"Let us love you, Layla."

“I can’t love you, Ryan.”

Ryan watches as I choke those words out, each of them stinging my heart like a thousand needles into soft flesh. I look away. 

“You remind me too much of him. Each time we touch and each time we kiss, I can't… I can't help but feel it’ll start all over again. You’re not the one I should be falling in love with. I was married to your father once, Ryan, that has to mean something.”

Ryan stalks closer to me, his steps slow and intentional as he asks darkly, “What if it doesn’t?” I scoff because he can’t mean that. Of course it does. I’m… doing this for him as much as it is for me. I whisper resolutely.

“Me and you…. We can’t work, Ryan.”

He replies in a rasp, “Who says we can’t?”

 “I say we can’t. I can’t do this, Ryan.”

The air grows cold as two other people enter the room and their auras settle firmly in my gut. Two people I once knew and hated but who have also shown me that I might be wrong about how I view life.

That I might be wrong, with how I view…. them. 

My words threaten to get stuck in my throat but I say them anyway, heart tearing each moment and tears brimming as I speak, “I’m sorry Ryan, but I reject you as my mate.”

An icy cold envelopes the room and Ryan’s eyes are like glaciers. Sharp, dangerous, unreadable.

The  brothers speak, two Alphas I would have given anything for and done anything to forgive, once upon a time, but who now have had to fight for me to even look at them, “Accept us then Layla.” Their tone is calm and pleading, “You know it’s the right thing to do.”

But I don't, so I stare them all in the face. Three men who have my heart in a way that I do not understand. 

Standing in this room with them is hard. Breathing down the scent of them, each one more distinct and unique than the last but also igniting an undeniable flame of desire in me makes me despise myself. It makes me unable to be around them, so I say what I came here to say and look all three of them in the eye as I do so.

“I’m sorry… but I, Layla Olsen, reject you, Ryan, Damien, and Alek as my fated mates. I thank you for all you’ve done for me, but I have to love myself first before loving anyone else,”

Yet this is when Ryan walks to me and a glimmer of affection finally leaks into his eyes, his words send shivers down my skin as he says, “Let us teach you then.”

I watch as all three of their eyes begin to glow in sync and I can see the Alphas in them rising to the surface, the magic in their veins screaming for them to claim, and take, and mate their fated mate.

The room seems to get hotter with the promise of passion and desire as Ryan leans down, his handsome face staring into my eyes as his knuckles brush my cheek, “Let us teach you how to love yourself, Layla, so you can love us, the same way we love you.”