Imprisoned for years, Astrid Sterling burns for vengeance against the pack that executed her parents. But freedom comes with a cruel twist: she's fated to Kieran, the Alpha's son and her sworn enemy. Just as she grapples with his brutal claim, a second, profound mate bond pulls her to his enigmatic brother, Rhys. Forced to choose between them, Astrid's world shatters further when she unearths her true identity as a powerful hybrid, and discovers a third, forbidden mate: a Vampire Lord tied to her deepest secrets. Now, caught between duty, desire, and a thirst for truth, can she survive three fated bonds without losing herself, or unleashing a power that could destroy them all?
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It had been four years since I last saw the sky – four years since my parents were killed – four years since I got locked up in this bloody cell all because I wasn't able to transform. It was mating season, and I was meant to transform and find my mate, but instead, I got locked up in a prison cell for my parents' supposed treason. I wasn't allowed to see them before they died. I was stripped of my title as the future Luna, and of course, my supposed mate Zade cowered and rejected me. Four years had passed since then, and I was still locked up in the cell. Today it's selection day…..the day I'd escape and have my vengeance on the Pack who caused my pain and suffering. They were the only reason I was breathing – my very reason for existence: revenge. They killed my parents, and I'd kill their pack - blood for blood. My hands were cuffed to the wall that dug deeper each time I tried to move. The old me would have been scared, but I'm not anymore. They killed her. The howls, which were my only connection to the outside world, increased, signifying the wolves had found their mates and were probably going to celebrate, meaning it was now or never. It was time – the moon was setting, and my newly awakened wolf would forge a bond with me. A tremor finally ran down my spine as my wolf, "Eliza," bonded with me. "Eliza," I whispered. "He's here - It's time." She huffs happily in acknowledgment, and I stop to tell her my plan to kill him but suddenly stop when someone approaches. Loud boots. Sharp and commanding, followed by a set of other boots. The door creaks slowly, unleashing the moonlight which I hadn't seen in years – it got brighter, revealing the figure or figures who approached. Among them stood him, "Kieran Thorne" – The son of Xavier Thorne - The man who killed my parents. I felt it immediately when I saw him.... the pull to him. The sharp, agonizing pain that made me want to hold onto him and never stop – the same way I felt when I was mated to Zade, which meant the son of the man who killed my father was my mate! How was this possible? "Mate!" – my wolf Eliza howled in excitement, contradicting the pain I was feeling. It had to be a mistake. A cruel joke played by the Moon Goddess… something! How could she do this to me? After all the pain she put on me, she decides to add more? I looked back at Kieran who seemed to have halted but maintained his posture nevertheless. I'm sure he felt the bond, but he surely wouldn't acknowledge me – especially in front of all these men. The bond pulsed harder as they got closer. Three more steps before they got here. ONE – TWO – AND THREE. The largest of them strides towards me then grabs my hand, pulling me up. "Astrid – Astrid Sterling," he asks as his eyes bore into him, giving a predatory gaze. "Am I correct?" "Why ask when you already know the answer?" My reply seemed to switch something off in him because his face twists in rage as he raised his lips to speak again. "Look, we aren’t here for trouble – I presume nothing else can be worse than the death of your parents." His voice hardens. "We’re just here to strike a simple deal since you’ve proven yourself to be useless and un-shiftable." Oh…if only they knew, I smirked inwardly. "As punishments for your parents’ crime-" I stopped him immediately he mentioned that. "I thought you wanted to strike a deal! – why must I pay for whatever crimes they committed? You bastards didn’t even let me see them, and now you come to ask for payments, huh?" "Mind your language, girl! – you’re just making it worse," Another one of them said. "But I thought nothing was worse than the punishments you’ve given me already – You know you’re all just cowards – staying in the dark and letting others do the dirty work for you ...killing innocent people like my parents and saying they did something wrong!" I walk towards Kieran as the anger in me increases. "You felt it, didn’t you?" He walks towards me more, closing the space between us. "You think it means something? You think it changes anything? – It doesn't change the fact that you’re the child of monsters – it doesn't change the fact that you're weak and useless, does it? I moved back – Eliza whimpering at the weight of his voice. "Your pack locked me up when I was just seventeen! – when I hadn’t discovered who I was!" "He destroyed my life in a day – I hadn’t even met him!" "And if my parents did do something wrong, then why must I pay for it? – why must I pay for the sins they committed? "You were seventeen and you hadn’t even found a wolf – your mate rejected you and your parents committed atrocities – and as the saying goes, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree – does it?" "I have no wolf but here I am – your wolf is calling to me yet I’m weak and useless." I laughed at his stupidity. Had he really not realized or was he just acting? He finally looked away from me and looked back at the bald man who was talking to me earlier. "Take her to the ceremony." "Are you sure about this, sire?…your father woul—" "NOW LOGAN!" I looked back at him confused – what ceremony was he talking about? "I am not going anywhere with you – you haven’t even acknowledged the fact that I’m yo—" "Mate?" His eyes darkened as he said the words. "Of course, I know we’re mated, and I’m more than happy to fulfill your wolf's wishes of mating with me." "I nev—" "GO!" He didn’t even let me complete my sentence as he pushed me towards Logan. He gritted his teeth as he said, "See you soon – Dear Mate."I don’t even know why my hands were still on the knife.It was stupid — so stupid — because all it was doing was keeping Caius’s blood warm against my skin, and the longer I felt it, the harder it was to pretend I didn’t notice the way it… throbbed. Not in a heartbeat way. In a wrong way.I should’ve dropped it. Let it hit the dirt, walk away. My brain told me to. My body didn’t care.Kieran’s standing there, shoulders tense, jaw tight, eyes locked on me like I’m a bad dream he can’t shake. And yeah, he looks pissed, but not loud-pissed. Quiet-pissed. The kind that feels worse because you know it’s boiling under the surface.“You’re making a mistake,” he says. Calm. Too calm. The calm before—“Yeah, probably.” My voice comes out too flat, too quick. I want to laugh it off, but my chest is tight. “But it’s mine.”Lyra’s pacing, boots sinking into soft moss with a muted squelch. Her hand’s twitching toward the hilt at her hip. “We gotta move. They’ll come for him. And for us. Especially
A sharp gasp tore through the silence, and I froze, helpless, as Caius’s teeth sank deep into my neck. As the pain erupted, a fierce white-hot flame, but beneath it, a wild heat spread, fierce and alive, pulsing with the raw, primal power of his blood. My body arched against him, not fighting, but releasing a cry that ripped out of me, half terror, half a dark, urgent hunger. He was marking me, claiming me again, twisting every inch of me into something new. I was no longer just myself. I was his.Caius held me tight, one hand tangled in my hair like iron, the other moving with slow, deliberate cruelty. I could feel the searing burn beneath my skin, the magic slicing through me, stripping away every trace of who I had been. Colors warped and spun behind my eyes, red, black, and fire bleeding into one another like a shattered mirror.Then Kieran’s roar erupted—a guttural, raw sound ripped from his throat, full of rage and desperation. He was on us in a heartbeat, a storm of motion, but
"I don’t think I want to."The words fell from my mouth too fast, too sharp, like I’d thrown them out to hurt him, but the moment they were in the air , the silence that followed made me wish I could snatch them back.Kieran’s head snapped toward me, that storm in his eyes swelling darker, black leaking into the gold like night devouring daylight. His jaw ticked once, a sharp pulse in his temple, and I knew he heard the truth in my voice, not just defiance but temptation, and that was worse than if I’d spat pure hatred. His wolf pressed close to the surface, his scent flooding the space, wild and biting, claws scratching under his skin.But it wasn’t him I should have been watching.Caius’s hand slid up my thigh again, slow, deliberate, like every inch he claimed was his alone, like Kieran wasn’t standing right there ready to tear him apart. His thumb dragged lazy circles just shy of my hip bone, heat licking through me until my pulse jumped hard in my throat. His other hand stayed br
I stared at him. He didn’t just say that. He couldn’t have.“You’re coming?” I whispered, the words catching in my throat.He paused at the large, dark wood armoire, a slow smile spreading across his face as he turned to face me. "Of course, I am," he purred, his voice a low, dangerous rumble. "We have to greet them."And something about the way he said it sent a shiver crawling down my spine. It wasn’t a shiver of fear, not exactly. It was more like a jolt of electricity, a recognition that whatever was coming, it wouldn’t be a fair fight. Lyra, who had been standing silent and still, shifted her weight. "My Lord, with all due respect, sending the entire war party into the forest is a dangerous move. They could be baiting us into a trap."Caius simply scoffed, not even bothering to look at her. "Let them. A trap for them, perhaps. Not for us. We'll meet them on their own terms. And we'll show them what happens when they dare to challenge the new order."He said the last part with a
Chapter 29 - OLD FRIENDS~ ~ Astrid ~ ~I woke up tasting blood and pleasure.It wasn’t a dream. My body remembered every brutal detail, every agonizing stretch, every blinding wave of an orgasm that had ripped through me. Consciousness returned slowly, not like waking from sleep, but like surfacing from a deep, dark ocean.The first thing I registered was the sheets. They were silk , impossibly smooth and cool against my bruised skin. I wasn’t on the chaise lounge. I was in his bed.The second thing was the scent. His scent. Ozone, ancient stone, and him. It was everywhere, clinging to the silk, saturating the air, sinking into my pores until I couldn’t tell where he ended and I began.A low, dull ache throbbed in my neck. I lifted a trembling hand to the spot, my fingers brushing against two small, raised punctures. They weren’t bleeding. The skin around them was strangely warm, humming with a faint energy that felt both foreign and intimately familiar. It felt like him.I sat up, t
CHAPTER 28~ ~ KIERAN ~ ~The office stank of my father.Old leather and the cheap cigars he smoked when he thought no one was looking. But the scent that was missing was the one driving me up the wall. Astrid’s. That faint trace of lavender soap that always seemed to linger here, a constant reminder of what was supposed to be mine.Now, there was just stale air and the smell of a dead man.I shoved the pack ledger away from me, the heavy book sliding across the polished wood. Three days. For three fucking days, I’d been trapped in this office, listening to the panicked whispers filter through the walls.A restless energy thrummed under my skin, making it impossible to sit still. My wolf wanted to hunt, to tear something apart. Anything. The trackers had come back with their tails between their legs. Her scent, they’d said, just stopped. Vanished at the edge of the Forbidden Forest like she’d been plucked out of the sky. All they found was a scrap of her dress.Useless.A knock at the
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