Bound to the Triplet Alphas

Chapter 10: Chapter 10: The Transformation

ARIA POV

Before I could knock, the door of Alpha Darius’ office crashed open. His enormous hand grabbed my arm and jerked me inside so hard that I staggered and nearly fell to my knees.

"You’ve caused enough trouble," he yelled, slamming the door behind us.

My heart pounded against my ribcage. Two guards stood at the corners of the room, faces blank but eyes alert. I straightened my spine, refusing to cower despite the horror that was creeping up my throat.

"I didn’t ask to be summoned here," I murmured, shocked by the calm in my voice.

Alpha Darius circled his desk, like a predator. He was much bigger than Kael, taller than Jaxon, and lacked Lucien’s kindness. His eyes were cold steel, unlike the golden warmth that his boys had inherited.

"Do you have any idea what you’ve done?" He slammed his fist upon the desk. A fissure shattered the wood. "Generations of careful planning, bloodline preservation—all threatened because of one worthless omega."

I flinched but stood my ground. "I didn’t choose this."

"No?" He leaned forward. "Elder Malin informed me that you’ve been seeing visions. Power awakening. Isn’t this very convenient timing?"

The allegations cut deep, but Lucien’s medicines allowed me to think clearly. "I can’t control the mate bond any more than your sons can."

"Renounce it." His voice lowered to a deadly whisper. "Publicly. Tonight."

"What?"

"State that you made a mistake. "There is no bond." His smile did not reach his eyes. "Do this, and you’ll be able to leave the pack safely. Refuse, and I’ll expel you as a liar and manipulator."

My mouth became dry. "However, the link is real. "I feel it."

"What you feel is ambition." Alpha Darius approached a cupboard and picked out a folder. "You saw an opportunity to rise above your station."

"That’s not true."

He tossed the folder on the desk. Inside were images of Kael and Elira training, conversing, and going through the forest. They looked... good together. Strong. Perfect.

"Elira has been groomed since birth to mate with Kael," he told me. "Their coupling will bring together the strongest bloodlines in our pack. This has been planned over centuries."

Something clicked in my brain. "That’s why the bond feels off. You must have been altering it in some way."

His eyes narrowed. "Don’t speak of things you don’t understand, girl."

"What did you do?" I moved closer, anger replacing fear. "Some kind of ritual to force Kael and Elira together?"

He concealed a look of surprise on his face. I’d gotten closer to the truth than he anticipated.

"I protect this pack," he explained. "Sometimes that means making difficult choices."

"Like killing my father?"

The words poured out before I could stop them. Alpha Darius went extremely still. The guards shuffled uneasily.

"What did you say?" His voice was deathly quiet.

Another image flashed across my mind: a black wolf surrounded by adversaries. My father. Alpha Thorne. I could see it plainly now, the golden eyes were identical to mine.

"You knew who I was all along," I confessed, the truth searing through me. "You knew I was Alpha Thorne’s daughter."

Alpha Darius’ face hardened. "Elder Malin should have kept his mouth shut."

"Did you kill him?" My voice shook. "Did you murder my father?"

Rather than refute it, he smiled. My blood froze as I saw his cold, calculated smirk.

"Your father was weak," he explained. "He sought harmony amongst the packs. Sharing of land. "Equality for omegas." He spat the final word like poison. "The Shadow Valley Pack deserved a stronger leader."

"So you killed him and took his territory." The room seems to revolve around me. "What about me?" Why didn’t you kill me, too?

Alpha Darius walked toward the window with his back to me. "You were an infant. There’s no threat. And keeping you alive had additional benefits."

"What benefits?"

He turned and studied me with renewed curiosity. "Have you figured out why all three of my sons feel connected to you?"

I crossed my arms, attempting to conceal how severely I was shaking. "Tell me."

"Because of who you are." He tapped the window glass. "Because of what flows in your veins."

"Which is what?"

"Alpha blood," he explained. "Pure, unadulterated Alpha blood. Rarer than you can think.

My thoughts raced. "If that’s true, then I’m not an omega at all."

"No. You’re not." He seemed almost amused. "You are the daughter of one of the most powerful Alphas our species has ever known. That is why I cannot allow you to mate with any of my sons."

"Because I’d have a claim to leadership," I said loudly. "A stronger claim than yours."

Alpha Darius went back to his workstation. "Tonight, you will break the bond. Or you’ll disappear tomorrow, just like your father did."

The danger lingered in the air between us. I should have been afraid, but something unusual was happening to me. Heat spread throughout my body, beginning in my chest and moving to my fingertips, toes, and the top of my head.

"No," I replied.

Alpha Darius raised his eyebrow. "No?"

"I won’t renounce the bond." I stepped forward and met his stare. "And I won’t disappear."

He laughed, really laughed. "And how are you going to stop me, tiny Omega? Or should I say, "Little Alpha without pack?"

"The same way my father should have stopped you." The heat in my body grew excruciating and pressed against my flesh. My vision became strangely sharper, colors clearer, fragrances stronger. "By standing my ground."

Alpha Darius’ countenance transformed from surprise to concern. "Guards," he said abruptly. "Restrain her."

The guards advanced ahead briefly before coming to a halt, their faces confused.

"What’s going on?" one of them murmured.

I felt it too—power surging through and around me. The mate bond pulsed, no longer pushing me in three directions, but instead centering and grounding me.

Alpha Darius backed away. "This is impossible." "You are too young to—"

A scream escaped from my throat as anguish surged through my body. My bones changed and my flesh burnt. I dropped to all fours as my body morphed and shifted. For the first time in my life.

The last thing I saw as my human mind departed was Alpha Darius’s shocked and enraged expression as he peered at my wolf form.

A wolf with silvery white fur and golden eyes.

Exactly like my mother’s.