In a world where werewolves are bound to their fated mates by the call of the moon, Aria Thorn is a rogue with a secret: she's not bound to just one, but three alphas-each from rival packs. The mating bond isn't supposed to work like this, and her existence threatens to unravel centuries of werewolf law.
Chapter 1 Blood in the moonlight
The moon hung low and red, a swollen omen bleeding across the midnight sky.
Aria Thorn crouched at the edge of the clearing, her breath shallow, her senses flaring with every shift of wind. Pine needles bit into her knees. She didn't move. She couldn't-not with three alphas circling the sacred stone altar like wolves preparing to tear each other apart.
This wasn't supposed to happen.
She should've kept running. Kept hiding. But the pull had been too strong, dragging her back to the one place she swore she'd never return-the Blood Moon Summit. Only this time, the magic didn't just want her. It wanted everything.
Aria pressed a hand to her chest. Her heart pounded like a drum of war, erratic and primal, syncing with the pulse of the earth. Her wolf stirred beneath her skin, restless.
Then... it happened.
The wind shifted.
Three heads snapped in her direction.
One growl.
Two snarls.
Three alphas-eyes glowing gold, silver, and ice-blue-fixated on the shadows she tried to hide in.
"Come out," a voice commanded. Rough. Dominant. Familiar.
Aria swallowed. Kael.
Alpha of the Crimson Ridge Pack. Scarred, silent, savage. He was the last person she wanted to see. And yet, the moment her eyes met his, the bond thrummed to life. Ancient. Inescapable. Wrong.
Her skin tingled.
Before she could move, another voice slid over her like silk and steel. "Well, well. Looks like the prophecy was real after all."
That was Dorian. Alpha of the Whiteclaw Enclave. Suave. Deadly. Manipulative. He stepped into view, moonlight catching the cruel smile on his lips.
And then-him.
The third. Jax.
Alpha of the Ferals. Untamed, unpredictable, beautiful in the way forest fires were-destructive, consuming, inevitable.
His eyes locked on hers, and a growl tore from his throat.
Three bonds.
Three impossible pulls.
Her knees gave out as pain lanced through her chest. The mate bond shouldn't feel like this-splintered, stretching in three directions like it was tearing her apart. But worse than the pain was the knowing.
She wasn't just theirs.
They were hers.
Kael took a step forward. "What did you do?"
Aria opened her mouth to answer-but the altar behind them cracked with a deafening boom, spraying shards of obsidian into the air.
A scream echoed from the forest.
Then silence.
Broken only by the soft, terrifying click of footsteps approaching from the shadows behind her.
"Ah," said a cold, unfamiliar voice. "So the moon's little joke begins."
She turned.
A stranger stood at the tree line, cloaked in shadows, his eyes burning a deeper red than the blood moon overhead.
"You're not supposed to exist," he whispered.
Then everything went black.
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