A smell hit me like a truck going full speed. Pine trees and winter storms. Leather and something wild and scary and completely overwhelming. It made my wolf go totally crazy inside my head, scratching and clawing to get out. My knees went weak. The cleaning materials fell from my hands, clattering to the floor like my world was falling apart.

"Do you smell that?" a deep voice asked. The voice sent shivers down my spine.

"Honey and wildflowers," another voice answered, rougher than the first. "Like summer and sunshine. Where is it coming from?"

A third voice, softer but just as strong, said, "It's the most beautiful thing I've ever smelled."

But that was impossible. I was just an omega. Just unseen Aisla who cleaned floors and stayed out of sight and never caused trouble for anyone important.

The footsteps got closer. I could hear them breathe now.

My wolf was going crazy inside me. She wanted out. She wanted to run toward that smell, not away from it. She wanted something I didn't understand.

"There," the third voice said, softer than the others but somehow more dangerous. "In the kitchen. She's in there."

The footsteps stopped right outside the door. I could feel them there, waiting.

Deep down, I knew my life was about to change forever.

I could swear I heard three wolves roaring inside my head.

The kitchen door handle turned slowly.

I was about to meet my fate.

Or my doom.


~

I had spent my entire life in the shadows. As a lowly omega, I was used to being overlooked, ignored, and unseen. 

But everything changed on my 18th birthday.

That was the day the Moon Goddess gave me a cruel kind of blessing. 

I had a mate. 

Not just one. 

Not two. 

But all three of the Alpha’s sons, the legendary triplets were bound to me.

I remember the night I carried her out of the abandoned building outside the borders, I thought I had saved her.


Her body was trembling in my arms and face was covered in blood. I remember the heat of her skin against mine, the way the bond flared wildly like it was about to tear both of us apart. I carried her into the dark and told myself she needed me…that without me, she would've been nothing but another body left in the dirt.


But when I saw her tearing the ground apart with nothing but her hands on the battlefield days ago, the truth became clear as day.


She did not need saving. Not then, not now. Maybe not ever. 


I have replayed that night a hundred times since. The way her eyes flashed in silver light and how her scream turned into a growl that didn't belong to an omega. I always thought something in her was waiting to break free. And now it has.


And Goddess help me, I can't stop wanting her.


Chapter 61 - Fire in the Shadows