The door slammed open and the triplets waltzed in.
“I think we need to let the other guys get some of the girls once in a while,” Lucas said, laughing as they made their way into the house.
They’d been at the club all night, having fun with their friends and it’d almost turned into an argument—again.
“It’s not our fault that the girls only want us no matter where we go,” Levi said, smirking.
The dark house seemed to shimmer with their golden presence as soon as they arrived.
“Keep your voices down,” Liam shushed his brothers, tossing a can of soda at Levi’s head with blinding speed.
Levi caught the tossed can without blinking, smirking at his brother. “You’re getting slow, brother,” he jested.
Liam rolled his eyes. They headed to their wing.
Lucas reached the black door with the emblem of the three golden crowns first. He grabbed the handle then froze.
“What is it?” Liam asked, looking over his brother’s shoulder.
“Someone has been in here,” Lucas growled.
They immediately went into attack mode. One thing about them, they hated it when anyone touched their stuff. Their rooms were out of bounds, even to most of the house staff.
“Do you think they’re still inside?” Levi asked, growling.
“Let’s find out!” Lucas slammed the door open and walked into the hall. His brothers rushed in after him.
But the hall was empty. The only presence left in the rooms was a faint, distinct but familiar scent.
The triplets froze at the same time. Their eyes jerked to each other.
“That scent…” Levi gasped.
“It’s definitely…” Liam added, wide-eyed.
Lucas finally hit the nail on the head. “Hazel!”
There was no mistaking her scent. She’d lived with them for years now. They knew her scent like the back of their hands.
But today, something was different. Very, very different. Today, her scent was like an intoxicating wine. It hit them like a blow to the gut. It nearly sent them into a frenzy.
“She is our mate,” Lucas spat, disbelief in his voice.
Their wolves clawed at them, struggling to take control. They had to clench their fists tightly to keep their wolf from jumping out and rushing to claim Hazel wherever she was.
They found the room one by one, but all of them went silent. Each of the triplets lost in their own thoughts.
Since they were identical triplets, they always anticipated the possibility of sharing a mate. But they never knew it would be Hazel.
“This changes everything,” Levi muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. “Do you think she knows?”
Lucas rolled his eyes at his youngest brother. “Of course, she does. Why else would she have come into our wing?”
“How do you think she is going to take the news?” Liam asked quietly. “Considering…”
He didn’t have to finish the sentence. They all knew what he was going to say: ‘Considering how we treated her in the past.’
They’d spent years making her life miserable. It was all just in jest but seeing how she reacted at the venue earlier, she didn’t seem to have found their jokes funny at all.
Fate had played the meanest trick on them by making her their mate.
“What are we going to do now? She is our mate. We can’t live without her,” Liam exclaimed.
“What if she rejects us?” Levi added wide-eyed.
“We will make her accept us,” Lucas said firmly. “She is ours. She’s our mate now. We can never let her go.”
Liam’s face hardened too. “You’re right. She belonged to us in the past even before this mate business. And now, she belongs to us in an even better way.”
“And we never give away what belongs to us to others!” Levi added.
They shared a smirk, an unspoken agreement passing between them: Hazel would be theirs, no matter what.
******
~ Hazel’s POV ~
By the next day, I was still walking around in a daze.
‘It can’t be true! There’s no way the triplets are my mates! Surely, the moon goddess cannot be that cruel.’
Those three had been my tormentors for years! All I’d been waiting for was my opportunity to escape them forever.
But now fate was trying to bind me to them for eternity!? A lump grew in my throat, my heart pounding loudly.
I went through my chores like a zombie, a million thoughts racing through my mind. My number one thought was:
‘I must avoid the triplets at all costs!’
I couldn’t afford to run into them today. I wasn’t ready to face them. Once they found out I was their mate, they would be furious.
How could a lowly maid like me be their mate? They would definitely reject me. The thought sent a jolt of devastation through my heart.
I sighed heavily, gripping the mop bucket tighter as I made my way to the next spot I needed to clean in the packhouse.
As I turned the hallway, I almost bumped right into someone. With a little scream, I jerked backward, scared that I’d gotten dirty water on them.
As a maid, almost every person in the park was above me. A mistake like that could get me a serious scolding or even a beating.
“I’m so sorry!” I gasped quickly, looking down to make sure I didn’t spill any water. “It was all my fault. I wasn’t looking where I was—”
My eyes jerked up, only to clash with the last person I wanted to see right now. Jessie.
“You’re right! It’s all your fault, you stupid bitch. Why weren’t you looking where you were going!?” She screeched.
I sighed wearily. “I already apologized to you,” I pointed out.
“Would an apology fix my shoes that you splashed dirty water on? Do you even know how much these shoes cost, you filthy maid? It costs more than your life is worth!”
“The water didn’t get on you at all!” I cried. “I checked to make sure.”
“You’re not the one who is going to tell me whether it got on my shoes or not! Get on your knees and clean my shoes with your tongue!” She demanded.
My jaw dropped. “You can’t be serious!”
“Try me,” she spat. “Get on your knees, bitch!”
“I will do no such thing!” I cried. “The water didn’t get on you at all. And I might be a maid, but I also deserve basic human decency!”
“Are you talking back at me, you nobody? It seems you’ve forgotten your place in this pack! I’ll remind you,” she exclaimed.
I never got to know what she planned to do because we suddenly heard the sound of footsteps running towards us.
The scent hit me before they even arrived—mate. Our noise must have woken one of the triplets up! Panic rose in my chest. I dropped the bucket on the floor and fled like a frightened animal.
“Where the hell are you going? I’m not done with you,” Jessie shouted after me, confused at my sudden departure.
Before she could follow me, she saw Levi rushing down the stairs. Her demeanor immediately changed. The cold, furious look on her face vanished, replaced by a sweet smile.
“Oh, hi there, Levi!” She said softly, putting her hand on his chest. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
Levi barely spared her a glance. He shoved her hand off his body. A shocked look crossed her face but she recovered quickly.
She smirked, moving closer to him again. “I was just teaching that silly Hazel a lesson before you came. If you’d come a few seconds earlier, you could have watched,” she said laughing.
She gave him an expectant look, expecting him to laugh with her as usual. But she was silenced by a cold, furious look.
“Don’t you ever—” he growled, taking a threatening step forward.
Jessie stumbled back. Fear flashed across her face.
“—ever, in your life, run your filthy mouth about Hazel ever again!”
A squeak burst out from her lips. She whirled around and hightailed it out of there.
Levi reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone and dialed a number. As soon as the person picked, he didn’t bother with pleasantries.
“We need to talk,” he declared.