Chapter 2

ARIA

I was standing in front of the building where Kane’s office was. It was a gray building located inside a northern military base, with corridors filled with the smell of disinfectant. Kane‘s office was on the third floor, and when I pushed open the door, I could see a huge battle map covering the entire wall, densely marked with the enemy pack‘s advance route.

I was here after a month because I set up a meeting with the three of them. 

My eyes fell on Kane. He was sitting behind his desk, dressed in a dark blue military uniform. Ryan leaned against the window in a black shirt that hugged his muscular body tightly, outlining his taut muscles. Damian sat on the sofa, staring at the floor as if he didn’t want to look up at me. 

Seeing the three of them together made me almost tear up. All those good-old memories came rushing back to the surface. The times when we used to play in the snow for hours, watched shows at late night while comforting Damian who was scared of horror movies. 

“What is it?” Kane asked in a cold, icy voice while writing something on the paper. All of the three seemed to be avoiding my gaze. 

A sad smile curved my lips. I should get used to it by now since they’ve been avoiding me for a month. After that one night, the ones I considered the closest to me suddenly became distant. 

Kane no longer came to my house for dinner. Ryan no longer climbed through the window to stay over. He even changed his route to work, avoiding all the places where he might run into me. Damian was the cruelest of all. Instead of ignoring me, he acted nice when we met on the street but it felt so cold and detached. 

It hurt to see how unbothered they were. They had been in touch with each other. I saw photos of them on social media, celebrating Kane’s birthday in his apartment. The same place where everything fell apart. 

I tried to wish him through a phone call and even texted him. But he never responded.  I wondered if I even mattered to them. It was like I never existed.  

I shook the emotions away and spoke. “I’m pregnant.” 

A heavy silence fell in the room. 

Ryan‘s hand slipped from the windowsill while Damian‘s head jerked up. Kane‘s fingers froze on the pen. 

They finally looked at me but not with care or tenderness. It was with sheer horror. 

“What?!” Damian spoke first, breaking the silence. 

Kane narrowed his eyes, “How long has it been?” 

“Five weeks.” I replied, moving my hand to my stomach. 

A month after that incident, I started vomiting. At first I thought I had stomach problems so I took some medicine but it didn’t help. On the fifth day, the marks on my neck and shoulder started to glow golden. 

I quickly pulled the pregnancy test kit out of one of the drawers and did a test. My heart almost stopped when I saw the two red lines on the strip. 

It was positive. 

Ryan’s eyes hardened as he was calculating something in his mind. “You slept and were marked by the three of us. Does that mean the child…” he hesitated to continue. 

I nodded confidently. “Yes. It’s the Child of Three Origins as mentioned in the hundred year old prophecy. The baby holds the combined strength of three Alphas.” 

In order to confirm my suspicions, I had gone through a lot of ancient texts to confirm it. Three mate marks glowing golden wasn’t normal and a sign of special pregnancy. 

A hundred years ago, Elizabeth Winter, the greatest sage of the Northern pack left a prophecy before her death : 

“The hundred-year period will come, and the primordial female wolf will return, bringing the blood of the king to the north, restoring the glory of the wolf clan.”

The Elders believed in this prophecy and so every newborn was tested at birth, and every female after shifting was evaluated for the possibility of birthing the king. As the hundred-year deadline approached, the pack started to get anxious. 

Especially since the Southern pack had their eyes on the North. The Alpha of the pack was Marcus Black. He had shifted into a rare shadow wolf and took over several small packs through war and bloodshed. People feared him because of his ruthlessness and his army had crossed the Grey Water river that separated the South from the North. So now he was on a quest to take over all the packs here, including the Northern pack. 

Our pack was worried since our army wasn’t strong enough to face Alpha Marcus and had faced multiple defeats in the war. So everyone placed their hopes on the birth of the King to bring us victory. 

In everyone’s eyes, the woman who would give birth to the King was Lily Ashford. 

Lily was the daughter of Beta Elder Ashford. Word has it that on the day she was born, the aurora borealis was seen in the middle of summer. At the age of sixteen she shifted into a snow-white wolf who radiated a mystical golden light. 

So the Council of Elders immediately declared Lily as the Mother of the King. She was meant to be married to the Alphas Kane, Ryan and Damian and consummate the marriage to produce the heir who’d be the strongest in the pack. 

This arrangement had been decided two years ago, and the mate bonding ceremony was scheduled to be held three months later.

But it was all ruined since Kane, Ryan and Damian were mated to me on the night of the Blood Moon. 

Damian stood from the sofa and walked up to me, his green eyes softened with worry. It made my heart skip a beat. “What are you going to do?” 

“I need you to acknowledge it.” 

The temperature in the room dropped sharply. Kane’s gaze turned frosty and calculative, making a shiver run down my spine. “If we acknowledge this pregnancy, our mating with Lily won’t be possible. The Elders won’t allow three of the strongest Alphas to be held back by a wolfless Omega.”

“I agree,” Ryan muttered. “You’re a wolfless omega so it’s not possible for you to give birth to one of the most powerful wolves in our pack.” 

His blunt words hurt but I didn’t let it show. “I know.” 

“Then why do you still want us to claim it?” 

“Because if you don‘t acknowledge it, the Council will forcibly terminate the pregnancy after 24 hours.” I said with fear. 

The Council had one rule. Any unacknowledged pregnant Omega must report to the Council of Elders within 24 hours after the pregnancy is discovered. If an Omega‘s partner refuses to acknowledge her, the Council has the right to force the Omega to terminate the pregnancy to ensure the purity of the bloodline. It was a shame to be tied to an omega. 

The rule had been in effect for eighty years. 

“You don‘t need to do anything else, just sign the Council‘s recognition document. I’ll handle the rest.”

“Did you hear that, Kane?” Ryan spoke this time, glaring at me. “She claims she can handle the Child of Three Origins by herself. A pregnancy that can trigger a full-scale Council investigation and cause us problems.”  

My jaw tightened at his words. “Ryan–” 

“She didn’t even ask us or our opinions. She’s simply here to ensure we sign the document.” He scoffs, the rage clear in his eyes. 

My body was overwhelmed by their emotions since I could feel all of it. They were the ones who participated in the act and abandoned me with a child but somehow I am the one to be blamed. 

“Are you going to sign it or not?” I asked coldly. 

Ryan was shocked by my response and pressed his lips in a thin line. He looked away. “I can’t. The ritual can’t be delayed since the South has been attacking us. I can’t drag the entire pack into the water because of an…” he stopped and my gut coiled in my stomach. “...accident.” 

My face paled.  I shifted my gaze to Damian and held his hand tightly. “Damian, please don’t say no. The child would die if the three of you didn’t sign it.” 

He was the most considerate among the three so I hoped he would understand.

His eyes were red with tears. “I’m sorry, Aria. I’ll put all three of us in trouble if we sign the document.” He pulled his hand away and I was left in disbelief. 

No. They couldn’t do this. 

Did they have no care for their own child? 

Tears filled my eyes as I started to think what would happen if my child was taken away from me. I rushed towards Kane’s desk. He was my last hope. 

“Kane. Please…” I joined my hands as tears streamed down my eyes. “Please don’t refuse me. I promise I’ll do whatever you ask of me after you sign the document. But please don’t say no.” I begged. 

“Aria…” his blue eyes softened and I felt a little hopeful. But then he gave me an icy look as he said. “The rules of the Council of Elders are reasonable. Blood purity is related to the survival of the entire race. In your case, this child will most likely not be able to reach the standard of royal blood. Rather than let him face a more cruel fate after birth, it‘s better...”

“Better what?” I asked.

“It‘s better to let the elders handle it.” He said with not a single ounce of sympathy in his voice. 

I felt like someone had pulled the rug off my feet. For so many years I had loved them, did everything I possibly could to help and support them only to be betrayed like this. For me, they were like my family but I was only a charity case. 

I should have known that all of it would mean nothing to them. 

I wiped my tears, feeling hurt, lost and angry at the same time. “Alright.” 

I silently turned around and walked towards the door. When I reached for the doorknob, I spoke softly. “Thank you for taking care of me since I was a child.”

The moment I left, I heard the sound of something breaking inside the office but I was too numb to care. All I could think of was what I would do now. 

I had no one by my side. 

As I walked down the corridor, I saw someone stand at the end. It was Lily. She had long blonde hair, light blue eyes and was wearing a white dress that hugged her hour-glass figure. She was beautiful compared to someone like me. 

“I heard everything,” she said, her voice soft as she smiled at me. “How pitiful.”

I didn‘t speak and walked past her.

“Do you think they care?” she said behind me. “They were nice to you when you were little, just because they felt sorry for you. A poor orphan without a wolf. Now they‘re grown up, and they have more important things to do. You should be sensible and stop dragging them down.”

I froze at her words. 

“And,” her voice drifted from behind, with a hint of mockery in it, “You have twenty four hours. Make good use of them.”