Seren's POV
Three days of hell.
That's all Seren can think as she stumbles through the forest for what feels like the hundredth time. Her feet are bleeding. Her dress is shredded to pieces. The rejection mark on her chest burns so bad that she's not sure if it's actual pain anymore or if she's just imagining it.
She can't remember the last time she ate.
She can't remember the last time she slept without nightmares of the festival or the Goddess's impossible words echoing in her head.
Everything hurts in ways she didn't know bodies could hurt. Her legs feel like they belong to someone else. Her throat is so dry that swallowing feels like swallowing knives. Her vision keeps going blurry at the edges, and sometimes she's not sure if she's still awake or if she's wandered into some kind of fever dream.
The Moon Goddess said three days.
Three days until the Alphas find her. Three days until the bonds snap into place. Three days until her entire world transforms into something she doesn't understand.
Well, today is day three.
And Seren is about to die in the middle of the neutral lands where nobody will ever find her body.
The rogues came at sunset yesterday.
A hunting pack, mean and hungry and smelling like they haven't killed anything in weeks. Seren heard them before she saw them, the sound of paws crashing through underbrush and excited snarls. She ran. Of course she ran. But her human body has no chance against wolves that have been hunting for months.
They chased her through the night.
They played with her, letting her think she might actually escape. Letting her crash through branches and stumble over roots and tear her skin open on every sharp thing in the forest. They were herding her, driving her deeper and deeper into rogue territory where no pack wolves would follow.
Somewhere between midnight and dawn, Seren made a decision.
She stopped running from the rogues.
Instead, she started running toward something else. The howls she'd heard before. The ones that made her blood burn and her instincts scream. The three Alphas the Goddess promised were coming. If they were going to find her anyway, then maybe she should find them first.
Better to face destiny than to let herself be torn apart by a hunting pack.
So she ran toward the north. Toward the mountains she could see in the distance. Toward the cold wind that smelled like snow and pine and something wild that made her chest ache with recognition.
The rogues gave up chasing her somewhere around dawn.
Now it's nearly evening again, and Seren is alone in the forest with nothing but her thoughts and the endless pain in her body.
Her vision blurs again.
She blinks hard, trying to focus. The trees in front of her shift and blur and then come back into focus. How many trees has she passed? She's lost count. She's lost track of time. She's pretty sure she's lost her mind too because she keeps hearing voices in her head that aren't her own. They sound like a woman made of starlight, but that's impossible. The Goddess is gone.
Isn't she?
A sound pierces through Seren's wandering thoughts.
Paws. Multiple paws. Moving fast through the underbrush. The rogues again. They must have picked up her scent. They must have decided that one starving, defenseless human girl was worth the effort after all.
Seren doesn't think. She just runs.
Her legs scream. Her lungs burn. Her feet are already bleeding but she pushes harder anyway because the sound of those paws is getting louder. Getting closer. The rogues are almost on top of her now, snarling and howling like they can already taste her blood.
Branches tear at her face, leaving cuts that sting. Her dress catches on a jagged piece of wood and rips even further. She's basically naked now, everything important covered only in torn fabric that's more hole than cloth.
She crashes through a thicket and suddenly the forest opens up.
A clearing.
Wide and empty and bright with the fading evening light. Seren stumbles out into the open space, her lungs heaving, her heart hammering so hard she's sure it's going to burst through her ribs.
She stops dead.
Three massive wolves block the other side of the clearing.
Not rogues. These wolves are enormous, each one easily twice the size of the hunting pack that's been chasing her. Their power radiates off them in waves, making the air itself feel thick and heavy. The smallest one could crush her with one paw.
One is pure black with eyes like winter storms.
One is golden-brown with intelligent, calculating eyes.
One is dark red with eyes that spark like emeralds.
And all three turn toward her at exactly the same moment.
Time stops.
The rogues burst through the treeline behind Seren, howling and ready to attack. She feels their presence at her back, feels the moment they realize what's standing in front of her. The three Alpha wolves turn their heads slightly, their attention shifting from her to the rogues.
The rogues whimper.
Within seconds, they're gone. Seren doesn't see them run away so much as feel them retreat. Whatever ancient instinct tells a rogue that they're about to die, those wolves have it. They scatter like shadows in sunlight, fleeing back into the forest where they came from.
Now it's just Seren and three massive Alpha wolves.
The one made of midnight steps forward.
His movement is smooth and lethal, like watching a predator decide to hunt. His gray eyes are locked on Seren's face, and she realizes her knees are shaking. This wolf is dangerous. Not the kind of dangerous that makes you want to run. The kind of dangerous that makes you want to submit.
The golden one moves to his left, his amber eyes assessing her like she's a puzzle he's trying to solve.
The red one stays perfectly still, his green eyes burning with something that looks almost like hunger. But not the kind of hunger that comes from not eating for days. Something different. Something that makes the rejection mark on her chest start burning again.
Seren opens her mouth to say something, but no sound comes out.
The black wolf shifts.
It happens so fast that Seren's brain can barely process it. One moment she's looking at a massive black wolf. The next moment she's looking at a massive black man with cold gray eyes and a body covered in scars. His face is hard, sharp, carved from stone. There's nothing soft about him. Nothing merciful. He looks like he's been through wars and somehow come out the other side.
He looks like violence given human form.
"Who are you," he says, and it's not a question. It's a command.
The golden wolf shifts too, becoming a man with brown hair and amber eyes that seem to see everything. He's beautiful in a dangerous way, like art that could cut you if you're not careful. His clothes materialize around him like he conjured them from the shadows.
The red wolf hesitates before shifting last, becoming a man who looks younger than the other two. His green eyes are wild and bright, and he's smiling slightly like he thinks whatever is about to happen is the best thing that's ever occurred to him.
All three stare at Seren.
And then something happens inside her chest.
It's like lightning striking from the inside out. Like someone reached through her ribs and grabbed her heart and squeezed. The rejection mark that's been constant for three days suddenly flares bright, burning so hot that Seren gasps. But it's not the mark anymore. It's something new. Something that branches out from her heart in three separate directions.
Three bonds.
All snapping into place at the exact same time.
The three Alphas stagger backward, their faces going pale. The scarred one drops to one knee, his hand pressed against his chest like he's trying to hold his heart inside his body. The calculating one sinks down slowly, his eyes wide with shock. The young one just stands there, his smile fading as the magnitude of what's happening hits him.
They feel it too.
They feel the bonds the same way she does. Three separate connections forming between Seren and three powerful Alphas. Three mate bonds that should be impossible.
"What the hell," the scarred one breathes.
The calculating one stands, his movements suddenly very controlled and very sharp. "That's not possible. Mate bonds don't work that way."
The young one laughs, and it sounds almost delighted. "Well, looks like the universe has a sense of humor."
Seren staggers backward.
The scarred Alpha's head snaps toward her movement, his eyes flashing with something primal. All three wolves go absolutely still, their entire bodies focused on her.
"Don't run," the young one says softly.
But Seren can't help it.
The moment one of them moves toward her, every instinct in her body screams at her to flee. To escape. To get away from these massive, powerful males and their impossible bonds and everything the Goddess promised that she's not ready for.
She turns and runs back into the forest.
Behind her, she hears three sets of paws crashing through the underbrush.
And she realizes with horrible clarity that she just ran from her own destiny.