Third Degree

“Beg, little mate. Let’s hear how sweet you sound when you’re desperate.” “She won’t beg for you. She’ll crawl to me, just like she should.” “Pathetic. Both of you. She already knows she belongs to me.” Dahlia thought her biggest problem was surviving college with her dignity intact. Blackridge Academy was brutal enough—where dominance and bloodlines meant everything. She already endured the cruel whispers, the “waste of tuition” insults, and a boyfriend who flirted with other girls while she clung to him, desperate not to lose the only affection she thought she had. But her quiet misery ended the night her cheating boyfriend breaks up with her. The searing pain across her chest was more than just fate. It was three mate marks. Knox Rivers — her brother’s best friend, the brilliant Alpha-to-be who can’t stand that his weak, bullied mate is her. Jace Blackmoor — the Lycan King’s golden son, cruel playboy, who laughs at the bond and swears he’ll break her until she kneels. Zayne Lachlan — the hybrid everyone fears, a dangerous artist with hands stained in rumors of blood, who stares at her like she’s his salvation…and his curse. Dahlia becomes the academy’s obsession, the girl with three marks who doesn’t deserve even one. Her boyfriend fears her. The other girls retreat from her. Everyone hates her. And yet… her three mates won’t let anyone else touch her. Not out of love. Out of possession. And possession comes with a price.

Caroline Matthews has three rules of friendship with Maverick Thompson, her best friend since third grade: One: Always come when the other calls, no matter what. Two: Always tell the truth and never keep secrets. Three: Never fall in love with each other. She's already broken two of them. For three years, Caroline has been in love with Maverick, hiding her feelings while watching him date other girls, break up, and come crying to her every single time. She's the best friend. The safe one. The girl who's always there but never seen. When they both get into Kalewood University, Caroline decides it's time. New beginning, fresh start, perfect moment to finally confess her feelings and break the third rule. Then Riley shows up, Maverick's ex-girlfriend, the one who broke his heart, the girl he never got over and ruins everything with a single kiss. Harry, who is Maverick’s estranged older stepbrother from the family, a campus legend, and the frontman of the hottest band, is dangerous, damaged, and exactly the kind of guy Caroline has spent her entire life avoiding. Harry has a proposition: fake date him to make his ex and obsessive fans back off, and maybe, just maybe, make Maverick realize what he's been missing all along.

This is the sequel to "Trio of Mates" (can be found on here) and is NOT a stand-alone book. I felt as if I had just fallen asleep when flashes and fragments of dreams began to play through my mind. They are disjointed, speeding through my mind almost too fast to catch. There is Charlie holding two pups in her arms, the pack being attacked on the western front, Arya fallen to her knees sobbing in the middle of a battlefield, funeral pyres, me looking down at my pregnant stomach with Gael and Hakeem smiling down at me, whoops of victory, and wails of defeat. As the images flit through my mind, a voice enters the chaos. “A war of threes. Three deaths. Three victories. Three trios. Three losses. Betrayal. Birth. Death. Sorrow. Joy. Warn them, Meredith. Be prepared!”

I spent eleven years invisible. A ward with no family name. A servant scrubbing floors while the Alpha's three sons made my life a nightmare. Caden gave the orders. Cole delivered the cruelty. Callum cut me with words so precise I still carry the scars. Then the Blood Moon rose. The mate bond snapped into place, and I discovered I'm not just bound to one of them. I'm bound to all three. The wolves who broke me are now the ones I can't escape. And the bond isn't the worst part. A rival Alpha is closing in. He knows what happened to my parents. He knows about the power my mother hid inside me before she died. And if I can't learn to trust the three men I hate most in this world, he'll destroy everything I have left. They spent years breaking me. Now they'll have to spend forever earning what they shattered. But I'm not the frightened girl I was. I've uncovered secrets that could bring this pack to its knees. And I will decide, on my terms, whether the bond is a cage or the key to everything.

Two hundred and twelve dollars. That is all I have to my name. I moved to Miami to save my ruined journalism career. Instead, I ended up sweating inside a forty-pound foam hockey mascot suit just to pay my rent and keep my press credentials alive. Then came the home opener. One empty locker room. Three dangerously elite men. Lucian Voss, the ruthless head coach with eyes like ice. Gavin Steele, the heavily tattooed, quietly terrifying goalie. Zane Cole, the arrogant star forward with a lethal smile. It was supposed to be a catastrophic, one-time mistake. A lapse in judgment I could bury forever. But now, I am staring at a positive test. Triplets. I thought the pregnancy was my biggest problem. I thought I could just walk away. But when a scandal threatens to expose me, these three men do not panic. They do not run. Overnight, they spend nine figures to buy the entire professional hockey franchise. They become my bosses. They lock every exit, terminate my old contracts, and slip a massive diamond onto my shaking finger. I thought they were doing it to protect their unborn children. I thought it was about the scandal. I was wrong. "There were no babies three weeks ago, Malia," Gavin whispers, cornering me in their private penthouse. "We bought the team so no other man could look at you. You were already ours."

Brandon has been taken by the evil trio of Corinda, Casen, and Severn. But all isn't as it seems for these three. While in their custody, a new enemy emerges. Will Brandon be able to bring these three back into the fold? Or will their mateship fall apart? And how will they deal with the new threat to wolfkind? This is the third installment in the Trio of Mates series. You can find book one (Trio of Mates) and book two (War of Threes) here on GoodNovel.