CHAPTER FIVE

Chapter Five – Rain’s POV

Warmth.

That was the first thing I noticed. Not the kind that wrapped your bones in peace but the kind that made your skin too aware—like being watched by something wild.

My senses dragged themselves awake, clawing through sleep and fog. The sheets were impossibly soft, silken and rich, nothing like the torn cotton back home. I inhaled, expecting familiarity.

But no.

The scent was new. Unsettling. A wildfire of conflicting truths. One side of the bed reeked of storm-soaked pine and firewood—earthy and raw, edged with dominance. The other was cooler, sharp and clean, like fresh snow tainted by blood and shadows.

Masculine. Intoxicating.

And mine.

My wolf stirred inside me, vicious and electric. “Mate.” The word vibrated through my bones, a guttural snarl that tore through my throat without permission.

“M—Mate,” I croaked aloud, blinking into the dim room.

I jolted upright, covers falling off my shoulders.

Two men.

They sat on either side of the bed like predators circling prey—or sinners clinging to a dream. Both tall. Both deadly. And gods, they looked at me like I was something sacred and cursed all at once.

One had his hands clenched in his lap with his back resting lazily on the wall behind him.Tattoos peeked beneath the sleeves of his dark shirt, his hair a tousled black mess that looked like he ran his fingers through them a bit too much. He looked like a storm waiting to happen.

The other leaned forward slightly, gentler but no less lethal. His face was sharper, eyes like onyx fire. And yet his hand reached out, tentative, like I’d vanish if he blinked.

“Baby,” the one on my left whispered—voice low, soft, cracking at the edge. “Are you okay?”

I stared.

Baby?

The confusion hit harder than the scent did. My wolf yowled again, claws against my skin. I backed up until my spine hit the headboard.

“Who are you?” I asked, voice shaking.

They exchanged a glance, something unreadable flickering between them. Pain. Longing. Guilt.

The man on the right—taller, colder—took my hand.

“I’m Zach Earl Ashmore,” he said. “And this is my twin brother, Zeke Easton Ashmore. We’re your mates.”

My world tilted.

Ashmore.

Ashmore.

The Alpha Twins

Ravenous Pack.

Blood.

The image crashed into me: flames eating through the forest, my father’s war cry, my mother’s last scream—ripped apart by wolves with eyes like theirs. Cold. Unforgiving.

I wasn’t home. I was in enemy territory. I was lying in a bed surrounded by the men whose pack had slaughtered mine.

And they were my mates.

My laugh was broken, bitter. “Of course. Of course fate would be this cruel.”

Zeke flinched, and Zach’s jaw tightened. But neither moved.

“I should kill you both,” I whispered.

Zeke leaned in then, eyes burning. “You could try. But I’d let you. Hell, I’d give you the blade myself if that’s what it takes to earn your trust.”

I narrowed my eyes.

“What do you want from me?”

Zach inhaled like it pained him. “Everything. But we’ll settle for a chance.”

“You don’t deserve one.”

Zeke's voice hardened. “No. We don’t.”

Silence stretched thin. Then Zeke spoke again, low and ragged. “We lost our father in the war too. He died in the first week. We led the rest of it. Angry. Wild. We didn’t care who burned, not then. We only cared that someone paid. We lost something precious too."

“You led that massacre,” I said flatly.

Zach didn’t deny it. “Yes. And we don’t regret defending our people. But we regret the blind way we did it. We regret becoming the kind of monsters who’d never deserve someone like you.”

I stiffened.

My wolf didn’t snarl this time. She whimpered.

"They're hurting, Rain" she whimpered and pleaded in my head

It only irritated me the more "Shut up" i growled back at her shutting her out. I didn't expect anything else from her, she was drawn to their wolves. I couldn't really blame her for wanting to jump on them and let them claim her

But i couldn't forget.

“I should reject you,” I said.

Zeke finally took my hand. His skin was warm, grounding. “Then do it. Just not today. Give us a month.”

I blinked.

“A month?”

Zach’s voice cracked. “Let us prove we’re not the same men who stood on that battlefield.”

My wolf howled inside. Torn. Furious. Longing.

They looked so wrecked, I hated it. I hated that it hurt to see them like that. In a sick and irrational part of my heart, i wanted to let it all go but could I?

They killed them, that's a fact that no love they showed me could change.

“One month,” I said, agreeing despite myself wanting to run far away from them. “But I’m rejecting you at the end.”

Zeke exhaled like I’d just pulled him from the edge of a cliff.

Zach only nodded once, his face holding an unreadable expression “Then we’ll make it count.”

Just like that, I had one month to remind the monsters who they used to be.

With a heavy heart, I tried to move past it all, but as I lay back down, I could feel their gazes burning into me. It would take a month. But I had already made my decision. I was never meant to belong to them. Never meant to forgive them.

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