The Scent Under the Poison

Chapter 3

The Scent Under the Poison 

Aria's POV 

Damon’s gaze swept over me, from my tangled silver-blonde hair down to my bare, dirty feet. That possessive, hungry look was back in his eyes. It should have terrified me. And it did. But underneath the fear, a tiny, traitorous part of me felt… seen, not as a wolfless omega or… as a waste of space, but as something… wanted, like something someone would want. 

"The bond," he said, as if that explained everything.

And then, I felt it. A faint pull in my chest. This one was not the bleeding, painful tear of Marcus's rejection. This was different. It was like three new, fragile threads had been woven into my soul. One felt cold and steady. One felt hot and wild. One felt… clever and…unstable.

I pressed a hand to my chest, my eyes wide. "No. That's impossible."

"Seems pretty fucking possible to me," Damon muttered, his eyes glued to where my hand rested over my heart.

The door opened again, and the third brother walked in. The one with the midnight-blue fur. In human form, he was devastatingly handsome, with hair as dark as his wolf's coat and mischievous green eyes. He moved with a lazy grace that felt more dangerous than Damon's obvious strength.

"Well, look who's awake," he said, a charming smile playing on his lips. But his green eyes were sharp, missing nothing. "I'm Reece. And you've caused quite a stir, little omega."

"I'm not your omega," I said, finding a shred of my broken pride.

Reece just smiled wider. "Your scent says otherwise. It's all over us now. And ours is all over you."

My face heated. The bond. They could all feel it, too. This was real. I had three fated mates. The most forbidden, rare thing imaginable. And they were the most dangerous wolves in the country. Multiple mates never happened unless with a very powerful bloodline, so why…

"Why me?" I whispered, the question full of despair. "I'm nobody. I'm broken. I don't even have a wolf."

The three brothers exchanged a look. It was Kael, the scarred one, who spoke from the doorway. I hadn't even heard him arrive. He leaned against the frame, his arms crossed, his icy gaze pinning me in place.

"That's the first question," Kael said, his voice low and gravelly. It was the voice that had claimed me. "And the most important one."

He pushed off the doorframe and walked into the room. The space felt smaller with all three of them in it. So much power, so much focused attention. It was overwhelming.

"You think you're wolfless," Kael stated, not asked.

"I am." It was the truth of my entire life.

"You're not," Damon growled, as if the very idea offended him.

Reece tilted his head. "Your wolf has been suppressed. Poisoned. For a long, long time."

The words didn't make sense. "No. That's not… my stepfather… he had the pack healers check. They all said I was wolfless."

"Your stepfather is a liar," Kael said, his voice flat and cold. "And from the look of you, he's a lot more."

My mind was reeling. Poisoned? Suppressed? All my life? The constant weakness, the sickness, the way I could never heal properly… was it all because of him?

"Why?" I breathed, my world tilting on its axis.

Kael took the final step, stopping right in front of me. He was so tall, so broad. He could have snapped me in two. But he just looked down at me, his icy eyes seeing every hurt, every scar, every hidden hope.

"Because, Aria Winters," he said, my name a rough sound on his lips. "The scent under the poison… It's something that hasn't been seen in two hundred years."

He reached out, his fingers stopping just short of touching my cheek. A shiver wracked my body. The air crackled with power.

"You're nobody," he whispered, the sound a promise and a threat. "You're a White Wolf."

Kael’s POV

She collapsed back onto the bed, her eyes wide with a terror so deep it was a living thing. She thought we were lying. She thought she was nothing.

The bond in my chest, a raw, new thing, twisted with her pain. It made my wolf snarl. Protect. Comfort.

I shoved the instinct down. Comfort was a luxury we couldn’t afford. This broken, beautiful creature in front of us was a walking crisis. A fated mate. Three of them. And a scent buried under poison that spoke of a power that could either save us or get us all killed.

“A maid will bring you clothes,” I said, my voice cold, cutting through the thick silence. I had to be the rock. The one who didn’t feel. Damon was already cracking, his need to touch her, to scent her, written in the tight coil of his muscles. Reece was calculating, but even he was off-balance. “Clean up. We will speak at breakfast. Do not try to leave this room.”

Her eyes darted to the window, then back to me. She was still thinking of running. The thought was a physical blow to my control. Ours. Stay.

“Why?” she whispered, her voice shredded. “Why are you doing this?”

“The bond is reason enough,” I said, turning away before I could do something stupid, like kneel and promise her the world. “For now.”

I walked out, my brothers following. The moment the door closed, Damon slammed his fist into the stone wall beside it. The impact cracked the rock.

“Fuck, Kael! She’s terrified of us!” he snarled, his amber eyes blazing. “I can smell it. It’s making my wolf crazy. We should be comforting her, not threatening her!”

“Comforting her?” Reece leaned against the opposite wall, his arms crossed, a deceptively lazy smile on his face. But his green eyes were chips of ice. “The little omega who thinks she’s worthless just found out she has three alpha mates and might be a mythical creature. A little terror is healthy. It means she has a survival instinct.”

“She’s our mate,” Damon growled, stepping into Reece’s space. “Not a pawn in one of your games.”

“She’s both,” I cut in, my voice low. They both looked at me. “Until we know what she is, who she is, and what it means for the curse, she is both. We cannot afford to be ruled by our wolves. Not now.”

The word ‘curse’ hung between us, a dark cloud. Three months. That was all we had left.

“Did you send for Sage?” I asked Reece.

He nodded. “He’s on his way. He’ll examine her after breakfast. Discreetly.”

“Good.” I looked back at the closed door, the bond a frantic pull in my gut. “Let’s see how our little mate handles her first meal with the monsters.”