Chapter 4: Back to reality

Aria woke to the feeling of fingers stroking through her hair and the scent of something wild and masculine surrounding her. For a blissful moment, she thought the entire thing had been a dream.

Then she opened her eyes and saw three identical faces watching her with predatory intensity.

It all came rushing back. The sex. The biting. The impossible shift from man to wolf.

She bolted upright, scrambling backward until her back hit the headboard. All three of them were still naked, still devastatingly beautiful, and still very much not human.

"Easy," Damien said, his hands raised in a placating gesture. "You're safe."

"Safe?" Her voice came out higher than intended. "You bit me without telling me what you were! You….you're fucking werewolves!"

"We told you after," Dante pointed out reasonably, which only made her angrier.

"Oh, well that makes it so much better!" She touched her neck, feeling the tender marks. They didn't hurt, exactly, but they throbbed with a strange warmth that seemed to pulse in time with her heartbeat. "What the hell did you do to me?"

"We marked you," Dominic said calmly, sitting at the edge of the bed. "You're our mate now. The bond is permanent."

"Permanent?" The word came out as a whisper. "What do you mean, permanent?"

"It means you're ours," Dante said, his dark eyes holding hers. "Connected to us. Bound to us."

"Forever," Damien added.

The room started spinning again. "No. No, no, no. I didn't agree to forever. I agreed to one night. One. Night."

"The mate bond doesn't care about agreements," Dominic said, standing and moving toward her. "It chooses. And it chose you for us."

She pressed herself harder against the headboard, trying to put distance between them. "Stay away from me."

He froze, hurt flashing across his features. "Aria…"

"Don't." She held up a hand. "Just... don't. I need to think. I need to leave."

"You can't leave," Damien said, and the finality in his tone made her blood run cold.

"Watch me."

She scrambled off the bed, grabbing her dress from the floor. Her hands shook as she tried to zip it up, and Dante moved to help her, but she jerked away from his touch.

"I said don't touch me!"

"We're not going to hurt you," he said softly. "We would never hurt you."

"You already did!" She finally got the zipper up and looked around for her shoes. "You lied to me. You tricked me. You…you bit me like some kind of animal and now you're telling me I'm magically bonded to you forever? Do you have any idea how insane that sounds?"

"It's not insane," Dominic said, his jaw tight. "It's our reality. Our world. And now it's yours too."

She found her heels and shoved her feet into them, ignoring the way her legs still trembled. "I don't want your world. I don't want any of this."

"Aria, please listen…." Damien started.

"No!" The word came out as a shout. "You listen. I came here for one night. To forget about my cheating ex and feel something other than broken. Not to become some supernatural creature's property!"

"You're not property," Dante said, anger creeping into his voice. "You're our mate. There's a difference."

"Not from where I'm standing." She headed for the door, her vision blurring with tears she refused to let fall. "Stay away from me. I mean it. Don't come near me, don't call me, don't..just stay the hell away."

She wrenched the door open and ran, not caring that she was barefoot in heels or that her makeup was probably a disaster. She just needed to get away, to breathe, to think.

Behind her, she heard Dominic's voice: "Let her go. She'll come back."

"And if she doesn't?" Damien asked.

"She will. The bond will make sure of it."

Aria ran faster.

---

By the time she reached her apartment, dawn was breaking over the city. She'd called a rideshare from the club's lobby, ignoring the stares from club-goers and staff who clearly recognized her disheveled state.

Her hands shook as she unlocked the door, and she nearly collapsed against it once she was inside.

"Aria?" Her roommate Maya appeared in the doorway of the kitchen, coffee mug in hand. Her eyes widened. "Holy shit, are you okay? You look like…."

"I just had the best and worst night of my life," Aria said, her voice breaking. "Not necessarily in that order."

Maya set down her mug and crossed to her, pulling her into a hug. "Come on. Sit. Tell me everything."

They settled on the couch, and Aria found herself spilling everything—Marcus and Sophia, the club, the three impossibly gorgeous identical triplets, the proposition, the sex.

"Wait, wait, wait," Maya interrupted, her eyes wide. "Three? At the same time?"

"Yes."

"And it was good?"

Despite everything, Aria felt her cheeks heat. "It was... incredible. Like nothing I've ever experienced. They knew exactly what to do, how to touch me, how to…" She broke off, shaking her head. "That's not even the crazy part."

"There's a crazier part than you having sex with identical triplets?"

"They bit me," Aria said, touching her neck again. The marks were still there, still warm. "Like, really bit me. Hard enough to leave marks."

Maya leaned forward to look. "Okay, those are some serious hickeys. But some guys are into that…"

"They said I'm their mate," Aria continued, her voice rising. "That we're bonded now. Forever. That they're werewolves and I belong to them."

There was a long silence.

Then Maya burst out laughing. "Oh my God, you found the kinkiest billionaires in the city. Werewolf roleplay? That's actually kind of hot."

"I'm serious, Maya."

"I know you are, babe, but come on. Werewolves?" She shook her head, still smiling. "They're clearly just really into dominance stuff. The possessive language, the biting, the whole 'you're ours forever' thing—it's all part of the fantasy."

"One of them shifted," Aria said flatly. "Right in front of me. Man to wolf in seconds."

Maya's smile faded. "Aria..."

"I know how it sounds. I know. But I saw it. I watched his bones break and reform. I saw fur sprout from his skin. I looked into the eyes of a wolf that was wearing Dominic's face."

"Okay, sweetie, I think maybe the sex was so good it literally broke your brain," Maya said carefully, taking her hand. "Or someone slipped something in your drink. Did you leave your glass unattended?"

"I'm not drugged, and my brain is fine!"

"Then you're exhausted and traumatized from finding Marcus with Sophia," Maya said gently. "Your mind is playing tricks on you. Stress can do crazy things."

Aria pulled her hand away, frustration burning in her chest. "I know what I saw."

"Even if werewolves were real, which they're not, why would they tell you? Why would they show you?"

"Because they claimed I'm their mate and the bond is permanent." Even to her own ears, it sounded insane.

Maya sighed, pulling her into another hug. "Listen, I believe that you believe what you're saying. And I believe the sex was phenomenal, your face says it all. But maybe just... take a step back? Get some sleep? Everything will make more sense after you rest."

Aria wanted to argue, to make Maya understand. But exhaustion was pulling at her, heavy and insistent. The adrenaline that had kept her running was fading, leaving only bone-deep weariness.

"Maybe you're right," she said, even though she knew Maya was wrong. "I need sleep."

"That's my girl." Maya stood, pulling her up. "Go shower, get into bed, and when you wake up, we'll figure out what to do about Marcus and Sophia's stuff in your apartment."

Aria nodded numbly and headed to her room. She stripped off the dress, threw it in the trash, and stood under scalding water until her skin turned pink.

But no amount of scrubbing could wash away the marks on her neck or the strange warmth that pulsed through her veins with every heartbeat.

When she finally crawled into bed, she touched the bites again, remembering the feel of their teeth, the surge of electricity, the way her body had responded.

"Werewolves," she whispered to the empty room. "I slept with werewolves."

And somehow, the craziest part wasn't that they existed.

It was that part of her, a part she didn't want to acknowledge, wanted to go back to them.

She buried her face in her pillow and tried to sleep, knowing that Monday morning was going to bring a whole new nightmare.

She had no idea how right she was.