don't want us," I whispered to her. "They want a Luna. There's a difference."
She didn't agree. Or maybe she just didn't care.
I must've dozed off eventually because I woke to someone banging on my door.
"Get up! The Alpha wants the main hall set up for tonight. Move it!"
I dragged myself out of bed with every muscle aching.
Today was my birthday. I am eighteen years old today, and I'd be spending it the same way I spent every other day—serving a pack that despised me.
I pulled on my usual clothes—worn jeans, a faded t-shirt, my hair in a messy bun—and headed downstairs.
The packhouse was chaotic. Apparently, this meeting with the neighboring packs was a bigger deal than I'd realized. Wolves rushed everywhere, moving furniture, hanging decorations, and preparing food. And I was expected to help with all of it.
"Aria! Take these chairs to the hall."
"Aria! The windows need cleaning."
"Aria! Where the hell have you been?"
I worked mechanically, trying not to think about tonight. Trying not to think about the choice I hadn't made yet.
Around noon, I was in the kitchen helping prepare food when I felt it. A sharp pull in my chest, like someone had tied a string around my heart and yanked.
I gasped, dropping the knife I'd been using.
"What's wrong with you?" Mrs. Chen snapped.
But I couldn't answer. The pull came again, stronger this time. My wolf surged forward, and suddenly I could smell them.
Pine and smoke and something wild. They were close.
I looked up and saw Kade standing in the kitchen doorway.
Our eyes met, and the world shifted.
The mate bond snapped into place fully, and it was like nothing I'd ever felt before. Want and need and belonging. It overwhelmed everything else, every rational thought, every memory of pain. All I could think of was mine.
Kade's eyes had darkened. I could see his wolf in them, could feel the bond pulling us together like a magnetic force.
"Out," he said to the kitchen staff and his Alpha voice left no room for argument.
Everyone scattered. Mrs. Chen shot me a concerned look but left anyway.
Then we were alone.
"Happy birthday," Kade said, his voice rough.
I couldn't speak. The bond was too strong. My wolf was screaming at me to go to him, to touch him, to—
"I know you feel it now," he continued, taking a step into the kitchen. "The full bond."
"Stay back," I managed to say, even though every instinct I had was telling me the opposite.
He stopped, but I could see the effort it took. "Dante and Cole feel it too. We all do."
"I haven't made my decision yet."
"Your wolf has."
He was right. My wolf had already decided. She wanted them, consequences be damned.
"My wolf doesn't have to live with the memories," I said. "She doesn't remember the last four years."
Something flickered across Kade's face. Regret? Guilt? It was gone too quickly for me to tell.
"We're not asking you to forget," he said.
"No, you're just asking me to pretend it doesn't matter."
"I'm asking you to give us a chance."
"Why should I?"
He moved faster than I expected, crossing the kitchen in three strides. He stopped right in front of me, close enough that I could feel the heat radiating off him.
"Because you don't have anywhere else to go," he said quietly. "Because being our Luna is better than being their omega. Because the bond is already there whether we want it or not. And because—" He stopped, his jaw clenching.
"Because what?"
"Because we're not going to let you go," he said. "We can't. We've tried, Aria. For months we've tried to figure out another way. There isn't one."
The honesty in his voice caught me off guard. This wasn't the cold, calculating Kade from yesterday. This was someone who sounded almost as trapped as I felt.
"You've made my life hell," I whispered.
"I know."
"You stood by while they tortured me."
"I know."
"You never once helped me. You never once defended me."
"I know." His hand came up, hovering near my face but not quite touching. "And I can't change that. None of us can. But we can change what happens next."
"By forcing me to be your Luna?"
"By giving you a choice," he said. "Be our Luna willingly, and we'll give you everything. Protection, respect, power. Or reject us, and we'll exile you from the pack with enough money to start over somewhere else."
I stared at him. "You'd let me go?"
"If that's what you really want. Yes." He finally touched me, his fingers brushing my cheek. The contact sent electricity through my whole body. "But Aria? I really hope you don't want that."
Before I could respond, the kitchen door swung open. Dante and Cole stood there, and I felt the bond multiply. Three threads now, all pulling at me, all demanding attention.
"You couldn't wait, could you?" Dante said to Kade, but there was no real anger in it.
"She felt the bond snap into place," Kade said, not looking away from me. "I had to—"
"We all felt it," Cole interrupted. He looked at me, and his expression was unreadable. "The whole pack probably knows by now."
My stomach dropped. "What?"
"When a mate bond activates, other wolves can sense it," Dante explained. "Especially one this strong. Everyone knows you're our mate now, Aria."
"But I haven't decided—"
"It doesn't matter," Kade said. "The bond exists. That's enough."
I pulled away from him, panic rising in my chest. "So even if I reject you, everyone will know? Everyone will know I rejected the future Alphas?"
The three of them exchanged looks.
"Yes," Cole said simply.
I felt the walls closing in. If I accepted them, I'd be tied to my tormentors forever. If I rejected them, I'd be exiled as the omega who rejected the Alpha heirs. Either way, I lost.
"I need air," I said, pushing past them.
"Aria—"
"Don't," I snapped. "Just—give me until tonight. You said I had until tonight."
I didn't wait for an answer. I ran.
- Writer
