Chapter 5

Chapter 5 — Aria's POV

I woke up to a clean and sterile smell. Not like the earthy smell of the forest that I remembered. Wait, when? My thoughts were not clear like they were filled with cotton.

I opened my eyes and I noticed a white ceiling above me. Definitely not the star-filled night sky I remembered seeing last.

Where the hell was I?

I tried to sit up, but I fell back with a groan. Every part of my body was hurting, as if I had just run a marathon. Or, you know, I fled for my life through a forest.

The forest, The river, The shift.

It all came back in a tidal wave. The rejection, running from the Shadowmoon pack, my first agonizing incomplete shift, and then.

Oh, Goddess. The Nightfire twins.

I closed my eyes, hoping it was a bad dream. But the room was still here when I opened my eyes again. An infirmary-white walls, medical equipment, and that unmistakable scent of antiseptic.

“Nyx?” I called out mentally to my wolf. “What happened?”

My wolf stirred, her presence so much more potent than before. “We found our mates,” she exclaimed, full of awe and excitement in her tone.

Mates? Plural? I shook my head to try and clear the fog in my brain. “Impossible. We had a mate, remember? Jaxon? The one who rejected us?”

Cruel words uttered by Jaxon seemed to reverberate inside my head over and over, a broken record that made me flinch. “I, Jaxon Blackthorn, Alpha of the Shadowmoon Pack, hereby reject Aria Ravenshadow as my mate.”

“He wasn't our true mate,” Nyx growled. “Kane and Zane are. You felt it too, didn't you?”

I bit my lip, remembering that strange pull I'd felt toward the twins. But no. It couldn't be. “It's not possible to have two mates, Nyx. And even if it was, why would they want us? We're just a weak, useless Omega, remember?”

“We are not weak!” Nyx snarled anger at my self-deprecation. “And they are our mates. I know it.”

Before I could continue my argument, I heard steps getting louder and louder. Deep masculine voices that made my heart quiver. Kane and Zane.

“She should wake up soon,” one of them said. Kane, I believe. His voice was a little deeper than Zane's.

“Good,” Zane replied. “We need answers.”

My throat was clawing at my panic. They wanted answers I couldn't give. About why Nyx had called them our mates.

I couldn't look at them. I couldn't stand seeing the revulsion in their eyes when they finally realized that I was a freak. An Omega who was unable to even shift properly.

“We have to get out of here,” I said to Nyx, forcing myself to my feet despite the sharp pains shooting through my body.

“No!” Nyx protested. “They're our mates. We have to stay!”

But I wasn't listening. My gaze scanned the room frantically until they fell upon a pile of clean clothes on a chair nearby. My clothes, I realized. Washed and folded neatly.

I stumbled out of bed and clenched my teeth against the pain; everything hurt most of all the fear of having to face Kane and Zane. I hastily yanked on my clothes, my shaking hands barely able to manage the buttons.

“Aria, please,” Nyx begged. “Don't do this. They won't reject us. They're different from Jaxon.”

“You don't know that,” I snapped back mentally. “I can't. I can't go through that again, Nyx. I won't survive it.”

The voices were getting closer. I could hear their footsteps now, just outside the door. My eyes landed on a window across the room. It wasn't big, but I was small. I could make it.

“Aria, no!” Nyx howled in my mind, but I was already moving.

I reached the window just as the door handle turned. Without thinking, I shift. Pain ripped through me as my body tried to change, stuck once again in that in-between state. But it was enough. I felt stronger and faster.

I threw myself at the window just as the door opened. I heard twin shouts of alarm, but I was already falling, tumbling through the air.

I hit the ground hard, the impact absorbed by my half-shifted body. But I didn't stop. Couldn't stop. Scrambled to my feet, running, pushing my battered body to the breaking point.

If only I could reach the forest, maybe-just maybe-I would be able to lose them. Maybe I could-

Strong arms wrapped around me, hauling me off my escape route. I thrashed in a circle, and a pitiful growl ripped from my throat.

“And where do you think you're going to,” a deep voice rumbled in my ear.

“Kane!!”