Chapter 04

I woke up with a start. Sweat trickled down my forehead and between my breasts, while my breathing remained ragged and uneven. The echo of Dean’s voice from the dream still vibrated in my ears: so real that I fumbled at the sheets, searching for something that wasn't there.

My open window let in the fine rain that had begun to fall outside, cooling the room, but it did nothing to quench the fire starting to burn inside me. I stood up on shaky legs and closed it, leaning my forehead against the cold glass for a few seconds. The contrast of the ice-cold pane against my burning skin gave me a much-needed reality check.

My body trembled with fear. With excitement. With hesitation. It was as if I were waiting for something. For them. My fingers traced the fogged glass, drawing senseless shapes as I tried to convince my heart to slow down.

"Ariel..." I called out, my voice coming out as a thin plea in the silence of the room.

"I’m sorry, dear," she whispered, sighing in a way that broke my heart. "Our heat is near. That is why the dreams are becoming... more intense."

I blinked and groaned in frustration, lightly thumping my forehead against the window. Another cycle. Another time having to hide, suffocating both the beast and the woman in a cave of solitude while my blood screamed for them.

"We used to dream about them taking us; now I dream about them finding us," I grumbled, pulling away from the window and walking toward the dark hallway. "I’m starting to go crazy. My mind is betraying me."

"We could always go home," she said, her voice heavy with a hope that hurt more than any physical wound.

"Not a chance," I murmured, wrapping my arms around my own body, trying to hold myself together.

Ariel huffed irritably, and I felt her paws clawing at the back of my consciousness.

Whenever our annual heat begins, she starts to get cranky, and Goddess, I completely understand. This was taken from her because of me, because of my fear, and I am fully aware that she didn't deserve to live like a fugitive, deprived of the touch, the knot, and the love. But I can't go back. I simply can't.

I am afraid. Afraid. So afraid.

I walked to the kitchen and drank a glass of ice-cold water that seemed to extinguish nothing. My thoughts flew to the stories the elders used to tell around the bonfires when I was still just a young wolf with silly dreams about destiny.

They spoke of the "Curse of the Trinity."

The legend said that a Luna with three Alpha mates was destined for death from her very first breath. It was said that the power and possessive instincts of three Alphas were too great to be shared, even with their own mate. According to the ancients, they would fight over her until their packs destroyed one another and blood soaked the ground. In the end, the Luna would be prevented from being with all of them: the constant dispute between the men she loved would tear her in two. She wouldn't be able to choose, and because she loved them too much, she would wither away in sadness and agony until death, watching them turn into monsters because of each other.

I love them. I love them so much that the thought of seeing them destroy themselves because of me breaks me into a thousand pieces. I ran away to save them from themselves. I ran so they could continue to be the strong leaders our people need, even if it means they have to spend the rest of their lives hating me for abandoning them.

I prefer their hatred over the blood of one on the hands of the other. I would rather die of longing here, in this cold apartment, than watch them fulfill the prophecy and wither away with me.

Ariel remained silent. She knew that against the legend, there was no argument that could defeat my fear.

***

I took a freezing cold shower, feeling the water hit my back like needles, but nothing seemed to extinguish the fire Ariel was fueling inside me. I got dressed in the extremely short waitress dress—a scrap of black fabric that barely covered the essentials—and left the house, clutching my bag, wearing a massive overcoat to hide what I was, and carrying my usual yellow umbrella.

I was exhausted. My eyes were bloodshot and the dark circles betrayed my sleepless night. I had spent hours touching myself in my tiny bathtub, my fingers moving by pure instinct while I moaned the names of my three mates. In my mind, the memory was vivid: they had been incredibly competent when it came to taking me in the middle of a forest, over the damp earth and the scent of the wild.

Goddess, I could still remember every touch. Every gesture. The way their hands mapped my body as if I were their exclusive property. They were so hot and…

I shook my head, trying to banish the images, but I felt the heat spread through my panties again instantly. My breath hitched. I needed to request two weeks off and find an Airbnb in a forest as urgently as possible.

My heat is too strong. It wasn't meant to be spent alone in a city apartment. It was created to be satiated by three Alphas, so I felt my skin burn and I even cried from the sheer arousal I felt—a physical pain that made my knees weak.

I couldn't do this in front of my roommate, or she would think I was crazy. No one would understand this hunger that seemed to devour me from the inside out.

I arrived at the nightclub, and the muffled sound of techno was already thumping against my temples. As soon as I clocked in, I ran right into Ricardo, the owner of the place. He was the kind of man who reeked of cheap cigarettes and arrogance.

"Two minutes late, again?" he growled, heading toward me. Ricardo didn't speak; he spat his words. His small, greasy eyes traveled down my body, stopping at my legs with a disdain that made me nauseous.

"The subway stopped because of the rain, I'm so sorry..." I tried to push past, but he grabbed my arm firmly, squeezing the spot where the muscle was most sensitive.

"I don't pay you to make excuses; I pay you to be useful. And today, you're going to be very useful if you want to keep this miserable job." He pushed me toward the tray of premium drinks. "We have investors in VIP Lounge 01. Businessmen from out of town—people with more money than you'll see in your entire life. If I hear one complaint about you, or if you make that funeral face, you're going straight to the street. Do you understand?"

"I'm assigned to the bar today, Ricardo. The lounge belongs to..."

"The lounge belongs to whoever I say it does!" he shouted, drawing the attention of other employees who quickly lowered their heads. "They asked for 'exclusive service.' Now go up there, serve the drinks, and don't open your mouth for anything that isn't 'yes, sir.' Now move!"

Ariel growled so loudly inside me that I thought he might have heard it. My wolf wanted to rip his throat out, but I simply swallowed my pride and my tears. I needed the money. I needed to vanish from here soon, as soon as I found something a little better.

I picked up the tray with the house's most expensive bottles of whiskey. My hands were shaking—not out of fear of Ricardo, but because of something shifting in the air. As I climbed the metal stairs toward the private lounges, the scent of expensive perfume and smoke was replaced by something else.

A scent I knew better than my own soul.

The air grew heavy. My lungs burned. Wood, storm, and...

I stopped before the heavy black velvet curtain of Lounge 01. My heart was pounding so hard I thought I might faint right there. My panties soaked through in that exact second. Ariel was in absolute silence now, crouching, ready for either the strike or surrender.

I'm going crazy. I'm absolutely certain that the heat is getting strong enough that I've started seeing and thinking things that don't exist.

I pushed the curtain aside with my shoulder, trying to maintain the posture of a professional waitress.

"Excuse me, gentlemen... I brought the drinks you requested."

The sentence died in my mouth. The tray tilted dangerously in my hands.

Sitting on the U-shaped leather sofa, occupying the space with a presence that made the nightclub walls seem far too small, were them: Liam, Dean, and Ryan.

All three pairs of eyes—each a different shade of gold and fury—locked onto me at the same instant. The silence that followed was devastating.

"Hello, mate," Liam’s voice cut through the noise of the music outside, in a tone that promised I would never take another step out of that room. "The game of hide-and-seek is over."