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 walls of the pack house felt too small.


I caught her scent everywhere I went. It wrapped around me and teased me. 


I had spent my whole life mastering myself through violence. Sparring until my body broke and running until my lungs burned. Nothing could ever truly tame me.


Because she was not just for me, she was bound to my brothers too. And that was the part I could not stomach.


I saw how Kieran watched her like a hawk and pretending he was not drowning in the same fire I was. Caelan smiled at her like she was the very air he breathed. 


And me? I only wanted to tear the world apart every time she looked at them.


I did not just want her, I needed her. 


The kind of need that made my wolf snarl and beg to mark her without minding the consequences.


But even as I thought about it, I felt the bond… three strands, not one. Her body was mine and theirs at the same time. 


Chapter 17 - The Fire Inside