Chapter 0233
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.
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
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