Chapter 5 - Rejection or Claim

HAELENA 

No… No, this can’t be real,” I whispered, my voice cracking.

This is just another cruel prank. Another trap set by the Triplet Alphas. I shook my head repeatedly,

“No, Alphas… I am nothing. Just a humble omega… the one you’ve all despised with every breath. 

How could I possibly be your mate? Let alone mate to all three of you? That’s… that’s divine. Impossible. I’m not worthy. I could never be—”

My legs gave out. I crashed to my knees on the unforgiving tile, my forehead slamming against the floor in an atonement bow,

The sting barely registered over the roaring in my ears. 

Tears burned my eyes as I curled smaller, wishing the ground would swallow me whole.

The room was so silent, the whole pack watching in complete surprise,

“You were the one eavesdropping on Luna Aekeira,” Alpha Samael’s deep voice cut through the air, and I knew it. 

He stepped closer, each footfall deliberate and predatory.

 “You were the one eavesdropping on Luna Aekeira, I caught your scent, You are my mate… You Fangforte, my mate?”  

The entire hall resumed with gasps, frantic whispers, and stunned murmurs rippling through the crowd. 

I kept my face pressed to the floor, my heart hammering so hard I thought it might explode.

Then a large, impossibly warm hand closed gently around my trembling arm, I was lifted, so effortlessly—as if I weighed nothing. 

When I dared to look up, my eyes met Alpha Cullen’s piercing gaze. 

The same devastatingly gorgeous eyes as his brothers, but tonight they burned with something I had never seen in him before… This was an unguarded warmth. My breath caught painfully in my throat.

“You are our fated mate,” he said, his voice low and loud enough for the entire room to hear. 

“How this is possible… I don’t know. But it is.” He paused, letting the weight of his words sink in. Then his expression darkened with fierce possession.

“The last recorded case of a female wolf with three mates was four centuries ago—Supreme Luna Vissera.

Her heat was so overwhelming that one Alpha could not satisfy or protect her. 

Her three mates guarded her day and night, feeding every instinct, every need.”

Alpha Cullen’s thumb brushed slowly across my cheek, wiping away the drip of blood from

The corner of my lips,  A dangerous glint ignited in his dark eyes.

“But you…” His voice dropped to a velvet growl that sent shivers racing down her spine.

“You will be mine and mine alone. I will claim your heat. I will protect you. I will satisfy every desperate cry of your body and every soft need of your soul. No one else will touch you. Not even my brothers.”

The hall fell deathly silent… Alpha Cullen, one of my greatest nightmares, wants to claim me? 

My knees buckled again, but this time Alpha Cullen’s powerful arm was already around my waist, holding me upright against his chest. 

“Have you lost your mind Cullen ?” Alpha Logan’s voice reverberated through the hall, I could see the anger building in his eyes, 

Hatred, Disgust And Raw Loathing, Every emotion I had grown up seeing in them burned within those silver eyes.

“You cannot possibly be entertaining this impossibility,” he growled. “A Fangforte? The daughter of a fucking traitor?”

Alpha Cullen’s lips curled into a slow smirk.

“You think I wanted this arrangement?” he scoffed. “I despise it just as much as you do.”

His gaze lowered to me for the briefest second before lifting back to Logan.

“It shouldn’t have been a Fangforte,  it shouldn’t have been her, but the Moon Goddess doesn’t ask for our approval.”

The hall remained deathly silent,Logan’s jaw tightened.

“Then reject her.” Cullen let out a quiet laugh.

“Reject her?”

His arm instinctively tightened around my waist, drawing me a little closer.

“Why the fuck would I do that?” His smirk deepened as he met Logan’s furious stare.

“She’s my mate.” The words came out with deliberate emphasis.

“And if the Moon Goddess decides to hand her to us…” he tilted his head, amusement flickering across his face, “…then I’ll be the first to claim her.”

His eyes gleamed with challenge. “I’ve always enjoyed beating you, Logan.”

A dangerous growl rumbled deep within Alpha Logan’s chest.

“You arrogant bastard—”

The tension was building really fast, I was suffocating. There is no way in the world I would be claimed by any of these Alphas…

 And I couldn’t even feel my wolf anymore, neither is saying the rejection word, it would be useless like an ordinary statement, 

“Enough.” I heard Alpha Samael’s cold voice. There wasn’t a single trace of emotion on his face.

His eyes settled on me, very unblinking, as though weighing whether I was worth keeping alive.

Then he looked toward the Delta guards stationed around the hall.

“Delta Guards.” Every warrior immediately straightened. Alpha Samael’s voice remained terrifyingly calm. 

“Kill her.”

The words echoed through the banquet hall, My blood turned to ice and the first Delta guard drew his sword at me.