Aisla's POV
I tripped over a tree root and went flying.
My hands scraped against bark as I caught myself, but I didn't stop running. I couldn't stop running.
Behind me, I could hear them crashing through the woods. All three of them. The Alpha's kids were chasing me like I was some kind of criminal.
Maybe I was. Maybe wanting something I could never have made me a thief.
My lungs burned, but I pushed deeper into the forest. These trees had been my hiding place since I was little. When the other pack kids made fun of me for being weak. When Elaria and her friends called me names. When I needed to cry where no one could see.
The trees knew my secrets. They wouldn't give me away.
But my dog was going crazy inside my head. She wanted to stop running. She wanted to go back to them.
To our mates.
"No," I gasped out loud. "They're not our mates. They can't be."
But even as I said it, I could still feel the electric shock from when Caelan's fingers brushed my arm. Could still taste the memory of Lucien sucking the blood from my cut. Could still see the way Kieran's eyes went wide when he first saw me.
The mate bond.
It was real. It was happening. And it was going to ruin everything.
I fell into a small clearing and finally stopped running. My legs gave out, and I fell against a fallen log, gasping for air.
What was I going to do?
I was nobody. Less than nobody. The lowest omega in the pack. I cleaned up after people, stayed quiet, tried not to cause issues.
And now I was mated to the three most important wolves in our area.
It was like some kind of terrible joke.
"This is impossible," I whispered to the empty space. "The Moon Goddess doesn't make mistakes like this."
But what if she did? What if this was all some cosmic mistake that would get me banished or killed?
I thought about my mother. The stories the older omegas whispered when they thought I couldn't hear. How she vanished when I was a baby. How no one would tell me what really happened to her.
What if the same thing happened to me?
A branch snapped behind me.
I spun around, my heart jumping into my throat.
Kieran stepped into the clearing. His clothes were torn from running through the trees, and his hair was messy. But his eyes were still that bright gold color that made my stomach flip.
"Found you," he said quietly.
"Please," I whispered. "Just leave me alone."
"Can't do that."
More branches snapped. Lucien appeared on my left, breathing hard. His shirt was ripped, and he had scratches on his arms. But he looked at me like I was the most important thing in the world.
Then Caelan appeared from my right, completing the circle around me.
I was stuck.
My wolf purred with happiness, but I felt like throwing up.
"Why did you run?" Caelan asked. His voice was gentle, but I could hear the hurt underneath.
"Because this is crazy," I said, backing up until I hit the fallen log. "Because you're Alpha's sons and I'm nobody and this can't be real."
"It's real," Kieran said. His voice was rough, like he was fighting with himself. "Believe me, I wish it wasn't. But it's real."
That hurt more than it should have. Of course he wished it wasn't real. Of course he didn't want to be stuck with me.
"The mate bond doesn't lie," Lucien said. He was watching me like an animal, but not in a scary way. More like he was afraid I might disappear.
"But it's not supposed to work like this," I said. "One girl, three mates? That's not how it works."
"Maybe the rules are changing," Caelan said softly.
I shook my head furiously. "Your father will never allow it. The pack will never accept it. And Elaria..." I shuddered, remembering the murder in her eyes. "She's going to kill me."
"No one is going to hurt you," Kieran said, and suddenly he sounded very much like the future Alpha he was born to be. "I won't let them."
"You can't protect me from everyone."
"Watch us," Lucien growled.
The way they said it, like they really meant it, made my chest tight. Like maybe I wasn't totally alone after all.
But then reality crashed back down.
"This is going to destroy the pack," I whispered.
"Let it," Caelan said furiously. "If the pack can't handle change, maybe it needs to be destroyed."
I looked at him. Sweet, gentle Caelan talking about ruining the pack for me. It was too much.
"I can't," I said, getting to my feet. "I can't be the reason everything falls apart."
I tried to run again, but Kieran moved faster than lightning. His hand caught my wrist, stopping me.
The moment his skin touched mine, the world burst.
The mate bond hit me like a wave. Not just with Kieran, but with all three of them at once. It was like being hit by lightning while drowning in fire while flying through space.
I could feel everything they felt. Kieran's uncertainty and duty warring with desperate need. Lucien's anger and protectiveness burning like acid. Caelan's gentle love wrapping around me like a warm blanket.
And underneath it all, their dogs calling to mine.
Mate. Mate. Mate.
"Oh," I gasped, my knees buckling.
Caelan caught me before I could fall, and his touch sent another shock wave through the bond. Then Lucien's hand touched my shoulder, and I thought I might die from the pressure.
All three links pulsing at once. All three of them connected to me and to each other through me.
"Aisla," Kieran said, his voice forced. "Look at me."
I looked up into his bright eyes and saw my whole future there. Not just with him, but with all of them.
"How?" I asked.
"I don't know," he said honestly. "But it's happening."
"What do we do?" Caelan asked.
None of us had an answer.
The mate ties were getting stronger by the second. I could feel their emotions mixing with mine until I couldn't tell where I ended and they started.
It was beautiful and frightening and completely overwhelming.
"I can't handle this," I said, my vision starting to blur.
"Yes, you can," Lucien said furiously. "You're stronger than you think."
But I wasn't strong. I was just a scared omega who was in way over her head.
The clearing started spinning. The mate bonds were too much, too intense, pulling me in three different ways at once.
"Aisla?" Kieran's voice sounded far away.
I tried to answer, but the words wouldn't come.
The last thing I saw before everything went black was three pairs of glowing eyes staring down at me with fear and something that looked like... Love?
Then darkness took me whole.
But just before I fainted totally, I heard something that made my blood run cold.
Howls in the distance. Not from my mates.
From other dogs.
Wolves that were hunting us.