Chapter 0005

The triplets and Thea went to their rooms to shower and change. 

As soon as she was alone, Thea freaked out. She wasn’t sure what had just happened. Maybe she dreamed it. It wouldn’t be the first time.  

The triplets were waiting for her when she left her room. They were all showered and in fresh clothes. Thea admired the view for a moment. The way their jeans hung from their hips. The way their T-shirts stretched across their broad, muscular chests. The way their identical faces lit up when they saw her. She could always tell who was who, but their hair was the only thing most people could use to tell them apart.

With his long crew cut freshly styled, Alaric leaned in for a quick kiss. She blushed, and he took her hand. It wasn’t a dream.

Conri ran his hand through his long, bro flow hair and kissed her too. “You’re never getting rid of us now,” he said. He splayed his hand around her hip, hooking a finger into one of the belt loops on her jeans.

Kai, with his messy pompadour, leaned in for his kiss. He took her hand and brought it up to his chest, holding it against his heart. They walked down the hallway—Alaric a little ahead, Conri a little behind, and Kai right at her other side. 

They passed by the Alpha’s office on the fifth floor, and Thea stopped when she heard her mother’s voice full of shock and fear.

“What could have done this?” Thea’s mother, Naomi, said behind the closed door.

“Vampires? Witches? Rogues?” Luna Ada said. Her voice also held concern.

Thea motioned for the triplets to be silent and listen with her by the door.

“Rogues couldn’t do that,” Alpha Ulric said. “I’ve never heard of witches or vampires organizing a force powerful enough to massacre an entire werewolf pack overnight.”

“Then there’s the question of why,” Naomi said. “What could that pack have done to warrant such an extreme reaction?”

“They may not have done anything,” Thea’s father, Beta Walter, said. “It’s not the first pack they’ve found desolated back east. There have been several others. They find out the pack is gone when someone goes to visit a ghost town.”

“Something is taking out werewolf packs?” Luna Ada said.

“What do we know about the packs that were targeted?” Alpha Ulric said. “Any clues left behind as to who did it or why?”

“These are the questions we need to find answers to,” Beta Walter said.

“This feels like the beginning of something big. Something that’s only going to get worse,” Naomi said.

“Let’s keep this between us for now,” Alpha Ulric said. “The boys and Thea have a few months left before they shift and graduate and then take over the pack. They’re the ones who will have to deal with this. Let’s let them enjoy these last weeks of being carefree before they have to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders.”

“Agreed,” the other parents said. 

They heard shuffling inside the office. Thea motioned for the triplets to go, and they quietly ran down and out of the pack house.

“I’m happy to ignore what we just heard until we’re the ones in charge,” Conri said as they walked to school. He took his place next to Thea, hand on her hip.

“We will have to deal with it,” Alaric said, slipping his hand into Thea’s. “It sounds like this thing is going to affect all werewolves everywhere.”

“Our parents will get the ball rolling,” Thea said.

“And they’ll help us even after they pass the Alpha title to us,” Kai said. He took Thea’s other hand. “We don’t have to stress about this yet.”

Everyone at school stared at them as they walked down the hallways. It wasn’t unusual to see the four of them together, but they had never held hands and kissed. 

No one living had seen a polyamorous relationship. It was the stuff of myth in the werewolf community. Some people slept around, but they weren’t in committed relationships with all their conquests. Wolves eventually mated with one person. They were known for it. Wolves were notoriously possessive, jealous beasts, unable to share.

The triplets didn’t break contact with Thea the whole day except for the one class they didn’t have together. Third hour, right before lunch. The triplets walked her to her room, each kissed her, then said their goodbyes. 

It was a class about omegas, the lowest-ranked pack members, what their uses could be, and their role in a pack. New Dawn didn’t designate any members as omegas, but other packs did. Some had slaves. Thea wanted to change that. She wanted to learn all she could to know what needed to change.

“That’s new,” Lizzy, her blonde-haired best friend, said when Thea sat next to her. “Since when are you kissing our future Alphas?” She had one eyebrow raised.

“Since this morning?” Thea said.

“It’s about time.”

“What?”

“I guess you didn’t need the Talent Show to get their attention after all.”

“That’s why you wanted me to wear the slutty outfit for the Talent Show tomorrow?”

“Duh. Someone needed to give you all a little push. I wonder who won the betting pool.”

“That thing went dry months ago,” Tessa, another girl in their pack, said. “No one thought it’d take this long.”

“What are you talking about?” Thea said.

“The whole school has been betting on when you all would get together,” Lizzy said. “Which of you would get together, if it’d be all three sharing you, or just one or two. If there’d be fights. If you got together with one and then mated another. All the possibilities. Everything.”

“I’m so confused,” Thea said.

“About what, girl? Those boys have been in love with you forever.”

Thea stared blankly at her best friend.

“Did you seriously not know?” Lizzy said. “They’ve never shown interest in any other girl. Never asked anyone out. Never hooked up with anyone even though plenty of girls have tried.”

Jealousy surged inside Thea, but she pushed it down. The triplets turned down the advances. 

“I always looked at them as brothers,” Thea said. “I thought they saw me as a sister.”

“When did it shift?”

“I don’t know. It came on gradually.”

The bell rang, signaling the start of class. “I want to hear all about this,” Lizzy said.

“We all do,” Tessa said.

“At dress rehearsal for the Talent Show?” Lizzy said.

“Maybe,” Thea said.

After class, Thea walked to the cafeteria and found the triplets at their usual table. Conri pulled her onto his lap and rested his chin on her shoulder, breathing in her scent. Alaric pulled one of her legs over his and rubbed it up and down with his hands. Kai held her hand on the other side of Conri.

People whispered around the cafeteria.

“Did you guys know there’s a betting pool about us getting together?” Thea said quietly.

“I’ve heard rumors,” Kai said.

“No,” Conri said.

“I’ll get to the bottom of it,” Alaric said. Thea turned to him and leaned in for a quick kiss. Kai tugged on her hand until she kissed him too. Conri trailed kisses up and down her neck.

“You guys have to stop, or I’m going to be wet all day,” Thea whispered. She had to prepare those herbs to mask her scent when she got home today.

“Then let us suck you dry,” Conri whispered into her ear.

She gasped.

“Move slower, Con,” Alaric said.

The triplets took turns having Thea sit on their laps in each class, the other two holding her hands on either side. Teachers gave them looks but didn’t bother to say anything since they were future Alphas. Not even when they kissed the back of her neck or caressed any part of her they could reach.

Thea kept smiling. She would enjoy these last months before shifting and becoming Beta if this was how it would go.