Nessa ~
Gasps and murmurs erupted through the crowd once again, growing louder, more frantic.
"She's a curse to this pack! Send her away!"
"Please consider us, Alpha what are we going to do when an affliction ravages the pack?"
"Have mercy, Alpha! Our young ones will die!"
Their pandering irritated me to no end. No one wanted to know how I felt about being forced to mate with three alpha brothers who despised me. No one cared that I hadn't asked for this, hadn't wanted this, that every fiber of my being screamed to run.
I looked down at my paws grey fur with patches of white, like storm clouds breaking over snow. I was still in shock from the shift itself. For three years, I'd believed I was wolfless, that my father's betrayal had stolen even that from me. This entire episode had disrupted everything.
I'd had a plan.
Wait until I turned twenty-five, let the money in my hidden stash grow to two thousand dollars, and disappear in the night. Start over somewhere far from the Northern territories where no one knew the name Thorne.
Now? Now I was bound to three alphasalphas which would make escaping nearly impossible.
"Enough."
The single word cut through the chaos like a blade.
Maddox stepped forward from where he'd been standing in Kade's shadow, and I finally got my first real look at the strategist brother. Where Kade was all brutal dominance and Rowan was scarred intensity, Maddox was cold precision. Tall and lean, with sharp features and ice-blue eyes that missed nothing. His dark hair was pulled back severely, revealing a chiseled face beautiful and absolutely merciless.
"I accept her as my mate."
His voice was stern, brooking no argument. Final.
The arena fell silent.
I stared at him, my wolf instincts screaming warnings I didn't understand. I'd never encountered Maddox in person he spent most of his time in the war rooms or on the borders but rumors painted him as the most ruthless of the three. The one who stood at the battle front during pack wars. The one who made the hard decisions Kade couldn't stomach and Rowan wouldn't voice.
The one who showed no mercy.
So why would he show mercy to me?
Suddenly, that familiar cracking sensation seized me again. My bones reformed, fur receding, and I gasped as I shifted back into human form.
My heart pounded against my ribs. I knew Maddox knew my story, probably hated me as much as his brother. There was no logical reason for him to accept me.
Unless...
Unless this was strategy. Unless I was a piece on a board I couldn't see yet, a pawn he was moving for reasons that had nothing to do with mates or prophecies or the Moon Goddess.
The thought made the pit in my stomach deepen. You'd think Maddox's acceptance would make me feel better one brother choosing me instead of casting me out. But it only made everything worse. Because now I owed him. Now I was in his debt. And something told me Maddox Blackwood always collected.
The golden thread connecting us pulsed once, acknowledging the bond.
Kade's face had gone from rage to something darker. Betrayal. He rounded on his brother, his hands clenched into fists. "What are you doing?"
"Making the smart play." Maddox's voice remained eerily calm. "You heard the Elder. Rejection brings affliction. You've already rejected her" He gestured to me, and I hated how clinical it sounded. "and that damage is done. But Rowan and I can still accept the bond. Stabilize it. Minimize whatever consequences your pride just bought us."
"This isn't about pride—"
"Isn't it?" Maddox's blue eyes glittered with something sharp and calculating. "You rejected your mate in front of the entire pack because you can't separate the daughter from the father's sins. That's not logic, brother. That's emotion. And emotion makes us weak."
Kade looked like he might strike him. The air crackled with alpha dominance, both of them radiating power that made the watching pack members step back nervously.
"You're ignorant." Kade's voice dropped to something deadly quiet. "Soft. And that's exactly why I'm Alpha and you're not." He took a step forward, and even from where I huddled on the ground, I could feel the suffocating weight of his authority pressing down on everything. "As your Alpha, I command you and Rowan to reject her. This moment."
The command wasn't just words. It was power, primal and absolute, rippling outward like a shockwave. I felt it even though it wasn't directed at me a compulsion that made my wolf whimper and cower.
Several pack members dropped to their knees from the sheer force of it.
But Maddox didn't move.
His lips curved into a cold smile it wasn't quite a smile too cold, too sharp. More like a wolf baring its teeth. His ice-blue eyes tracked his older brother with predatory focus, and when he spoke, his voice was utterly calm.
"No." He let the word hang in the air for a heartbeat. "I will do no such thing, brother."
The way he said 'brother' made it sound like a challenge.
Kade's face went dangerously blank. "What did you say?"
"You heard me." Maddox crossed his arms, utterly unbothered by the Alpha command that should have brought him to his knees. "I'm not rescinding my acceptance. You created this disaster with your rejection. I'm containing it. That's what I've always done clean up your messes when emotion overrides logic."
The arena held its collective breath.
Kade's hands trembled—not from fear, but from the effort of controlling his rage. "You dare defy me?"
"I dare prioritize the pack's survival over your wounded pride, yes." Maddox's voice remained level, almost bored. "Someone has to think strategically while you indulge your need for vengeance against a girl who was barely fifteen when her father allegedly betrayed us."
"Allegedly?" Kade's voice rose to a roar. "He murdered our father! There's no allegedly about it!"
"Then why did it take three pack members to 'witness' the murder? Why was the evidence so conveniently discovered in his quarters? Why did Elder Mariah insist on a rushed trial?" Maddox tilted his head, and I saw something flicker in Kade's expression doubt, quickly smothered. "But those are questions for another time. Right now, I've made my choice. Deal with it."
Before Kade could respond, movement caught my eye.
Rowan strode forward, his scarred face set in grim determination. He stopped beside Maddox, creating a united front, and turned his amber eyes on me.
"I accept her as my mate."
His voice rang out clearly, carrying to every corner of the arena.
Kade made a sound somewhere between a growl and a laugh, dark and bitter. "So that's how it is. Both of you. Choosing her over your own blood."
"We're choosing the pack," Rowan said quietly. "Something you seem to have forgotten how to do."
Something shattered in Kade's expression. Not his resolve that remained iron but something deeper. The last thread of patience, perhaps. Or trust.
When he spoke again, his voice was terrifyingly calm.
"Guards."
Half a dozen warriors stepped forward immediately, their faces impassive.
"Take the traitor's daughter to the dungeon." Kade's hazel eyes locked onto mine, and I saw nothing in them but cold hatred. "She's to be held there indefinitely, in isolation. And at dawn" His lips curved into something cruel. "give her fifty lashes for the chaos she's brought upon this pack.