Thea's POV
The ice spear is three inches from my face when Corvus moves.
He's suddenly in front of me, catching the ice in his bare hand. It shatters against his palm, drawing blood. He doesn't even flinch.
"You dare attack my mate?" His voice is so low, so dangerous, that I feel it in my bones.
The beautiful woman—Lyric—smiles like breaking bones. "YOUR mate? Russet has been promised to me for seventy years!"
"I was never yours!" Russet snarls, positioning himself on my other side. "That was politics, not destiny!"
I'm still processing the fact that someone just tried to kill me with MAGIC ICE when my ceiling explodes.
Again.
Sable drops through the hole in panther form, landing between me and Lyric with a thunderous crash. His green eyes glow with protective fury as he shifts into his human form.
"Thea, get behind us," he orders.
"I'm already behind you!" I squeak, pressed against the wall.
My window shatters for the second time today.
A DRAGON squeezes through the frame—an actual dragon with crimson scales and golden eyes. It's too big for my apartment, wings scraping the ceiling, tail knocking over my bookshelf.
"MY TREASURE!" the dragon roars in Flint's voice. "PROTECT MY TREASURE!"
"Your apartment can't handle a dragon!" I scream. "We're on the fourth floor!"
The dragon shrinks rapidly, scales retracting, until Flint stands there in human form. Naked. Like everyone else.
"Why is everyone naked?!" I yell at no one in particular.
"Shifting destroys clothes," Marlowe says, flying in through the broken window as a crow. He lands on my kitchen counter and transforms. Also naked. "It's a beastman thing."
"I hate everything about this!" I press my hands over my eyes. "This is a nightmare!"
"The nightmare," Lyric hisses, "is that you think you can steal what's MINE!"
She raises both hands. Ice forms in the air—dozens of deadly shards pointed directly at me.
All five men move at once.
Corvus's body ripples with barely contained wolf. Sable shifts partially, claws extending. Flint breathes actual fire. Russet's eyes glow golden. Marlowe's hands turn into crow talons.
They form a wall of supernatural protection between me and the ice woman who wants me dead.
"Leave," Corvus growls. "Now. Or I'll kill you."
"You'd kill me for a HUMAN?" Lyric's voice cracks with genuine pain. "Russet, how could you? We were supposed to be together!"
Russet steps forward, and I see something flicker across his face. Guilt? Regret? "Lyric, I never wanted this arrangement. Our families decided for us when we were children. I was going to tell you that night—that I couldn't go through with it."
"Liar!" Ice tears stream down Lyric's face. "You're just saying that because she used dark magic on you! All of you!"
"There's no magic," Sable says quietly. "Just bonds we don't understand."
"BONDS DON'T WORK THIS WAY!" Lyric screams. "One mate! ONE! Not five alphas sharing some pathetic human girl!"
The words hit me like a slap. Pathetic human girl. That's what I am to their world—a mistake, an anomaly, something that shouldn't exist.
I find my voice. "I didn't ask for any of this."
Everyone turns to look at me.
I step out from behind my wall of protective beastmen, legs shaking but voice steady. "I didn't ask to find Russet. I didn't ask for bonds or mates or magic. I just wanted a pet. I wanted something to come home to so I wouldn't feel so alone."
Tears burn my eyes. "And now my apartment is destroyed, someone's trying to kill me, and five men I don't even know are claiming I'm their destiny. So excuse me if I'm a little OVERWHELMED!"
Silence falls.
Lyric stares at me like I'm an insect. "You really don't know what you've done, do you? You've broken the natural order. The council will execute you for this."
"The council can try," Flint snarls.
"They'll have to go through all of us," Marlowe adds.
Lyric laughs—a cold, brittle sound. "You think five alphas can stand against the entire Beastmen Council? They'll send hunters. Enforcers. They'll make an example of her."
My blood turns to ice. "Hunters?"
"This is your fault," Lyric tells me, voice dripping with venom. "When they kill you, remember that. You did this to yourself by existing."
She turns to leave, ice melting from her hands.
"Lyric, wait—" Russet starts.
She whirls on him. "Don't. You made your choice. Now live with the consequences."
She walks out through my destroyed doorway, leaving a trail of frost behind her.
The moment she's gone, I collapse onto my couch. My entire body is shaking. "Someone just tried to kill me. That actually happened."
"And it won't be the last time," Sable says grimly. "She's right about the council. When they find out—"
"They already know," a new voice interrupts.
An old man steps into my apartment. He looks human enough, but power radiates from him like heat from a fire. His eyes are ancient and cold.
All five of my—what, mates?—immediately bow their heads.
"Elder Crag," Corvus says, voice tight with tension.
The old man surveys my destroyed apartment with distaste. "The council has been aware of this situation for approximately three hours. We've been monitoring the unusual bond fluctuations across the city." His eyes land on me. "Stand up, human."
I stand on trembling legs.
Elder Crag walks toward me, studying me like a specimen under glass. "Thea Vex. Twenty-six years old. Graphic designer. No supernatural heritage. Completely ordinary."
"Yes," I whisper. "I'm nobody special."
"And yet you've managed to bond with five apex predators from five different clans." He circles me slowly. "Either you're using forbidden magic, or you're something that shouldn't exist."
"I'm not using magic! I don't even believe in magic! Or I didn't until today!"
"Irrelevant." Elder Crag stops in front of me. "The council has voted. You will come with me for examination. If we determine you're a threat to beastman society, you will be eliminated."
"NO!" All five men move between us.
"She's under our protection," Corvus declares.
"The council's authority supersedes your bonds," Elder Crag says calmly. "Step aside, or you will all be charged with treason."
My protectors don't move.
The old man sighs. "Very well. We'll do this the hard way."
He raises his hand, and suddenly my tiny apartment is full of soldiers—at least twenty beastmen in tactical gear, all pointing weapons at us.
"Last chance," Elder Crag says. "Surrender the human, or we take her by force."
Corvus's body begins to shift. So do the others.
"Wait!" I push through them, standing between my mates and the council soldiers. "I'll go with you."
"Thea, no—" Russet grabs my arm.
I look back at all five of them. These men who claim to be mine, who've known me for less than a day, who are willing to die for me.
"If I don't go, they'll kill you," I say softly. "All of you. I'm not worth that."
"You're worth everything," Corvus says fiercely.
"We'll come for you," Sable promises. "No matter what."
Elder Crag nods to his soldiers. Two of them grab my arms, pulling me toward the door.
I don't resist. I let them drag me away from my destroyed apartment, from the five men watching with rage and helplessness in their eyes.
As they push me into the hallway, I hear Flint roar: "We're coming for you, treasure! I swear it!"
The soldiers force me down the stairs and into a black vehicle waiting outside.
Elder Crag slides in beside me. "Comfortable, Miss Vex?"
"Not really," I mutter.
"Good. Comfortable people don't answer questions honestly." He signals the driver. "Take us to the examination facility."
As we pull away, I look back through the window.
Five figures stand on my building's roof, watching the vehicle disappear.
My mates.
Even though I don't understand what that means yet.
Even though we just met.
Even though this is completely insane.
I feel the bonds in my chest pulling tight, connecting me to them across the distance.
And I realize with horrible clarity:
Lyric was right.
I've broken something fundamental.
And the council is going to make me pay for it.
The vehicle turns a corner, and my building disappears from view.
Elder Crag smiles—a predator's smile. "Now then, Miss Vex. Let's discuss exactly what you are."