Chapter 5: My grandmother sold me?

The words hung in the air like a death sentence.

Elara's lungs forgot how to work.

"What?" she managed.

"The mate bond," Kieran said from behind Alaric. He sounded almost... apologetic? "When you touched me....when the bond snapped into place....it bound you to all three of us. You're our mate, Elara."

"Your...." She shook her head frantically. "No. No, that's not....that doesn't make any sense!"

"It's rare," Caspian said, his voice slightly softer than his brothers'. "Three Alphas sharing one mate. But it happens. The bond doesn't lie."

"I don't care about your bond!" Elara's voice was rising, hysteria creeping in at the edges. "I don't know you! I don't know any of this! I just came here to clean out my grandmother's cottage and...."

She stopped.

Stared at them.

"My grandmother," she said slowly. "She lived here. For months. Did she... did she know about you?"

The three men exchanged glances.

"Yes," Alaric said finally.

"How?" Elara demanded. "How could she possibly...."

"Because she made a deal with our father," Alaric said, his voice flat. "Twenty-three years ago. She came to him seeking protection, and he granted it. In exchange..." He paused, his jaw tightening. "In exchange, she promised him you."

The world tilted sideways.

Elara's knees gave out.

Kieran moved fast....faster than should have been possible....catching her before she hit the ground. His arms banded around her waist, holding her upright, and Elara was too shocked to even fight him.

"She sold me?" The words came out as a whisper. "My grandmother sold me?"

"It's more complicated than that," Caspian said, but Elara wasn't listening.

Her grandmother. The woman who'd raised her, who'd loved her, who'd sung her lullabies and taught her to bake and told her she was special.

Had sold her to werewolves.

"I'm going to be sick," Elara gasped.

"Breathe," Kieran ordered, his hand rubbing circles on her back. "Just breathe, tesoro."

"Don't call me that," Elara choked out. "Don't...I need you to let me go. I need...."

"You need to come inside," Alaric said, his voice leaving no room for argument. "Before you pass out and hurt yourself."

"I'm not going anywhere with you...."

"You don't have a choice."

The cold finality in his voice made something inside Elara snap.

"I always have a choice," she snarled, finding some reserve of strength she didn't know she had. She shoved against Kieran's chest....uselessly, he didn't budge an inch, and glared at all three of them. "You can't just claim me like I'm property! I'm a person! I have rights!"

"Human rights," Caspian said softly. "And you're not in the human world anymore, beautiful."

The pet name made her stomach flip.

"This is kidnapping," Elara said desperately. "This is...."

"This is fate," Alaric interrupted. His dark eyes bored into hers. "Whether you accept it or not."

"I don't accept anything," Elara shot back. "I'm leaving. First thing tomorrow, I'm getting in my car and I'm...."

"You'll make it to the edge of town before the bond pulls you back," Kieran said quietly against her ear. "Trust me. We've tried to fight mate bonds before. It never works."

Elara went still.

"What do you mean, it pulls me back?"

"The bond is a living thing," Caspian explained, and gods, why did his voice have to be so smooth, so reasonable, like he was explaining something perfectly logical instead of completely insane? "The longer you're near us, the stronger it gets. If you try to leave now, you'll feel it. Like a hook in your chest, dragging you back."

"That's..." Elara swallowed hard. "That's not possible."

"You didn't think werewolves were possible either," Kieran pointed out. "And yet."

He had a point.

Elara hated that he had a point.

"So what?" she said, her voice breaking. "I'm just... stuck here? With you? Forever?"

"Not stuck," Alaric said. "Claimed."

The word sent a shiver down her spine that had nothing to do with fear.

And that terrified her more than anything else.

"I want to go inside," Elara said quietly. "Alone."

"No."

"Please...."

"You're in shock," Alaric said, his voice gentling slightly. "You're not thinking clearly. We're not letting you out of our sight until we're certain you're safe."

"Safe from what? You're the scariest things here!"

"Safe from yourself," Caspian said. "You're about to crash, beautiful. We can all see it."

He was right. Elara could feel it....the adrenaline draining out of her system, exhaustion rushing in to fill the void. Her legs were shaking. Her vision was starting to blur at the edges.

She'd been driving for six hours. Cleaning for three more. And now this—wolves and mates and bonds and this can't be real.

"Okay," she heard herself say. "Okay. I'll... I'll go inside. But you have to...." She gestured vaguely at their naked bodies, trying desperately not to look below their waists. "You have to put on clothes."

Kieran grinned. "You don't like the view, tesoro?"

"Kieran," Alaric said warningly.

The grin didn't fade, but Kieran raised his hands in surrender. "Fine, fine. We'll get dressed."

"And then you're going to explain everything," Elara said, forcing steel into her voice. "All of it. The bond. The deal. Why my grandmother would..." Her voice cracked. "Why she would do this."

The three men exchanged another look.

"All right," Alaric said finally. "We'll explain."

He moved toward the cottage door, clearly expecting her to follow.

Elara didn't move.

Kieran's arms were still around her waist, and she realized with a jolt that she was leaning into him. Using him for support. And worse....much worse....it felt good. Safe. Right in a way that made absolutely no sense.

"Come on, piccola," Kieran murmured, his breath warm against her ear. "Let's get you inside before you fall over."

Elara wanted to argue. Wanted to push him away and run and never look back.

But she was so tired.

And they were right....she could feel it now, that pull in her chest. That sense of wrongness at the idea of being away from them.

The bond.

It was already working.

"I hate this," she whispered.

Kieran's arms tightened around her. "I know."

And then, because she truly had no other choice, Elara let him guide her inside.

Into the cottage.

Into the trap her grandmother had laid for her twenty-three years ago.

Into a life she'd never asked for, with three men....three wolves, who claimed she belonged to them.

The door closed behind them with a soft click.

And Elara's old life ended.