Dante's POV
Serena was dying.
That was the only thought in Dante's head as he carried her back to the pack house. Her body burned against his chest, the golden light pulsing under her skin in waves that made it hard to look at her. She was unconscious, her head lolled back, her breathing shallow and wrong.
Kael appeared beside him, his expression carved from stone.
"Get her to the medical wing," Dante said, though he was already moving that direction. "Now."
They rushed through the hallways and found their mother waiting like she'd known they were coming. Vivian took one look at Serena and her face went grave.
"Put her on the bed," Vivian ordered.
Dante laid Serena down gently, unable to stop touching her even as Vivian started examining her. The fever was extreme. Her skin was almost too hot to touch. The golden light under her surface seemed to pulse with her heartbeat.
"What's happening to her?" Kael demanded. His voice was sharp with panic, so unlike his usual control.
Vivian pressed her hand to Serena's forehead and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she looked like she was delivering a death sentence.
"Luna awakening," Vivian said. "It happens when a dormant bloodline accepts her fate. Accepts her mates. Her body is transforming to handle the mate bond with both of you."
"Can she survive it?" Dante asked.
"Maybe," Vivian said. "Her human half has to adapt to the power. If it can't, if the transformation is too much, her body will reject it. She'll die."
The words hung in the air like poison.
Vivian moved around the bed, checking Serena's pulse, her temperature, things Dante didn't understand. But he understood the danger. Could feel it in the way Kael's wolf was pressing against his skin, desperate to help and unable to do anything.
"What do we do?" Kael asked.
"Feed her your energy," Vivian said. "Both of you. Through the bond. Keep her anchored to you while her body transforms. She needs to know she's not alone. She needs to feel you holding her together."
Dante didn't wait for more instructions. He took Serena's hand and pushed his energy through the mate bond toward her. It was like trying to pour water through a dam. The bond was open but she was so far away, so lost in the transformation that reaching her felt impossible.
But he kept trying.
For three days, Dante and Kael barely left her side. They took turns holding her, sleeping in shifts because neither of them could leave her alone for long. Dante would hold her hand and push his warmth through the bond, trying to convince her to stay. To come back. To fight the transformation instead of letting it consume her.
Kael did the same, his silver eyes never leaving her face even when exhaustion threatened to pull him under.
On the third night, around midnight, Serena's eyes opened.
They weren't hazel anymore.
They were pure molten gold, glowing like she'd swallowed the sun. Power radiated off her in waves that made the windows rattle. The golden light that had been pulsing under her skin had moved into her eyes, turning them into something otherworldly and beautiful and terrifying.
She looked at Dante and her voice, when she spoke, resonated with Alpha power.
"I accept this bond," she said. Her voice wasn't entirely human anymore. It carried layers of sound like multiple people were speaking through her at once. "I choose both of you."
The words were simple but the moment she spoke them, the mate bond snapped into place.
It wasn't gentle. It was violent and total and complete. Three souls connecting through the bond all at once, creating something that had never existed before.
Dante felt Kael's consciousness merge with his own. Felt Serena's power flowing through both of them. Felt the way all three of them locked together like pieces of a puzzle that had been separated for centuries.
The intensity of it was unbearable.
Every emotion hit them at once. Serena's triumph mixed with Kael's relief mixed with Dante's desperate joy. Three separate people becoming something like one consciousness, bound together by bonds that were stronger than flesh or bone.
Dante screamed.
It wasn't pain exactly. It was everything. Too much sensation. Too much feeling. Too much connection all at once.
Beside him, Kael was gasping for breath like he was drowning in the bond itself.
And Serena, glowing with golden light, opened her mouth and released power so pure and strong that it shattered the medical wing windows.
The mate bond solidified around all three of them like chains made of starlight.
They were bound now. Completely. Irreversibly. There was no going back. There was no separation. The three of them were locked together at a level that went beyond the physical.
Dante felt himself dissolving into the connection. Felt his consciousness spreading through Serena and Kael until he couldn't tell where he ended and they began.
Then everything went black.
When Dante woke up, he was lying on the floor with Kael and Serena pressed against him on either side.
The golden light was gone from Serena's eyes but her power remained, thrumming through the bond like a heartbeat. She was unconscious but her body was no longer burning. The fever had broken. The transformation was complete.
She was Luna now.
The full Luna. Not just bloodline. Not just dormant power. Actual Luna with all the authority that came with the title.
Kael was breathing hard, his eyes unfocused like he was still adjusting to having three consciousness instead of two.
"What do we do now?" Kael asked.
Dante didn't have an answer. Because through the bond, he could feel something. A presence. A predator moving toward them through the forest.
Corvus Blackthorn.
The rival Alpha had sensed the power explosion when the mate bond solidified. Had felt three souls locking together in a way that hadn't happened in three hundred years. And now he was coming.
Dante could feel his approach like a shadow on the horizon.
"He's coming," Dante said.
Kael's eyes cleared immediately and they locked with Dante's. Understanding passed between them.
Corvus Blackthorn was moving against them now. Using the chaos of the mate bond awakening. Using their vulnerable moment.
And they were about to find out if a shared mate bond made them stronger or if it destroyed them completely.