POV: Sera Wilde
I was trying very hard to be invisible.
Not the good kind of invisible where people forget you exist. The careful kind where you stand still enough and quiet enough that no one notices you are running out of time.
Twenty two years old. Last chance. That was what they whispered in the omega quarters. Last chance before everyone gave up on me.
The Moonlit Ceremony clearing smelled like earth and pine and about two hundred wolves who were about to find their mates. All around me, unmated werewolves waited under the full moon. Some looked excited. Most looked nervous. A few looked desperate.
I understood desperate.
The platform sat thirty yards away. Three steps up to a wooden stage lit by torches that made everything gold and shadowy at once. The three Alpha heirs stood there like they were carved from stone. They did not belong with the rest of us. They never did.
Kael Stormborne wore all black. His hair was the color of a midnight sky and his eyes were so blue they looked like ice. Cold. Untouchable. He stood like someone who had never felt uncertain about anything in his entire life.
Darius Nightshade leaned against one of the support posts like he was bored. Golden brown skin. Dark hair falling past his collar. A smile that made some of the younger omegas near me get quiet and stare. He looked like trouble wrapped up in charm.
Ryker Ironwolf had a scar cutting through his left eyebrow. His eyes were gray and flat and they seemed to calculate everything they saw. Like he was playing chess and the rest of us were pieces on the board.
Three Alphas from three different packs. Three males who should never be on the same stage without trying to kill each other.
I stopped looking at them.
The High Elder moved to the center of the platform. He was ancient. His voice when he called for quiet carried magic in it, the kind that made every wolf's wolf want to listen.
"The full moon reveals our fates," he said. His words echoed across the clearing. "Under her silver light, the bonds will show themselves. The magic knows truth. The magic knows forever."
He raised his hands toward the moon.
The magic started.
It was beautiful in a way I did not have words for. Golden light began appearing above the crowd like tiny fires igniting one by one. Each light connected two wolves together. Bonds. Mates. Destinies.
A young beta wolf across the clearing lit up with golden threads connecting him to a shy omega near the trees. They both gasped. Someone in the crowd cheered.
Another bond flared to life. And another.
Mates finding mates. Wolves finding their forevers.
I felt nothing.
Relief crashed through me so hard it made my knees weak. No bond meant no expectations. No bond meant I could stay quiet and safe and small. No bond meant no one could hurt me by leaving or dying or deciding they wanted something better.
My parents died when I was eight. Rogues on a border raid took them and left me with nothing but memories and nightmares. After that, I learned that wanting things was dangerous.
No mate bond meant no wanting.
"Thank you," I whispered to the moon, to the magic, to whatever had decided I was not worth choosing.
Then the pain started.
It was not sharp like a knife. It was burning. Like someone had reached into my chest and set my heart on fire from the inside.
I gasped. Fell to my knees. My vision went white.
Something was happening. Something wrong.
Golden light exploded out of my body.
Not one thread. Not two. Three massive golden threads shot from my chest like lightning looking for a target. They burned across the clearing so bright that wolves had to shield their eyes.
The first thread slammed into Kael Stormborne.
The second thread crashed into Darius Nightshade.
The third thread burned straight into Ryker Ironwolf.
All three Alphas staggered backward. Their heads snapped up at the exact same moment. They looked at each other. Then they looked at me on my knees, burning with golden light that should not exist.
The clearing went silent.
Not regular silent. The kind of silent where everyone stops breathing at once.
I could not move. The threads were connected to something deep inside me, something ancient and furious and alive. The magic pulled at all three of them. I could feel it like rope tied around their hearts. I could feel them pulling back at the same moment I was pulling at them.
Three Alphas. Three rival packs. One impossible, impossible bond.
The three males moved toward me at the same time. They stopped dead when they realized what they were doing. Kael's face turned hard as stone. Darius looked shocked. Ryker's calculating eyes had widened just enough to show I had surprised him.
"What is this?" someone in the crowd whispered.
Then another voice. Then another.
"That is not possible."
"Three bonds? That is illegal."
"The sacred law. She violated the sacred law."
"She is cursed."
"Abomination."
My wolf was screaming. The bond was screaming. I was screaming but no sound came out. The burning in my chest was getting worse, not better. The threads connecting me to the three Alphas felt like they were tearing me open from the inside.
This could not be happening.
This was supposed to be the safe option. No mate. Quiet life. Invisible forever.
Instead I had just bonded myself to the three most powerful males in the alliance. The three males who were supposed to hate each other. The three males who were now all looking at me like I had just destroyed everything.
Kael started walking toward me. His face was a mask but his eyes were burning with something dangerous.
Darius moved too, faster, more reckless. His wolf was showing through his eyes now.
Ryker had gone still in that way that meant his strategic mind was already calculating a dozen moves ahead.
My body was not obeying me anymore. The bond had taken over. Every part of me wanted to run to them. Every part of me wanted to pull them closer. Every part of me was breaking.
The High Elder stepped forward. His ancient face had gone pale.
He looked at me like I was something that needed to be destroyed.
When he opened his mouth, his voice hit the crowd like thunder. Not angry. Worse than angry. Certain.
"Abomination."