AN: ^Listening to this song is the mood for this entire book
"Mmmng,"
I audibly groan as the low tide licks my wrist and I turn over to find myself still in the exact same spot where I fell down yesterday.
Or maybe I just washed up here and what happened after I fell was just a wild hallucination.
Definitely the narrative I'm going to go with at least.
I force my sore body to sit up with a crunch of my saltwater soiled clothing and hold my chest. My ribs ached in pain with every breath as I catch myself tracing the line on my forehead left by the heat of Beta Casper's fingertips. Slapping my own hand, I force the dream away as I get up and walk back towards the temple. It wasn't the safest place at the moment but I have to at least grab a change of clothes for school.
The sun hasn't yet peeked from the horizon but it was at least light enough for me to see where I'm going. Thankfully it's not too far and I debate going to the clinic for the pain in my ribs but Wren stops me.
It would be safer if we waited until we got to school first
He warns and I continue to beeline for the temple, feeling safe in the quiet sleepiness that came with the Lotus pack. At least its not a bustling city like Crimson, because then I would be screwed. I let out a small sigh of relief when I see the temple's royal purple arches with light gold embellishments that seem to sparkle with my arrival as I rush inside.
But I halt at the sight of him standing in my tracks.
"Oh thank the goddess you made it, baby. I was so worried,"
Alpha Mateo breathes out a sigh of relief and takes a step towards me but when he does I instantly take a step back.
"I-I'm so sorry, it's just they have such a big influence on Lotus and I couldn't let them see me as weak. I mean I'm the Alpha. Goddess, you must be so cold, you're shivering," Mateo reaches over and grabs my blanket as he goes to wrap it around my shoulders and this time I let him. Pulling me inside the empty temple, he holds me close and rocks me back and forth.
"It's okay, I understand," I mutter as he kisses the top of my head.
Except the touch I once enjoyed is now dull, a kiss that put butterflies in my stomach felt like acid on my skin, and a scent I could spend days basking was long gone.
A man I once thought could be the only person who might be my mate at the end of this year now had no feelings attached.
"Tora, why do you smell different?" Mateo asks as he slowly pulls away, but gently holds my shoulders as he sniffs down my neck. Something about this just doesn't feel right like it used too.
"I dunno, what do I smell like?" I ask him and he scrunches up his nose with a slight uneasiness.
"You smell like one of those rotten Crimsons and you didn't bow to me when you saw me like you usually do," Mateo explains while tousling my salty curls. Bowing is something one naturally does in combination with their wolf to their Alpha.
The only reason why someone wouldn't naturally bow or feel the need to is when the Alpha isn't yours.
And if he doesn't like the Crimsons that means the triplets weren't with him last night, which means I was right and it was all just a dream.
"I'm sorry Alpha, I'm just tired is all," Even saying the word alpha to him leaves a bad taste in my mouth as I pull away from him and tear off my shirt, revealing the reason why my chest is aching. Battered and bruised, I must have at least a few broken ribs.
"Fuck," Mateo groans as turns away from me, unable to handle the amount of pain he's caused me.
"It's okay," I remind him, as I put on my dress shirt for school, I don't have time to go to the lake and shower so this will have to do until I get to my dorm at Antum.
"No, it's not okay. I should have gone after you. You could have died," He sighs as he anxiously runs his hands through his hair. I struggle in pain to put on my dark purple dress pants with bending over being nearly impossible but I know better than to ask for help from my boyfriend.
"Do you think they know? God, if they find out we're together I'll love the respect of the entire pack," Mateo stresses and I finally get the uniform pants to my waist, grabbing my vest and slipping it over my head, biting my lip so hard to hold in the pain that I can taste the rust.
"We were together, now we're not," I tell him and Mateo turns back to me confused.
"What are you talking about?" He asks, offended that I would even question what we were but it's simple really.
"Alpha, it's time. You're going to meet your mate this year and we both know I'm not strong enough to be an alpha's mate," I tell him, knowing it's the truth and he holds a deep pain in his sweet brown eyes that was missing in the dark.
"But, I love you," His lip trembles a bit and I gently caress his cheek, letting him think there's something when I feel nothing.
"I love you too, but if you love me you'll let me go and be happy with whoever you're given," I calmly explain and he holds my hand in his, giving it a small squeeze.
"Are you sure?" He asks and I nod, with that he pulls me closer and kisses me one last time.
But the spark we had before last night had fizzled into nothing and now it's like he's trying to light a match for us in the pouring rain.
"Okay, if it's what you want," He lets go of me and walks away without looking back which is relieving in a sense. I would have sighed too if I could, holding my ribcage as I crouch down on the floor and grab my little lavender prayer candle to tuck in my pocket.
Standing under the temple's archway, I touch it's pillar one last time before heading for the docks. It's still a little early but at least I will be able to rest on the ferry's benches before others join. Then once all the students were aboard we would be on our way to the tiny island separate from ours that housed Antum's school for the supernatural and gifted. There I'll stay in my little cozy dorm for the next six months until I'm graduated and complete the mating ceremony.
What happens after that all depends on the mating ceremony.
Tired, starving, and in pain, I crumble on the farthest bench from the entrance tucked away in my favorite corner overlooking the water at the front of the boat as I quickly slump into another deep sleep.
The strong masculine scent of cedar and sandalwood mix together and hit me like I just snorted a full line of caffeine. The pain that was dulled by my slumber quickly returns, making it nearly impossible to move.
After pening my eyes, I quickly close them again and have to blink a few times just to make sure I'm seeing properly.
Because there they were again.
Together not more than ten feet away from me are the dangerously inseparable triplets I fear. They have their three Crimson colored trunks marked by their family's strong symbolic crest set up with two pushed together and the third used as a footrest for Beta Casper. Forming their own bench-like seating area in front of the ferry's guardrail.
Helpless and unable to move, I stare at them in hopeless wonder as they wore their tailored fresh-pressed Crimson uniforms in different ways to match their contrasting personalities.
Beta Micah is the only one to wear his full school uniform correctly, with just his jacket unbuttoned as he sat on the edge of one of the trunks and watched the ocean through his clear framed sunglasses. Frowning slightly at whatever it was he's in deep thought about as he combed his fingers through his wavy blonde hair while running the tip of his thumb over his lower lip.
Alpha Galen is the only one standing, his back leaning against the corner of the rusted white chipped railing and the sun reflecting off his classic black sunglasses. With his arms crossed, his muscles are so obvious that I have no idea how he fits them in our tight jackets.
Currently wearing just the white button-up shirt that goes underneath with the top three buttons undone and the sleeves rolled up to show a beautiful snake tattoo running up his right forearm. His jacket tossed on the trunk beside Beta Casper, but it's not like he needs any of the embellishments of the jacket to prove the dark-haired boy is an alpha.
The guy practically screams power and the numerous rumors surround him don't help soften his rough image. Especially considering no one has actually heard Alpha Galen speak. Some people say when he was younger and training in combat he killed a close friend on accident and took a vow of silence. Others say he simply believes we aren't worthy enough for him to waste his precious breath.
However, everyone agrees to stay out of his way.
Beta Casper is the wildest of the trio. Leaning back against the rails while sitting on one trunk with his legs crossed on Alpha Galen's trunk, he wears just his crimson-colored jacket.
And when I say just his jacket, I mean just his unbuttoned jacket with no white button-up.
His full eight pack of tribal inked muscles on full display to the entire school with all the cocky confidence in the world. A gold necklace containing a tiger head charm covered in diamonds hangs around his neck as he smokes from an herbal cig.
With the beta's eyes covered by his aviators, I can't tell but I have an eery he's looking directly at me and the thought alone strikes a strange mix of comfort and fear. He takes his cig to his lips and sucks for a second while running his hands through his light brown hair. The word breathe tatted on his hand as brought his hand down and exhaled. Flicking the biodegradable paper off the ship and into the ocean.
Scared of what they might do to me if they find me intruding, I quickly try to pull myself up using the back of the bench and accidentally cry out from the sharp pain in my ribs and around my weak body.
But I make it to at least a sitting position with a few tears slipping from my eyes, hoping the trio would ignore me or not notice me even though I'm so close I can smell their combined scent.
I'm so grungy and dirty that I can hardly imagine their opinion of me is anything other than pure disgust.
"Tsk, you're going to make it worse. Stop moving," The deep sultry voice of none other than Beta Casper scares me as he bends down to my level and I naturally try to bow to him out of respect. But the pain is too great so I just end up uncontrollably falling forward, directly into his arms.
"Galen, toss me your jacket," Beta Casper calls back while gently leaning me back on the uncomfortable wooden bench and lays me down flat once more. I don't say anything as he folds Galen's jacket and places it under my head with compassion I never would have expected out of a Crimson, especially not one of its future leaders.
"Do your ribs look bruised?" Beta Casper asked with his brow raised above the bar of his aviators as the ocean breeze gently pushed his jacket away and weaved through his hair making him look like something far too naturally attractive to be real. It takes all of my synapses a few seconds to make the connection that he actually asked me a question before I force myself to respond.
"Mhm," Is the best I can do and he smirks knowingly.
"That means we did a pretty damn good job with your CPR, huh? I wish I could take all the credit pup, but Galen was the one who did all the pumping. I just did the mouth to mouth. Which to be honest here, I'm kind of glad you forgot cause I was all panicked and shit but next time I'll be sure to give you something to remember," He says with a click of his tongue that any other person would faint over.
Just having Beta Casper say hello to them would be an impossible luxury, nevermind flirt with them.
But I'm just confused as to why they haven't tried to throw me off the ferry to get rid of me or bully me like everyone else, as Mateo often did. Are they not ashamed to just be breathing the same air as me.
Also, did he just call me pup or do my ears deceive me?
"Tsk Aish, Casper you're so rude that sometimes I wonder if we're actually related," Beta Micah gives his brother a hard shove to be the center of attention and coos when he sees me.
"Anyway, I don't think we've ever met before last night. I'm Micah, this idiot over here is Casper, and the tall silent guy is Galen," He says and I look for Galen but he's gone from his quiet spot and out of sight.
"What's your name? Where are you from?" Micah asks and both of them eagerly await my response.
"It doesn't matter," I tell them as I close my eyes to try to control the throbbing pain when a gentle thud hits my head. I open my eyes to a few granola bars that had been dropped on my head by the tall scary triplet who still hasn't said a word to me.
"Oh great, you proved yourself useful for once," Casper sarcastically snaps at his alpha brother who completely ignores him as he sits at the end of the bench where my feet are.
"Well, I know your from Lotus by the color of your uniform so you were right in the aspect that where your from doesn't matter since you're crimson now," Micah doesn't take offense to how I answer and breaks open one of the wrappers of the granola baes before handing it to me.
I take a few small bites and they watch me in silence as I try not to make eye contact with their dark shades. Besides, I'm pretty sure I'm still blushing from the comment Casper made.
It's extremely rare for someone to know who they are mated to and find their mate before the mating ceremony. The scents of one's mate and the tingled spark between them is just the start and only happens under extraordinary circumstances where some mates need each other just a little bit earlier than the ceremony.
Now thanks to my own extraordinary resurrection I have been given not one, but three mates all at once. But not just any three mates or any triplets, but the next Alpha and Betas of the most powerful pack out of the four on this island.
I don't know what the moon goddess saw in me when she gave me this challenge and while anyone else would accept them wholeheartedly, I have my reservations.
More importantly, I refuse to be a slave to anyone just because I'm an Omega.
Until I'm sure of their intentions, I'll remain cautious just for insurance.
After finishing two granola bars, I answer their question in my grotesque rusty voice, finally telling them my name.
The name assigned by the crazy gods above to be theirs forever.
"I'm Omega Tora of Lotus,"