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.

There was blood all over the floor with dark lines across the stone floor where the rogue wolves had fallen. I had blood dripping from my claws as my chest heaved heavily. 


She was slumped against the broken table with blood trickling down her arm, and her eyes half-opened as if the weight of her body was too much to carry. The scent of her fear spread like fire in my lungs, and my wolf surged and howled in response. 


I screamed her name like it was being torn out of me. "Aisla!"


She stirred weakly. Her lips parted, but no sound came. She did not even open her eyes. 


The rage blinded me, and I tore the rogues apart. Even when I was sure they were dead, I kept going. 


My father, our Alpha. Standing tall and calm in the wreckage, his eyes cold steel and his mouth curved in that familiar line that seems to mock me always. 


Chapter 38 - Ashes and Oaths