While I Find My Mates”

Hot…

It was so hot. My body was burning with desire and something….else.

My eyelids felt heavy. 

I opened them.

Kael’s red eyes held mine as his teeth pressed against my pulse, with an ancient gesture of dominance and possession that every werewolf understood. 

I looked by my side. Three other Alphas surrounded me, their wolves rising to the primal display, their hands all over my body.

My breasts were spilled over Kael’s huge sexy chest, my nipples perking up with desire.

“You are mine,” Kael’s deep voice growled, the golden thread that connected us vibrating with possessiveness and obsession.

“Ours, you mean,” Lucien corrected, glaring at Kael and encircling my waist with his huge possessive arm.

Asher took my feet and kissed it, then ran his tongue seductively all the way to my thigh, his blue sapphire eyes staring intensely at me as he did. His lustful touch and stare made my cunt quiver, the dampness between my thighs readying me.

“Don’t forget me,” Rowan growled, grabbing my chin and kissing me, his hot tongue intertwining with mine as it played games with my mouth. My eyes rolled back in pleasure.

I should have been terrified. Four legendary Alphas, four golden bonds blazing between us, four sets of wolf eyes tracking my every breath with predatory sexual intensity.

But I wasn’t afraid.

Because deep in my chest, something ancient was finally waking. Something that had been sleeping, waiting, buried beneath years of abuse and shame.

My wolf.

And she was magnificent.

Four months ago

I was still sleeping soundly when someone poured a bucket of ice water all over me.

“Argh! What’s this?!” I screamed as I jerked awake. Some of the water had gotten into my lungs and I started to cough violently.

“Rise and shine, sister dear,” a familiar wicked voice said.

Celeste. Of course. Who else would it be?

I got up, wiping the water off my face. Water was dripping from my hair and neck. Then I glared at her.

WHACK!

She immediately slapped me across the face.

“Who are you looking at with that cursed eye of yours, witch!” 

My cheek throbbed with pain yet I said nothing. Just stared at her.

Celeste already had on a full makeup early in the morning.

“Full makeup at five in the damn morning!” I thought.

Hair curled perfectly. She’d probably been up for an hour just to look this good while she tortured me.

“What do you want?” I croaked.

“Language.” She dropped the bucket, “Get up. I need you to clean the whole house before tonight.”

I sighed. Then my eye caught the mattress I usually slept on and noticed it was completely drenched. 

Great. I’d be sleeping in a wet bed tonight. Again.

“The ceremony’s not until eight,” I said.

“And? You think this house is going to clean itself?” Celeste put her hands on her hips. “The ballroom, entrance hall, both dining rooms, the kitchen, all three guest bathrooms, and the gardens. Everything. I want it spotless.”

“That’s going to take all day.”

“Then you better get started.”

I wanted to argue. Wanted to tell her to screw off, clean her own damn house. 

But I knew it won’t end well. The last time I talked back at the bitch, my stepmother locked me up in the attic for three days and three days and three nights without food or water.

So I kept quiet and started wiping my bed.

“Smart girl,” Celeste said. She walked around my tiny room…..if you could even call it that.

“You know what did happening tonight right?”

“The Bonding Ceremony,” I said boredly.

“The most important night of my life.” She examined her nails. Blood red polish, perfectly done. “Four Alphas. Four chances at a mate bond. Can you imagine?! Of course you can’t imagine! You aren’t even invited not to talk of having one! Ah!” 

She started to cackle.

I didn’t say anything. Just balled up the wet sheets.

“Kael Blackthorn,” she continued, like I’d asked. “They say he’s the strongest Alpha in generations. Brutal in a fight. Those red eyes? They say he’s never lost a battle. And that body…” She fanned herself dramatically.

I rolled my eyes where she couldn’t see.

“Then there’s Lucien Ashford. Cold, calculating, brilliant. He runs half the pack alliances in the region. Rich as hell too. And Rowan Everhart…..God, he’s gorgeous. Wild, untamed. They say he shifts faster than any wolf alive.” She sighed. “And Asher Stormwood. Charming, funny, but dangerous when he needs to be.”

“Sounds great,” I muttered.

“It will be. For me.” She stepped closer. 

The spicy smell of her expensive perfume floated to my nose.

“You know what the best part is?”

“What?”

“You don’t get to go.”

There it was.

“I know.”

“Say it.”

I gritted my teeth. “I’m not allowed at pack ceremonies.”

“Why?” She asked, like she didn’t know. Bitch.

“Because I don’t have a wolf.”

“Exactly.” She smiled, all teeth. “Thats coz you are not one of us! A werewolf without a wolf! Ah! That’s just a human. You’re just… human. Weak. Pathetic. No wolf, no pack, no future. You’re nothing, Aria.”

No matter how many times she said this and trust me, she had said it many times, it still hurt me to hear it. Because it was true.

In a world where your worth was determined by your wolf, having no wolf was a nightmare.

I was twenty years old now and yet still no shift. No connection to that primal power everyone else felt.

Broken. That’s what I was.

“I need to start cleaning,” I said quietly.

“Yes, you do.” Celeste headed for the door. 

“And Aria?”

“What?”

“Don’t even think about sneaking out tonight. If you set foot off this property, there will be consequences. Understood?”

“Understood.”

“Good. Have fun scrubbing toilets while I find my mates.”

She left. The door didn’t slam…..she was too classy for that. Just clicked shut softly, which somehow felt