CHAPTER 3: BRANDED

“No one touches her,” Nyall growls.

Orien steps forward, “Anyone who tries will answers to me.”

Fenric cracks his knuckles. “Might want to back up before someone gets shredded.”

The guards stop and from the corner of my eyes I see Lord Alpha Theron’s hands at his sides twitches as his fingers shift into claws, however the High Priestess shakes her head at him.

“Break the bond now, and you will invite the Moon’s wrath. You know the old laws.”

I don't see his reaction to the High Priestess' words because suddenly everything around me starts to feel so loud.

I try to breathe, but the air doesn’t move past my throat, my chest is burning, my skin is in fire from the inside out, and my legs tremble so violently that I'm afraid I can't keep standing for long.

Nyall is bent and about carrying me off from where I stand when suddenly there's a scream.

“She’s cursed them!” Elayne shouts again, in a very much louder voice than before.

“She bewitched the princes with some twisted spell! Look at her— she’s barely conscious! She can’t even control her own power!”

I clutch at my chest, feeling the bond pulling so tight at me that it feels like chains are coiled around my heart.

I can feel them— all three of them; Nyall. Fenric and Orien.

I can also feel their rage and their need for something.

Their scents fill my nostrils to the brim, not allowing me to perceive the scent of anything or anyone else.

They smell like dark cedar, scorched spice, wild pine.

Elayne’s heeled slippers click loudly as she steps onto the ceremonial stone ring near the alter, ignoring the High Priestess who stands and looks at her with shock.

“She’s tainted!” Elayne yells, pointing at me with shaking fingers.

“The Moon would never bind royalty to an Omega! This isn’t fate— it’s a curse!”

A few pack members gasps and some nod like they want to believe her. .

I want to speak and defend myself, but my tongue is heavy and my lips are right now trembling too much to form any words at all.

“I— I didn’t do anything,” I finally manage to whisper, but no one hears me over the growl that suddenly rents the air.

“Enough,” Fenric says in a low snarl.

He pushes forward, blocking Elayne from me with his broad body.

“Say one more thing about her,” he growls, “and I’ll rip your throat out. I don’t care if you're the Beta’s daughter.”

“Do you think I’m afraid of you?” Elayne spits while her chest heaves. “You’re all under her spell!”

Nyall steps in next, grabbing Fenric’s arm. “Back off,” he snaps. “Let me speak to her. She’s mine.”

“She’s not just yours,” Orien snarls, appearing at my other side to face Nyall. “We all felt the bond, all three of us.”

I sway between them feeling like a thread that's about to snap.

“Stay away from her, both of you,” Nyall hisses suddenly, shoving Orien back. “She chose me—”

“She didn’t choose anyone!” Fenric roars.

“I don’t belong to any of you,” I whisper, but again, no one hears me.

Just then the bond pulls at me tighter than before, so tightly that it feels unbearable and my legs finally give way, allowing my knees to hit the ground.

“Iryn!” Orien’s voice cuts in, alerting the others.

I feel warm, rough hands on me before the blackness rushes up and swallows me whole.

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When I wake, I’m still on the ceremonial stone, feeling the cold slab bite into my skin.

But something feels different because the crowd has become completely quiet and I don't even hear Elayne's voice anymore.

“The bond is real,” I hear Orien say angrily for what feels like the tenth time. “We all felt it.”

“You expect me to believe that my sons—the heirs to Velaris Hallow Pack are all fated to a nameless Omega?”

I gasp as I realise it is the Lord Alpha speaking again and turn my neck to see him still standing at the edge of the ceremonial ring.

He seems to be blocking his sons from moving anywhere, but then I notice that he has half shifted with his fangs, claws and glowing gold wolf eyes out, and I realise my mates stopped him from attacking me while they were distracted due to me having passed out.

Lord Alpha Theron narrows his eyes at me, then at his sons.

“You will not claim her,” he growls.

Fenric steps forward to towards him. “You can’t stop the bond.”

“I am the Lord Alpha!” Thorne roars, letting out his aura and the pack members fall to their knees.

Again, I don't feel the compulsive submissiveness to bow to him.

“I decide who my sons take as mates. And she—” he jabs a finger at me, “—is beneath us!”

My chest clenches painfully at his words. Although they are true, I’ve never felt so much shame like this and I wonder if my mother feels the same way now.

My instincts say that I should run and hide, but the bond won’t even let me move an inche now.

“You heard the High Priestess, you are defying the will of the Moon Goddess,” Nyall says evenly in warning.

“The Moon would never tie you to THIS.”

I flinch.

He just called me an object; obviously I've been called worse but this hits me harder knowing that he's the father of my mates.

Would he ever accept me?

“This girl will bring chaos with her. Imagine three heirs fighting---- the pack would be divided. If she can't reject the bond, you three must reject her.”

“She’s ours,” Orien says. “We’ll never reject her.”

“You will reject her,” Lord Alpha Theron snarls. “Or I will disown you all.”