Chapter 5

Brayden

The moon was at its highest point when I arrived home.

And I didn't know if it was the effect of it or the fact that I had stumbled upon the most important discovery of my entire existence that had me upset. A part of me had emotions running high in a way that I had never felt before.

Never in all my years of existence had I felt such a disturbance.

I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or worry; I could only remember the shocking silver-gray eyes that had consumed me less than three hours ago. Those eyes were like a spell; I could think of nothing but them and their bearer, the beautiful young woman who had stolen my breath.

She is ours, my wolf Bardou said excitedly.

That in itself was a feat of extraordinary levels.

My wolf was more even-tempered than I was; to feel him upset was something completely unheard of, and that left me confused. When I entered the house, I avoided the long hallways and the guards. I was in such a state of bewilderment that I didn't feel like talking to anyone but my brothers.

They could feel my emotions in such a familiar way that they would understand me.

My mother said it was the bond we had being identical triplets, but I had always thought it was something more. That's why I didn't hesitate to talk to them through our mind link.

Where are you?

The question went unanswered.

That meant only two options: they were busy, or they were fighting.

From the screams I heard, I knew it was the second option. I sighed because I had to return to my role as mediator between them. It was a nuisance, but I had gotten used to it.

My brothers Aiden and Jayden had such opposite characters, but at the same time they had such similar temperaments that they always ended up arguing. No matter what nonsense it was, if one took the opposite side to the other on the subject, they were going to argue until they got fed up or I put a stop to it.

I walked hurriedly to the room that connected our rooms, a room that opened onto a shared terrace that had a magnificent view of the herd. I walked in and watched them argue over who would drive the van the next morning.

“Enough!” I said in a firm voice, and they both scowled at me.

Aiden folded his arms, displaying the tribal that indicated he was next in line to lead the pack and a stark reminder that he had been the triplet born first. Jayden, on the other hand, raised his eyebrows, showing the scar he had gotten from his rite of passage.

“You can't get to finish a fight without hearing arguments,” Jayden said before lying down on top of one of the pouffes that were on the terrace. “Why do you look like you've run into a monster?”

Aiden smiled sideways, an expression atypical of him.

“I didn't run into a monster; I met my mate,” I said in disbelief.

My brothers raised their eyebrows and then met each other's eyes.

“So are we,” they said at the same time.

“Are you serious?” I asked in surprise.

“Yes,” they said in unison.

I frowned and felt confused.

That each of us knew our mate on the same day was improbable, if not impossible.

“I knew my mate at the hospital,” Aiden said with an amused smile. "She looked like some kind of avenging angel; she walked with impressive confidence and didn't slow down at my attitude. On the contrary, she responded in a funny way, but she got annoyed with me and walked away. I was about to go after her to hunt her down; however, I was held back by doctor Can."

I frowned hearing that and looked at Aiden.

“Jayden intended to alter the forms for the drug test,” my older brother said with distaste. “Doc Can is more astute, so he figured out what was going on.”

“Are you still smoking pot?” I asked with annoyance.

“No,” Jayden said immediately. I knew it was true what he was saying, but I wanted an explanation about it. He grunted when he saw me cross my arms, so he replied, "I did it for Carl. He deserves to make the practice squad."

“It's not a question of whether or not he deserves to get into the squadron,” Aiden said with annoyance. "The question is whether he's fit for it. And you're not one to change the rules right now. It's unfair."

Jayden bared his fangs at him, so I had to get the conversation back on track, or they were going to come to blows.

“We'll talk about that later,” I said, and they raised their eyebrows in the same surprised gesture. “How did you meet your mate?”

“At Theo's house,” Aiden said simply. "I went to get a theoretical guide to magical history that I lent him to study, and on my way out, I saw a young woman exploring the rose bushes. I was so surprised by the bond that I ran out."

Jayden laughed loudly.

“Who the fuck runs away from their mate?” my younger brother asked mockingly.

“Me,” I said, and Aiden frowned. "I met her in the woods. She's a very beautiful young woman, serious and focused, though she has a bit of a temper. She was trying to control herself and seemed upset about something. But what surprised me most was that she didn't recognize the bond; it was as if her beast was asleep."

“I felt the same thing when I touched my mate,” Aiden said. “The bond was there, but I didn't feel her beast.”

We looked at Jayden, and he frowned.

“I didn't notice something like that, really. I thought she was annoyed with me because of the way I spoke at first. I didn't realize it was that she didn't recognize the bond,” Jayden admitted.

Aiden and I had the same feeling.

Just then there was a knock on Aiden's bedroom door; my brother went to open it, and my father walked in with my mother. They both looked at us excitedly.

“We came to notify you that Beta David's biological daughter has arrived,” my mother said. "I want you to treat her the same way you have treated Tracy, please. It's going to be hard enough for her to have to adjust to the idea that she has a father and—”

“You want us to minimize the fact that she's an illegitimate daughter?" asked Jayden humorously.

“Don't talk to your mother like that,” my father said in annoyance, and Jayden lifted his shoulders apologetically.

“Yes, I exactly want them to do that, the same way we all learned to see Tracy as a normal person,” said my mother.

“Well, when Tracy came into the pack, the Beta's wife accepted the child without hesitation, forgave her husband, and looked like a hero by agreeing to care for her husband's illegitimate daughter as her own,” Aiden said brightly. "We don't know how Lauren feels about all this. How the herd perceives the new daughter will depend on that. So what we do isn't going to make much difference. After all, Tracy is loved by the community, even if I don't like her. The new one is going to feel like an imposter, even though she is not. People aren't going to adapt easily."

Sometimes Aiden could be very clever and loquacious.

It was a pity it wasn't always, but this time he had hit the nail on the head.

“That's exactly why we want them to be decent to the young woman,” my mother said. "She's not someone ordinary; she grew up in an orphanage, she was deprived, and she is an ideal target for questioning. I want you to not participate in anything that will hurt her and to control that the young men at the academy don't bother her."

My mother was demanding a lot.

Normally the three of us avoided injustice, bullying, and isolation, but we were not all-powerful. We lived under a system of power, hierarchy, and logic. The strongest prevailed, and the weakest had to adapt well.

My father pulled out his phone and sent us a message on the group chat.

“She is the young girl; her name is Elara,” my father said. “Try to protect her as much as you can until she adjusts.”

With those words our parents walked off the terrace and left us alone.

Aiden checked his phone, and his expression was one of utter amazement.

“It's her,” said my older brother.

“Who?” asked Aiden, playing dumb.

“She's my mate,” Aiden said with a sincere smile.

Jayden and I walked over to look at his phone screen, and I was surprised to see my mate.

“No way, she's my mate,” Jayden and I said at the same time.

Aiden raised his eyebrows in amazement.

“That's impossible,” Aiden said. “Our wolves are different; all of us are different.”

Jayden turned away with a frown.

“This has to be a mistake,” my younger brother said.

It's not a mistake, it's true, we share mate, Bardou said.

I closed my eyes tightly and then shook my head.

“Bardou says it's true,” I said in disbelief. “All three of us are destined for the same woman.”

From the expressions on their faces, I knew their beasts were confirming it.

At that moment I realized something irrefutable: we would share the same woman for the rest of our lives.