FLASHBACK – Noah's POV, After Their First Meeting
He was a Vincent.
A true blood alpha.
The enemy.
But Noah didn't care.
From the moment their eyes met, everything else ceased to matter.
It was primal. Cosmic. Violent in the way it took root in his chest. He could still feel the burn of Sam's gaze long after the idiot ran away.
"Forget it," Sam had said, voice cracking. "Pretend it didn't happen."
Like Noah could ever forget.
Like he didn't wake up every day since, aching with the need to claim him.
That scent—burnt coffee and suppressed instinct—still lingered in his mind like a curse.
Sam may have chosen fear, but Noah?
Noah had chosen obsession.
He sat alone in his royal suite, staring out over the estate grounds as a storm rolled in. Fingers tapping against the armrest in time with his heartbeat. Sharp. Calculating.
They had something Sam didn't understand yet:
Bonded fate.
But Sam wasn't his only tether.
He already had a mate.
A dominant alpha.
One who had claimed him first, when he were just sixteen—before his second heat ever came.
That bond still pulsed under his skin. Familiar. Safe. But not complete.
Because the second Sam's bond lit up inside him, everything changed.
Two more threads ignited.
Max.
Silas.
The moment Sam rejected him, something else happened. Some ancient force in the bond snapped sideways—and two more strings tied to his soul tightened.
All three triplets.
Noah shouldn't be able to feel them all. But he could.
And now? He didn't want to choose.
He wouldn't.
His current mate didn't know about the Vincents. Not yet. Not the depth of the craving. Not the fire that had rooted itself deep in his omega core.
Noah smiled slowly.
"They're mine."
All of them.
Sam.
Max.
Silas.
And the one who already belonged to him.
The gala would be his battlefield.
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