Jace Rowan had never wanted to be exceptional. He preferred the quiet—the background. It was easier to survive there. Easier to be left alone. That’s why the gods throwing him into a fated bond with an Alpha’s mate felt like a cosmic joke.
He watched them now, Rhett and Mira, standing not quite close enough to touch, but with tension stretched tight between them like a live wire. Jace could feel it. He could taste it. The bond between them was real. Feral. Fire. And he was caught in the edges of it. Wrong shape. Wrong role. He shouldn’t be here, and ye, the pull inside him wouldn’t let go. His instincts didn’t lie, not in battle, not in politics, and not now, when his chest burned in rhythm with hers. Mira, the enforcer with silver eyes and a scar that curved like a warning across her collarbone. She’s mine, the bond whispered, yet she stood tethered to an Alpha who barely acknowledged Jace’s existence. Rhett hadn’t looked at him since that first moment, not really. The man didn’t seem hostile, just resistant. Like his world had been rewritten and he was still trying to erase the new lines. Jace understood the instinct, because if what Mira suspected was true, if this was a triad mating, then they were all in trouble. Real, political trouble. Triads were more than rare. They were outlawed, not by biology, but by council law. Pack councils, old bloodlines, and even the Moon Priestesses had forbidden them after the Great Northern Uprising nearly a century ago. The last confirmed triad bond had shaken the balance of power. Three wolves—an Alpha, a Beta, and a seer—had become mated. The strength of their combined bond amplified everything: their senses, their control, even their ability to manipulate pack hierarchies. They had decimated rival packs and ruled for a generation. It had taken a coalition of six Alphas to bring them down. Since then, any triad bond was seen as a threat to the order. A biological cheat code. Too powerful. Too unpredictable. Too dangerous. If the Council found out about this… about them… Jace swallowed hard. He didn’t know Rhett, but he’d heard enough. He was dominant, ruthless, and deeply loyal to his pack. And Mira? Mira was a ghost in a black jacket, just wild enough to not care if the world burned, and somehow, the gods had tied him to both. “You’ve been quiet,” Mira said suddenly, voice low. Jace blinked, realizing he’d been staring too long. “Trying to make sense of the last hour.” She nodded once. “Let me know when you do.” She didn’t say it with cruelty. If anything, she looked tired. Not in a physical way, but in a soul-deep, I’m-always-on-guard kind of way. The kind of tired that made Jace’s chest ache. He shifted his stance, voice tentative. “You really think it’s a triad?” “I know it is,” she said. “I just don’t know how far it goes.” Her eyes flicked toward Rhett, who was watching the perimeter like he’d rather be anywhere else. “He doesn’t feel it?” Jace asked. “Not yet,” Mira murmured. “Maybe never. Some Alphas resist bonds they don’t understand.” That made sense. Jace had seen it before, strong Alphas so entrenched in tradition they refused to acknowledge anything that challenged it. Rhett probably saw him as a complication. An unwanted variable. Jace didn’t blame him. “I’m not trying to come between you two,” Jace said. “If it’s easier, I can stay out of the way.” Mira’s gaze snapped back to him. “Don’t say that.” His stomach flipped. “You’re not a mistake,” she added, softer. “I don’t know what the hell this is, but I know it’s real. I felt you in my bones before I ever saw your face.” Jace swallowed hard. “I’ve never felt anything like it,” and that was the terrifying part. Rhett finally spoke again, his voice sharp and cool. “We’re not telling anyone. Not the Council. Not the packs.” “We already agreed on that,” Mira said evenly. “Good,” Rhett muttered. “Because if they find out, it won’t matter what we want. They’ll force separation. Exile. Maybe worse.” Jace looked between them. “You think they’d really do that?” Rhett’s jaw ticked. “You have no idea what’s at stake here, Beta.” There it is, Jace thought. The title, Beta, thrown like a barrier. He nodded slowly. “Then maybe you should educate me.” Rhett turned to him, eyes narrowing slightly, not quite aggression, but testing, weighing. “You’re not part of this,” Rhett said. “Funny,” Jace replied. “The gods seem to disagree.” Silence fell again. Mira’s eyes flicked between them, then back toward the trees. “We can’t fall apart. Not here. Not where everyone’s watching.” Jace exhaled slowly. “So what do we do?” “We figure out what this bond wants from us,” she said. “Quietly. Carefully.” “And if it’s more than just me and you?” Jace asked. She hesitated, “I don’t know.” They walked back toward the Summit tents under the cover of darkness. The moon hung heavy above them, indifferent and glowing, like it knew something they didn’t. Jace stayed a few steps behind, not out of submission, but out of instinct. He was used to walking alone. Used to following the chaos instead of causing it, but now… he was in the middle of it. The bond hadn’t given him a choice and as Mira glanced back at him with a look that held both warning and warmth, Jace felt a strange thing rise inside him. Not fear. Not desire. Something else. Something dangerous. Hope.
