Callum

The moment Lila and Theo turned the corner, I stepped in and took Rhea from Rory’s arms. His jaw ticked, a muscle jumping as if he wanted to protest—but he didn’t. He knew why.

She was limp against me, too soft, too breakable in this moment. Her breath came shallow, warm against my chest as she curled instinctively into me. She had no idea of the storm she’d just stepped into, no idea how close she was to waking up to claws, fangs, and jealousy snapping around her like wolves at a kill. That wasn’t going to happen. Not on my watch.

“Ivy. Cassandra. Aria.” I didn’t have to say their names out loud—just thinking of them had my jaw tightening. Those three weren’t going to leave quietly, not when they smelled the shift in us. They’d make a scene, demand answers, bare their teeth like they ever had a claim.

The last thing our mate needed was to open her eyes and see that.

“Take care of it,” I ordered. My voice was calm, but it carried the full weight of Alpha command. “Before she wakes.”

Seth smirked like he’d been waiting for this chance, rolling his shoulders in easy anticipation. Rory cracked his knuckles, the usual spark of mischief gone, replaced with something sharper—deadly. Even Jaxon, who hardly spared his flings more than a glance once they’d served their purpose, looked ready to drag every last one of them out by their throats despite giving them a fucking dose of dominance just now.

“Don’t let them cry about it,” I added, shifting Rhea’s weight so her face pressed into the line of my neck, her breath brushing hot across my skin. “I don’t want a fucking mess when she wakes up.”

“They’ll cry,” Jaxon scoffed, voice low and cruel. “But they’ll be gone.”

That was enough for me. I turned, my brothers’ voices fading behind me, replaced by the thrum of my wolf’s satisfaction. She was here. In my arms. And the world could burn for all I cared.

The wards hummed faintly as I crossed the threshold of my room, the silver runes inlaid in the doorframe sparking brighter for a moment. Recognition. They knew her. My wolf growled low in my chest, pleased.

Something in me settled. Finally. This was right. This was where she belonged.

I laid her carefully on my bed, pulling the dark blanket over her slight frame. Against the black, her silver hair spilled like threads of moonlight, fanning across the pillow until it glowed in the torchlight. My fingers hovered above her, aching to trace the delicate line of her cheek, the curve of her throat.

She was ours.

The dress she wore clung indecently to every dip and rise of her body, making something primal tighten low in my stomach. She was built for us, shaped by the Goddess’s own hand. My wolf pushed, snarling for me to claim her.

But no. Not like this. Not while she was unconscious, drunk, vulnerable.

I brushed a few strands of hair from her face, my fingertips tingling where they brushed her skin. Her scent wrapped around me—tuberose and roses, sweet and sinful, the kind of scent that would haunt me until the day I died. I inhaled it deep, filling my lungs, grounding myself in her.

Then I bent down, pressing my lips gently to her forehead. The brief contact nearly undid me, but I closed my eyes, forcing myself to hold steady.

“You’re perfect,” I whispered, my voice rougher than I intended.

And she had no idea.

I lingered for one more breath, then straightened, stepping back with effort. She needed to rest. We had time now. Time to show her what she meant, who she belonged to.

But before that, there were still loose ends to cut clean. I could hear the shouting downstairs and I wasn’t going to let anything—anyone—taint the moment she woke up in our world.

Seth’s POV

“I don’t see what the big fucking deal is,” Aria huffed, crossing her arms under her chest, her tone sharp enough to grate. “She’s just some random she-wolf—”

The growl that ripped from Jaxon’s throat was low, lethal, and absolutely feral. It shook the wards laced through the walls, silver runes along the floor sparking faintly in warning. Cassandra and Ivy actually flinched, shrinking back from the sheer violence in his sound.

“She’s our mate,” Rory said flatly, his voice void of his usual mischief. His grey eyes—normally teasing, always dancing with trouble—were cold steel now. “Not random. Not temporary. Ours.”

Aria scoffed, tossing her hair back with a dramatic flick. “Oh, please. She doesn’t even know you. Do you think she’s just going to fall into your arms? The whole of fucking Lycandra knows how you guys—”

“Shut the fuck up, Aria.” My voice snapped like a whip, sharper than I intended. But I didn’t care. My wolf was pacing hard, ready to tear through the walls just to get back to her. My patience? Gone.

Aria froze mid-sentence, her lips parting like she couldn’t believe I’d just cut her off. But I didn’t let her recover.

“You have no idea what this is,” I growled, stepping forward, letting my wolf bleed into the edge of my voice. “So quit pretending you do.”

Her eyes widened, just slightly. Good.

Because I wasn’t in the mood for this shit. My mate—our mate—was upstairs. Lying in Callum’s bed, wrapped in his sheets, breathing slow and steady while I was stuck down here babysitting three wolves who thought they were owed something. My wolf snarled in protest, claws raking at my insides. He wanted me upstairs. He wanted her.

Cassandra, of course, couldn’t keep her mouth shut. She lifted her chin, lips curling in disgust. “What makes you think she’ll even want you? You’re a pack of fucking man-whores.”

Rory chuckled then, dark and mocking, leaning back like he had all the time in the world. “And yet,” he said lazily, “you still wanted us.”

Cassandra froze, colour flooding her cheeks before she snapped her mouth shut.

Ivy made a small sound beside her—broken, hesitant. Her eyes shimmered with tears, her gaze finding mine like I was the last lifeline she had. “Seth…” she whispered, her voice shaking.

My chest tightened, and I clenched my jaw hard enough to ache. Ivy had always been the softer one, the only one of the three who didn’t pretend this was more than what it was. She annoyed the shit out of me sometimes, yeah, but she’d been real.

I stepped toward her, pulled her into my arms for a brief hug, my lips brushing her hair. “I’m sorry,” I muttered, quietly enough that only she heard it. Then I forced myself to step back, severing that last tether. “But she’s ours.”

Her lip trembled. “You could’ve told me.”

“I didn’t know until tonight,” I said, my voice heavier than I wanted it to be. “If I had, we wouldn’t have…” I trailed off, the words useless.

“Enough.”

Callum’s voice cut through the room like tempered steel, calm but absolute. That tone—Alpha command laced with dominance—made even the air hum heavier.

The three women turned instinctively toward him. Their defiance flickered, then cracked. Anger shifted to unease. Because Callum wasn’t Rory with his taunts, or me with my sharp edge, or Jaxon with his brutal silence. Callum was the one you didn’t test.

“These are your Alphas,” he said, voice low and steady, carrying across the space like a decree. “And their decision has been made. You will respect it. Now leave.”

The finality in his words was undeniable. The wards along the walls flared faintly in agreement, silver runes pulsing as if the Goddess Herself was echoing him.

Ivy hesitated, swallowing hard, but even she knew. It was over.

Aria stormed out first, heels clicking against the polished stone like a tantrum. Cassandra followed with a glare sharp enough to cut glass, but her silence said more than her insults ever had. And Ivy… she lingered just one beat longer, giving me a look I couldn’t quite read before she turned and slipped through the door after them.

The moment the heavy wood shut behind them, the tension snapped.

“Finally,” Rory muttered, dragging a hand through his hair.

Jaxon exhaled sharply, still radiating violence, his eyes shadowed and hungry. “Let’s get back to her.”

And my wolf—my entire fucking soul—howled in agreement.

Jaxon’s POV

I felt her before I saw her.

The hum of the wards shifted, vibrating low against my skin as her scent bled through the air—roses and tuberose, cloying, intoxicating, mine. My wolf snapped forward so hard my knees nearly buckled, snarling in my head, clawing like he’d tear his way out if I didn’t move faster.

She was waking up.

We hit the landing just as her voice cracked through the stillness.

“Lila!”

The sound of her panic gutted me.  It was sharp , raw and desperate. My chest clenched with something I didn’t recognize—something I didn’t like.

We burst through Callum’s door.

And there she was.

Rhea.

Mate.

Her silver hair tumbled wildly around her shoulders, her blue eyes wide, glassy, unfocused. She stood barefoot in the middle of the room like she’d clawed her way out of a dream and landed in a nightmare instead. She looked terrified, small and fragile—like she didn’t understand yet what she was.

What she was to us.

My vision blurred at the edges, my wolf pushing hard against my skin. I didn’t think. Couldn’t. We moved in unison, instinct more than decision, surrounding her before she even had a chance to blink.

Rory slipped in at her right, Seth at her left, both of them moving like shadows. Callum stepped forward, his calm a razor-thin veneer as he cupped her face in his hands, his thumb brushing her cheek. And me? I took her back, pressing flush against her, my hands clamping down on her hips, locking her in place so she couldn’t run.

Ours.

“You’re ours,” Callum said, steady, certain, the words vibrating through the air like law.

Her breath stuttered, trembling through her body as she looked up at him. I buried my nose in her hair, inhaling deep. Fuck—she was perfect. Her scent was thick and sweet, wrapping around me, curling through my veins until I felt drunk on it. My fingers tightened reflexively, pulling her hips back against me until I could feel the heat of her through that thin dress.

She trembled. Not just with fear. Her body responded before her mind could fight it—her pulse leaping under her skin, the hitch of her breath betraying her. That sweet sweet arousal wafting through the air.

I lowered my head, lips brushing the curve of her throat, just above the place I’d mark her. Just to taste. Just to claim. Her skin shivered under my mouth, and my wolf howled with triumph.

She felt it.

She had to.

“Stop!”

Her voice cracked like breaking glass.

We froze. Every muscle in my body went rigid.

She was crying—her eyes glossy with unshed tears, her hands trembling at her sides. She looked at us like we were predators circling prey. And maybe we were.

“Please.”

The word was barely a whisper, but it hit harder than any blade. My wolf snarled in protest, but I forced him back, grinding my teeth until my jaw ached.

“You’re our mate,” Callum said again, his voice calm but firm, steel wrapped in velvet. “You feel it, don’t you?”

She shook her head violently, retreating step by step until her back hit the bed frame. Her silver hair spilled around her face, her eyes wide with something that looked too much like denial.

Lila and Theo stood frozen in the doorway, but I barely registered them. The only thing that mattered was her.

And then she said it.

“I don’t feel anything.”

The words hit like claws to the ribs. A lie. My wolf roared against it, snapping, howling, furious. She felt it. I’d felt it in the way her body melted against mine, in the way her scent had spiked when my lips touched her throat. But hearing her deny it still burned like acid in my veins.

Rory moved first, leaning in, his lips brushing her temple as his voice dropped into something low and rough. “We’ve waited five years for you. You’re not getting rid of us that easily.”

Seth’s growl followed, his grey eyes burning into her with fire his wolf at the forefront. “You’re ours, Luna. And we’ll protect you. From everyone. Even yourself.”

Her throat bobbed as she swallowed, her pulse hammering so hard I could see it in the delicate line of her neck. Her hands trembled, but she didn’t push us away. She couldn’t.

She could lie. She could fight. She could claw and scream.

But she was already ours.

And sooner or later, she’d admit it.