Fated to the Alpha–And His Triplet Brothers

Chapter 7: A Fall before the claim

Hazel’s POV.

I ran.

I ran like my life depended on it because it did. My legs were burning, and my lungs were heaving with every breath I took. Sweat dripped down my forehead and stung my eyes. I didn’t dare stop. Not when the thundering footsteps behind me were getting closer with every second.

"No... no, they can’t catch me...

I can’t die now," I muttered, almost like a chant.

I darted around a corner of the High House, my heart slamming against my chest so loud it was all I could hear. The marble floors under my bare feet were slick, cold, unforgiving. I reached a hallway that led to a massive glass window at the end. The moonlight poured in, soft and silver, but it wasn’t comforting. It was a spotlight and I was the prey.

I yanked on the nearest door handle. Locked. Tried the next one. Also locked. Panic spiked in my chest as my hands scrambled over the last knob. Nothing.

A voice split the silence behind me.

"Hazel!!"

My father’s roar echoed through the hall like thunder, raw and venomous. "I’ll kill you, you bastard!" he screamed.

I froze, eyes darting toward the window. There was no escape that way. We were at least four stories up. And even if I survived the fall, the chaos below wasn’t exactly a pillow landing. The mating games were happening beneath us wolves in partial or full form, ripping and wrestling to claim what’s theirs. Dropping into that would be suicide.

Still, that was the only direction that didn’t end in a blade to my throat.

My heart pounded louder, faster. I clutched my dress tightly, trying to muffle the sound of my panic. But it was useless. With their senses, they’d hear it, smell it..feel it.

"Darling, she’s here!" my stepmother Selene’s shrill voice rang out, slicing through the air like a knife.

And then... they arrived. My father, Selene, and two guards stood at the other end of the hallway. My father held a knife..long, curved, and dripping with past sins.

"No," I whispered, stepping back.

He started walking toward me, slowly, savoring the moment like the sadist he was.

run from me?" he sneered. "After all I did to hide your shameful little

they were closing in. Each step he took crushed what

looked back

a stupid

Reckless.

Fatal.

it was all

foot hit the window frame. I climbed up. My fingers trembling

want to jump?" he laughed, cruel and bitter. "You low-life human? Go ahead! Save me

dramatic end for such a disappointing

die like that," I spat. I sighed,

wind screamed in my ears. The ground spun wildly below me, and my heart dropped into my stomach. There was no

Crash.

ground. Not a person.

Trash.

the night sky from the confines of a

Wait... alive?

wiggled my fingers, then my toes. Everything moved. No bones poking out. No blood spurting. Just a dull throb in my head and the horrible stench of fish bones

of the High House was dimly lit and strangely quiet. Not many people wandered here, but I could still

a mere human they wouldn’t hesitate. I was meat to them. A

to ignore the fact that my hair now smelled like week-old chicken. I didn’t get far before I collided with

"Ah!"

lurching. My eyes shot to the face in front of me. A blindfolded

Natasha.

Of all the people.

"You?!" she screeched. Her disappointment was thick in the air. She probably thought I was one of the Salvatore brothers her possible mate.

no. Just her

She grabbed my wrist.

"There you are—"