Chapter 2 Fighting Fate

• Brianna’s POV
• The blood was still warm.
• Liam’s lifeless body lay at my feet, his final words looping through my mind like a curse.
• They’re coming for you… and they won’t stop until you’re dead.
• But why me?
• I wasn’t special. I wasn’t a warrior. I wasn’t touched by prophecy or fate… unless you counted the cursed triple bond I was desperately trying to ignore.
• Liam had taught me how to fight. Had patched me up after my first shift. Now he was just another body on the floor.
• The door slammed open.
• Three shadows entered.
• Rowan. Ryker. Reid.
• Of course they came. The bond would’ve yanked them toward me the second my knees hit the floor, soaked in blood and shaking.
• My wolf snarled in my chest, furious at the thought of rejecting them. I shoved her down. I was still in control. Barely.
• Ryker was first to speak, his ever-present smirk completely out of place in the middle of a crime scene.
• "Well," he drawled, scanning the carnage, "someone had a killer evening."
• I glared daggers. "Not the time, Ryker."
• Rowan knelt beside Liam, examining the gash carved across his chest. His jaw clenched, eyes dark with calculation. "This was clean. Surgical. A message."
• Reid said nothing. Just stared. Arms crossed. Eyes unreadable. Like I was a puzzle he couldn’t quite solve—or maybe didn’t want to.
• I scrubbed my bloody palms on my jeans. "Someone tried to kill me. Liam saved me. Said they’re coming for me."
• Ryker leaned against the wall like this was just another Tuesday. "Looks like someone wants our mate dead before the fun even starts. Rude."
• "Stop calling me that," I snapped.
• Rowan stood, wiping his hand with a cloth he pulled from his coat. Calm. Precise. "You can fight it all you want, Brianna. The bond is real."
• "It changes everything!" My voice cracked. "The pack doesn’t allow this—three mates? It’s unnatural. If the Elders find out—"
• "They already know," Reid cut in, voice cold and final. "They’ve felt the shift. You think you’re hiding it? You’re not."
• My stomach dropped.
• Rowan’s voice softened. "You’re not safe here. Come back with us to the palace. You’ll be protected."
• I let out a bitter laugh. "Oh, how heroic. The three Alpha Princes swooping in to protect the girl who never wanted them."
• "None of us asked for this," Ryker said, his tone losing its teasing edge. "But here we are."
• "I don’t need your protection," I growled, but the sharp ache in my chest flared again, the pain pulsing beneath my skin like fire. I gasped, struggling to breathe.
• Rowan stepped closer. "That pain? That’s the bond reacting to your denial. Keep resisting, and it’ll only get worse."
• "Then maybe I’ll break it," I snapped.
• Silence crashed over us like thunder.
• Even Ryker’s smirk faded.
• Rowan’s eyes darkened. "You don’t know what breaking the bond would do. To you. To us."
• I turned away.
• Not because I didn’t believe him.
• But because I did.
• That night, sleep refused to come.
• My mind spun with unanswered questions, a storm of dread and confusion. Who wanted me dead? Why now?
• I stepped outside. Moonlight cut through the trees in silver blades. The forest was silent, blanketed in eerie calm.
• I needed air. Space. Anything but walls closing in.
• Leaves crunched beneath my boots as I wandered. The scent of pine grounded me until a twig snapped behind me.
• I didn’t turn.
• "Are you stalking me now?" I asked, my voice flat.
• "Just keeping an eye on the girl who thinks she doesn’t need anyone," Ryker replied, stepping from the shadows. His shirt was half-unbuttoned, his presence annoyingly magnetic.
• "I told you to stay away."
• "And I told you I don’t follow rules."
• We stared at each other, tension crackling in the space between us. My wolf stirred inside, pacing, drawn to him like fire to oxygen.
• "You think you can ignore this," Ryker said, his voice dropping, "but the bond doesn’t go away just because you wish it would."
• "I don’t want it to be real."
• He took a step forward. "Too bad."
• I backed up until bark bit into my spine. He caged me in without touching me, arms braced on either side of my head.
• "Tell me you don’t feel it," he whispered. "That pull. The heat."
• "Stop."
• "Admit it."
• "I won’t."
• His lips brushed my cheek, not a kiss, just a whisper of contact—and my breath caught. My wolf howled in approval, desperate for more.
• I shoved him hard and stepped away, trembling. "Stay away from me."
• Then I ran.
• Not because I feared him.
• But because I feared what I wanted.
• Morning came too quickly.
• Two guards stood at my door, silent, armored, and grim.
• No words were needed.
• The Elders had summoned me.
• I was escorted through cold hallways to a chamber I’d only seen once as a child. Inside, five Elders sat in a crescent, eyes sharp, air thick with judgment.
• I stood alone in the center, the silence suffocating.
• "Brianna," Elder Marius said, tone devoid of warmth. "It has come to our attention that you are bonded to the Alpha triplets."
• I didn’t respond.
• "The bond has been sensed," Elder Therin added, face tight with disdain. "Three Alphas. One mate. It violates everything we stand for."
• "I didn’t ask for this," I said quietly.
• "Intent is irrelevant," said Elder Elara, her voice softer, though no less final. "This cannot continue."
• "So what are you saying?" I asked. "Someone tried to kill me last night, and this is what you care about?"
• Marius didn’t flinch. "You must reject the bond. Formally. Publicly."
• "And if I refuse?"
• "You’ll be exiled," Elara said, regret in her eyes. "Your connection to the pack will be severed. Permanently."
• I felt the floor tilt beneath me.
• Exile. Alone. Disconnected from everything—everyone.
• "We’ll give you until sundown," Therin said. "Choose wisely."
• The sun was low when I stepped outside the chamber.
• And there they were.
• Rowan. Ryker. Reid.
• Waiting. Watching.
• No words passed between us.
• They didn’t beg. Didn’t plead. Just stood there like monuments—anchored by the same fate I wanted to run from.
• The decision was mine to make.
• But either way…
• Something inside me was going to break.