Chapter 5: Three Mates

Kai stopped directly in front of Levi.

The eldest prince did not look at the broken glass or the staring servants or the wall of furious visiting Alphas. His gaze remained locked on the omega who had slid down the stone and now trembled at his feet. Up close, Levi’s scent was overwhelmingly sweet, open unmated heat pouring off him in thick waves that made the air itself feel heavier. He felt angry, how could a common omega like Levi move him this much?

Behind him, Aaron and Dexter flanked the space, creating a living barrier between Levi and the rest of the hall. The combined weight of their scents rolled forward and hit Levi like a second moon.

He made a broken sound.

The three distinct signatures crashed into his already collapsing system and dragged another wave of heat straight through his core. His vision blurred. His fingers curled weakly against the floor. Every instinct he had left screamed to offer, to submit to the pull that had taken root inside him the moment their eyes met his. He could not form words. He could barely breathe.

An Alpha from the mountain pack took another aggressive step forward. "That creature interrupted a sacred rite. The law is clear—"

"Enough."

Kai’s voice cut through the hall like a blade through silk. He did not raise it. He did not need to. The single word carried the full authority of the eldest son of the ruling Alpha, and the mountain Alpha stopped as if he had walked into a wall.

Kai turned his head just enough to look at the assembled nobles. His expression had returned to ice, but the ice was thinner than usual, and something far more dangerous moved beneath it.

"The omega is under our protection for the night," he said, each word precise and cold. "No one will touch him. No one will speak of execution. The Goddess’s business is not yours to decide."

A ripple of outrage moved through the visiting packs. Chairs shifted. Several Alphas growled low in their chests. One of the dominant omegas near the front looked scandalized. The scent of offense mixed with the residual heat still pouring off Levi until the air felt almost unbreathable.

"You cannot be serious," another Alpha snapped. "A low-born servant in full heat, ruining the claiming night of the princes, and you would protect him?"

Aaron’s answering growl was soft and immediate. He did not bother looking at the speaker. His attention remained fixed on Levi, pupils blown wide, the lazy boredom that usually lived in his face burned away by something far more primal.

Dexter said nothing at all. He simply watched the crowd with that same serene, venomous calm.

Kai’s gaze swept the hall once more. "Does anyone here wish to challenge the decision of all three heirs?"

There was silence, and a heavy one at that.

It was not agreement. It was calculation. No visiting Alpha, no matter how offended, was willing to test the combined will of Kai, Aaron, and Dexter in the middle of the ruling pack’s great hall. The fury remained, but the forward movement stopped. The demands for blood died into angry muttering and tight jaws.

On the dais, the Alpha had not moved. His face was unreadable, he had ordered the omega contained, but his sons had chosen a different interpretation of the word.

Aaron moved before anybody else could summon the courage to make another threat.

He dropped to one knee in a single fluid motion, slid one arm beneath Levi’s shoulders and the other under his knees, and lifted him from the floor as if he weighed nothing. Levi’s head fell against the second prince’s chest on instinct. The heavy, warm scent of Aaron wrapped around him completely, and another full-body shudder ran through him.

Aaron’s voice was low, meant only for the omega in his arms. "Breathe."

Levi could not. Not properly. Not when every inhale dragged more of that dominant scent into his lungs and fed the heat that was already burning him alive from the inside.

Dexter stepped in close on Aaron’s other side, pale eyes never leaving Levi’s face. He was still far more confused than his elder brothers. He understood that he felt a mating bond for Levi, but it didn’t make sense why his brothers felt the same for this omega. Was it some sort of mistake? Or were the three of them simply drunk on this omega’s pheromones?

Kai remained where he stood for a moment longer, still facing the hall, and avoiding his father’s scrutinizing stare.

"The ceremony is concluded for tonight. See the guests out."

He did not wait for acknowledgment.

Aaron adjusted his hold on Levi and started toward the side doors that led out of the great hall, Dexter matching his pace exactly. Levi’s head lolled against Aaron’s shoulder. The movement of being carried sent fresh sparks of heat cascading down his spine. He was only half-aware of the angry stares that followed them, of the low murmurs of disbelief and offense that rose in their wake. The only things that felt real were the three scents tangled around him and the terrible, undeniable pull that said mine in three different voices at once.

They passed through the heavy doors and into the quieter corridor beyond. The sudden drop in noise made Levi’s ears ring. Torchlight flickered along the stone walls. Aaron’s stride never slowed, and Dexter did his best to keep up.

Levi’s fingers tightened weakly in Aaron’s jacket. "I... I didn’t mean—"

"Quiet," Aaron said. The word was rough, almost strained. "Don’t talk."

Dexter’s voice drifted from the side, soft and oddly gentle. "He’s burning up already."

"I know."

They turned down a narrower hallway that led toward the family wing. Levi’s awareness kept fracturing. One moment he could feel the solid strength of Aaron’s arms and the steady beat of the alpha’s heart against his cheek. The next he was lost in the heat again, body arching slightly, a broken whimper slipping free before he could swallow it. Every step jostled him. Every breath was full of them.

***

Behind them, in the great hall they had just left, Kai still stood at the foot of the dais.

The visiting Alphas were being ushered out in tight, furious clusters. Servants moved quickly to clear the broken glass and the abandoned trays. The air still smelled of Levi’s heat and the offended dominance of half a dozen packs. The Alpha had not left his place. He watched his eldest son with eyes that had gone flat and hard.

Kai climbed the steps of the dais slowly and stopped in front of his father.

For a long moment neither of them spoke.

Then the Alpha’s voice came, low and controlled and edged with something that might have been disbelief or might have been the beginning of rage.

"Explain to me," he said, "why my sons just carried the Hill family’s blood debt out of this hall as if he were already claimed."

Kai met his father’s gaze without flinching. The cracks in his composure had been sealed again, but the darkness beneath remained.

"There’s something about him. And until we’re able to understand it, may I pleasd beg you to spare him" Kai answered.

The older Alpha stared at his first son for a second before finally drawing a deep breath. A part of him already suspected what was happening, but he refused to believe it was true.

"Whatever you do, don’t make the mistake of thinking I’d let any of my sons mate a lowly omega."