Luna's POV
I woke up in the basement with sunlight burning my eyes and poison burning my veins.
My neck throbbed where Vivienne had stabbed me with the syringe. Whatever she'd injected was still working through my system—my muscles felt weak, my head foggy, my wolf barely conscious.
"Wolfsbane," Selene whispered weakly. "Mixed with something else. Something dark."
"How did I get home?"
"I don't know. I blacked out too."
I dragged myself upright, every movement agony. The three mate bonds in my chest pulsed steadily, telling me exactly where Kael, Ryland, and Dante were—all in the pack house, probably eating breakfast while I suffered alone.
The bonds pulled at me, begging me to go to them. My wolf instincts screamed that my mates would protect me, heal me, make everything better.
But they didn't even know I existed.
I stumbled upstairs and somehow made it to school, even though my vision kept blurring. Sage took one look at me and gasped.
"Luna, you look terrible! What happened?"
"Later," I whispered. "I just need to get through today."
But getting through the day meant facing them.
Kael was in the hallway between classes, surrounded by future pack warriors who hung on his every word. The mate bond flared as I got closer, flooding me with his emotions—confidence, authority, and complete focus on pack business.
I tried to walk past quickly, keeping my head down like always.
"Luna!" His sharp voice froze me in place.
I turned slowly. Through the bond, I felt his irritation spike.
"You were slow during last night's run," Kael said coldly, loud enough for everyone to hear. "Pathetically slow. An omega wolf should at least be able to keep pace with the pack."
My cheeks burned. "I'm sorry, Alpha. It was my first shift, I—"
"Excuses are for the weak." He stepped closer, looking down at me with those amber eyes that made my traitorous heart race. "Tomorrow's training, you run extra laps. Maybe that'll teach you not to embarrass this pack."
Through the bond, I felt his absolute belief that he was helping me, teaching me, making me stronger. He genuinely thought cruelty was kindness.
"Yes, Alpha," I whispered.
He dismissed me with a wave and turned back to his warriors. Through the bond, his irritation with me evaporated instantly—I was already forgotten.
But I couldn't forget him. The mate bond made sure of that, filling my awareness with everything Kael—his location, his mood, his presence.
It was torture.
Lunch was worse.
I sat with Sage at our usual spot in the corner when Ryland's laughter rang across the cafeteria. The second bond hummed, drawing my attention to him like a magnet.
He sat at the popular table, telling some story that had everyone cracking up. Even from across the room, he was beautiful—all golden charm and perfect smiles.
Through the bond, I felt the exhausting effort behind that smile. The constant performance. The fear of being seen as less than perfect.
Then his green eyes landed on me.
My heart stopped. Could he feel it? Did the bond finally activate?
Ryland whispered something to the girl next to him. They both looked at me and started laughing.
"Check out Luna's clothes," Ryland said, not bothering to lower his voice. "Did she sleep in the mud? Oh wait, she probably did. Omegas can't afford real beds, right?"
The whole table erupted in laughter.
Through the bond, I felt Ryland's satisfaction at getting a laugh, his relief that attention was on someone else instead of his own insecurities, and underneath it all—nothing. No recognition. No pull toward me. Just empty space where the mate bond should be.
Sage squeezed my hand under the table. "Ignore him. He's a jerk."
But I couldn't ignore him. The bond wouldn't let me. Every cruel word hit twice as hard because I could feel his emotions behind them—and there was no regret, no guilt, no awareness that he was hurting his fated mate.
After lunch, I had to pass through the training yard to get to my next class. I tried to go around, but there was no other path.
Dante was there, working through combat drills alone like always. The third bond pulled at me so strongly I actually stumbled.
He was shirtless, his muscular body covered in sweat and scars. His grey eyes were focused, his movements precise and deadly. Through the bond, I felt his need to fight, to hurt something, to release the pressure building inside his skull.
I walked faster, trying to slip past unnoticed.
But Dante turned at the exact wrong moment.
We collided—my smaller body bouncing off his solid chest. I fell backward, landing hard on the ground.
For one heartbeat, we were close enough that I could see the silver flecks in his grey eyes. The bond between us vibrated, singing, reaching.
Did he feel it? Please, please feel it—
Dante's face remained completely blank. He stepped over me without a word, without offering a hand, without even acknowledging I was human.
Through the bond, I felt his guilt spike for half a second, then get shoved down under layers of cold numbness.
He walked away like I was dirt on his shoe.
I sat in the dust, watching my third mate's back disappear into the training facility. Through the bond, I felt him pick up a practice sword and start hitting the dummy with brutal force—punishing it for sins he couldn't name.
"Luna?" Sage had followed me. She helped me up, her eyes worried. "You're crying."
I touched my face. She was right. Tears streamed down my cheeks without permission.
"The bonds," I finally told her, my voice breaking. "Sage, they're my mates. All three of them. Kael, Ryland, and Dante."
Sage's eyes went huge. "What? But that's... that's impossible! Three mates? And them?"
"The Moon Goddess has a sick sense of humor." I laughed bitterly. "And it gets worse. They can't feel the bonds. Only I can. I feel everything from them—every emotion, every thought—but to them, I'm still just the worthless omega."
"Oh, Luna." Sage hugged me tight. "That's... that's the cruelest thing I've ever heard."
Through the three bonds, I felt my mates going about their day. Kael in a meeting with his father. Ryland flirting with some girl. Dante still beating the practice dummy like it personally offended him.
None of them felt the invisible threads connecting us. None of them knew their mate was falling apart.
"There has to be a way to fix it," Sage said firmly. "To make them feel the bonds too. We'll figure it out."
But as I stood there with three golden threads burning in my chest, connecting me to wolves who despised me, I wondered something terrible:
What if the bonds activated on their end?
What if they suddenly felt everything—and rejected me anyway?
What if being their fated mate only gave them a new, crueler way to hurt me?
"Then we run," Selene said fiercely. "We get stronger, and we run far away where mate bonds can't reach."
"Can we really do that?"
Through the bond, I felt Dante finally stop hitting the dummy. Felt him sit down, exhausted and empty. Felt the self-hatred rolling off him in waves.
"We have to try," Selene whispered. "Because loving them like this will kill us."
She was right.
The one-sided mate bond was a torture worse than any of their bullying.
And I had no idea how to make it stop.