POV: Dante
Phoenix's scream shattered the night like broken glass.
I was already running before I understood why. My wolf had taken control, pushing my human mind aside as pure instinct drove me toward the trees. Behind me, Ryder's heavy boots pounded against the ground, and I could hear Phoenix's magic crackling in the air like electricity.
"Scarlett!" Phoenix screamed again, and that's when I smelled it.
The most incredible smell in the world hit me like a punch to the chest. Vanilla and strawberries, moonlight and roses. My wolf went totally insane, howling with joy and desperate need. Every muscle in my body stiffened with the overwhelming urge to protect, to claim, to never let go.
My mate. After twenty-two years of waiting, I'd found my mate.
But where was she?
Silver light burst from the forest clearing ahead, so bright it turned night into day. The light pulsed like a heartbeat, and I felt each pulse in my own chest. My wolf was pulling me forward so hard I could barely stay in human form.
Then I saw her.
A girl with red hair and green eyes stood in the middle of an ancient stone circle, surrounded by five assassins with poisoned weapons. Silver light poured from her skin like liquid starlight, and her eyes blazed with power I'd never seen before.
She was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. She was also about to die.
"Take her down!" the lead assassin yelled, raising a crossbow loaded with wolfsbane-tipped bolts.
"No!" The word tore from my throat as I shifted mid-run, my wolf bursting free in an explosion of fur and rage.
I hit the first attacker like a freight train, my teeth finding his throat before he could scream. Hot blood filled my mouth, but I felt no pleasure. Only rage that anyone would dare threaten my mate.
Ryder crashed into the clearing right behind me, already shifted into his huge black wolf. He tackled two attackers at once, his powerful jaws snapping bones like twigs. Phoenix emerged in a swirl of silver magic, his hands glowing as he sent the fourth assassin flying into a tree with enough force to crack the trunk.
But the boss was still focused on our mate, his finger tightening on the crossbow trigger.
Time slowed down as I watched the bolt flying toward her heart. She stood frozen in fear, the silver light around her flickering like a dying candle. She was too scared to move, too shocked to defend herself.
The bolt was going to kill her. I was going to lose my mate before I even got to hold her.
That's when something impossible happened.
The silver light around her suddenly roared to life like a blaze. The crossbow bolt hit the light and disintegrated into sparkling dust. The assassin's eyes went wide with terror as he realized what he was facing.
"She's awakened," he whispered. "The Moon's Lost Daughter has awakened."
Then she looked at me.
Our eyes met across the clearing, and the world stopped. Silver threads of light appeared in the air between us, linking my heart to hers. The mate bond slammed into me with the force of a storm, filling every empty space in my soul.
But it wasn't just my bond I felt. Ryder's golden thread showed next to mine, and then Phoenix's purple one. Three bonds, all going to the same girl.
She was mated to all of us.
"Impossible," I breathed, shifting back to human form.
My brothers did the same, their faces showing the same shock and wonder I felt. We were all attached to her. All three of us had found our other half in the same person.
The girl - Scarlett, Phoenix had called her - stared at the glowing threads linking us. Her face was pale with disbelief, and I could smell her fear mixed with her amazing scent.
"This can't be real," she whispered.
But the ties were real. They pulsed with life and love and desperate need. Through them, I could feel her feelings - terror, confusion, hope, and a longing so deep it made my chest ache.
The last assassin picked that moment to make his move. He lunged at Scarlett with a poisoned knife, thinking she was distracted by the mate ties.
He was wrong.
Power exploded from her like a volcano. Silver light shot from her hands, wrapping around the attacker like chains. He screamed as the light burned away his weapons and left him helpless on the ground.
"Who sent you?" I demanded, my Alpha voice making him shrink.
"The prophecy," he gasped. "She's the one from the vision. If she lives, she'll destroy everything we've built."
"What prophecy?" Ryder growled, his fists clenched.
But before the killer could answer, his body began to smoke. Some kind of poison was eating him from the inside, killing him before he could share more secrets.
"Insurance," he wheezed with his last breath. "They always send insurance when hunting moon wolves."
Then he was gone, leaving us with more questions than solutions.
I turned back to Scarlett, wanting to comfort her, to explain what the ties meant. But she was backing away from us, shaking her head.
"I can't," she said, tears running down her face. "I'm nobody. I'm just a servant. You three are kings. This has to be a mistake."
"It's not a mistake," Phoenix said gently, taking a step toward her. "The Moon Goddess doesn't make mistakes."
But she kept backing away, the silver light around her getting brighter with her distress. "Everyone will hate this. Your father will never accept me. The pack will think I used magic to trick you."
She was right, and we all knew it. Father would explode when he found out. The pack would fight against the idea of sharing their future Alphas with a servant girl. Politics and custom would try to tear us apart before we even had a chance to be together.
"We'll figure it out," I said, trying to project cool confidence even though my mind was racing. "We'll make them understand."
"How?" she asked. "How do you make people accept something that's never happened before?"
Before any of us could answer, the ground beneath our feet started to shake. The ancient stones around the clearing started glowing brighter, reacting to Scarlett's emotional turmoil.
"Something's wrong," Phoenix said, his magical senses alert. "The old magic is waking up."
The shaking got worse, and cracks emerged in the earth around the stone circle. Through the cracks, silver light started seeping out like blood from a wound.
"What's happening?" Scarlett cried, looking around in fear.
That's when I saw them. Dark shapes moving through the woods, surrounding the clearing. Too many to count, all wearing the black armor of the Bloodfang Pack.
"Backup," Ryder snapped. "The assassins were just the first wave."
The head of the new group stepped into the clearing, and my blood turned to ice. It was Alpha Axel Grimstone himself, the most dangerous wolf in the area.
"Hello, boys," he said with a cruel smile. "I see you've found our little runaway. We've been looking everywhere for her."
"She doesn't belong to you," I growled, moving protectively in front of Scarlett.
"Oh, but she does," Grimstone laughed. "You see, her mother stole something very valuable from us eighteen years ago. Something we've been waiting to get back."
"What are you talking about?" Scarlett whispered.
Grimstone's smile grew wider and more frightening. "Your mother didn't die in an accident, little moon dog. We killed her. Just like we're going to kill you, right after you give us what's hidden in your blood."
The world exploded into chaos as silver light erupted from Scarlett like a nuclear bomb, and I knew that saving my mate was going to be a lot harder than I thought.