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.

The firelight painted the scars across my men's faces and coloured the shadows sinking deep into the hollows of their eyes. We sat in the clearing at the edge of Bloodfang territory, the stench of wolf-scent heavy on the wind. Wolves. Even now, the word left a sour taste in my mouth.


"You've tied us to beasts," Garran spat, his hand never leaving the dagger at his belt. His face was twisted and half-burned from a raid years ago. "You expect us to fight alongside them? I'll soon slit one's throat while he sleeps."


Murmurs rose in agreement. Hunters were not wolves. We were not meant to share fire or ground. And yet, here we were.


I raised a hand and the camp fell silent. My voice cut through the smoke like steel. "We did not come to bow. We came to claim."


Chapter 78 - The Bargain