MasukThe screaming woke Anya at 2 AM.She was moving before consciousness fully returned, years of training kicking in. Out of bed. Down the hall. Toward Katya's room where the screaming continued. Raw. Terrified. The sound of someone trapped in nightmare."Katya!" Anya burst through the door. "Katya, wake up! You're..."Her sister moved like lightning. Off the bed. Hands finding Anya's throat. Squeezing. The grip professional. Precise. The hold of someone trained to kill.Anya couldn't breathe. Couldn't speak. She grabbed Katya's wrists, tried to break the grip, but her sister was stronger than she looked. Stronger than she should be.The hybrid program. They'd trained her. Even without memories, the muscle memory remained.Black spots danced in Anya's vision. She had seconds. Maybe less.Training overrode panic. She brought her knee up, hard, precise, into Katya's stomach. Her sister gasped, grip loosening. Anya twisted, broke free, put distance between them."Katya! It's me! It's Anya!
The training room smelled like sweat and testosterone.Anya stood in the center, facing six Volkov enforcers. Big men. Alphas all. Looking at her with barely concealed skepticism."This is the Luna?" one of them, Viktor, built like a tank, said. Not quite under his breath. "She looks like she'd break in half.""Looks can be deceiving," Dimitri said from the doorway. Arms crossed. Watching. "Why don't you test that theory, Viktor?"Viktor grinned. Feral. "With pleasure, Pakhan."He stepped onto the mat. Anya sized him up. Six-four. Maybe 240. Combat training, military, from his stance. Confident. Maybe overconfident.Good. Overconfidence she could use."Rules?" she asked."No permanent damage. No hits to the face... Pakhan would kill me. Everything else is fair game." Viktor cracked his knuckles. "Ready, little omega?"She didn't answer. Just moved.Fast. Faster than he expected. Inside his guard before he could react. Swept his leg. Used his weight against him. He went down hard, and
The tension in the cabin was thick enough to choke on.Anya sat at the kitchen table, staring at her coffee. Dimitri stood by the window, arms crossed, jaw tight. Nikolai was conspicuously absent, smart man, getting out before the storm hit.They'd been dancing around it for three days. The jealousy. The guilt. The uncomfortable truth that heat had complicated pack dynamics in ways none of them had anticipated.Alexei walked in, took one look at them, and sighed. "Alright. That's enough. Both of you, living room. Now.""Alexei..." Dimitri started."Don't 'Alexei' me. You're both miserable. Anya's drowning in guilt. You're drowning in jealousy. And Nikolai's avoiding both of you like you've got the plague. This stops now."Anya wanted to argue. Wanted to say she was fine. But Alexei's expression said he wasn't buying it.They moved to the living room. Alexei positioned himself between them like a referee. Which, she supposed, he was."Okay. Let's talk about triad bonds," Alexei said. N
Dimitri told himself he wasn't jealous.He'd told Anya the truth, he was grateful Nikolai had helped. Grateful his brother had been there when he couldn't be. Grateful Anya had survived.But.There was a but. Small. Irrational. Buried deep where the mate bond couldn't quite reach it.He watched Anya and Nikolai at breakfast. The easy way they interacted now. The comfortable silences. The inside jokes that had developed during those three hours when Nikolai had been the one taking care of her.The way she smiled at him. Relaxed. Trusting. The same way she smiled at Dimitri but, different somehow. Special in a way that made something in Dimitri's chest tighten."You're staring," Alexei said quietly. Sitting beside him. "Also brooding. Staring and brooding. Not a good look.""I'm not brooding.""You're definitely brooding. What's wrong?""Nothing.""Liar." Alexei followed his gaze. To Anya and Nikolai laughing about something. "Ah. The jealousy.""I'm not jealous.""You're absolutely jea
The heat broke on the third day.Anya woke up clear-headed. The fever gone. The need satisfied. Her body finally her own again.Dimitri slept beside her. Exhausted. Marked. Her alpha who'd spent three days taking care of her. Making sure she was safe. Satisfied. Cherished.She should have felt relieved. Grateful. Complete.Instead she felt, guilty.Not about Dimitri. Not about the heat sex. That had been, incredible. Perfect. Everything the brothers had promised. She'd surrendered and not broken. Had been vulnerable and survived. Had learned that trust didn't equal weakness.No. The guilt was about Nikolai.About that first night. When heat had peaked and Dimitri was gone and Nikolai had helped. Had given her relief that wasn't his to give. That should have been her mate's.She'd used him. That's what it felt like. Used him because she was desperate. Because she couldn't wait. Because she'd been weak.The shame ate at her.She slipped out of bed. Dimitri didn't wake, he'd barely slept
The heat hit critical at 3 AM.Anya woke screaming. Not from nightmare. From pain. The heat no longer building, exploding. Consuming. Every nerve ending on fire. Every muscle cramping. Need so overwhelming it erased thought. Erased everything except desperate biological imperative.She needed. Needed her alpha. Needed relief. Needed..The door burst open. Not Dimitri. Nikolai."Anya? What's wrong? What..." He stopped. Eyes widening. "Fuck. Your heat. It's peaked."She couldn't answer. Could only curl into herself. Whimpering. The pain beyond anything she'd experienced. Beyond torture. Beyond injury. This was biological warfare against her own body."Where's Dimitri?" Nikolai demanded into his comm. "She needs him. Now."Static. Then Alexei's voice: "He's thirty minutes out. Security issue. Perimeter breach. False alarm but he had to check.""She doesn't have thirty minutes. She's..." Nikolai looked at Anya. At the way she shook. The way tears streamed down her face. The way she could







