Serena's POV
Serena's eyes snapped open to unfamiliar ceiling.
Not her apartment. Not a hospital. Not anywhere she recognized. The ceiling was high and painted a soft cream color. A chandelier hung above her head, all crystals and gold, the kind of thing she'd only seen in magazines at the laundromat.
She sat up too fast.
Her head spun and her body felt like it had been hit by a truck, but adrenaline pushed her through the pain. She was in a bed. A big bed. The sheets were soft and expensive looking, the kind that probably cost more than she made in a month.
The room was huge. Floor to ceiling windows showed moonlight pouring in. A fireplace crackled with real flames. Furniture that looked like it belonged in a museum.
This wasn't real.
"You're awake."
Serena jumped and her eyes flew toward the voice.
Two men sat in high-backed chairs near the fireplace like they were waiting for her to open her eyes. The twins from the forest. The ones with the glowing eyes. The ones who'd shifted into wolves and carried her God knows where.
Her mouth went dry.
They were watching her the way a wolf watches prey. Not with hunger exactly, but with complete focus. Like they could see through her skin into the parts of her that were scared and broken.
"How long was I asleep?" Her voice came out hoarse.
"Six hours," the cold one said. The one who'd called himself Kael. He stood and moved toward her bed like he was afraid she'd bolt. He probably had good reason. "You're safe. You're in the Nightshade pack house."
Pack house. The words didn't make sense.
Serena pulled the blanket closer to her chest. She was wearing someone else's clothes. Soft gray sweatpants and a t-shirt that smelled like woodsmoke and something male and completely unfamiliar. Someone had changed her while she was unconscious.
That thought made her skin crawl.
"What do you want from me?" Her voice was shaking. She hated it. She'd promised herself no more shaking, no more showing fear, no more being a victim.
The other twin, the hot one named Dante, stood too. He was smaller in his movements but somehow more intense. "We want to explain. We want you to understand what you are."
"What I am?" Serena laughed. It came out wrong, hysterical. "I'm a person. I'm someone who just escaped an abusive relationship and now I'm trapped in some weird cult house with two crazy people who think they're werewolves."
"We're not crazy," Kael said calmly. "And we're not people."
He held out his hand and without moving his body, his fingers started to change. They stretched and curved and grew claws. Just his hand. The rest of him stayed human but his hand became something else entirely. Something that could tear her apart.
Serena screamed.
Kael pulled his hand back and it shifted back to normal like it had never changed at all. "Werewolves. We're werewolves and this is our territory. You crossed the border last night running from your ex."
Marcus. The name hit her like a punch.
"Marcus." She tried to stand up but her legs wouldn't hold her. "Where is he? Did you kill him? Oh God, did you kill him?"
"He's alive," Dante said quickly. His voice was gentler than Kael's but just as serious. "He's in our cells. Locked up where he can't hurt you."
Relief and terror crashed together inside her chest. Marcus was alive but he was imprisoned. By werewolves. In a supernatural prison she didn't even know existed.
None of this was real. It couldn't be real.
Except her body knew it was real. The moment those two men entered the room, something inside her responded. Heat flared along her skin. Her heart sped up. It was like her body recognized something that her mind refused to accept.
"There's something else," Kael said. He moved closer and Serena flinched but he didn't reach for her. "We're your fated mates. Both of us. It means our souls are connected. The Moon Goddess chose us for you."
Serena's laugh started as a small thing and grew into something bigger. Uncontrollable. Hysterical. She laughed until her chest hurt, until tears started streaming down her face, until she couldn't breathe properly.
"This is insane," she gasped between laughs. "This is completely insane. I escaped one prison just to land in a supernatural nightmare with destiny and fate and two men claiming I'm their soulmate."
The laughing turned into crying.
She pulled the blanket over her face because she couldn't let them see her like this. Couldn't let them see how broken she was. Two years with Marcus had taught her to hide everything, to never show weakness.
But she was breaking anyway.
She felt the bed dip as someone sat down. Felt a careful hand on her shoulder. It took everything in her not to flinch away.
"Your ex controlled you," Dante said quietly. "Made you believe you were nothing without him. We felt it through the bond when we met you."
She wanted to yell at him to get away from her. Wanted to tell him that she didn't need two more men trying to control her life. Wanted to run.
So she did.
Serena threw off the blanket and bolted for the door. Her legs were shaky but adrenaline pushed her forward. She grabbed the handle and pulled.
Dante appeared in front of her like he'd teleported.
He was blocking the entire doorway with his body, not touching her but making it clear she wasn't getting past him.
"Move," Serena said.
"No."
"I'm not asking. Move."
Dante's eyes were sad, which somehow made it worse. "Your ex is in our cells downstairs. You go back to the human world without us, he finds you. He will find you because he's obsessed and crazy and we won't be there to stop him this time."
"So I'm a prisoner," Serena said flatly.
"You're protected."
"Those are the same thing."
Dante opened his mouth but Kael stepped forward instead. His voice was calm, which was somehow worse than anger would have been.
"There's something else you need to know," Kael said. "The mate bond connects us. All three of us. Right now you're feeling the pull of it. The warmth. The safety we project."
Serena wasn't going to admit that he was right. That since they'd entered the room, her body had stopped screaming danger. That on some level, her terrified human brain wasn't registering them as a threat even though logically they should be.
"If you try to leave," Kael continued, "the bond will cause pain. Physical pain. For all three of us. The farther you go, the worse it gets. We've bonded with you now. We can't separate without agony."
The room spun.
"You're lying," Serena said but her voice had no conviction.
"I'm not," Kael said simply. "Our wolves chose you. The bond is already rooted in your body. It's already rooted in ours. Trying to fight it or leave will only hurt everyone involved."
Serena felt the walls closing in. She'd escaped Marcus's control just to find herself trapped by something worse. Trapped by magic and destiny and two men who claimed they'd die if she left them.
She sank to the ground with her back against the door.
"This is a nightmare," she whispered.
Dante knelt down in front of her but didn't touch her. "It's not. I know this is scary and crazy and nothing you asked for. But we felt you the moment you crossed into our territory. We felt your fear and your courage and your strength."
"You felt your biology," Serena said bitterly. "Your werewolf instinct that says I'm your mate."
"Maybe," Dante said. "But we're choosing it anyway. We're choosing you."
Serena looked up at him and saw something in his eyes that terrified her more than anything else had. Sincerity. Real emotion. The possibility that he meant what he was saying.
The mate bond pulsed between them like a living thing.
And she realized with creeping horror that no matter what she did, no matter how hard she ran, she was never escaping this.
She was bound to them now.