Chapter 33
Victoria
"Oh?" I arch one eyebrow, fighting to keep my voice steady. "The girl who's been scrubbing our toilets for ten years suddenly requires such... formality? Should I start calling every piece of trash by its proper name too?"
"She was never a fucking maid." Asher steps forward, and his ebony and tobacco scent crashes over me like a tidal wave. When did he get so strong? "She is our mate. Silver Frost Pack's future Luna."
His eyes flash gold—just for an instant—but long enough to make my wolf whine submission.
No. No. I will not submit to my own sons.
"Your mate?" I force a laugh, but it sounds brittle even to my ears. "You're claiming Connor's daughter? That junkie bastard's spawn? The whelp of two addicts who fucked their way through every dealer in Alaska before dumping her on our doorstep like garbage?"
The girl flinches. I see her white musk and snow scent spike with pain and shame.
Perfect.
"Her parents' mistakes aren't hers." Cole's voice is softer than his brothers', but no less firm. His mint scent wraps around the girl like a shield. "She's never been anything but brave and strong and good. We were the ones who—"
He cuts himself off, but the guilt in his tone is unmistakable.
Marcus shifts beside me. When he speaks, his voice is careful. Measured. "You've accepted her as your mate?"
"Damn right we have." Blake's answer is immediate. Absolute. His hand moves from the girl's waist to the small of her back, palm splaying possessively over her ass through the thin silver fabric.
The girl gasps—a tiny, breathy sound—and I can smell it. The sharp spike of arousal cutting through her fear.
The little slut.
Just like her mother.
"Of course she's already spreading her legs for you." The words escape before I can stop them. "What else would a whore's daughter do when three Alphas show interest? She's probably been planning this for years. Waiting until she was old enough to trap you with that pathetic body—"
"Shut your fucking mouth." Asher's Alpha command slams into me so hard my knees actually buckle.
I have to grab the edge of the table to stay upright.
"She's ours." Asher's eyes are pure gold now, his wolf at the surface. "Bloodline doesn't matter. Debt doesn't matter. Nothing matters except that she's our mate and we will spend the rest of our lives proving we deserve her."
I turn my attention to her fully for the first time. "And you?" I let my lily and cedar scent press down on her, the way I've done a thousand times before. Reminding her of her place. "Do you accept them? Or are you just playing the long game, you calculating little bitch?"
She straightens slightly. Meets my eyes.
There's fear there. But also something else. Something that looks dangerously close to defiance.
"I—" Her voice cracks. She swallows, tries again. "I want to finish high school before I decide anything."
"How convenient." I smile without warmth. "You're simply stalling until graduation, aren't you? Waiting to see if you can leverage this... situation... into something more advantageous. Or maybe you're hoping to fuck all three of them stupid before they realize what trash you really are."
Cole surges forward, his mint scent turning sharp as crushed ice. "Mother!" His voice breaks. Actually breaks. "Kara has never been treated well in this house. You know that."
He's shaking. My youngest son, my gentle boy, is shaking with emotion.
"She was eight years old when she was left on our doorstep," he continues, words tumbling out in a rush. "You gave her the storage room. She didn't have her own bedroom for ten years. She wore hand-me-downs. She woke up at five every morning to do chores. She went to bed hungry more nights than not because Blake would take her food and you never stopped him. She—"
"Enough." My voice cracks like a whip.
But Cole doesn't stop.
"She had nothing. Nothing. No family, no friends, no one who cared if she was cold or hungry or scared. And we—" His voice breaks again. "We made it worse. We made her life hell because that's what you and Father taught us was acceptable. We were assholes. We were fucking devils. And she was right to hate us."
Marcus shifts uncomfortably beside me. I can smell the guilt rolling off him in waves.
Don't you dare, I think at my mate. Don't you dare side with them.
But he says nothing.
Asher's arm tightens around the girl's shoulders. When he speaks, his voice carries absolute Alpha authority—the kind that makes the air itself feel heavy.
"Kara is our mate." Each word is deliberate, weighted. "From this moment forward, this family's treatment of her will reflect that reality. If anyone—anyone—refers to her as 'Carrot' or 'the debt slave' or 'Connor's bastard' or any other derogatory term, I will deal with them personally."
Blake steps closer to the girl, his gunpowder scent mixing with his brother's in a display of unified Alpha dominance. "She's done doing housework. She's done repaying debt that was never hers in the first place. She's Luna. Not a fucking servant."
The girl's breathing is shallow now. I can see the pulse hammering in her throat. Smell the arousal and fear warring in her scent.
She wants them. Even terrified, she wants them.
Marcus sighs. The sound is heavy, tired. Final.
"They're adults, Victoria." He doesn't look at me when he speaks. "They have the right to make their own decisions. To choose their own mate."
Betrayal tastes like ash in my mouth.
"You're taking their side?" The words are barely above a whisper. "You're going to let them throw away everything we built for some junkie's daughter? Some debt slave whore?"
"I'm accepting reality." Marcus's oak and leather scent softens, almost apologetic. "The mate bond can't be fought. You know that. And they've already claimed her publicly. The pack has witnessed it."
He's right. Damn him, he's right.
I've lost this battle before it even began.
My sons stand united, their scents braided together in protection of the girl between them. The girl who looks like her. Who came from them.
Connor's daughter.
My failure made flesh.
The living proof that I couldn't save my baby brother from that bitch.
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