Born to be theirs

All my life, I'd been told I would be theirs. The Cohen triplets. By some accident of birth, I had no choice. My parents had agreed with theirs soon after my birth that we were fated to be mated. I'd had it drilled into me ever since I could remember that I was going to be their mate, a servant to their pleasure, a breeder for their spawn. No one seemed to take into account my feelings, my hopes, my dreams. they thought I should be grateful that the triplet alphas, heirs to the alpha King would be mine. All the girls my age were jealous of me. I would have not one but three mates, all handsome in different ways, plus I would have wealth and status. To me, it seemed like a prison sentence. I would have no life of my own, only there as an accessory, I would not be involved in any decisions or have sway within the pack unless you counted what colour dress to wear and the font on event invitations. Destined to be pregnant and child-rearing over and over. I shivered, picking at the fabric of my nightshirt as I looked out of my bedroom window up at the night sky. The well-worn window seat was comfortable to sit on and I sometimes fell asleep up here huddled in a blanket. Tonight though, I was wide awake, contemplating what to do. I had a month until my 18th birthday when I would come of age and present as an omega. Then they were going to claim me, and my personal hell would begin. It wasn't as if they were ugly or horrible in their natures. They were boys fast becoming men who had mostly good manners and humour and she had always enjoyed their company when they were children growing up together. When they presented as alphas as was their birthright, they changed in the way they looked at her. Their eyes now bore a hunger they couldn't hide. Kade especially found any excuse to touch her, a brush of the hands, he often reached out to tuck an errant strand of hair behind her ear. I found these touches disconcerting as if each one brought me closer to not being able to resist them and becoming one of those zombified omegas I looked down on. Rex was easier to resist, he was the second-born triplet and the one I had the most in common with. We liked the same books, artists and music and we had an easy friendship. I really didn't want that to change. I could never take Nero seriously, he made me laugh and was always playing pranks, pulling my hair, and hiding my things. No, they weren't the issue, it was the whole pack society. I wanted more out of life. For as long as I could remember I wanted to join the human world, ever since I visited as a child and stayed with my great aunt. She was a bit of an anomaly in the wolf world, she was technically a beta but could pass as a human, and in the end, she decided she fit in more in human society. After seeing her world and the opportunities, sights, sounds, and smells of the human world, I felt like it was home to me too. I begged to stay with her, but my parents took me back home again. I never forgot that world. My parents and the triplets' family all tried to convince me of the benefits of my position and that I would feel differently once I presented. I almost believed them, had I not seen what happened to Maia.