Three Alpha Princes for an Unwanted Omega

PRESENT DAY

Damon stared at her like she had sprouted another head.

Did she just ask him who he was?

”Ayla, are you okay?” he asked, regarding her with a careful look.

Her lips curved up in an embarrassed smile.

”This must be another situation of someone who knows me but I cannot remember. I had a bad fall and lost my memory. If you could maybe introduce yourself again to me?”

A bad fall? Lost her memory?Introduce himself?

Damon could not believe his ears.

For days on end he had wondered about her. And here she was, alive and looking at him like a total stranger.

”Damon!” Cassian called out.

He came around the hedge and stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes widening and his mouth dropping open at the sight before him.

”Ayla.” He breathed and began striding in their direction. ”Goddess. You are...”

Damon put a hand flat to his brother’s chest, stopping him mid-stride.

”What?” Cassian demanded.

”She doesn’t remember us.”

Cassian stared at him.

”What did you say?”

He shoved Damon’s hand away and closed the distance in three strides, leaning in, his eyes raking over her face.

His hands were shaking. Damon saw them.

”He is right,” Ayla said. ”I don’t know who you both are. We were about to introduce ourselves to one another.” She smiled politely.

”I am Ayla, Luna of Emberfall and I am here with my mate, Alpha Lucius Veyr. And you are...”

Luna? Lucius? Her mate? Damon thought. This is nothing but a bad dream.

He watched her extend her hand toward Cassian but he did not take it. He was staring at her hand like he could not recognize it.

Damon stepped forward and closed his hand around hers, his throat working with each breath.

Her skin was warm and the scent of her was the same but this was not his Ayla... this was an impostor.

”Damon,” he heard himself say. ”I am Damon Rykeron, prince of the Northern Territory and this is my brother, Cassian.”

The polite smile on her face dropped instantly replaced by a cool stare bordering between disgust and hate.

”You are Alpha Kieran’s sons,” she stated matter of fact. ”You both are.” her eyes slid to Cassian who was still staring at her without speaking.

She snatched her hand back from his as if his touch had burned her, straightened her shoulders and looked at them down her nose.

”I must find the rest of my visiting party,” Her voice had gone flat and courteous, the voice of a queen dismissing servants. ”Please excuse me.”

She brushed past them but Cassian’s hand shot out, stopping her.

She cast him a baleful look.

”Unhand me, sir” she snapped.

He released her immediately and she walked away without looking back.

Neither of them moved.

The garden was very quiet and both Cassian and Damon stared at the empty path where she had been.

”What the hell was that?”

Damon’s hand was still open where she had pulled hers away. He closed it slowly, finger by finger.

”I have no fucking idea... but I intend to find out.”

...

The doors of the meeting room slammed open. Damon crossed the room in four strides.

He grabbed Lucius by the collar of his tunic, hauling the rogue king half out of his chair.

”What the fuck did you do to her?”

Lucius did not struggle. He had an innocent surprised look on his face.

”What do you mean?” he asked.

”Do not play coy with me.” Damon growled in his face.

”Damon, what is the meaning of this?” Ares rose to his feet, looking to Cassian for an explanation.

”Is this how you treat your guests, Alpha Ares?” Lucius taunted. ”You invite me to your home and have your brother harass me?”

”Oh please...” Damon scoffed.

”Let go of him, brother. Now.”

Damon held Lucius’s gaze a beat longer. He was tempted to slam his fist into the man’s smug face but he knew that would mean him disrespecting a direct order from his brother, the Alpha.

He released him.

Lucius smoothed his collar, the smug smile never leaving his face.

Ares crossed to them, his jaw tight.

”Excuse me.” He said. ”I will have a word with my brothers.”

He pulled them into the far corner of the room.

”What happened to everything we discussed?”

”Fuck all of that.” Damon’s voice shook. ”Guess who we just saw in the gardens.”

”Who?”

”Ayla.” Damon’s chest heaved. ”We just saw Ayla. She is here, in this palace and she had no idea who we were. She called herself Luna of Emberfall and mate to that bastard over there.”

Ares went still. He looked like he had been struck across the face and did not know how to react.

”What did you just say to me?”

He looked to Cassian who nodded in agreement to Damon’s words.

”If anything,” Cassian added. ”She seemed disgusted by us when she realized who we were.”

”That fucker did something to her” Damon said. ”We should have him flung into the dungeons and interrogated.”

Ares gritted his teeth, glancing toward Lucius who was in a conversation with Soren.

”Believe me, I want more than anything to wrap my hands around that bastard’s throat and feel his life force ebb beneath my fingers but we cannot do that”

”Why the fuck not? He kidnapped one of ours and he posed as a healer in our court, colluded with the Beta of our pack. I am pretty sure there are plenty of reasons to have him executed on the spot.”

”As much as I agree with you, Damon” Cassian interjected. ”I see what Ares means. He has invoked the peace treaty rights and we have no choice but to honor it or risk making our pack a target for the other Alpha packs.”

Ares nodded at this.

”So what do we do?” Damon asked. ”We cannot let him get away with this.”

”Who says we are.” Ares looked at him. ”If something has been done to Ayla then it is left to us to undo it. I will finish up here. You and Cassian will go the priestess and let her know what has happened. If magic was used then it will be within her power to undo it.”

Ares returned.

”Is everything okay? Lucius asked.

Ares smiled, taking his seat at the head of the table.

”Everything is fine, Lord Veyr. Where were we?”