~Annalyn POV~
My breath caught and he pulled back slowly, his eyes darker than I remembered. Hungry.
"They're waking up," he whispered. "The others. You didn't just walk into this house, Annalyn, you walked into a bond."
"What bond?"
"The kind that doesn't break."
I stared at him, my voice barely a whisper. "What am I?"
He reached into his pocket and held up the silver bottle again.
"You're not ready to know yet," he said. "But you will be."
I smacked the bottle out of his hand, it hit the floor with a metallic clink and rolled under the table.
"I'm not your property," I hissed.
He smiled slowly. "Not yet," he said. "But you will be."
Then, without warning, he grabbed my waist and slammed me against the wall.
I gasped.
His mouth was on my neck in an instant, not kissing, not biting... just breathing. Inhaling me like a drug.
"Stop it..."
But my body betrayed me.
My legs trembled and my nipples hardened against the thin fabric of my blouse. I hated him for touching me, but hated myself more for wanting him to keep going.
His voice came out low and vibrating against my skin.
"There's a hunger in you, Annalyn. You don't understand it yet, but we do."
"We?"
"You've only met one of us."
My stomach dropped. "One?"
"Three alphas were born under the blood moon that year," he said. "We are bound to one mate, I mean... the same mate."
My heart pounded in my chest. "No, that's insane! I'm human."
He finally pulled back. "Are you?"
I stared at him.
"You were adopted," he said. "Did your mother ever tell you that?"
I didn't answer.
"She knew," he said. "That's why she sold you to us. She just didn't tell you the price."
_____
Later that day, I tried to escape, of course I did. I wasn't going to sit around waiting to be passed between alphas like a chew toy. I packed a small bag, found the side path through the garden, and made it to the cliffs.
I saw the mainland in the distance, and then I saw him. A man standing barefoot on the edge of the cliff, staring down at the ocean. Shirtless, covered in scars, muscles tense, and dark eyes wild.
He turned his head slowly when he sensed me, and smiled.
"You're her," he said.
"Who the hell are you?" I asked.
He tilted his head. "The second alpha!"
Then he lunged, and I screamed. Not because I was scared...though maybe I was...but because I didn't expect him to move so fast.
One second, the man was standing at the cliff, calm like the wind. The next, he was in front of me, fingers wrapped around my wrist, eyes staring straight into mine like he was looking for something hidden in my soul.
"You're trembling," he said, voice low, rough like gravel.
I yanked my hand back. "Because you charged at me like some lunatic!"
He grinned. The kind of grin that made my knees weaken and my brain forget how to function.
"You smell like Matteo."
The name sent a shiver down my spine, and I stepped back.
"And you are?"
He tilted his head, still smiling, but there was something sharp behind his eyes.
"Calix, Calix Del Piero."
Another Del Piero? My throat went dry.
"Let me guess," I muttered. "You're the second alpha?"
His grin widened. "So, Matteo already told you about us?"
"He told me I'm some kind of shared chew toy between three overgrown dogs."
He laughed, actually laughed. A deep, raspy sound that stirred something between my thighs... something I didn't want to acknowledge.
"You're bold," he said. "I like that."
"Don't," I snapped, glaring. "Don't tell me what you like, I didn't ask to be here."
He stepped closer again. I backed into the cliff wall, and I could feel the wind behind me, hear the waves crashing below. If I moved an inch wrong, I could fall.
But it wasn't the fall I feared...it was the way his eyes traced every inch of my face like he was memorizing me.
"You don't understand it yet," he said softly, "but your body does."
"Stay away from me."
"Why?" he asked. "Because I make your heart race?"
"No," I lied. "Because you're all insane."
He leaned in, his breath warm against my cheek. "Do you feel it too, Annalyn?"
I tried to speak, but my voice caught in my throat. Something deep inside me… pulled toward him. My stomach fluttered. My thighs clenched and my breath came short, shallow.
He reached out and brushed a strand of hair from my face. His fingertips barely touched my skin, but it lit me up like fire.
"Stop," I whispered. But I didn't mean it.
He didn't too, instead, his fingers moved to my neck. Tracing.
And then...he paused.
"You haven't fully awakened yet," he muttered.
"What does that mean?"
"You'll know," he said. "When the third one finds you."
My heart skipped. "There's a third one?"
He nodded, eyes still on me.
"When he comes, you'll feel it. The bond will tear you apart, or complete you. Depending on what you choose."
My pulse hammered in my ears. "Choose what?"
"Which one of us you'll give your first heat to."
My mouth fell open. "My what?"
Calix grinned again, but this time it wasn't playful. It was hunger.
"You think this is just about marriage and money? No. You were born to belong to us. Your body is wolf, it just hasn't caught up with your mind yet."
"I'm human!"
"Not fully."
"You're all insane." I turned to run.
He let me, I didn't make it far.
Matteo was waiting at the gate. "Where were you?" he asked, arms crossed.
I glared at him. "Is this a prison now?"
His jaw tightened. "I told you not to leave."
"Well maybe next time don't keep people locked in rooms like they're pets!"
He stepped forward and I stepped back.
"You saw him," he said.
"I don't want to talk about it."
Matteo's eyes darkened. "Did he touch you?"
"Why? Are you jealous?"
He said nothing, I pushed past him.
But he grabbed my arm, spinning me around, slamming me gently...yet firmly against the wall beside the gate.
"You don't understand what you're walking into."
"Then explain it!"
"You're ours," he growled, eyes wild now, breathing heavy. "Not because we said so. Because fate chose you. You were born under the same cursed moon! Do you even know what that means?"
"No," I snapped, "because no one tells me anything! You just throw me in a room, sniff me, and talk about heat like I'm some wild animal in a cage!"
His hand moved to my waist. Fingers digging in just enough to remind me he was stronger. Bigger, and dangerous. Yet my body… responded again.
My core pulsed, my breath hitched.
And his scent...woody, sharp, clean—wrapped around me like a drug I couldn't quit.
"Your scent changed," he whispered. "Did he kiss you?"
"No."
"Touch you?"
"Stop it, Matteo!"
He leaned in, teeth grazing my ear. "You don't belong to him yet."
He dragged his lips down my neck. My skin erupted with goosebumps, my back arched. I hated myself for how easily he was breaking me.
"You belong to me," he whispered. "And I'm not done tasting you." His mouth crashed down on mine, and I didn't fight it.
Not because I wanted to surrender...but because part of me already had.
His kiss was brutal, wet, possessive. His tongue slid into my mouth like it knew the map already. Like it had tasted me before, and I moaned.
He pinned my hands above my head with one hand, the other sliding under my shirt, fingers grazing my stomach, then... a growl.
Not from him, from behind us. Matteo broke the kiss instantly, turning.
I looked over his shoulder...and my stomach dropped.
A third man stood at the edge of the garden, half in the shadows. His eyes glowed faintly, golden like a predator's. His body was bare from the waist up, lean and covered in tribal tattoos that glowed softly under the moonlight.
And his voice...God help me! his voice...was colder than death.
"You're touching what's mine."
The moment I saw him, my heart stopped.