The Seer's scream still echoed in my head hours later.
'Two threads pulled.'
'One thread bleeding.'
I didn't know what it meant, not completely, but I could feel it. The second bond hadn't just
flared—it was anchoring itself inside me. Kael's mark had burned, but Thorne's left something deeper. Wilder.
I could still feel him under my skin.
I hadn't gone back to my room.
Instead, I wandered until my feet carried me to the garden. I wasn't sure what I planned to do until I saw her.
Celina was alone near the back gardens, leaning against the stone fence, twirling something silver in her hand.
A blade. Of course.
I stepped into view.
She didn't look surprised.
"Come to finish what your wolves started?" she spoke dryly.
"You knew," I said. "About the bonds. About what I am."
She smiled like it was obvious. "Of course I knew. I've always known. I just didn't expect you to be stupid enough to pull two."
I clenched my fists. "You've been watching me. Spying."
"I've been protecting the pack," she snapped. "You think this is about jealousy? About who
gets claimed?" She took a step closer, eyes gleaming. "You're becoming something dangerous. And they're too obsessed with your scent to see it."
The mark on my shoulder flared.
My breath caught.
Celina noticed. "Oh. Looks like you're burning again."
I took a step toward her. "Say one more thing—"
She didn't back down. "You'll do what? Burn me with your little bond magic? Set off a second mating frenzy?"
My wolf pushed hard against my ribs, ready to shift. I couldn't hold the pressure much longer.
The mark glowed beneath my skin, visible even through my clothes.
Celina's smile faded just a little. "You're not stable."
"I never was," I said.
The door behind us creaked open.
Kael stepped out.
His eyes flicked to me, then to her.
"Rory," he said quietly. "Come with me."
I didn't move.
Celina let out a breath like she'd won something. "You might want to handle her before she explodes."
Kael's voice stayed calm. "Leave."
Celina disappeared through the garden arch without another word.
Kael took a step forward. "You shouldn't be here."
"I wasn't looking for you," I said.
"Still... you're hurt."
I didn't answer.
He came closer. "The second bond—how bad was it?"
"It didn't complete," I said. "But it's not quiet, either."
He looked like he wanted to say more, but I turned away.
"I need space."
He hesitated. "If you go out there again, be careful. The shadows—"
"I'm not afraid of shadows."
He didn't stop me when I walked past him.
But I felt his eyes on my back until I vanished into the trees.
Night fell fast.
The woods felt different this deep past the border trees. The sky above was black with slivers
of moonlight. No wind. No birds. Just stillness and breath.
Mine.
And someone else's.
I stopped near the training rocks. This was where we'd sparred months ago, before the
festival. Before the prophecy. Before I became something no one could name.
My shoulder pulsed again. The heat wasn't sharp this time. Just low. Lingering. Like it was
waiting.
I dropped to a crouch and pushed through a few basic shift drills—breathing, control, and sensory flow. I wasn't ready to shift, but my wolf was closer now. Awake. Alert.
The ground beneath me felt hot. Not temperature—energy. My skin tingled as I lowered my
palms to the dirt.
Then, a branch cracked behind me.
I stood fast.
Heart thudding.
"Who's there?" I called.
No answer.
Another step. Heavier this time.
Then I saw him.
Thorne.
He moved out of the shadows like he'd always been there, just waiting.
He wasn't smiling.
"Why are you out here alone again?" he asked.
I exhaled slowly. "I needed to train."
"After what happened this morning?"
"I needed space."
He stared at me for a long second, then took a step forward.
"I felt the bond," he said. "Even when I was across the compound."
I swallowed. "It's not finished."
"No," he said. "But it's waking."
The air between us shifted.
My wolf surged forward, sharper than before. A growl rippled in my throat, uninvited.
Thorne didn't move. "You can't run from it."
"I'm not."
He tilted his head. "Then why do you smell like fear?"
"I don't fear you," I said.
He stepped closer.
"You fear what I make you feel."
I didn't deny it.
Because he was right.
Thorne stepped closer again.
I should've moved. I didn't.
His presence pressed against me like a wall. Not suffocating, just heavy. Commanding. He
didn't have Kael's calm control. He didn't want balance. He wanted fire.
My heart was racing.
So was his.
The bond between us pulsed once, then again. A steady, rhythmic beat builds in the space
between our bodies.
"I came out here to breathe," I said, my voice tight.
"You're not breathing," he replied.
His hand hovered near my face. Not touching. Not demanding. Just… there. Waiting.
I didn't pull back.
His fingers brushed my jaw.
That's all it took.
My wolf snapped forward.
He grabbed me in the same second I lunged, our mouths crashing together. It wasn't gentle. It
wasn't careful. It was teeth and breath and heat.
I didn't care who started it.
I only knew we were both tired of pretending.
Thorne pressed me back into the training stone. My legs hit the edge, and he lifted me like I
weighed nothing, setting me on the flat surface. His hands were rough, calloused from
combat, from discipline. They gripped my waist like they were anchoring themselves.
His mouth moved down my neck, hot and hungry.
I let my head fall back, gasping.
The mark on my shoulder flared again. But this time, it wasn't a warning. It was want. My skin burned under it, like it was responding to him.
Thorne's fingers slid under my shirt. "Is this okay?"
I nodded once.
He didn't wait. He pulled the fabric over my head and tossed it aside.
My nipples longed for his lips as they stood firm.
My skin hit the night air, and his mouth followed instantly. He didn't tease. He devoured. Kissing, biting, and dragging his lips across every inch like he was claiming territory.
My hands fumbled at his belt. I wasn't thinking. My body had taken over.
His pants hit the dirt. Mine followed.
Then he was inside me.
The bond exploded.
It wasn't warm like Kael's. It wasn't sweet or soul-deep. This was primal. Urgent. A flood of
heat that swallowed everything else.
Thorne groaned into my mouth, his grip tightening.
I wrapped my legs around his waist and held on.
Every thrust hit something deep, sending another pulse of fire through my mark. The pain
blurred into pleasure. The bond sharpened it, amplified every sound, every movement.
I bit his shoulder. He growled. The kind of sound that came from deep inside a wolf's throat.
A warning. A promise.
His pace quickened.
I matched it.
We didn't speak. We didn't need to.
The only sound was breath and heat and skin slapping skin, echoed by the distant howl of
some unseen creature.
I was close.
So was he.
The bond reached for completion.
But something held it back.
A split second of resistance, or something darker.
Just before the edge, his hand slammed down beside my head.
"Don't finish it," he growled.
"I wasn't trying to," I whispered, barely holding on.
His eyes were wild. "If it seals, I'll lose you."
My heart stuttered.
But the rhythm of our bodies didn't stop.
One more thrust—
And I shattered.
Not from the bond.
From him.
The orgasm hit like a pulse from the earth, dragging me under. I cried out, clutching his back, legs tight around him as I shook. Thorne followed with a low grunt, his mouth at my neck, breathing hard, muscles locked.
He didn't collapse.
He braced himself, holding still, his forehead against mine.
The bond quieted. The fire settled. But the heat didn't leave.
We stayed like that for a long second.
Then I opened my eyes.
And froze.
Something was watching.
In the shadows, beyond the trees, a shape flickered.
Not fully visible.
But real.
Thorne's head turned instantly.
He saw it too.
He pulled back just enough to let me slip off the stone, grabbing his pants with one hand and reaching for the dagger he always kept near his boot.
The air was colder now.
Dead still.
Hurriedly, I put my clothes on.
My mark still glowed, pulsing with leftover magic.
The thing didn't move.
It just watched.
Then, just as fast, it was gone.
No scent.
No sound.
Thorne exhaled slowly. "We're not alone anymore."
I swallowed hard. "We never were."
He reached for me again, but this time, not with hunger.
With caution.
"Did you feel it?" he asked. "The bond is almost sealed."
I nodded.
"But it didn't," I said.
His jaw flexed. "Not all the way."
I looked down.
My skin was glowing brighter than before.
The mark had changed again.
Next to Kael's symbol, a second one burned.
Thorne's.
''Two mates. Two marks.''
The prophecy was coming for me.
Thorne didn't speak as we walked back.
He didn't touch me either.
The bond still hummed between us, quieter now, but not dormant. Like it was coiled, resting after the storm we'd unleashed in the forest.
I kept my arms folded across my chest. Not from shame. But because my mark was still
glowing faintly. The new one. His. I wasn't ready to let anyone else see it.
The silence between us wasn't awkward. It was heavy. Like we both knew, we'd crossed a line that couldn't be uncrossed.
I glanced sideways at him. His jaw was locked. Eyes forward. Breathing measured. But under
it all, I could feel the same tension rolling off him that still lived under my skin.
We didn't say goodbye.
He peeled off toward the western wing before we reached the main compound steps. I didn't stop him. I wasn't sure I could handle another word.
I climbed the stairs fast and slipped through the healer's door before anyone could notice.
Inside, the air smelled like herbs and sweat and drying blood. The scent grounded me, but
only barely. My heartbeat was still too fast. My skin was too hot. My wolf had finally
quieted, but she wasn't calm.
She was watching.
Waiting.
I ducked into the closest empty room and locked the door behind me.
Only then did I strip off the bloodstained shirt.
There it was.
Kael's symbol on one side of my shoulder, glowing faintly. And beside it, newer… darker…
Thorne's. The edges looked like they'd been carved in with fire.
I touched it lightly. It didn't hurt. But it felt deep. Permanent.
Two bonds.
Two mates.
I leaned against the wall and slid to the floor, pulling my knees to my chest.
This wasn't how any of this was supposed to go.
I'd never imagined having one mate, let alone three. And now I was marked by two of them, caught in something that was clearly more than biology.
Celeste's voice echoed in my skull.
"The curse will choose."
Was this it? Was this what she meant?
A knock jolted me from my thoughts.
"Rory?"
Kael.
I froze.
He couldn't see this. Not yet.
I grabbed the first thing I could reach—a loose shift robe folded by the basin—and threw it
over my shoulders.
"Just a second!" I called out, heart hammering.
I cracked the door and peeked out.
Kael's eyes searched my face like he could sense something was wrong.
"You weren't at the council check-in," he said. "Alpha's orders."
I nodded. "I needed rest."
His gaze flicked past me, toward the interior of the room.
"Are you okay?"
''No.''
"Yes."
He didn't look convinced.
His hand twitched at his side, like he wanted to reach for me but didn't. "If you need me—"
"I know," I said quickly.
He hesitated, then nodded once and stepped back.
I shut the door before the guilt could cave in.
That night, I didn't dream.
Not the normal kind.
There was no fire. No battlefield. No crying child.
Just stillness.
A black sky.
And whispers.
Faint, curling around the edges of my mind like fog.
Words I couldn't make out.
But they weren't mine.
They belonged to her.
I couldn't sleep after that.
So I left.
Slipped out the east side, barefoot and wrapped in nothing but the long shirt. The forest air hit my skin like cold teeth. It helped. A little.
I didn't know where I was going until I got there.
Back to the training stones.
The place still smelled like us—like heat and lightning and skin.
I hated how badly I craved it again.
But I wasn't alone.
A figure stood at the edge of the clearing, half in shadow.
Not Thorne.
Not Kael.
Not Riven.
Her.
Celeste.
But she wasn't in my head this time.
She was real.
Awake.
Present.
Her cloak moved in the wind, but her body stayed still. Her face was partially hidden, but I
could see enough. Pale skin. Eyes that glowed faintly, not gold… something older.
I didn't move.
Neither did she.
"How long have you been watching?" I asked.
Her head tilted slightly.
"Long enough."
The silence stretched.
Then she stepped closer, and the bond inside me flared weakly, like it recognized her, not as
a mate, but as something worse.
"What are you?" I asked quietly.
"A reminder," she said. "And a warning."
I didn't speak.
Celeste knelt in front of the scorched stone where Thorne had had me pressed hours ago. She ran her fingers along the edge, then looked back at me.
"Two bonds pulled," she murmured. "And the third waits."
"I won't choose."
She gave a soft, humorless smile. "You think this is about love?"
I said nothing.
Celeste stood again, the wind wrapping her cloak around her legs like smoke.
"It's about blood," she said. "And someone's will spill before the third bond seals."
Her eyes burned brighter. "Yours. Or one of theirs."
She vanished into the trees before I could ask what she meant.
I stood there a long time, barefoot on cold earth, staring at where she'd been.
Blood. Not love.
Was that what this was all building toward?
I glanced down at my shoulder again.
The marks pulsed.
One slower.
One stronger.
And the third?
Still silent.
But not for long.