Chapter 3 Frenzy

Desiree's POV

They were waves of gasps, giggles, and outright shrieks.

My new ears twitched, flattening slightly against my skull at the sudden noise. What now? Did someone set something on fire?

Was there a fire? No wait!! There was no fire alarm. It had to be about students. 

Or was there going to be a show-off of a new hot couple? 

I turned around.

And the world rearranged itself.

They had just entered the main doors, three figures silhouetted in perfect harmony. 

All attention, every molecule of it, was now theirs. 

“Oh, my gods,” a girl near me breathed, her textbook slipping from her limp fingers. “They're perfect!!”

The one on the left had wings. Not metaphorical, pretty wings. Massive, pristine, feathered wings the color of fresh snow, neatly folded against his back. 

He ran a hand through tousled golden-brown hair, an easy, practiced smile on his face as he surveyed the frenzy his entrance caused.

I knew what shifter he was. He was an angel– a real, living angel shifter.

The one on the right…glowed. 

He pulsed with a cool, electric blue aura that shone like he was connected to electricity. 

He had a sharp, playboy face, and when he smiled at something his winged brother said, I saw the distinct, elegant points of vampire fangs. Was he a vampire? 

But vampires didn't glow like that!!

The one in the middle held my gaze. 

He had an ethereal, almost severe handsomeness, with pale hair and silver eyes. 

As I watched him, his form seemed to blur. 

More like he was twitching. 

A girl in front of him reached out, daring to try and touch his arm, and her hand passed right through him as he became utterly, completely transparent. There was a shimmer in the air and then he solidified again with a playful smile on his lips. 

He was a ghost!! A ghost shifter. 

The hall erupted. The girls near the front surged forward with a tidal wave of excitement. The boys looked on with a mixture of envy and respect. Even the teachers hovering near the staff door seemed starstruck.

I moved against the current of students streaming against the newcomers.  

I wanted to see what the fuss was all about the same way I wanted to pretend not to care, after all, few minutes ago, I was the main character. 

I saw Mira break from Chloe’s side, hungrily wanting to associate herself with the new boys.

Lysander himself was pulling a furious, sputtering Chloe away, his brows furrowing into a frown. 

Finally at my locker, I fumbled with the keys, trying to open them to take my notebook out.

“Can you even believe it? It’s really them!”

A voice squealed. The voice was right beside me. I jumped, slamming my locker shut without getting my book. 

It was a girl from my History class—Brittany, I think. She stood there, her face alight with an excitement so pure it was contagious. She wasn’t looking at my ears. She was looking past me, at the triplets, but she grabbed my hands in hers as if she'd known me since forever.

“Have you seen them?”

“Who?”

“The J triplets! Right here!” she squealed, squeezing my fingers.

I blinked, startled by the sudden familiarity. “I…yes. I saw.”

“I’m Brittany, by the way! We have History together. I sit two rows behind you.” She finally looked at me, her eyes widening. 

“Oh, wow. Your ears! And you’re all glowy. Congrats on finding your power, I guess.”

“Thank you–”

“Cool!” She didn't let me land. “Anyway, the triplets!”

She was speaking too fast, excited like a toddler.

“I’m Desiree,” I introduced myself.

“I know!” Brittany beamed. “So, the triplets. Jaden, Jaxon, and Jett James. They are the hottest, richest and youngest triplets alphas in like…the whole world!! Their parents are hybrid billionaires—like, their mom is a fae-vampire mix or something insane, and their dad is a shifter-angel hybrid? Nobody really knows what he is, but they own the James Business Corporation.”

“The mining corporation?” I asked, my mind reeling. That was the biggest supernatural resource conglomerate on the planet. They owned ley-line nexuses, celestial silver mines and phantom quartz quarries.

“The only mining corporation that matters,” Brittany corrected, her voice dropping to a reverent whisper.

As she spoke, a new scent wove through the air of the hallway. It was deep and complex, irresistible.

The scents were notes of sandalwood, lilies, daisies and chocolate. It had a rich, comforting and warm scent.

My breath hitched. My new senses were overwhelmed by it. It was the most delicious, intoxicating thing I had ever smelled. It called to something deep in my blood, in my newly awakened bones.

But my eyes weren’t on the angel. They were drawn, irresistibly, to the one with the blue glow, Jaxon. 

He was no longer smiling casually. He had turned, his head lifted, his vampire-pupil eyes scanning the crowd as if he, too, had caught a scent. The electric blue aura around him flared, just for a second, like a pulse. His gaze swept past the adoring faces, past Brittany, and for a heartbeat, a single, earth-stopping heartbeat—it locked onto mine.

The scent of sandalwood, lilies, daisies, and chocolate intensified, wrapping around me, drowning out everything else. It wasn’t coming from the trio as a whole… or maybe, I was wrong. 

But I was sure it was coming from him. And it was reaching for me.

A jolt, pure and electric, passed through me. It wasn’t like the lightning that struck me earlier. This was internal, an obvious shift in my very core. 

Brittany was still talking. “And they’re all unmarried, of course, and their mate bonds are the biggest gossip in every society column. Every young girl is literally dying to be their mate. They'd give anything!!”

Jaxon took a step. Not toward the crowd of squealing fans, but in my direction. The movement was subtle, but the students between us seemed to sense his intent and parted unconsciously.

My lungs refused to work and the blue-glowing boy whose eyes hadn’t left mine, was tormenting me. 

“Brittany,” I interrupted, my voice a stranger’s. “What, what happens when you smell a mate scent?”

She blinked, brought back from her gossipy reverie. “Huh? Oh! Well, it means your destined partner is near. Your biology recognizes theirs. It’s super rare to actually catch one in a crowd like this, it’s usually more private, but with power levels like theirs…” She followed my gaze and saw Jaxon looking straight at us. She stiffened. “Whoa. Desiree, is he…..are you…?”