Their Barren Luna

5: Mates

Just as I raised my hand to slap him back, a whisper floated into my head—soft, fleeting, barely audible.

Mates.

My body froze. The word didn’t feel like my own thought. It was a whisper, low, echoing somewhere deep in me. But how could that be? I didn’t have a wolf. I hadn’t shifted. I hadn’t felt the bond the way others described. Why would I hear that word?

Before I could process it, he grip my wrist, his eyes burning with anger.

“Were you about to slap me?” His voice was sharp, low, dangerous.

But my mind wasn’t on him anymore—it was spinning around that single impossible word. Mates. If I truly was their mate, why hadn’t they felt it? Why did it come to me, who had never had a wolf?

“Auchhh!” I screamed as he bent my fingers back. The pain shot up my arm, hot and blinding.

“You will go on your knees,” he said again, his tone final, commanding, as if kneeling was my destiny.

Rage flared inside me, brighter than the pain. Kneel? I would never. Not for him. Not for anyone.

Even the time I got on my knees with the snoring Alpha, it was like unexpected forced because his weight shoved me down, uninvited, unwanted, and his c**k tricked me. Forcing myself into submission. The memory seared through me, bitter and humiliating, making my face burn hotter.

I straightened my jaw, lifted my chin, and pointed with my free hand to the Alpha snoring on the bed.

“Even that Alpha—I could never bow to him, not to mention you, who should have been killed since birth.” My finger turned on him next, my voice firm, daring him.

His grip tightened hard, bending my finger again until hot pain shot through me. I winced, trying to yank my hand away, but he was unmovable.

Desperation surged. My teeth clenched, and I don't have a solution, so I spat right in his face.

He flinched, his grip breaking, and he stepped back fast, wiping his cheek with fury in his eyes.

“Phewww,” I hissed under my breath, cradling my aching hand as the pain ebbed away.

“I don’t want any problem. Just let me go. I’m simple. I don’t bark unless someone touches me,” I said, stepping forward, trying to steady my breathing.

But anger laced my words now. My eyes narrowed.

“And if you think I’ll stay quiet—you’re wrong. I’ll go out there and tell everyone that there are forbidden twins hiding. Do you hear me? Everyone will know. Not even now, when you try to break me, will I stay silent?”

The truth hung between us like a blade. Forbidden twins… or rather, triplets.

My thoughts raced. How would I even convince the pack that the Alpha Ronan we all feared wasn’t one man but three? That the one standing before me, dark-haired and cruel, was Ronan, and the other—the one watching me with brown hair—was another, while the White haired one I had glimpsed earlier was Rhett? Will they even let the pack member sees them?

My gaze slid to the brown-haired one. He leaned lazily against the chair, lips curved in a half-smile, as though my defiance amused him.

Then I turned to the black-haired one—the one I had spit on—my fury still burning.

But I didn’t make it far. His hand shot out, fast as lightning, gripping my throat. He slammed me against the wall so hard the wall shook behind my skull. My breath caught. His palm crushed my windpipe, and the pain was suffocating.

I clawed at his wrist, struggling, nails scraping skin, but he didn’t loosen. His grip was iron, unrelenting, his eyes cold with intent. For a terrifying moment, I thought he really would kill me here and now.

My lungs screamed. My body grew heavy. The edges of my vision blurred.

“I think I like her energy, Ronan,” the brown-haired one drawled casually, his tone filled with mocking amusement.

So… this was Ronan.

But his hand only pressed harder. My head swam. My knees buckled.

Darkness rushed up to meet me.

When I opened my eyes again, I was no longer against the wall. I was sitting on the floor, body trembling, each breath shallow and ragged. My chest ached like it had been crushed.

“Ronan, you almost killed her,” a voice said.

I lifted my head weakly. It was the brown-haired one speaking again, his eyes locked on me with something unreadable—interest, maybe even admiration. I still didn’t know his name.

I shifted my gaze. Ronan stood still, eyes unblinking, staring at me with a predator’s focus. Beside him, Rhett sat with a laptop open, his silver hair catching the dim light. In his other hand, a bottle of water trembled under his grip, as though his anger had nowhere else to go.

My body felt strange. Aching. Like something inside me wanted to break free, to burst through skin and bone. Until now my thighs still ached, throbbing with a dull heat I couldn’t understand.

I forced myself up, using the wall as support. My body wavered, weak, but I stood.

Then—crack. The bottle in Rhett’s hand shattered, water spraying across the room, splattering over my face.

“You spilled water on me,” I muttered, wiping my cheek with the back of my hand. I leaned over, curiosity pulling me toward the laptop. What could make him this angry?

On the screen, a CCTV recording flickered—the very scene from earlier, me slapping him.

“I just don’t know where this she-wolf is from,” the brown-haired one said, watching me closely.

“She isn’t a she-wolf.” Rhett replied coldly, snapping the laptop shut.

The brown-haired one smirked. “Are you trying to say I shouldn’t f**k her?”

My head snapped up.

Fuck me?

I wasn’t a toy for them to pass around. Even if my plan had failed, even if I was trapped here, it was impossible for any of them to touch me.

“This won’t happen, Rhett. I have to touch her, even if Ronan doesn’t want to,” the brown-haired one said boldly.

Rhett’s head whipped toward him. “Ryder,” he growled, voice edged with venom, “I said she is wolfless, she doesn’t have a scent ”

Ryder. So that was his name.

My heart clenched at his words. Wolfless. He knew. If they knew, then I might never walk out of this room alive.

The three names—Rhett, Ronan, Ryder—ran through my mind. Beautiful names for dangerous wrong men.

“You won’t be greedy this time, Rhett,” Ryder pressed, a sly smile playing at his lips. “Besides, I like her.”

In a blur, Rhett was on his feet. He seized Ryder by the throat, slamming him against the wall, eyes flashing with fury.

“Don’t you dare talk here again. You will do only what I command. I don’t care if I have to rip my brother’s head from his body,” Rhett hissed.

I almost laughed despite the tension. Brothers, fighting over me, when I wasn’t someone worth arguing over. I lived by my own law, not theirs.

“She will die,” Ronan said coldly, his voice cutting through. “Like every other wolfless who steps into our territory.”

Rhett released Ryder, who rubbed his neck, glaring but silent now.

“And before she dies,” Rhett added darkly, turning his gaze back to me, “she will kneel—on her own.”

I straightened, anger igniting again, pointing my finger right back at him.

“Then you had better redraw your statement, because I will never, ever, do that.”

His eyes bled red, darkness seeping into his gaze. Black claws ripped from his fingers, his chest heaving as if it might split.

He was shifting.

My pulse pounded, but fear didn’t take me. Grandma’s voice echoed in my memory: If you remove the necklace, whoever saw you will die.

My hand brushed over the moon necklace at my throat. My last defense. My last weapon.

Ronan and Ryder exchanged startled glances as Rhett’s body began to contort.

“You got your wolf back?” Ronan asked, disbelief flickering in his tone as he clapped Rhett’s shoulder.

“Does that mean you know who our mate is?” Ryder pressed, his eyes sharp. “Who is she?”

Mate? Wolf back?

Confusion spun in me. Did that mean Rhett had been wolfless this whole time? Was that why whispers said the Alpha was always sick, always weak during wars? And yet he had the audacity to kill wolfless females?

The realization hit me.

“Oh my God.”