I'm stealing from the Crown Prince when the mate bond hits.
Not my smartest move. But I'm starving, he's rich, and his tent at the hunting festival is full of food nobody's eating. So here I am, shoving bread into my bag, when three men walk in.
I freeze.
They freeze.
Then everything goes sideways.
Something punches through my chest and I can't breathe. It's everywhere at once, burning under my skin, coiling in my stomach, and my wolf is howling in my head for the first time in five years.
MATE.
No. Not mate.
MATES.
All three of them.
The tall one with the scar moves first. His pale eyes find me. "Don't move."
I move.
Out the back of the tent, bag clutched to my chest, running for my life. Because that's exactly what this is.
"Caius, she's running!"
Footsteps behind me. Fast. Getting closer.
I shift mid-stride. My wolf is small, weak from not shifting in years, but she's AWAKE now. We're dodging tents, jumping over a fire pit, heading for the trees.
Almost there.
Something hits me from the side.
We go down hard. Roll twice. He ends up on top, pinning my wolf with his weight.
He shifts back. Dark hair, gold eyes, the kind of face that would make me stop and stare if I wasn't currently pinned to the ground.
"Got her."
I shift back too. Bad idea. Now I'm naked under a naked stranger and the bond is screaming at me to do things that definitely aren't escaping.
"Get off me!"
"You were stealing from my tent." His voice comes out rough. Pissed. His eyes drop to my mouth, my throat, lower. "Who are you?"
"Nobody."
"Nobody doesn't smell like mate." He grabs my wrist, pins it over my head. Where he touches, it's like lightning straight through. His eyes go wide. "What the hell?"
The other two show up. The scarred one throws a cloak over me and steps between us. "Damon, get back."
Damon. Crown Prince Damon.
I just stole from the future King.
I'm dead.
"She's mate," Damon says. He's breathing hard, staring at me like I'm something he's never seen before. "I felt it."
"We all felt it," the pretty one says. Honey eyes, a smile that looks easy but isn't. "Question is what we do about it."
"We take her to Father," Caius says. The scarred one. Oldest, probably. His voice is cold but his eyes aren't. "Let him decide."
"We're not telling Father. Not yet."
"She's bonded to all three of us. We don't have a choice."
"There's always a choice."
They're talking about me like I'm not even here. The bond keeps getting stronger, pulling at me from three directions, and I can barely think straight.
I need to run.
I shove the cloak at Caius and bolt.
Get maybe five steps before Kieran's in front of me. The pretty one. Way too fast.
"Going somewhere?" He catches my arms. Not hard, but firm enough. "You're not leaving."
"Watch me."
"Can't do that, beautiful. You're ours now."
"I'm not YOURS. I'm not anyone's." I pull against his grip. He tightens it just enough to keep me there. "Let go."
"Not until you stop running."
"Then you'll be holding me forever."
He laughs. "I can think of worse fates."
Damon walks over and throws clothes at me. His clothes. They smell like him and my wolf wants to bury her face in them. "Put these on before someone sees you."
I grab them. Turn around. Pull on his shirt. It comes down to my thighs. His scent is everywhere and the bond won't stop pulsing.
When I turn back, all three are staring at me like I'm prey.
"What's your name?" Caius asks.
"Why do you care?"
"Because you're bonded to three Princes. That makes you the most important she-wolf in the kingdom." Those pale eyes see way too much. "So I'll ask again. What's your name?"
"Sage."
"Pack?"
"None."
"Family?"
"None."
"How long have you been rogue?"
"Long enough to know when I'm in trouble." I look between them. "Just let me go. Pretend this didn't happen."
"Can't do that," Kieran says. Still smiling but it's sharper now. "The bond doesn't lie. You're our mate."
"I don't want to be your mate."
"Too bad." Damon moves closer. The bond pulls tight between us. "Because the Moon Goddess doesn't ask permission."
"Then I reject it. All of you. I reject this bond."
The words barely leave my mouth before pain rips through my chest. Sharp and brutal, like something's tearing me apart from the inside. I hit my knees.
"Stop!" Caius is next to me, hand on my back. "You can't reject a true mate bond. It'll kill you."
"Good," I get out.
"It'll kill us too."
That stops me. I look up at him through tears I didn't know were there. "What?"
"True mate bonds go both ways. You die, we die." His jaw is tight. "So don't try that again."
The pain fades. Leaves me shaking.
"We need to take her to the palace," Kieran says quietly. "Before someone sees."
"Agreed." Caius pulls me up. I'm unsteady. He keeps his hand on my elbow. "Can you walk?"
"Yes."
"Then walk."
They lead me through the festival. People stare. Whisper. I'm wearing the Crown Prince's shirt, barefoot, being walked around by all three Princes.
This is a nightmare.
We get to a carriage. Black, expensive, the royal crest on the door.
"Get in," Damon orders.
"And if I don't?"
"Then I'll put you in." He's not joking. "Your choice."
I get in because I'm outnumbered and exhausted and the bond is making it impossible to think.
They climb in after me. Damon across from me, Kieran next to me, Caius by the door. The space feels too small. Their scents are everywhere. Pine and smoke and something darker from Caius. The bond is alive between us, demanding.
"Where are we going?" I ask.
"The palace," Caius says. "Father will want to meet you."
"The King?"
"Yes."
"He's going to execute me."
"Probably not." Kieran's smile is back. "You're too valuable now."
"What does that mean?"
"It means you're bonded to three heirs to the throne," Damon says. Cold. Clinical. "Whoever you choose as mate becomes King. That makes you a kingmaker."
My stomach drops. "I don't want to choose."
"You don't have a choice."
"That's not fair."
"Nothing about this is fair." His gold eyes hold mine. "But it's reality. Get used to it."
The carriage starts moving. Through the festival, through the city, toward walls and gates and a palace I've only ever seen from the outside.
"What happens to the ones I don't choose?" I ask quietly.
Silence.
Then Caius answers. "Exile. Stripped of title, land, power. Banished from the kingdom."
"That's cruel."
"That's law."
"I won't do it. I won't choose."
"Then we all die," Kieran says. Still smiling but his eyes are serious now. "The bond has to be completed within a year or it kills everyone involved. So you WILL choose. One way or another."
I pull my knees to my chest. Try to make myself smaller. Invisible.
"Hey." Kieran's voice softens. "I know this is overwhelming."
"Overwhelming?" I laugh. It sounds broken. "I was stealing bread an hour ago. Now I'm apparently supposed to choose which Prince becomes King and condemn the other two to exile."
"When you put it like that, it does sound bad."
"It IS bad."
"Could be worse." Damon leans back. Studies me. "You could be marrying one of us without the bond. At least this way you'll feel something."
"I don't want to feel anything."
"Too late."
He's right. The bond is there, constant, undeniable. Three threads connecting me to three men I don't know. Three futures I never wanted.
The palace looms ahead. White stone, towers, more wealth than I've seen in my life.
"Last chance," I say. "Just let me go. Tell your father the bond was a mistake."
"The bond doesn't make mistakes," Caius says. "And neither do we."
The carriage stops.
A servant opens the door. Caius steps out first, then offers his hand.
I don't take it.
I climb out myself, barefoot in Damon's shirt, and face a palace that looks like a beautiful prison.
"This way," Caius says.
We walk through doors that are way too big, down halls that go on forever, past servants who stare and nobles who whisper.
Then we reach the throne room doors.
"Father's waiting," Damon says. "Try not to embarrass us."
"No promises."
Kieran grins. "I like her."
The doors open.
The King sits on a throne of gold and bones. Old, powerful, eyes that miss nothing.
He looks at me.
Then at his sons.
Then back at me.
"So," he says. His voice sounds like gravel. "This is the rogue who's bonded to all three of my heirs."
"Yes, Your Majesty," Caius answers.
"Interesting." The King stands. Walks down the steps. Circles me like I'm livestock at a market. "She's scrawny. Weak. Hardly fit for one Prince, let alone three."
"The bond doesn't care about fitness," Damon says.
"Clearly." The King stops in front of me. "What's your name, girl?"
"Sage."
"Sage what?"
"Just Sage."
"No pack name? No family name?"
"No."
"How convenient." He smiles. There's no warmth in it. "Do you know what happens to rogues who try to trap Princes with fake bonds?"
"This isn't fake," I say.
"Prove it."
Before I can ask how, he pulls a knife. Cuts his own palm. Grabs my hand and cuts mine too.
It hurts but only for a second.
He presses our bleeding palms together.
Nothing happens.
"See?" He drops my hand. "No bond between us. Which means..." He turns to his sons. Presses his bloody palm to Damon's.
The air shimmers. A thread appears. Faint but visible. Father to son.
"Now you." He grabs my bleeding hand again. Presses it to Damon's other palm.
The thread that appears is blinding.
Gold and white and so bright it hurts to look at. Thick as rope, pulsing with power, connecting me to Damon in a way that makes everyone in the room step back.
"Impossible," someone whispers.
The King does the same with Kieran. Same blinding thread.
Then Caius. Same result.
Three threads. Three bonds. All true mate strength.
The King steps back. For the first time, he looks uncertain. "This hasn't happened in two hundred years."
"What does it mean?" I ask.
He looks at me with something like pity. "It means you're going to destroy my family. One way or another."
Then he walks away.
Leaves me standing there, palm still bleeding, bonded to three Princes who are looking at me like I'm a bomb about to go off.
"Well," Kieran says into the silence. "This should be fun."