The Mate We Never Wanted
1688 Words
Ashran POV
I couldn’t stop staring at her.
Four days. It had been four f*****g days since the bond snapped into place, and I still couldn’t wrap my head around it.
Selina Ray…the pathetic omega we’d tormented for months, the broken girl who couldn’t even shift, the mistake that never should have happened…was our mate.
Our mate.
Mine. Alex’s. Aaron’s.
The moon goddess had to be playing some sick joke.
I stood in the doorway of my father’s study, watching through the window as Selina walked through the gardens below.
Even from here, I could see the changes in her.
The way she moved differently now, more gracefully, like her body finally fit her properly. The way the afternoon sunlight caught in her blonde hair.
She was beautiful. Had always been beautiful, if I was being honest with myself, but now it was impossible to ignore.
And that made everything so much worse. Because beauty didn’t erase weakness. It didn’t erase what she was.
“You’re doing it again,” Alex said from behind me, his voice was sharp with irritation.
I didn’t turn around. “Doing what?”
“Staring at her like you can’t decide whether to f**k her or kill her. It’s been four days, Ash. We need to figure this out.”
“There’s nothing to figure out.” I finally pulled my gaze away from the window, turning to face my brothers.
Alex looked pissed, his jaw clenched, eyes hard. Aaron stood silent by the bookshelf, his expression unreadable as always.
“We can’t tell Dad,” I said, keeping my voice low even though I knew he was in council meetings across the estate. “Not yet.”
“Agreed,” Alex said immediately. He was sprawled in one of Dad’s leather chairs, but there was nothing relaxed about his posture.
Every muscle was tense, coiled. “Can you imagine? ‘Hey Dad, remember your new stepdaughter? Yeah, she’s our fated mate. Also, we’ve been making her life hell for the past few months. Surprise!’”
“The moon goddess f****d us,” Alex continued, his voice dripping with venom.
“Gave us the weakest possible mate. An omega who can barely shift. What are we supposed to do with that?”
“Watch your mouth,” Aaron said quietly from where he stood by the bookshelf, but there was no real heat in it.
I pressed my palms against the desk, trying to ground myself.
My wolf was going insane inside me, a chaotic mess of competing instincts—rage at her defiance, hunger to dominate her, disgust at what she represented.
“Has anyone…” Aaron started, then stopped. Cleared his throat. Then tried again. “Has anyone ever heard of this happening before? Three alphas sharing one mate?”
The question hung in the air like smoke.
“I looked it up,” I admitted. “Spent the last two nights in the archives.”
Both of them straightened, waiting.
“It’s rare. Extremely rare. But not unheard of.”
I ran a hand through my hair, exhaustion pulling at my bones. “Usually happens with twins or triplets. The theory is that because we shared a womb, we’re connected on a level most siblings aren’t. Our wolves are intertwined.”
“So the moon goddess just… what? Decided one mate for all three of us was more efficient?” Alex’s laugh was bitter. “And she picked her? The reject who couldn’t even shift until a few days ago?”
“There’s more,” I said, and they both looked at me sharply. “In every recorded case… the bond only works if all three accept it. If even one rejects the mate, the whole thing falls apart. All of us lose her.”
Silence.
“Well, s**t,” Alex muttered, running his hands through his hair. “So we’re stuck with her.”
“We’re not stuck with anyone,” I said sharply. “But we need to decide what we’re doing. The bond is there whether we like it or not, and it’s going to get stronger.”
“She needs to learn her place,” Alex said, his voice hard. “Bond or no bond, she doesn’t get to defy us. She doesn’t get to act like she’s anything other than what she is.”
“And what is she?” Aaron asked, his voice neutral.
“Weak,” Alex said immediately. “An omega who got lucky with a late shift. She’s not pack material, she’s barely wolf material. The only reason we’re even having this conversation is because of some cosmic mistake.”
My wolf snarled at his words, the instinct to defend our mate rising up before I could stop it. I shoved it down viciously.
“Defiance is a problem,” I agreed, keeping my voice level. “She needs to understand that the bond doesn’t change the hierarchy. She’s still at the bottom, and we’re still at the top.”
“Exactly,” Alex said, leaning forward. “So what do we do about it?”
“I say we break her properly this time,” I said, and the words tasted like ash. “She thinks shifting changed something. That having a wolf makes her equal. We need to show her it doesn’t.”
Aaron was silent, but I saw something flicker across his face. Disapproval? Concern? With Aaron, it was always hard to tell.
“You disagree?” I asked him directly.
“I think…” Aaron paused, choosing his words carefully. “I think we need to be smart about this. She’s our father’s stepdaughter now. We can’t be as obvious as we were before.”
“We just have to be smart,” Alex said with a cruel smile. “Make her life hell in ways Dad won’t notice. Easy enough.”
“It’s not about making her life hell,” I snapped, surprising myself with the vehemence. “It’s about control. I just want her to know that her wolf changes nothing”
“And you want to take those options away,” Aaron said, still in that neutral tone.
“I want her to accept reality,” I corrected. “The bond is permanent. She’s ours whether she likes it or not. Fighting it will only make things worse for her.”
My wolf stirred uneasily at my words, but I ignored him. This wasn’t about what the wolf wanted.
“The presentation is in two weeks,” I said, forcing my voice to remain calm. “Dad’s going to introduce her to the council. To all the major families now that her wolf has awakened.”
“She’s going to embarrass us,” Alex said flatly. “You know she will.”
“Which is why we need to train her,” I said, and both of them looked at me sharply. “Not because we care about her. But because she reflects on us now. If she fails, we fail. If she shows weakness, it’s our weakness.”
“Train her how?” Alex asked skeptically.
“Combat. Control. Submission.” I ticked them off on my fingers. “She needs to learn to fight well enough not to be completely humiliated. She needs to learn to control that wolf of hers. And most importantly, she needs to learn that defying us has consequences.”
“I’m in,” Alex said immediately, that cruel smile spreading wider. “When do we start?”
“Tomorrow,” I said. “We’ll tell Dad it’s standard alpha training, that we’re including her to help her adjust to pack life.”
“And if she refuses?” Alex asked.
“Then we make it clear it’s not optional,” I said coldly. “She’s our mate. Our responsibility. And she’ll do what we say, one way or another.”
Aaron still hadn’t spoken, his expression troubled.
“You have something to say?” I asked him.
“Just…” He hesitated. “Be careful. Both of you. The bond changes things. You might think you’re in control, but—”
“I’m always in control,” I cut him off. “The bond doesn’t change that.”
But even as I said it, I felt the lie of it. Because standing here, talking about her, my wolf was clawing at my insides. Part of me wanted to storm into her room and force her to submit, to accept what she was. Another part wanted to… something else. Something I refused to examine too closely.
“We start tomorrow,” I said again, moving toward the door. “Get some rest. It’s going to be a long day.”
I left before either of them could respond, my wolf howling inside me with a mixture of rage and something that felt dangerously close to hunger.
In the hallway, I caught her scent and my feet moved before my brain could stop them.
I found myself standing outside her bedroom door, my hand raised to knock, my heart pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears.
My wolf threw himself against my control, demanding I go to her. Demanding I establish dominance, make her understand that she belonged to us now.
But I couldn’t move. I couldn't knock. Couldn’t do anything except stand there, fighting against instincts I didn’t want and couldn’t control.
Inside the room, I heard her moving around. I heard the soft sound of her breathing.
I forced myself to walk away, to leave her alone. But with every step, the bond pulled tighter, a constant reminder of what I couldn’t escape. And we haven’t even mated yet.
This was going to be a problem.
The bond was supposed to be a gift, but the moon goddess had cursed us instead. Tied us to weakness, to everything we’d spent our lives rising above.
Tomorrow, we'll start fixing that.
One way or another, Selina Ray would learn her place.
Even if I had to break her all over again to make it happen.
- Writer
