CASPIAN POV
The stranger's silver eyes locked onto Thessaly, and my wolf went absolutely insane.
MINE. OURS. GET AWAY FROM HER.
I shifted back to human and stepped in front of Thessaly, blocking her from the stranger's view. Lucien, Dax, and Kieran did the same, forming a protective wall.
"Who are you?" I demanded, letting my Alpha power flood my voice.
The stranger smiled. He looked maybe twenty-seven, with black hair and pale skin that almost glowed. But his eyes—those silver eyes—were ancient. Older than anything I'd ever seen.
"My name is Thaddeus Nyx," he said calmly. "And that White Wolf hiding behind you four? She belongs to me."
"She belongs to NO ONE," I snarled.
But my wolf was whimpering. This male's power pressed down on all of us like a physical weight. He wasn't just strong. He was something else entirely.
"Move aside, children," Thaddeus said, his voice almost bored. "This doesn't concern you."
"The hell it doesn't!" Lucien's voice was pure rage. "She's OUR mate."
Thaddeus raised one eyebrow. "Is that so? Did she accept your bond? Did she smile when she saw you? Run into your arms with joy?"
Silence.
We all knew the answer. Thessaly had looked at us with pure hatred.
Because we deserved it.
The memory hit me like a punch to the gut. Thessaly at fourteen, carrying laundry, and me tripping her "accidentally" so the clean clothes fell in the mud. Her trying not to cry while she rewashed everything.
Thessaly at sixteen, serving dinner, and Lucien loudly wondering why we let "the human" touch our food. Her hands shaking as she set down plates.
Thessaly at nineteen, and Dax making a joke about how no one would ever want someone as weak as her. Her face going carefully blank.
Thessaly yesterday, and Kieran standing by while other warriors mocked her. Not defending her. Not stopping them.
We'd done this. We'd broken her. And now she was our mate, and she hated us.
"Step aside," Thaddeus said again, and this time there was command in his voice. Power that made even my Alpha wolf want to obey.
I fought it. "No."
Behind me, Thessaly moved. I heard her shift back to human, heard her quiet gasp.
"What are you?" she whispered.
Thaddeus's expression softened when he looked at her. Actually softened, like she was precious to him.
"I'm like you, my queen. Lunaris bloodline. White Wolf." He tilted his head. "Though I'm the original. You're the first new Lunaris born in three hundred years. I felt your awakening from across the continent."
Three hundred years? That was impossible. No wolf lived that long.
"You're lying," Dax said.
"I don't need to lie." Thaddeus finally looked away from Thessaly to stare at us with cold amusement. "I can smell your so-called mate bond. Fresh. Unwanted. Painful for her." His smile turned cruel. "You four have no idea what you had, do you? You tortured royalty. Abused the rarest wolf bloodline in existence. Made her scrub your floors."
My stomach dropped. How did he know that?
"I know everything about her," Thaddeus continued, reading my expression. "I've been watching Silvercrest Pack for weeks, waiting for her to wake up. Watching you pathetic fools treat a queen like a slave."
Shame burned through me like acid.
"I didn't know," I said, my voice breaking. "If I'd known—"
"You would have done the same thing," Thaddeus interrupted coldly. "Because you're a spoiled Alpha brat who hurts anything weaker than you. All four of you are. You don't deserve her."
He was right. Moon Goddess help me, he was right.
I turned to look at Thessaly. She stood in the creek, naked and shivering, her arms wrapped around herself. Her gray eyes were filled with confusion and fear.
She'd never looked at me with anything but fear or hate.
"Thessaly," I said quietly. My throat felt tight. "I'm so sorry. For everything. I was cruel and stupid and wrong. You didn't deserve any of it."
Lucien stepped forward too. "We can't take it back. But please, let us try to make it right."
"Make it RIGHT?" Thessaly's voice cracked. "You called me worthless every single day! You made my life a nightmare! And now you want forgiveness because I'm your MATE?"
"Yes," I said honestly. "But also because it was wrong. It was always wrong, mate bond or not. I just... I didn't see it. I didn't LET myself see it."
"Why?" Tears ran down her face, mixing with the rain. "Why did you hate me so much?"
The question stabbed straight through my heart.
Because I was angry at the world after my mother died, and you were an easy target.
Because hurting you made me feel powerful when I felt helpless.
Because I'm a coward who took out my pain on someone innocent.
"There's no good reason," I said, my voice rough. "I was wrong. Completely, terribly wrong."
Thaddeus laughed. "How touching. The big bad Alpha admits he was a bully." He extended his hand toward Thessaly. "Come, my queen. Leave these fools behind. I'll take you somewhere you'll be treated like the royalty you are."
Thessaly stared at his hand. Then at us.
I saw the moment she made her decision. Saw her start to take a step toward Thaddeus.
My wolf HOWLED in agony.
"Wait," Dax said desperately. "Just... give us a chance. One chance to prove we can change."
"Why should I?" Thessaly's voice was ice. "You had seventeen YEARS to be decent to me. You chose cruelty every single time."
She was right. We had no defense.
But I couldn't let her go. My wolf wouldn't survive it.
I did something I'd never done in my life. I dropped to my knees in the creek. Bared my throat—the ultimate sign of submission from an Alpha.
"Please," I begged. "I know I don't deserve it. But please, let me try to be the mate you deserve."
Lucien knelt beside me. Then Dax. Then Kieran.
All four of us knelt in the freezing water, throats bared, submitting to the girl we'd treated like dirt.
Thessaly stared at us. Shock flickered across her face.
Then she walked forward.
Hope surged in my chest—
Her hand cracked across my face so hard my head snapped sideways.
"You tortured me for SEVENTEEN YEARS," she said, her voice shaking with rage. "You don't get to kneel once and make it okay. You don't get to say sorry and have me fall into your arms. I hate you. I hate ALL of you. Stay away from me!"
She shifted into her white wolf and ran.
This time, we didn't chase her.
We knelt in the creek like idiots while our mate disappeared into the forest, choosing to run toward a stranger rather than stay with us.
"Well," Thaddeus said cheerfully. "That was entertaining." He shifted into a white wolf even bigger than Thessaly's and bounded after her.
The four of us were left alone.
"We destroyed her," Lucien whispered. His face was gray. "We destroyed our own mate."
Dax made a choking sound. "The Moon Goddess paired us with her. Gave us the perfect match. And we spent seventeen years making her miserable."
Kieran just stared at the forest where Thessaly had disappeared, his green eyes haunted.
I touched my face where she'd slapped me. It still stung.
Good. I deserved worse.
"What do we do?" Lucien asked.
I stood slowly. My wolf was howling, tearing at my insides, demanding I chase after our mate and never let her go.
But chasing her would just scare her more.
"We give her space," I said, even though it killed me. "And then we prove we've changed. However long it takes."
"She'll never forgive us," Dax said flatly.
"Maybe not." I looked at my brother and my best friends—the males who'd helped me make Thessaly's life hell. "But we have to try. Because living without her isn't an option."
A howl echoed through the forest. Not Thessaly's voice. Thaddeus's.
And underneath it, I heard Thessaly howl back.
My wolf snarled with jealousy.
"We need to get back," Kieran said urgently. "We need to tell the pack what happened. A White Wolf—TWO White Wolves—in our territory. And one of them is—"
"Our mate who hates us," Lucien finished bitterly.
We shifted and ran back toward the Alpha house.
But halfway there, we smelled it.
Smoke. Fire. Screaming.
The pack house was under attack.
And Thessaly was out there alone in the forest with a stranger, with no idea that something was coming to kill her.