Hey… it's just me. Nalia.
If you're reading this, you already know how insane everything sounds. I need a moment to breathe, so I'm borrowing this page. No princes watching. No thunder. Just me, sitting on an old feed barrel in the back of the barn while the rain keeps falling, talking to you like you, because if I don't say it out loud I think I'll break.
Three days ago I was nobody.
Twenty-one years old, born in this same tiny village to parents who died when I was seven. After that it was just me and my grandmother until fever took her two winters back. Since then I've lived alone in the crooked hut at the edge of the wheat field. I wake up, I work, I eat whatever the soil gives, I sleep. That was the whole story. I never even dreamed of leaving these few miles of dirt. The palace might as well have been on the moon.
I'm not beautiful. Not ugly, just… ordinary. Brown hair that won't lie flat. Too many freckles. Hands always cracked from soil and cold water. The only thing anyone ever noticed about me was that I was quiet. Omegas are supposed to be quiet, right? Keep your head down, don't cause trouble, hope some decent Alpha claims you before you're too old. That was the plan. A quiet life. Maybe a kind farmer one day. Children. A grave beside my grandmother's.
And then my scent changed.
I didn't notice at first. Just felt hotter some nights, restless, like something under my skin was pacing in circles. Then the travelers started staring. Then Aiden rode through the village like a comet and looked at me like I was the only thing in the world. One day I was invisible. The next, the crown prince was on his knees in the grass, shaking, calling me perfect.
I still don't understand it.
In three days I have:
- Lost my virginity in a wheat field to the future king.
- Been visited in the middle of the night by the same king.
- Watched two of his brothers almost kill each other over the right to stand in my doorway.
- Learned that an ancient prophecy might be talking about me… me… a muddy peasant who can't even read well.
It feels like someone else's life. Like I fell asleep hoeing rows and woke up inside one of those dramatic bard songs they sing in the tavern, except in those songs the Omega always ends up dead or locked in a tower, and I'm not sure I want either ending.
I'm scared.
Not of them, not exactly. Aiden's touch still burns on my skin in a way that makes me ache when I remember it. Caleb looked at me like I was something holy and breakable at the same time. Even Damon, cold, terrifying Damon, spoke to me like I already held his heart in my dirty, calloused hands.
I'm scared of what I felt when all three of them were close.
A pull. A hunger. Not just in my body… deeper. Like some ancient part of me sat up and whispered, Yes, all of them, they're supposed to be ours.
That's the part that terrifies me most. Because I'm starting to wonder if the prophecy isn't about them breaking the kingdom.
I'm wondering if it's about me breaking them… and whether I'll enjoy it.
The rain is slowing. Somewhere out there, more hooves are coming. I can feel them in my bones the same way I feel thunder before it sounds.
So if you're still reading… stay with me.
Because I think the story is about to get a lot louder.
- Nalia