Multiple Mates Reveal

Ayla ran until her lungs burned, her legs carrying her toward the only place she believed she could be safe. Behind her, she could still hear Liam crashing through the underbrush, refusing to give up the chase.

She could see the border ahead. Beyond it, a cluster of wagons stood loaded and ready, men moving between them. Julian stood near the front, giving instructions to one of his guards. The moment he caught sight of her running toward him, his attention snapped in her direction.

He went still, the way a wolf goes still right before it strikes. Ayla didn't slow down. Her chest heaved and her arm throbbed where Liam's fingers had dug into her skin earlier.

Julian's eyes moved past her, scanning the trees. His jaw tightened. "Someone's behind you."

He pulled her behind him before she could turn around, putting his body between her and whatever was coming. Ayla fisted her hand in the back of his shirt and held on.

A low growl built in his chest. His shoulders squared, and the calm Alpha from the night before was gone.

Liam burst out of the trees, his face twisted. "Ayla! You don't get to just run away from me!"

Julian didn't move. Ayla stayed pressed behind him, breathing through her mouth to get enough air.

Liam shoved Julian aside without warning, hard enough to send him stumbling. "This doesn't concern you." He turned straight for Ayla and grabbed the same arm he'd already bruised in the hallway.

Pain flared up her wrist and she wrenched against his grip. "Let go of me."

"You're not going anywhere," he said. "Not with him and not with anyone."

"You rejected me." Her voice cracked on the word. "You don't get to decide what happens to me anymore."

Julian was on his feet again in an instant. He caught her other arm and pulled, freeing her from Liam's hold. "Get your hands off her." His voice had nothing calm left in it.

For one second, both men had her, Liam gripping one arm and Julian the other, both pulling opposite ways. Ayla's shoulder screamed and her feet skidded in the dirt, caught between them like she might actually come apart at the seams.

"She is my mate!" Liam yanked her a step toward him.

"Let me go!" Ayla's eyes stung and her knees buckled under the strain.

"That's enough. Both of you, before I make it enough."

A tall man stepped down from one of the wagons, a thin scar cutting through one eyebrow, moving like he expected the ground to clear in front of him. Both Alphas turned. He crossed the distance in a few strides and shoved Liam back hard enough to drop him.

Liam hit the dirt. His grip on Ayla broke.

She staggered forward and Julian steadied her before she could fall. The stranger's eyes went straight to the bruises rising on her wrist. He reached for her arm without a word.

The second his fingers touched her skin, something exploded through her chest.

Ayla gasped and yanked her hand back, one arm crossed hard over her sternum, her knees folding under her. The floor tilted. She grabbed a fistful of her own shirt over her heart, like she could hold the feeling in by force.

"What's happening?" she managed.

Her whole body shook. Whatever this was, it didn't feel like the bond with Julian, it felt like it was fighting for the same space, two threads pulling her wolf in different directions at once. She pressed her palm flat against her chest and tried to breathe through it.

"Ayla?" Julian dropped beside her, one hand on her shoulder. "Ayla, look at me."

The stranger crouched on her other side, his hand hovering near her without touching down again. His jaw had gone tight, like he was holding something back.

Liam pushed himself up off the ground, breathing hard, his face gone pale. "What is this? What did you do to her?"

"I didn't do anything." The stranger's eyes cut to him, cold. "I touched her. That's all."

Julian's hand tightened slightly on her shoulder, his eyes moving between her and the stranger like he was trying to work out a puzzle with no clean answer.

Slowly, Ayla's breathing began to even out. The ache stayed, but it was easier to carry now. She lifted her head and looked at Julian, then at the man beside him.

Neither of them pulled away from her. Neither flinched.

Then she looked past them to Liam, still on the ground, staring at her like the world had stopped making sense in front of him. For once, she wasn't the one without words.

"I think," she said, still gripping her own shirt, "he's my mate too."