Damon's POV
I couldn't move.
Standing in my office after the meeting, I pressed my hands against the wall so hard the wood cracked. My wolf was going crazy inside my head, screaming one word over and over: MATE! MATE! MATE! "Shut up," I growled at the voice in my mind. "She's just an omega."
But even as I said it, I knew it was a lie. Luna wasn't just anything. Her smell was still stuck in my nose - vanilla and wildflowers and something so sweet it made my teeth ache. It was driving me crazy.
I'd ruled this pack for ten years without losing control once. I'd fought rogue alphas, arranged peace treaties, and made life-or-death decisions without blinking. But one eighteen-year-old girl walks into a room, and I can't even finish a sentence?
This was exactly what I'd always feared. Why I never let anyone get close. The moment an Alpha cares about someone, they become weak. They make stupid choices. They put one person above the good of the whole pack.
My phone buzzed with a text from Seraphina: "Dinner tomorrow. My father wants to talk territory agreements."
Right. Seraphina Nightshade, the Alpha-born daughter who would make the right mate for someone like me. Beautiful, powerful, politically useful. The obvious choice for an Alpha who needed to strengthen his pack.
So why did the thought of dinner with her make me feel sick?
I tried to work on pack business, but every five minutes Luna's face would pop into my head. The way her eyes had gotten wide when she saw me looking at her. The way she'd whispered "Alpha" like my title was something valuable.
At two in the morning, I gave up pretending I could focus on anything else.
My wolf was pacing inside my mind like a caged animal. The mate bond was pulling at me so hard it felt like someone had hooked a chain around my heart and was yanking me toward the omega quarters.
"This is ridiculous," I mumbled, but my feet were already moving.
I told myself I was just going to check on her. Make sure she was safe. That's what good Alphas do - they protect pack members. It had nothing to do with the way her smell was calling to me like a siren song.
Luna's little house was dark except for one window. I could see her moving around inside, probably getting ready for bed. Like a creepy stalker, I hid behind a tree and watched.
That's when I smelled it.
Fear. Coming from Luna's house in waves so thick I could taste it.
My Alpha instincts kicked in instantly. Someone was threatening my- threatening a pack member. I charged toward the house, ready to tear apart whatever was scaring her.
But when I got closer, I realized the fear wasn't coming from inside Luna's house. It was coming from the woods behind it.
And it smelled familiar.
I followed the smell deeper into the trees, my wolf senses on high alert. The smell led me to a small area where I found something that made my blood turn to ice.
Marcus.
My cousin was crouched beside a fallen log, breathing hard like he'd been running. His clothes were torn, and there were scratch marks on his arms that looked like they came from claws.
"Marcus?" I called out. "What are you doing here?"
He spun around, and his eyes were glowing with the same silver light that ran in our family genes. But there was something else in his face - something desperate and hungry that I recognized because I was feeling it too.
"Damon," he said, and his voice sounded rough. "I felt it. The pull. I know she's here."
My stomach dropped. "What pull?"
Marcus laughed, but it wasn't a happy sound. "Don't act you don't know. Luna. Her scent. The mate bond that's been driving me crazy for the last three hours."
The words hit me like a punch to the gut. "That's impossible. She's my mate."
"Is she?" Marcus stood up slowly, and I could see the dog glowing behind his human features. "Because I'm pretty sure she's mine too."
We stared at each other across the space, and I felt something I'd never experienced before - true fear. Not fear of death or losing a fight. Fear of losing something I'd just found.
"The childhood binding ritual," Marcus said quietly. "Do you remember it, cousin?"
I did remember. When we were kids, the pack leaders had performed some kind of ceremony to strengthen the Alpha bloodline. Something about connecting our hearts to make us stronger. I'd forgotten about it years ago.
"That ritual linked us," Marcus continued. "Which means if Luna is your mate..."
"She's yours too," I ended, feeling sick.
Marcus nodded grimly. "Two lives, one mate. It's supposed to be impossible."
"So what happens now?" I asked, though I was afraid of the answer.
Before Marcus could reply, a scream cut through the night.
Luna's scream.
We both ran toward her house, but when we burst through her front door, what we found was worse than any enemy attack.
Luna was on the floor, squirming in pain, her body glowing with the same silver light that marked soul-bond magic. But this wasn't normal bonding pain. This was pain.
"Help her!" I shouted at Marcus, dropping to my knees beside Luna.
Marcus was already moving, his healing hands glowing as he tried to figure out what was wrong. "The bond is fighting itself," he said furiously. "Her omega biology is trying to accept two mate bonds at once, and it's tearing her apart."
Luna's eyes opened, and they were filled with fear. "Make it stop," she whispered. "Please make it stop."
I reached for her hand, and the moment our skin touched, pain burst through my own body. Through our connection, I felt Marcus experience the same pain.
"If we don't do something," Marcus said through gritted teeth, "the conflicting bonds will kill all three of us."
That's when Elder Sage Moonwhisper appeared in Luna's doorway like she'd formed from thin air.
"The prophecy has begun," she said quietly, as if three people weren't dying on the floor. "The three souls have found each other."
"Fix this!" I snarled at her.
The Elder looked at us with old, knowing eyes. "There is only one way to stop the pain," she said. "Luna must choose her mate before dawn. But here's what none of you understand yet..."
She paused, and her next words changed everything.
"The question isn't between you two. Luna's real mate is someone else entirely. You and Marcus? You're just the guardians fate sent to keep her alive until he comes."