1 - New family

“Let’s go to our new home, dad.” Svetlana whispered to the photo frame, knowing her father could hear her. She looked at her dad for the last time before sighing and entered the city’s international airport. Svetlana had been moving from her boarding school to her mom’s place. Her parents met once again in some bar and she was their drunken mistake, born nearly 17 years ago and soon after her father died. Both of her parents were ordinary werewolves. Her father was the omega of his pack, an ordinary pack, nothing special to brag about.

Svetlana’s mom and dad were childhood sweethearts, who got separated and met once again. They didn’t care about the fact that they were not each other’s mates despite being in love and were happily married. Everything was fine until her father died and her mom’s Alpha mate, Zaro, the Alpha of Dark Stone pack, appeared in her life.  It was the time when her mom moved in with him and Svetlana was dropped to a boarding school until now. After her college was finished Alpha Zaro wanted Svetlana to come and live with them.

The Dark Stone pack was filthy rich and strongest among all the whole USA. Alpha Zaro was an influential person and being married to him now her mom could afford to keep Svetlana with her. It was not like Svetlana didn't love her mother, she used to meet her when she visited her old pack house. Sometimes she visited Svetlana’s hostel to spend time with her when she was little. What irked and made her disappointed was just that she left her and chased the man, when Svetlana was barely a few years old and now, she wants to take her in?

How could she simply forgive her mother when she came back into her life out of nowhere? Svetlana was supposed to move in Dark Stone dark like a few months ago, but somehow she managed to stall her mother. But now she just couldn’t accept any of her excuses and wanted Svetlana there before her 18th birthday. Her mother wished that Lana would continue her university there in New York. As much as Lana herself was awkward about the matter, her mother seemed to be excited to introduce her to the new family.

On the other hand, Svetlana would soon turn eighteen, which meant she could finally recognize her mate. At first, she was so excited about it but since she was moving to New York, Lana didn’t really feel the excitement anymore. What if her mate was still in Omaha while she was moving to New York? The fear caught her and made Lana reluctant as she wished to meet her mate sooner. Like every other teen girl she wished for him to be straight out of the books. Lana had crafted a sketch in her head regarding how her mate might be. 

Nonetheless, it was her first time visiting her mom’s new home and the pack. All she knew about the whole situation was that her mom was the Luna of the pack. Alpha Zaro appeared to be welcoming when he called Lana to persuade her and his warmth reminded her of a father figure. Despite being the alpha of the Dark Stone pack which was filthy rich, alpha Zaro was humble! It was not what made Svetana awkward, rather the fact that the alpha already had 3 sons, triplets, from his previous wife. Hotties! 

Alpha Zaro had this girlfriend in college whom he married later on and gave birth to the triplets. The stinking hot trio, Sahan, Zuhan, Raihan. However, his wife died after giving birth to them due to weakness. Alpha Zaro was in depression for a few years, until he met his mate, Svetlana’s mother. He directly married her without any delay and made her his Luna. Alpha Zaro was really worried about having kids with her mother after his wife’s death during labour but upon convincing he ended up giving in. 

Soon after they had another kid, named Saikus, who was two years younger to Svetlana. Whereas the trio of hotties was 22 years old, compared to Lana who was about to turn 18th in a few weeks. Unfortunately, she had met the triplets before, when her mother brought them during her birthday. They spoiled her birthday cake and tried to bully her. Even though the story was old, it left a bad impression on Lana’s mind. All she wanted was to avoid them at any cost as long as she could convince her mother to go back to Omaha.

Saikus, on the other hand, was cute and shy at that time when they met. But now Lana knew nothing else about her step brothers and Saikus. The plane took off as she seated herself with nervousness. ‘Ahah! Quite knowledgeable for someone who is going to live with them for god knows how long!’ She taunted herself with a scoff for being so dumb and not gathering more information. Although Lana knew that the trio had been in the headlines frequently and held a notorious reputation. Not surprising. Wealthy brats! 

She didn’t know when she fell asleep during the flight while thinking about her new family. A small nudge woke Lana up from her dreamland and dragged her back to reality. She looked at the flight attendant who smiled back professionally. “We have landed, Miss. You are the only passenger.” Lana could not help but feel embarrassed for passing out for a long time. She immediately smiled, being grateful. “Thank you so much for waking me up.” She gathered her stuff and got off the plane, picked up her luggage and arrived at the receiving point.

Lana looked around to figure out who was going to pick her up and her eyes fell on a board. “WELCOME HOME, SVETLANA” was written in bold and the person waved it a bit for me to notice. Lana glanced down and saw one of the triplets holding the board with a smirk. While the others were resting their hot backs on the railings. Nervously she took a deep sigh and moved towards them with a forced smile. “Welcome, stepsister!” He stressed on the latter part, however Lana had no clue who he was among them. 

“Thank you.” She replied gently while wondering how the trio could change that much in just a few years. All three of them had grown into fine young men who could make any girl weak in her knees. Those handsome devils! 

“Oh, introduction! Forgive me. I am Sahan, the youngest; this is the oldest, Raihan, and this is Zuhan”. He pointed towards his brothers with a wicked smile. Something was definitely suspicious, Svetlana knew she couldn’t trust everything coming from the trio. 

There was not much difference between them height wise. Sahan appeared to be a gym rat and the reserved one, Zuhan, had long hair while the eldest Raihan, had short hair and stone-faced personality. All of them were towering above her and could potentially toss her around with their one hand. ‘Why am I even thinking such things?’ Lana shook her head to shake off those steamy thoughts. But she couldn’t help and appreciate their looks, their facial features were exquisite. They had the body of a Greek God, everything about them was just perfect.

“Nice to meet you.” Lana replied politely hiding her awkwardness. “Same to you, Svetlana.” Zuhan had the same deep voice as Sahan but was lacking a smile. For some reason Lana could feel something stirring in her gut upon hearing her name from his mouth. 

“Believe me, pleasure is all ours.” Sahan added while licking his lips as he emphasised on the word pleasure. However, Raihan didn’t show any interest in the conversation. ‘Rude!’ Lana couldn’t help but think of him as an egoistic person. 

Sahan guided her towards the car while Zuhan was driving, Raihan was sitting next to him and Lana was sitting on the back seat with Sahan. The drive from the airport to the pack house was grim silent. They reached the pack house in nearly 30 minutes. Lana looked outside the window and saw a freaking mansion in front of her. Her jaw dropped expression didn’t go unnoticed by the triplets. As the vehicle moved towards the parking lot, Lana noticed their pack house wasn’t just a house. The whole thing was not less than a friggin castle surrounded by acres of green land. 

Alpha Zaro’s house was at the end of the whole town, having a different entrance itself. Zuhan pulled the car into the parking lot and they all entered their house. Lana saw her mother excitedly waiting for me at the living with Alpha Zaro, whose hand was on her mother’s shoulder. They both appeared genuinely invested in meeting her, unlike the suspicious trio. “Svetlana, my little girl, I can’t believe you are finally here. Look how much you have grown into a fine woman." Her mother chirped excitedly, contrasting to Lana’s emotions.

“Same here, mom.” Lana responded with a sarcastic smile, which her mother didn’t seem to catch and literally choked her in a tight hug. Alpha Zaro also walked up to her and head patted Lana, which nearly made her cry with the overwhelming emotions. No matter what she couldn’t help but notice how the alpha had truly treated her as his own daughter. Lana had issues with her mother and her decisions but there was no beef with Alpha Zaro. Lastly, she got a gentle hug from Saikus, her mother and Alpha Zaro’s child. 

“I was waiting for your arrival, sister.” Saikus spoke politely while hugging her as they both swayed a bit. Saikus looked nothing like the triplets except his coloured eyes. He had dark hair and hazel eyes just like Lana. His chiselled face with a sharp jawline, small pointy nose and doe eyes also resembled her. Anyone could say that they both were siblings, while Saikus somewhat had traces of being related to the trio.

“Nice to meet you”. Lana couldn’t be rude to her own brother, though she suspected that he would have been ‘trained’ into hating her by the triplets. It looks like he didn’t really get that much influenced by arrogant and bratty Triplets. Lana was dragged out of her thoughts by Alpha Zaro’s strong, intimidating voice. She could not help but wonder what else the triplets had inherited from their father apart from the raspy, sexy voice and hunky looks. It was hard to pick one among the three of them. Heck! All of them were hot!

“Thank you for coming, Svetlana. Your mom and I are equally happy to have you here. Please make yourself feel at home. We have made all the arrangements for your comfortable stay. You are my daughter and you have all the rights as my other kids have.” Alpha Zaro spoke kindly while reassuring her about how she could use and abuse her rights as the alpha’s only daughter. However, Svetlana had no such intentions of staying with them permanently. She wished to leave and not become a part of their family.

“And since you are our daughter, you have equal respect and status as Sahan, Zuhan, Raihan and Saikus. In fact, if they are at the position of Alpha, you are at the position of Luna. You will have the same rights and authority in the pack. And if someone gives you trouble, tell the triplets, they will handle it for you”. He chuckled but something stirred in her upon hearing those words. It was the first time Svetlana could rely on someone else for her mess without any worry. Not even one man but frigging 3 hotties! 

“Yes, I will.” Looking at the triplets Lana spoke again knowing she was never going to involve those devils in anything. “If I need their assistance I will tell them.” She saw 2 of them staring back at her with a smirk while Raihan remained uninterested as before. As she was just having a nice chat with Alpha Zaro, Suhan and Zuhan appeared in between. “Lana must be tired, dad. We will show her the room.” Both of them said in unison when Sahan placed his hand over her shoulder.