POV: Darius Nightshade
The argument started over breakfast.
Or what passed for breakfast. Ryker had found some berries and roots that were probably edible. Kael was sitting against the cave wall like death had decided to wait a few hours before collecting him. Sera was still asleep, finally getting real rest instead of the broken nightmare kind.
"North," Kael said. "The cabin is two days ride if we push hard. It is defensible. Stocked."
"South," I said immediately. "The ports. We get passage on a merchant ship. We are gone before the council even realizes we left the territory."
"And leave three packs in chaos?" Ryker asked. His tone was ice. "You want to abandon them to civil war?"
"I want to keep her alive," I said. I gestured toward Sera sleeping. "That is the priority."
"Keeping her alive means dealing with the threat," Ryker said. "If we run, they hunt forever. If we circle back and gather allies, we build a position that can actually hold against the council."
I stood up. "So what, we march back to the Eastern Stone pack and ask them to betray their leader? Ask the Southern Shadows to go against their own laws?"
"I have supporters in both packs," Ryker said. His gray eyes were cold and calculating. "Wolves who understand that the council is corrupt. Wolves who would fight if given leadership."
"Wolves who would die," I said. "For what? So you can play strategy games with people's lives?"
Kael's voice cut in. Quieter than ours but heavier. "The cabin is secure. We rest. We recover. We figure out what to do next."
"While the council gathers an army?" I said. "While they turn our own people against us?"
"Better that than leading them into a suicide mission," Kael said.
Something snapped.
Not metaphorically. Something actually snapped inside my chest. The bond. The stress. The fact that Sera had nearly died and these two were sitting here talking strategy like we had time to plan.
I threw the first punch.
It was not controlled. Not tactical. Just rage wrapped in fist and years of not being allowed to lose anything else after my sister died.
Kael saw it coming but his side was still torn open and his reflexes were slow. The punch caught him on the shoulder and knocked him sideways.
He came back swinging.
His fist was ice. It would have broken my jaw if I had not pulled back. The movement sent him off balance and I tackled him.
We went down hard. The cave floor was unforgiving. Kael was already bleeding again but he did not seem to care. His hands were everywhere. Trying to grab. Trying to hold. Trying to dominate.
"Stop it," Ryker said.
We ignored him.
Kael got his arms around me and tried to pin me against the stone. I twisted and drove my elbow up toward his face. He blocked it but the effort cost him. I felt him wince.
Ryker stopped watching.
He moved into the fight with the kind of efficiency that made it clear he had been planning this engagement the whole time. He did not grab us or try to separate us. He just started hitting.
Calculated strikes. Strategic. He was not trying to win a fight. He was trying to dismantle three separate systems at once.
His fist came at me and I barely got my arm up in time. The impact sent shocks down my entire side.
"Stop," Ryker said again. Like we were being unreasonable. Like we were not three Alphas trying to solve a problem with violence because nothing else was working.
The fight was chaos. Blood and fists and the sound of bodies hitting stone. My sister's face kept flashing in my mind. Her dying. The council not caring. My parents grieving and the packs not caring and me not caring about anything except survival.
And then this.
Sera.
The bond.
Three males who should have been enemies bound to one woman who deserved better than any of us.
Kael slammed me against the wall and my vision went spotty.
Ryker came in with a strike aimed at my ribs.
Then it stopped.
Not because we wanted to stop. Because something else stopped it for us.
Golden light exploded out of nowhere.
It was not like the light from the ceremony. It was not threads connecting. It was power. Pure power. It filled the entire cave like the sun had crashed into the stone.
All three of us dropped to our knees at the exact same moment.
Not because we chose to. Because we could not do anything else. The power was absolute. It was command. It was something ancient and furious and it said kneel and we knelt because defying it was not possible.
Our heads bowed automatically. Our wolves submitted before our minds could even catch up.
Through the bond, I felt Ryker's shock. Kael's confusion. And underneath it all, Sera.
She was shaking.
"Look at me," she said.
We did. We had no choice.
She was standing in the center of the cave and she was glowing like she was made of lightning. Her violet eyes were blazing. Her small hands were clenched into fists.
The meek omega was gone.
Something else entirely had taken her place.
"I did not ask for this," she said. Her voice was not loud but it carried through the cave like thunder. Like command. Like something that had been buried inside her was finally breaking free. "I did not ask to be bonded to three males who cannot stop fighting long enough to actually save me. I did not ask to be the reason you tear each other apart."
The power was still pushing down on us. Keeping us on our knees. Keeping us from even twitching.
"And I definitely did not ask to be property," she said. "To be fought over like a prize. Like I do not get a say in what happens next."
I wanted to speak. Could not. The command was too strong.
Sera walked in front of us. Her dress was torn in a dozen places. Her hair was matted. But she looked like a queen.
"Figure out how to share," she said. The words were a snap. Sharp enough to draw blood. "Figure out how to work together. Figure out how to stop this because I cannot keep doing this."
She stepped closer to me and I felt the power intensify.
"Or I walk away," she said quietly. "Right now. I walk out of this cave and I keep walking and we all die from bond separation. Is that what you want? Because I will do it. I will do it right now if you cannot figure out how to stop acting like animals."
The golden light flickered.
It was fading. Her control was slipping. The power was too new. Too raw. She was shaking so hard she might fall.
But for those few seconds, she had made three Alphas kneel.
She had made us understand that she was not ours to fight over.
We were hers.