Chapter 2
I inhaled a deep, shaky breath. My fists were balled at my sides and my palms were clammy. I didn’t know why I was so nervous. I shouldn’t have been anxious to tell my parents the big news. Excitement stirred in my chest, sure, but also a huge bundle of nerves.
Maybe under normal circumstances I would’ve been more excited than nervous, but this wasn’t exactly a normal situation. It was… strange, to say the least.
Once again, a huge life-changing event happened to me--and once again, I had no idea how anybody was going to react to it.
Well, except for the three men in my life who mattered the most.
As I did another breathing exercise to calm myself, I felt a hand gently grip my shoulder. An alpha stood beside me, his familiar and comforting scent wafting around me. He smelled faintly of strawberry shampoo.
“Hey,” Eric said. “It’s going to be fine, Matheson.”
“You don’t know that,” I mumbled.
“Yes, I do.” He kissed the top of my head. “Come on. You’re worrying yourself over nothing.”
I sighed. On my other side, another alpha piped up while patting my back.
“Hey, telling your parents the big news isn’t nothing,” Ramsay said lightly. “It’s okay if Mathe’s a little nervous.”
Littlemight have been an understatement. I felt like I could pass out.
But why? What reason did I have to be scared? These were my parents. They loved and supported me no matter what. They’d been nothing but helpful when I found out thefirstmajor change in my life--namely, that I was actually an omega, and not a beta like I’d thought for the first nineteen years and three-hundred-sixty-four days of my existence.
Almost a month had passed since that fun little discovery, although it seemed like much longer. So much had happened since the night I woke up in the sweaty, aching agony of my first heat. Finding out I was actually an omega was the first big blow to my psyche, since no omegas existed in any of the four packs around the lake. At least, not for a very long time. Being the first one made me rare and special, like a damn unicorn. I’d been smothered in an onslaught of attention since my omega status was revealed.
But it wasn’t fun and games. In fact, being an omega put a huge target over my head. I was a walking damsel-in-distress, constantly thinking about the foreboding threats that lurked everywhere.
The biggest and most dangerous threat was the gryphons. Because of their unique biology, gryphons can only procreate with a male omega involved--which I just so happened to be--and since they don’t have any of their own, obviously their only logical choice would be to abduct me and use me as breeding stock for the rest of my life.
Oh, goody.
Did I mention the magical prophecy about me being the chosen one and unlocking the secrets of the verse to free all omegas and shifters in the land? Because that was a thing, too.
Thankfully, we did have one friendly gryphon on our side. Noro was the magic Keeper for his pride--whatever that meant, I still wasn’t completely sure--and he’d helped us decipher the meaning of the prophecy so far. He was the one who warned us about the gryphons wanting to abduct me if they found out. Which they hadn’t, yet. But we all knew it was just a matter of time.
But I wasn’t alone. Not anymore. My mates weren’t about to let some gryphons swoop in and kidnap me.
Maybe in that way, I was truly special. In stories of omegas passed down to us, it seemed like most people were lucky enough to have one fated mate. But I didn’t just have one alpha. I had three fated mates all to myself.
Eric, my firm and stoic protector.
Ramsay, easygoing and always making me laugh.
Colton, the sweetest of them all.
In the past month, I’d fallen in love with all three of them hard and fast. But this wasn’t some fling or a trick of my omega hormones. It was real. I knew they would all do anything for me, and I’d do the same for them.
Especially now that the stakes were even higher...
I glanced up across the bonfire towards the empty clearing on the island. The scent of burning wood filled the air as smoke danced above the flames.
“It’s almost time,” Colton said. He sat next to the fire, doodling little wolf shapes in the sandy dirt.
Above us hung a white and perfectly circular moon. Pale light shimmered on the black lake water surrounding the island. It was time for the monthly Moon Meeting, a gathering of the packs four leaders to share news and discuss topics concerning all of us.
And we sure as hell had a lot to talk about tonight.
