Chapter five - The scent of fate.

The ballroom was suffocating.

Not from heat or bodies or even nerves — but from the weight in my chest. The pressure building. I’d barely walked in when I felt it.

A shift.

Something wrong and right at the same time.

The anxiety was clawing at my chest. My mate was here somewhere and I wasn't ready for rejection. No matter how Tessa and Naomi comforted and tried convincing me that my fated man wouldn't reject me, the thought of rejection still claws at me. Just the thought of it has my wolf whimpering.

Tessa and Naomi peeled off to greet a group of richly dressed elders, laughing and tossing me a wink as I wandered toward the far side of the hall.

That’s when it hit me.

The scent.

Three of them. Layered. Intoxicating.

One was dark spice and pinewood — sharp and commanding.

Another was cinnamon and wildfire — quiet untamed.

The third? Cool rain and smoke — reckless but intense.

They wrapped around me like invisible threads, pulling. Whispering.

I closed my eyes as sighed in pleasure, my stomach coiling in heat at the intoxicating scent.

I didn’t know what I was doing.

My legs moved before my brain caught up.

I went up the flight of stairs, slipped past the marble pillars, deeper into the hall, where three closed doors stood lined side by side — identical, heavy oak, gilded with the family crest.

And the scent… it was strongest here.

My eyes fluttered shut and I took a big whiff, sighing in pleasure. I bit on my lower lip to prevent a moan from just the scent. And then it hit me. My eyes snapped open.

My heart thudded so loud, I swore it echoed off the walls.

No. No, this couldn’t be…

Three doors. Three scents.

My knees buckled.

“Fated mates…” I whispered.

No. Not them. Not them.

I spun around, ready to run — again — because that’s all I seemed capable of lately.

But the middle door swung open and I stopped dead in my tracks.

Maddox.

His hair was slightly tousled, jaw sharp, tie undone like he’d just stripped off his ceremonial jacket. His eyes locked on mine.

Wide. Shocked. Glowing faintly gold.

He froze.

And then he inhaled the air, stepping closer to me and I backed away.

His nostrils flared. His lips parted. "Mate."

“Vanilla…” he murmured under his breath. “And forest rain.”

His gaze turned molten. Wild. He took another step.

I backed up again, ready to bolt— but not before the other two doors flew open

Jaxon and Kyren.

All three now stood in the corridor, staring at me like I was oxygen after suffocating.

Three matching pairs of stunned eyes.

Three powerful auras pressing in.

My breath hitched.

The air thickened.

“No,” I whispered. “No, no, no—”

But deep down, my wolf — the new, raw, instinctive part of me — was already howling.

They were mine.

And I was theirs.

Whether I liked it or not.

I was going to get my heart and my soul broken and I wasn't ready yet.