เข้าสู่ระบบI make it back to my room before I start shaking.Not from fear. From rage.Selene's words keep replaying in my head. How she looked at Damon. How she smiled at me like I was temporary.The door opens. All three of them walk in without knocking."We need to talk," Damon says."You think?"He closes the door. Locks it. "Ask me. Whatever you want to know. I'll tell you.""Were you going to marry her?"The question hangs in the air. Through the bond I feel Kieran and Caius tense."I considered it," Damon says finally. "Before I was Crown Prince. When I thought I had a choice.""So yes.""I said I considered it. I never proposed. Never made promises.""She seems to think you did.""She assumed. That's different." He steps closer. "We were together for three years. It ended five years ago. I haven't touched her since."Three years. That's longer than I've been bonded to him."Did you love her?""I thought I did. At the time.""What changed?""My father made me Crown Prince. Told me I neede
I wake up alone.The bed is huge, cold, empty except for me. For a second I panic. Did last night actually happen? Was the mating real?Then I smell them.All three of them. Their scents are everywhere. On the sheets, on my skin, in my hair. Pine and smoke and something darker I can't name.I smell like them now. Permanently.My wolf is practically purring about it. I want to throw up.The door opens. Kieran walks in carrying a tray."Morning, beautiful." He sets it on the bed. Coffee, toast, fruit. "Thought you might be hungry.""Where are the others?""Damon's in a council meeting. Caius is training." He sits on the edge of the bed. "How are you feeling?""Weird.""Weird how?"How do I explain that I can feel them in my head now? That the bond is so much stronger it's overwhelming? That every emotion they have bleeds into mine and I can't tell where I end and they begin?"Just weird," I say.He studies me for a long moment. Through the bond I feel his concern. His affection. It's to
I'm terrified.Not the "maybe this is a bad idea" kind of terrified. The "I might actually die tonight" kind.They're preparing the room. Candles everywhere. Guards posted outside. The healer gave me something to drink that tastes like dirt and makes my head fuzzy.I'm sitting on the bed wearing basically nothing. Some fancy silk thing that's supposed to be for mating ceremonies but really just makes me feel naked.This is insane.Three months ago I was a rogue stealing bread. Now I'm about to mate with three kings at once or die trying.How is this my life?There's a knock. They enter.All three of them. Looking just as terrified as I feel.Good. At least I'm not alone in this."You okay?" Kieran asks."No. You?""Nope." He almost smiles. "But we're doing this anyway."Damon closes the door. Locks it. "Guards are posted. The room is warded. We should be safe."Should be. Not will be.Great.Caius sits beside me. "We don't have to do this if you're not ready.""I'm dying. We don't rea
I wake up coughing blood.Not a lot. Just enough to stain my pillow red.Damon's at my side immediately. "Sage? What's wrong?""I don't know." My chest hurts. Everything hurts. "I can't breathe right.""Get the healer," he snaps at someone. "Now!"The room spins. I can feel them through the bond. All three of them. Their fear bleeding into mine, making it worse.Too much. Too many emotions at once."Make it stop," I gasp."Make what stop?""The bond. I can feel all of you and it's too much. It's burning."The healer arrives. Old woman, sharp eyes. She examines me quickly."When did this start?""Just now. She woke up coughing blood," Damon says."Not the blood. The bond strain. When did that start?"We all look at each other."After the attack," Caius realizes. "She's been exhausted since then.""Because she killed for the first time while bonded to three Alphas." The healer looks at me. "You felt their emotions during the fight. All of them. Rage, fear, bloodlust. It overloaded your
The attack comes at midnight.I'm half asleep, warm between all three of them, when the bond screams danger.All four of us jolt awake at once."Something's wrong," Damon says.Glass shatters. The window explodes inward.Men pour through. Dressed in black. Faces covered. Weapons drawn.Eight of them.Damon shifts mid-leap. His wolf is massive, dark, terrifying. He takes down two before they can react.Kieran grabs me, shoves me behind him. "Stay back.""Like hell."An assassin comes at us. Kieran meets him, disarms him in three moves. Snaps his neck.Caius is fighting two at once. No weapon. Just fists and fury. He's fast. Brutal. One goes down. Then the other.But more are coming through the windows. The door.Too many.One gets past Kieran. Comes straight for me.My wolf explodes to the surface.I don't remember shifting. Don't remember moving. Just suddenly I'm wolf and my jaws are closing around his throat.Blood. Hot. Metallic. Wrong.He drops.I killed him.The thought should ho
I don't see any of them for two days after the kiss.Damon's buried in King duties. Caius is drinking himself stupid. Kieran won't even look at me.The bond is screaming. Hurt from all three directions. Anger. Jealousy. Confusion.I'm going insane.On the third morning, there's a knock.All three of them are standing there. Looking exhausted."Pack a bag," Damon says."What?""We're leaving. Just for a few days." He won't quite meet my eyes. "We need to get out of here before we kill each other.""Where are we going?""Hunting lodge. Northern border. No servants. No court. No politics." Kieran's voice is flat. "Just us.""And if I don't want to go?""Too bad," Caius says. "You're coming anyway."Twenty minutes later we're on horses riding north.Nobody talks. The silence is suffocating.We ride for hours. Through forests, across rivers, up into mountains I've never seen.The lodge appears at sunset. Small. Isolated. Built into the mountainside with a view of everything below."Father







