Caelan's POV

I ran.

Not away from the dining room mess, but toward it. Because while Kieran was yelling at Lucien and Elaria was screaming about treason, all I could think about was her.

Aisla.

The girl whose name tasted like honey when I whispered it in my head.

The girl who was my mate. My bros' mate. Our mate.

How was that even possible?

My wolf was roaring inside my chest, demanding I find her and make sure she was okay. The broken dishes, her bleeding finger, the fear in her eyes - it all made my protective instincts go crazy.

I pushed through the crowd that had gathered to watch the action. Everyone was talking at once, asking what happened, why Elaria looked ready to kill someone. But I ignored them all.

I had to find Aisla.

Her smell trail led back toward the kitchen. That sweet smell of wildflowers and summer rain that made my heart race and my hands shake.

The kitchen door was open, swinging back and forth like someone had rushed through it in a hurry.

I stepped inside and found her.

She was pressed against the far wall, exactly where we'd first seen her. But now she was crying. Silent tears running down her face while she hugged herself like she was trying to hold her pieces together.

My heart broke into a million pieces.

"Hey," I said softly, not wanting to scare her more than she already was.

She looked up at me with those huge dark eyes, and I saw pure fear there.

"Please don't hurt me," she whispered.

Those words hit me like a punch to the gut. Hurt her? I would rather cut off my own arm than hurt her.

"I would never hurt you," I said, taking a small step closer. "Never, Aisla. I promise."

She flinched when I said her name. Like hearing it from my lips was painful.

"You shouldn't know my name," she said. "Alpha's sons don't know omega names."

The way she said it made my wolf snarl. Like she thought she wasn't important enough for us to notice. Like she was used to being unseen.

"Well, I know it now," I said gently. "And I'm not going to forget it."

She shook her head furiously. "This is wrong. All of this is wrong. You're supposed to mate with Elaria. Everyone knows that."

"Maybe what everyone knows is wrong," I said.

She laughed, but it sounded broken. "You don't understand. I'm nobody. I'm the lowest omega in the pack. I clean dishes and scrub floors and try not to get in anyone's way."

"You're not nobody to me."

The words came out before I could stop them. Raw and honest and possibly too much too soon. But they were true.

From the moment I smelled her scent, she became the most important person in my life.

"This can't be happening," she said, more to herself than to me. "The Moon Goddess doesn't make mistakes like this."

"What if it's not a mistake?"

She stared at me like I was crazy. Maybe I was. Everything I thought I knew about my future had just burst into pieces.

"Your brothers hate me," she said quietly.

"They don't hate you. They're confused. We all are." I took another step closer. "This has never happened before. Three brothers sharing one mate? It's impossible. But it's happening anyway."

"I felt it too," she whispered so softly I almost didn't hear her. "When I looked at all of you. Something just... clicked into place. Like I was finally whole."

My wolf practically purred at her words. She felt it. She felt the bond just like we did.

"Then why are you crying?" I asked.

"Because this is going to destroy everything," she said. "Your father will never allow it. The pack will never accept it. And Elaria..." She shuddered. "She looked like she wanted to kill me."

She was right. This was going to cause trouble. Big problems. But looking at her tear-streaked face, I realized I didn't care.

"Let me worry about my father," I said. "And Elaria. And the pack."

"You can't protect me from all of them."

"Watch me."

For a second, something like hope flickered in her eyes. But then it died.

"I have to go," she said, pushing away from the wall. "I have work to finish."

"Aisla, wait-"

But she was already moving, running past me toward the door. I reached out to stop her, and my fingers brushed her arm.

Lightning shot through me at the touch. The mate bond flared so bright I saw stars.

She gasped and stumbled.

"I'm sorry," I said quickly. "I didn't mean to-" "I have to go," she said again, but her voice was shaky now. "Please. Just... let me go."

Everything in me screamed to follow her. To not let her out of my sight. But she looked so scared, so overwhelmed, that I pushed myself to stay put.

"Okay," I said. "But this isn't over, Aisla. We need to talk about this."

She nodded but didn't look back as she ran out of the kitchen.

I stood there for a long moment, breathing in the lingering traces of her smell and trying to figure out what to do next.

My phone buzzed. A text from Kieran: "Emergency pack meeting. Dad's office. Now."

Great. Time to face the music.

But as I headed toward Dad's office, I caught something that made my blood freeze.

Aisla's smell. But not from the kitchen.

From outside.

She wasn't going back to work. She was running. Actually running away from the pack house, going toward the woods.

My wolf went wild. Our mate was running, possibly in danger, definitely upset because of us.

I changed direction and ran for the back door.

The woods were dark and full of shadows. Perfect for hiding. Perfect for getting lost.

Perfect for getting hurt.

I followed her smell deeper into the trees, my heart pounding with every step. She was going fast, but I was faster.

Then I heard it.

A scream.

Not just any scream. Aisla's scream. Full of fear and pain.

I ran harder than I'd ever run in my life, crashing through trees and jumping over fallen logs.

I burst into a small area and found her.

She was on the ground, backing away from something I couldn't see in the dark.

"Aisla!" I shouted.

She looked at me with wild, frightened eyes.

"Caelan, run!" she screamed. "It's not what you think! I'm not-"

A growl cut off her words.

But it didn't come from the darkness.

It came from her.

Her eyes flashed gold. Her fingers grew claws. Her teeth became fangs.

And I realized with shocking, impossible clarity that Aisla wasn't just an omega.

Aisla was something more dangerous.

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.

Alpha Thorne's POV

I threw my whiskey glass against the wall.

The crystal broke into a thousand pieces, just like my carefully planned future. Just like everything I'd worked for thirty years to build.

"Say that again," I growled at Beta Marcus, who was standing in my office looking like he'd rather be anywhere else in the world.

"All three of your sons, Alpha," he repeated, his voice shaking. "The omega girl... she's mated to all three of them."

I wanted to hit something. Preferably him for bringing me this impossible news.

"That's not possible," I said through hard teeth. "Mate ties don't work that way. One dog, one mate. It's been that way since the beginning of time."

"I know, sir. But I saw it myself. Their eyes were all sparkling. They were all acting like... like wolves who'd found their mates."

My kids. My carefully raised, perfectly trained boys. The future of our pack.

Mated to some nobody omega.

All three of them.

This was a disaster.

I started walking behind my desk, my mind racing through all the problems this would cause. The pack rules were clear. Alphas mated with strong females who could create strong heirs. Not weak omegas who spent their days cleaning floors.

And certainly not one omega shared between three brothers.

"What's the girl's name?" I asked.

"Aisla, sir. She's... she's been with the pack since she was a baby. Her mother vanished when she was young. No one talks about it much."

Aisla. The name meant nothing to me. She was so tiny I didn't even know she existed.

And now she was threatening to destroy everything.

"Where are my sons now?"

"They followed her into the woods, sir. That was twenty minutes ago."

Of course they did. When the mate bond hit, reasoning went out the window. I remembered what it felt like when I first met my mate, their mother. The urgent need to be close to her. The way nothing else mattered.

But this was different. This was three times worse.

"Sir?" Marcus cleared his throat nervously. "What do we do? The pack is starting to ask questions. Elaria is... upset."

Upset was probably putting it lightly. Elaria had been raised to be Kieran's mate since she was old enough to walk. Her father and I had arranged it years ago. It was supposed to strengthen our alliance, protect our bloodlines.

Now that was ruined too.

"No one can know about this," I said firmly. "Not yet. We need to figure out what we're dealing with before word spreads."

"Yes, sir. But sir... what if it's real? What if the Moon Goddess really did mate all three of them to the same girl?"

I stopped moving and stared at him. "The Moon Goddess doesn't make mistakes like that."

But even as I said it, doubt came into my mind. What if this wasn't a mistake? What if this was something else entirely?

Something that could kill us all.

I grabbed my phone and rang a number I hadn't called in years.

"Elder Mora," I said when she answered. "I need you here. Now."

"Alpha Thorne?" Her ancient voice was sharp with worry. "What's wrong?"

"Something that shouldn't be possible. Something that could tear the pack apart."

There was a long pause. Then she said something that made my blood run cold.

"The prophecy."

"What prophecy?"

"I'll be there in ten minutes."

She hung up before I could ask what she meant.

I turned back to Marcus, who was watching me with worried eyes.

"Get everyone out of the pack house," I ordered. "Make up some reason. Training practice, emergency drill, I don't care. I want this place empty except for critical personnel."

"What about Elaria? She's wanting answers."

"Handle her. Tell her whatever you have to tell her, but keep her quiet."

Marcus nodded and rushed out of my office.

I slumped into my chair and put my head in my hands.

Thirty years. Thirty years I'd been Alpha of this pack. I'd kept us safe, kept us strong, kept us united. I'd raised three sons who were meant to be the future of our kind.

And now this.

A knock on my door stopped my spiraling thoughts.

"Come in," I called.

Elder Mora entered, moving faster than I'd seen her move in decades. She was ancient, older than anyone in the pack, and she knew things the rest of us had forgotten.

"Where are they?" she asked without introduction.

"In the woods. Mora, what prophecy were you talking about?"

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, they looked haunted.

"The Luna of Three Souls," she said softly. "I thought it was just an old story. A legend to scare young wolves into following custom."

"What are you talking about?"

"Sit down, Thorne. This is bigger than you think."

I was already sitting, but I gripped the arms of my chair harder.

"There's an old prophecy," she started. "Older than our pack, older than most packs. It speaks of a time when the natural order would be tested. When one Luna would be mated to three Alphas, joining their souls together."

"That's impossible."

"So I thought. But the prophecy says she won't be a regular wolf. She'll be something more. Something strong enough to either save our kind or destroy us all."

My mouth went dry. "What do you mean, something more?"

"I don't know exactly. The prophecy is written in the old language, and parts of it are hazy. But Thorne..." She leaned forward, her eyes intense. "If this girl is who I think she is, if she's the one from the prophecy, then your sons aren't just mated to an omega."

"Then what is she?"

"She's the key to either our salvation or our extinction."

Before I could ask what that meant, my phone rang.

I looked at the caller ID and felt my heart stop.

It was Kieran.

I answered instantly. "Kieran? Where are you?" "Dad." His voice was strained, frightened. "We need help. Aisla collapsed, and there are wolves circling us. Not pack dogs. Rogues."

"How many?"

"At least a dozen. Maybe more. Dad, they're not here by accident. They knew exactly where to find us."

The phone line crackled with static, then Lucien's voice came through, screaming over what sounded like snarling.

"Dad! They're not trying to kill us! They're trying to take her!"

The line went dead.

I stared at the phone in my hand, my mind spinning.

Elder Mora was watching me with knowing eyes.

"It's starting," she said quietly.

"What's starting?"

"The forecast. And Thorne?" She stood up, suddenly looking every one of her old years. "Those rogues aren't random attacks. Someone sent them."

"Who would send rogues after my sons?"

"Someone who knows what that girl really is," she said sadly. "Someone who either wants to use her power or destroy her before she can use it herself."

"What power? She's just an omega!"

"No," Elder Mora said, headed for the door. "She's not just anything. And if we don't get to her first, everything we know about our world is about to change."

"Where are you going?"

"To gather the ancient books. We're going to need them."

She paused at the door and looked back at me.

"Thorne? Pray that your kids can protect her long enough for us to figure out what she is. Because if the wrong people get their hands on her..."

"What?"

"The war that's coming will make our worst nightmares look like bedtime stories."