The next I felt was heat.
Kael's heat.
The bed beneath me was softer than any place I had ever laid my head, the sheets rich with his scent smoke, cedar, and something wilder that made my wolf stir restlessly inside me. I blinked, my vision swimming until I saw him.
Kael sat on the edge of the bed, shirtless, his broad chest rising and falling like a predator holding himself back from tearing into his prey. His knuckles were bloodied, his temple bruised. But it wasn't his wounds that made my stomach twist, it was his eyes.
Golden. Burning. Terrifying.
"You nearly killed yourself," he said, his voice low, raw. "Do you even understand what that mark is doing to you?"
My hand instinctively went to my shoulder, where the crescent glowed faintly, silver threads still pulsing under my skin. It ached like a bruise and yet… It made me feel alive.
"The better question," I whispered, letting my lips curve slowly, "is what that mark means for you."
Kael's jaw tightened. "It means you're mine. Whether you like it or not."
Before I could answer, the door slammed open.
Darius stormed in, his storm-gray eyes sparking like a brewing tempest. His presence filled the chamber, lightning crackling faintly in the air around him.
"Get away from her."
Kael was on his feet instantly, fire rolling off him in waves. "You don't walk into my chamber and bark orders, storm-boy."
"She isn't yours," Darius growled, stepping closer. "You saw it, Kael. That mark lit up like the moon itself. She's Moonbane. If you keep treating her like a plaything, you'll doom her and all of us."
I shifted against the pillows, deliberately letting the sheet slide down my shoulder, exposing the glowing crescent. Their eyes snapped to it like wolves tracking blood.
"Protect me?" I murmured, tilting my head toward Darius. "Is that what you're offering?"
His eyes softened, his storm raging but barely contained. "Yes. I'll protect you. From Kael. From Lucien. From everything."
Kael barked out a laugh, harsh and sharp. "Liar. You don't want to protect her, you want to claim her. You think she'll find comfort in your storm, but storms break, Darius. Fire endures."
He took a step toward me, his gaze molten, possessive. "And she wants to burn."
The words sank deep, shamefully true. My thighs pressed together under the sheets. My body betrayed me and they both saw it.
Darius's eyes darkened. "Scarlett," he said softly, like a vow. "I'll never use you the way he does. You'll be my equal. My Luna."
Kael's growl rumbled low. "She doesn't want equality. She wants to be devoured."
My breath hitched, heat curling inside me. My wolf purred at their fight, drinking in their power, their desperation.
Gods, I loved this.
But before I could speak, something slithered through the room.
A shadow.
It brushed across my skin like icy fingers, a whisper too intimate to ignore.
You can't hide from me, little wolf. Not on fire. Not in a storm. The shadow always finds you.
I gasped, clutching my mark. Both Alphas froze.
"What is it?" Kael snapped, his fire flaring hotter.
Darius's gaze sharpened. "She's hearing him, isn't she?"
Lucien's voice coiled tighter in my head, smooth and poisonous. They'll fight each other until nothing is left. And when the ashes fall, who will protect you? Only me, Scarlett. Only shadow can cradle fire and storm at once.
My body trembled. God help me, part of me believed him.
Kael gripped my chin roughly, forcing me to look at him. His eyes were wild, desperate. "Whatever he's saying, ignore it. You're mine. Say it, Scarlett. Say it now."
Before I could answer, Darius seized my wrist, pulling me toward him. "No. Don't let either of them force you. You choose when you're ready. Not them. Not him."
My breath came ragged. Kael's fire burned one side of me. Darius's storm pulled the other. And inside me, Lucien's shadow whispered promises that made my skin ache with want.
The mark seared. Harder this time. Silver fire exploded across my skin, lighting up the chamber.
I screamed, arching off the bed. The air bent, the walls shook.
Kael staggered back, shielding his eyes. Darius roared, sparks flying off him in crackling bursts.
And then, over my scream, another voice filled the room. Not inside my head this time. Outside.
Lucien's voice.
Dripping from the shadows themselves.
"Ready or not, darling…" His laugh slithered across the walls, dark and victorious. "…I'm coming for you."
The shadows in Kael's chamber thickened, swallowing the corners of the room.
And a hand long, pale, clawed with darkness slid out from the wall.
Reaching for me.
The hand of shadow reached for me.
I couldn't move. My body trembled, my wolf clawed inside me, but it was like the darkness pinned me down, holding me in place.
Kael roared, his fire bursting in a shockwave that turned the chamber into a furnace. "Stay away from her!"
Flames licked across the walls, scorching tapestries, curling smoke through the air. But the shadow didn't burn; it coiled tighter, slipping past his fire as if it were smoke.
Darius raised his hand, lightning flashing in his palm, sparking wild and violent. "Scarlett, close your eyes!"
"No," I gasped, shaking my head even as the shadows pulled. "I want to see—"
The clawed hand wrapped around my ankle. Cold. So cold it burned.
Lucien's voice slid through the chamber like silk dipped in poison.
You're mine, Scarlett. They can scorch the earth, they can tear the skies but shadows always swallow the light in the end.
Kael lunged, grabbing my other leg, his heat scalding, protective, possessive. "You'll have to kill me first!"
Darius slammed his hand against the floor, lightning arcing in a jagged web that crawled up the shadow's arm. The chamber shook with the crackle of thunder.
For a moment, fire and storm met shadow, colliding with such force that the air itself screamed.
I screamed with it, writhing as the crescent mark on my shoulder seared brighter, forcing my wolf to the surface. My nails sharpened, my breath came in ragged growls, and my body writhed between them Kael's fire clutching one side of me, Darius's storm surging the other, and Lucien's darkness dragging me down.
"Scarlett!" Kael snarled, sweat and blood glistening across his chest. "Fight him! Fight for me!"
"No," Darius barked, his voice desperate, sharp as lightning. "Fight for yourself! Don't let him chain you like Kael wants to!"
Their words twisted in my ears, pulling me apart. Fire. Storm. Shadow. My body burned with need and terror, desire and fury, all at once.
And then Lucien's laugh cut through it all.
Low. Sinister. Certain.
You feel it, don't you, little wolf? His voice stroked across my mind like a lover's touch. You don't belong to fire. You don't belong to the storm. You belong to the dark.
The hand yanked harder, dragging me halfway off the bed.
Kael roared, yanking me back by my arms, his heat scorching my skin. "I won't let him take you!"
Darius's lightning snapped across the room, striking Kael's side. Kael snarled, whirling on him.
"She's slipping through your fingers!" Darius shouted, storm-whipped hair wild around his face. "You'll burn her alive before you save her!"
"She's mine!" Kael roared back, his fire flaring high enough to blister the walls.
"She's not a possession!" Darius bellowed, stepping between us, lightning sparking from his hands. "She's everything! And if you can't see that, you don't deserve her."
The air split with their power fire blazing against the storm, while Lucien's shadow pulled harder, wrapping higher around my thigh now, cold as death.
I arched, caught between all three. My scream tore through the chamber, raw, feral.
And then the crescent mark on my shoulder blazed so bright it blinded us all.
The shadow shrieked, recoiling, its claw slipping away from my skin.
Kael stumbled back, shielding his eyes. Darius fell to his knees, lightning scattering like sparks.
For a moment, silence. Only my ragged breathing, my glowing skin lighting the ruined chamber.
And then Lucien's voice again.
Not a whisper this time. A vow.
If they won't give it to me willingly…
The shadows thickened, swallowing half the chamber, crawling up the walls like ink bleeding through stone.
…then I'll tear down this entire fortress to take what's mine.
The walls cracked. The floor trembled. And outside, a wolf's howl echoed low, guttural, and wrong.
Not Kael's,not Darius's and not even Lucien's.