Arin's POV
The mark on my shoulder felt like fire. I pressed my palm against it, gasping as another wave of burning pain shot through my chest. Three days had passed since the mating ceremony, but instead of settling, the bond got more chaotic by the hour. Something was badly wrong.
"Focus, Arin." Marcus, the head trainer, circled me in the fighting ring.
"Your opponent won't wait for you to collect yourself."
But I couldn't think. Not when Kael's feelings crashed into mine like ocean waves. His anger, his confusion, his doubt—it all mixed with my own feelings until I couldn't tell where he ended and I began.
Then, without notice, the bond shifted. Suddenly, I wasn't feeling Kael anymore. Jaxon's playful energy flooded my senses, followed quickly by his sharp jealousy. The whiplash made me stumble.
"What's happening to me?" I whispered. Marcus frowned.
"The link is unstable. I've never seen anything like it."
Neither had I. Mates were supposed to feel one bond, one person. Not this steady switching between the triplets that left me dizzy and confused.
"Again," Marcus ordered. "Channel whatever you're feeling into your movements."
I tried to obey, but as I raised my hands, Rowan's presence slammed into my mind. His deep, mysterious thoughts mixed with visions I didn't understand—flashes of ancient wolves, burning woods, and a silver-eyed woman who looked exactly like me. The shock sent me to my knees.
"Enough!" a sharp voice called from the door. Luna Calista walked into the training ring, her silver gown pristine despite the early morning hour.
Behind her walked Elder Mava, the old seer whose bone jewelry clinked with each step.
"Marcus, leave us," Luna Calista ordered.
The trainer bowed and hurried away, clearly glad to escape whatever was about to happen. Elder Mava approached me slowly, her cloudy eyes studying my face with unsettling focus. "Child, show me your mark." I paused, but Luna Calista's cold stare left no room for argument. Pulling down my shirt collar, I showed the mate mark that had branded me three nights ago. Elder Mava gasped.
The mark wasn't the simple crescent moon every paired wolf bore. Instead, three overlapping crescents glowed silver against my skin, shifting and changing like live things. "Impossible," Luna Calista breathed. "Not impossible," Elder Mava whispered. "But dangerous." "What does it mean?" I asked, though part of me already feared the answer. Elder Mava's crooked fingers traced the air above my mark without touching. "You are bonded to all three brothers." The words hit me like a physical blow. "That can't be right. Mates don't work that way." "Usually, no." Elder Mava's voice held the weight of ancient knowledge. "But your bloodline is not usual, child." Luna Calista stepped forward, her face a mask of barely controlled rage. "Explain. Now." "The triplets share one soul split three ways," Elder Mava said slowly. "The Moon Goddess made them as a set, never meant to be separated. When she chose their mate, she had to bond with all three." My head spun.
"But I can only choose one of them to be my husband, right? The others will find different mates?" Elder Mava's silence went too long. "Right?" I repeated, despair creeping into my voice. "There are no other mates for them," Elder Mava finally revealed. "You are their only chance at love, at happiness. If you choose one brother, the other two will stay unmated forever." Luna Calista's wine glass from breakfast fell to the ground. "This is a disaster. The pack will never accept such a plan." "There's more," Elder Mava continued, ignoring Luna Calista's rage. "The link is unstable because it fights against nature. If it isn't settled soon, it will begin consuming all four of you." "Consuming us how?" I asked. "Madness. Then death." The training ground tilted around me. I grabbed the ring's rope to keep from falling. "How long do we have?" Luna Calista asked sharply. "Weeks, perhaps a month if she's strong enough to resist the pull." "And the solution?" Elder Mava met my eyes straight. "She must choose. But know this—whichever brother she doesn't pick will die within the year. Their wolves cannot survive the loss of their shared mate."
My blood turned to ice. "You're saying if I choose Kael, both Jaxon and Rowan will die?" "Yes." "That's not a choice," I whispered. "That's murder." Luna Calista's eyes lit up with something that looked dangerously like hope. "Then perhaps it would be kinder to reject the bond completely. Save yourself and let the triplets find a way forward without—" "NO!" The word exploded from my lips with such force that windows rattled throughout the training center. Power I didn't know I owned surged through my body, making my skin glow silver. Both women stepped back in shock. "I won't let them die," I said, my voice having an authority that surprised even me. "There has to be another way." Elder Mava studied me with new interest. "Perhaps there is. But it would require you to accept your true heritage." "What heritage? I'm an omega from a nothing family." "Are you?" Elder Mava smiled strangely. "Tell me, child, what do you know about your mother?" The question hit me like cold water. "She died in childbirth.
My father never talked about her." "Your father lied to protect you." Elder Mava's voice dropped to barely a whisper. "Your mother was Luna Seraphina of the Northern Territories. She was murdered by rival packs when they found her pregnancy." The world stopped spinning. "That's impossible," I breathed. "You carry royal blood, Arin. Ancient magic flows through your veins—magic that might be strong enough to strengthen the bond with all three brothers." Luna Calista's face had gone white. "If that's true, if she's actually royal blood..." "Then she's not just the triplets' mate," Elder Mava ended. "She's the most powerful Luna born in three centuries." My mark suddenly flared with blinding light. Through the bond, I felt all three brothers react to the news from wherever they were in the pack house. Kael's shock, Jaxon's disbelief, and Rowan's strange lack of surprise crashed into me concurrently. But underneath their feelings, something else stirred. Something dark and hungry that had been sleeping in my blood. Something that whispered: Finally. "What's happening to me?" I gasped as power continued building inside my chest. Elder Mava's face turned grim. "Your true nature is waking. But child, you must be careful. The same power that could save the triplets could also destroy everything you love." "Why didn't you tell me sooner?" "Because some secrets are too dangerous to know. But now you have no choice." Elder Mava gripped my shoulders with startling strength. "War is coming, Arin. Enemies who killed your mother will sense your rising power. They'll come for you, and they won't care who gets hurt in the process." As if summoned by her words, a bone-chilling howl echoed across the pack area.
Then another. And another. Luna Calista's face went pale. "Those aren't our wolves." Through the training center windows, I saw dark shapes moving between the trees at the territory's edge. Dozens of them, circling like birds. "Rogues," Elder Mava whispered. "They've found her." The mark on my neck burned brighter, and suddenly I could feel not just the triplets' presence, but every wolf in our pack. Their fear, their confusion, their pressing need for someone to protect them. And deep in my chest, something old and fierce smiled. "Let them come," I heard myself say in a voice that didn't sound quite like my own. But as the words left my lips, I realized with growing horror that I wasn't completely sure who was speaking anymore—me, or whatever was awakening inside my royal blood.