Mated To Three, Fated To Two

Olivia Hale

The omegas always got the scraps.

Scraps of food. Scraps of clothing. Scraps of respect, if there was any left to begin with. And me? I was the leftover of a leftover. The stain no one wanted to admit was still on the pack’s record.

Everyone in Bloodroot Hollow howled when Lucy Greene shifted for the first time.

She glowed silver under the full moon, her pristine white wolf coat glittering like she was dipped in starlight. The pack cheered. They called her “blessed.” The future Beta female. A perfect mate.

Meanwhile, I coughed up blood in the shadows.

“Keep walking, slave brat,” someone growled behind me as they shoved past. I didn’t bother looking back. I was used to it. The bruises, the cold glares, the whispered insults. That’s what being a freed omega orphan got you. You weren’t a person—you were a walking reminder of what the pack wanted to forget.

I didn’t shift. Not at thirteen. Not at fifteen. Not even at sixteen, when most girls felt the call of their wolf.

Eighteen tomorrow. And if the Moon Goddess had any mercy left, she’d kill me in my sleep before I had to face that humiliation all over again.

But fate doesn’t let girls like me die easy.

It makes us useful first.

I dragged myself through the crowd, careful to keep my head down, eyes low. One wrong look was all it took for someone to throw a punch or worse—tell the triplets I was being "disrespectful." And they always made it a game. One would hold me down, the other would laugh, and the third? He never touched me. Not once. But his silence hurt worse than any bruise.

“You are more than what they see,” Mama used to whisper when the moonlight filtered through the rotting roof of our shack. “But don’t let them see it. Not until you have claws of your own.”

She died two days after that. Torn apart by rogues. Or so they claimed.

I stopped believing the pack’s stories the same night I found claw marks that didn’t match rogue teeth.

“Hey, darling omega,” a low voice cut through the noise.

I froze. I knew that voice.

I turned slowly, heart in my throat.

Riven. The middle triplet. The rebel one. The dangerous one.

He leaned against a tree, moonlight catching on the metal cuff around his wrist—the Beta-in-waiting’s band. His dark eyes locked on mine, sharp and unreadable.

“You're shaking,” he said casually, like it wasn’t his brothers who'd shoved me into a freezing creek last week and laughed when I nearly drowned.

I bit back the urge to snarl. “Maybe it’s the cold.”

Or maybe it’s you.

His gaze dropped to the ripped hem of my shirt, the faded hand-me-downs clinging to my frame.

“You should eat something.”

I blinked. What?

Was this some new game? Concerned Riven? Savior Riven? I wasn’t buying it.

“I’ll eat when you stop pretending you care,” I muttered.

A smirk ghosted over his lips. He pushed off the tree and stepped closer. Too close.

“I don’t care,” he whispered. “But I do wonder…”

I held my breath.

“…what kind of wolf hides for eighteen years.”

Then he turned and walked away.

Just like that.

Like he didn’t just dig under my skin and light a fuse.

I wanted to tear him apart with my hands.

"Ugh " I groaned in frustration folding my fists to punch a nearby tree. Nothing happened to the tree but I felt the searing pain in my fists. I looked at them and saw they were bleeding already. Maybe I was weak. None of the lessons with Elijah had paid off. I was still weak.

Tears blurred the back of my eyes threatening to spill as I wiped them off hastily sniffling.

I slowly walked back to my rundown shed.

Maybe tomorrow will be different. Hopefully.

---------

The next night I found myself at the pack house.

“Move it, freak,” snarled one of the kitchen staff as she shoved past me, a tray of roasted meats balancing on her shoulder.

I flinched but didn’t argue. I was used to being invisible—except when they needed someone to mock.

My boots slipped slightly on the stone floor as I pushed open the back door to the pack house. I didn’t belong inside. Omegas didn’t sit at the table with Alphas, Betas, or the inner circle. We served. We obeyed. And we disappeared.

It was just how it was. How it always had been.

I sat alone under the willow tree by the servant’s quarters, a half-eaten bread roll in my hand, cold air nipping at my skin. My coat was two sizes too small, the sleeves ending just below my elbows.

“Happy birthday to me,” I muttered dryly, tossing a pebble across the frosty grass.

Eighteen today. Nothing felt different. Still the same bitter taste in my mouth. Still the same pitying stares. Still the same whispers of “That’s the freed slave’s daughter.”

Still the same… nothing.

My mother used to tell me stories about the mate bond. How it was magic, destiny, a gift from the Moon Goddess. How one day, the moment I turned eighteen, my wolf would awaken and guide me to the one person the Goddess had chosen for me.

That had been before. Before she got sick. Before her spirit broke under the weight of years spent cleaning other people’s filth. Before I realized the bond didn’t matter when you were born at the bottom.

I didn’t want a mate. I didn’t want love or fate or magic. I wanted a way out.

And yet…

I looked up, eyes drawn to the training field in the distance. There she was—Lucy Greene. The Beta’s daughter. Practically gliding as she jogged around the track, her platinum hair tied in a bouncing ponytail, laughter trailing behind her like a perfume.

Everyone loved Lucy. Perfect Lucy. Gifted Lucy. Her wolf awakened early at sixteen, the Elders called her “blessed.” She was already prepping to be a Luna—trained in etiquette, strategy, charm.

What did I have? A dead stare and a secondhand coat.

She caught my eye for a second. Smiled. Waved.

I didn’t wave back.

The sound of the pack bell rang across the grounds. Shift trials. Of course.

Every year, on our eighteenth birthday, those born of wolf blood had to show their first shift. It was a celebration for most—an invitation to join the adult ranks. But for me, it felt like another test I was bound to fail.

I stood up slowly, heart pounding. My body ached. I hadn’t eaten enough. Hadn’t slept. The nightmares were getting worse—visions of blood and silver, of being chased through forests by shadowy beasts.

My wolf hadn’t even whispered yet. I was turning eighteen and still… nothing.

If I didn’t shift tonight, I’d be labeled defective. Or worse—human.

The crowd gathered near the sacred stone circle, a relic of our ancestors. The Elders stood robed in grey, the Alpha's sons—Kael, Riven, and Silas—off to the side, watching with bored expressions.

I kept my eyes down. They didn’t know me. I wasn’t important enough.

“Next,” called Elder Elijah’s voice, calm and even.

My name.

I stepped into the circle. My hands were shaking.

Breathe, Liv. Just… breathe.

I could feel the weight of their stares. Whispers began immediately.

“Is that the Hale girl?”

“She won’t shift.”

“I heard she doesn’t even have a wolf.”

And then—burning.

It started in my spine, a searing heat that knocked the air out of my lungs. I dropped to my knees, gasping. My bones cracked. My skin rippled. It felt like my body was tearing itself apart from the inside.

I screamed.

Voices blurred. I heard someone say, “It’s happening!”

Fur burst from my skin, dark and silver-flecked. My vision sharpened, ears twitching, claws digging into the dirt.

I’d shifted.

I was no longer human. I was wolf.

The crowd was silent.

Then—howls.

Not one. Not two.

Three.

From across the field, the Alpha’s sons fell to their knees, groaning. The pack went silent again, confused.

Kael’s golden eyes locked with mine. His lips parted.

Riven stumbled forward, eyes wide, chest heaving.

Silas… smiled. Slowly. Creepily. Like he knew a secret no one else did.

I shifted back, trembling, chest heaving. My knees gave out.

And then—snap.

A sound, not heard but felt. Like chains latching onto my soul. Like a brand burned into my skin.

Mate bond.

Three times.

Panic erupted. Elders rushed forward. Voices shouting.

“She’s bonded to all three.”

“That’s impossible.”

“The prophecy—”

I didn’t hear the rest. I was too busy trying not to faint.

The triplets were staring at me like I’d just stolen the sky.

And I… had no idea what the hell just happened.