Chapter 229

The room is silent for a long moment and I’m shocked when it’s Jesse’s voice that breaks it.

“Whaaat the fuckkk,” Jesse groans, turning in a tight circle and covering his face with his hands before dragging them down over his features and turning to glare at me, just as Rafe is.

The room explodes again into noise, everyone shouting at once, except for Jackson, who just stares at me, wary.

“Stop, stop!” I shout, putting my hands out again as tears slip from my eyes, my voice shaking. “Everyone shut up!”

To my surprise, all of the Alphas comply, going still and letting me speak.

I turn my head to look at Luca for a long moment, taking in every devastated line of his face, the shock and the heartbreak, all of which pulses down our bond as well, threatening to take me out at the knees. “Jackson is my mate,” I say quietly, solidly, claiming him. Dread fills me now, and I know that it’s only half mine as I turn to Jackson, seeing it on his face too.

Because he senses what’s coming.

“But so is Luca,” I continue, my voice hitching, my heart breaking as I look into Jackson’s eyes. Because I know – I know what it meant to Jackson to find me, to have me.

And I know what it’s going to mean to find out that I’m not his. Or at least, not his alone.

“You’re both my fated mates,” I whisper, wanting to be perfectly clear as I send all the love I can down both of my bonds to each of them, hoping to communicate how much I want them, how each of them is precious to me. “The Goddess…she gave me two mates. She gave me both of you.”

Silence again, for a long moment, before Jackson breaks it with a long moan that tears my heart to pieces. Because my stoic mate – if he’d had any choice at all in the matter, he’d never have made a sound, never have let anyone know how he feels. But this – he couldn’t help it. noveldrama

A terrible sob rips from me as I watch Jackson turn away to face the wall, watch him cover his face with his hand, watch his shoulders shake as he tries to process everything. And the grief that ripples off of him in a wave – I stumble back a step, and only Ben reaching out to take me by the shoulders, to steady me, stops me from falling to the floor.

But that’s not the end of it. God, crap, it’s just the beginning.

“Are you fucking kidding me, Ariel!?” Luca gasps, stepping forward towards me, mad as hell. Jesse steps forward too, ready to intercede, but I put up a hand towards him. Because Luca’s my mate – there’s no way he’d consciously hurt me, and he has every right to be livid with me right now.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, shaking my head as I look up into his eyes. “I didn’t know…how to tell you. Either of you. It was all so new – and everyone thought I was a boy –“

“Wait,” Rafe says, and from the corner of my eye I see him step towards us, “this is…this is real? Luca is her mate? I thought Jackson -”

“Jackson is her mate!?” Jesse counters, turning towards him, and the two begin a hurried, angry conversation, comparing notes.

I keep my eyes focused on Luca in front of me, even though half my heart is with Jackson across the room, who I can tell is…well, having a little bit of a breakdown. I hear footsteps behind me moving in his direction, and I know instinctually that it’s Ben, being the good person that he is and going to stand with him.

“Ariel,” Luca says again, softer now, still angry but staring at me with his own grief written clear on his face as he reaches out and takes my face in his hands. “You…you picked him? You claimed him? As your mate?”

“No,” I say, shaking my head and wrapping my hands around his wrists. “Luca, I didn’t do this – the Goddess did – she…god, this is going to sound so weird, but she’s my grandmother –“