The blinding blue light wasn't just light; it was pain, ecstasy, and knowledge all at once.
It slammed into me, not just from the three points where the Alphas were touching me—my neck under Rhys's strong grip, my shoulder where Kain held me like a prize, and my wrist where Crown's thumb pressed into the glowing crescent—but from the deepest core of my being.
I felt the barrier I had unknowingly carried my entire life—the invisible shield that made me feel 'too much' for the mundane world—shatter.
A scream tore from my throat, but it wasn't a scream of terror. It was feral, raw, and inhumanly loud. It was the sound of a caged spirit finally breaking free.
The light pulsed outward, forcing the three Alphas back. I collapsed onto the cold, damp forest floor, chest heaving, every nerve ending screaming.
But the pain was already melting into something else: a searing, liquid heat pooling low in my belly, demanding release.
I looked up.
They were standing over me, their expressions a mix of awe, hunger, and a raw, untamed fury.
Rhys was the first to recover, his restraint cracking under the surge of released power. His eyes, usually a calm, cool gray, were wide and darkly shadowed.
He dropped to his knees beside me.
"What have you done?" he snarled, though the aggression was aimed not at me, but at the power now radiating from my skin.
His hand trembled as he reached for my face, trailing his calloused thumb along my jaw.
"The mark… it's reacting to all three of us."
The moment his skin connected with mine, the heat inside me intensified, surging through my veins like molten gold.
It was a recognition—a devastating, biological acknowledgment of him as mate.
"You feel it, don't you?" Crown's voice was a low growl of pure triumph, cutting through the heavy air. He advanced, shedding his leather jacket with a swift, predatory motion.
"The bond is immediate. Unstoppable. You're ours, little one. And this power—it's drawing us in like a starving wolf to prey."
He didn't wait for an answer. He knelt, taking my other hand, and brought my glowing wrist to his mouth.
The light of the crescent mark flared as his lips grazed the spot, and then his tongue flicked out, tracing the silver arc.
The sensation was sharp, electric, and utterly violating. My back arched involuntarily.
"Crown, stop it," Rhys commanded, his tone dark with jealousy and a terrifying strain of control.
"Why?" Crown challenged, his eyes locked on mine as he continued his slow, searing kiss against my pulse point.
"She belongs to the bond now. And the bond demands a claiming." He looked up, his face flushed with an ancient, dangerous hunger.
"Which of us will she feel first, I wonder?"
Kain, silent until now, moved with lethal speed.
He shoved Crown aside with a shoulder that felt like granite, his red eyes blazing brighter than ever.
He grabbed the back of my neck, pulling my head up and back until my throat was bared to the moonlight.
"She feels me," Kain whispered, his breath hot against my ear. His scent—smoke and sin—was intoxicating, driving the heat inside me to a fever pitch.
"You smelled my violence first in that alley. You dreamed of my touch before you knew my name. I am the chaos in you, the desire you've kept locked away."
He brought his mouth down hard, not on my lips, but against the curve of my neck, right where Rhys had gripped me moments ago.
It wasn't a bite, but a dark, possessive kiss—a silent, urgent demand for surrender.
I gasped, the sound lost in the darkness.
My fingers tangled in his dark, thick hair, pulling him closer, desperate for the release he seemed to promise.
He smelled like everything forbidden, everything I had tried to run from in Blackridge.
"Look at her," Crown sneered, standing over us, his hands fisted at his sides.
"She's submitting already. She craves the wicked one."
"She craves the Alphas," Rhys corrected, his voice tight with struggle. He yanked Kain off me with brutal force, throwing him back a step.
I was instantly cold, the sudden loss of Kain's heat a physical ache.
Rhys didn't hesitate. He took Kain's place, settling between my thighs. He was heavier, more deliberate, and smelled of the steady, wild earth.
He cupped my face, forcing me to meet his gaze. His eyes were pure, agonized silver now.
"The bond is meant to be shared," Rhys ground out, his voice thick with raw emotion.
"We must all touch her. All three. That is the only way to stabilize the Moonfire." His face was etched with internal battle—the Alpha trying to control the beast, the mate trying to maintain protocol.
"And what if I don't want 'stabilized,' Alpha Rhys?" I whispered, my voice hoarse, foreign.
The feeling of his thighs pressed against mine, his breath mingling with mine, was shattering my carefully constructed façade of control.
My hands, acting on an impulse that wasn't entirely mine, reached up and fumbled with the buttons of his shirt, tearing them open until his hard, muscled chest was bared.
The sight of his skin—smooth, bronze, and radiating heat—drove the last bit of rational thought from my mind.
He let out a low, strangled sound that was half pain, half pleasure, and gave in.
Rhys pushed me back onto the damp leaves, covering my body with his own weight.
His mouth finally found mine, a savage, consuming kiss that tasted of restraint finally broken.
But before the moment could fully claim us, a low, guttural snarl ripped through the air—not from Kain or Crown, but from something deeper in the woods.
A terrifyingly large, shadowed shape launched itself from the trees.
It was a beast, twice the size of a normal wolf, with eyes that glowed not red, but a sickly, corrosive yellow.
"Rogue," Kain spat, drawing a wicked-looking blade from inside his coat.
Rhys instantly shifted, breaking the kiss. He rolled off me, placing himself between me and the encroaching threat.
"It smelled the power," Crown said, dropping into a fighting stance. His voice was cold, sharp, and deadly.
"The Moonfire is a beacon. We are exposed."
The rogue alpha lunged, aiming straight for me.
Rhys didn't hesitate. He changed.
In a horrifying, beautiful symphony of tearing clothes and popping bone, a massive, pure gray wolf materialized, intercepting the attack with a roar that shook the trees.
The two beasts slammed into the dirt in a flurry of teeth and fur.
I scrambled backward, heart hammering a panicked rhythm.
Kain stood over me, his blade gleaming.
"Get up. Now. The bond may be claiming you, but the fight is just beginning."
He didn't offer a hand. He just looked at me with those blazing, hungry eyes, challenging me to survive.
And somewhere in the chaos, amidst the scent of blood and violence, I felt that silver mark burn, not with agony, but with a sudden, devastating surge of my own, hidden power.