SCARLETT
The chamber pulsed with danger.
Kael stood before me, his chest heaving, blood on his lip. Darius's lightning hissed in the air, eyes burning with rage and longing. But it was Lucien calm, coiled, and cruel who owned the silence.
His gaze pinned me like a predator cornering prey. "Scarlett," he said softly, almost like a lover whispering in the dark. "You've tasted fire. You've flirted with a storm. But you haven't drowned in the shadows yet."
Kael's snarl split the air. "She won't ever touch your shadow."
Darius stepped closer, his aura sparking. "Get out, Lucien, before I end you."
Lucien ignored them both. His lips curved into a dangerous smile as his eyes dragged over me, slow and deliberate, as if he was already undressing me with nothing but his will. My body betrayed me. I shivered, my pulse racing.
"Answer me, Scarlett," Lucien purred. "When you lie awake at night… Who do you see pressing you down? Whose teeth do you imagine on your skin?"
I swallowed hard, heat curling in my stomach. God, I hated how his words made me ache.
Kael's hand shot out, gripping my wrist, pulling me tight against him. His voice was ragged, desperate. "Don't listen to him. You're mine."
Darius growled, stepping forward, his storm pulling at the air like a cyclone. "No. She's not yours. Scarlett says it. Tell him. Tell me."
Their voices crashed like war drums. My breath came quickly, my skin on fire, but my mind… my mind was sharp. Cunning.
Because at that moment, I realized the truth. They wanted me to choose. But what if I chose none? What if I chose all?
I licked my lips slowly, meeting Lucien's black gaze. "Why settle for fire or storm," I whispered, my voice a blade wrapped in silk, "when shadow offers the kind of darkness that makes a woman forget her own name?"
Kael stiffened. Darius's jaw clenched.
Lucien laughed low and dangerous, the sound vibrating in my bones. "Oh, darling. You'll ruin them."
He stepped forward, unhurried, his presence suffocating, intoxicating. Kael moved to block him, but in a blur Lucien was there, his hand snapping out, gripping Kael's throat, slamming him back against the wall with bone-cracking force.
Darius roared, lightning flashing in his palms, but Lucien's other hand lifted lazily and the air bent, shadows choking the storm's power.
"Pathetic," Lucien said coldly. "Both of you fight like dogs for scraps, when the feast belongs to me."
Then his eyes cut back to me, and I froze. His power wrapped around me, dark, silken, undeniable.
"Come here, Scarlett," Lucien commanded. His voice was velvet and steel, an order and a promise all at once.
My body trembled. My feet moved. Gods, I didn't even think I was walking toward him, each step heavy with lust and fear. Kael strained against Lucien's grip, Darius fought against the choking shadows, but neither could reach me.
Lucien extended his hand, palm open, waiting. His smile was pure hunger.
"Take my hand, little wolf," he whispered. "And I'll show you what real surrender feels like."
My fingertips hovered above his. The room crackled with fire, storm, and shadow, all colliding around me. My heart thundered, my wolf clawed inside me, torn between every Alpha's pull.
And then a searing pain ripped through my chest.
I gasped, my body arching. The mark the crescent moon etched into my skin blazed with silver fire, brighter than it had ever burned.
All three Alphas froze.
Lucien's smile faltered, his eyes narrowing with shock. "No…" he hissed. "Not yet. Not here."
The shadows recoiled from me.
I collapsed to my knees, gasping, clutching my glowing mark.
And from somewhere deep inside my mind, a voice not mine echoed like ancient thunder:
"Choose wisely, Moonbane… for only one bond will save you. The others will destroy you."
The chamber shook, the mark searing like it was burning me alive. And all three Alphas stared at me, Kael bleeding, Darius crackling, Lucien seething as if I had just become the most dangerous weapon in existence.
The chamber throbbed with silence after the ancient voice faded, every breath I took scraping my lungs like fire.
Kael stumbled forward first, his fire dimmed but his fury alive. He crouched, gripping my shoulders with blistering heat. "Scarlett, look at me. You're burning from the inside. Tell me what the hell that mark is doing to you."
Darius shoved him aside, dropping to one knee beside me, his storm-gray eyes locking on mine. "She doesn't need your interrogation, Kael. She needs balance. She needs me." His hand hovered near my cheek, crackling with restrained lightning, almost touching but not daring to.
Lucien loomed above us both, a predator draped in calm shadows, his expression unreadable but his voice dripping with poison. "Balance? Fire? Storm? You fools don't see it. That mark doesn't belong to either of you. It belongs to me."
My wolf howled inside me, clawing at my ribs, desperate to lunge, to bite, to take. My body trembled, caught in the magnetic pull of all three. Kael's touch scorched. Darius's nearness hummed like a promise. Lucien's darkness slid across my skin without even touching me, seduction made flesh.
I swallowed hard, forcing words past my dry lips. "You heard it too… the voice. It said I have to choose."
Kael's grip on me tightened. "Then choose now. End this before he poisons you further." His golden eyes burned into me, desperate, commanding.
Darius leaned closer, his storm crackling like a heartbeat. "Don't let him bully you into his fire-cage. You deserve freedom, Scarlett. My storm won't bind you, it will lift you."
Lucien crouched low, his smile sharp, his black eyes gleaming. "And freedom, storm-boy, is just another chain when you're too weak to protect her. Scarlett, come with me. I'll give you more than fire's rage or storm's fleeting spark. With shadow, you won't just survive, you'll rule."
The word coiled inside me like a serpent. Rule.
My pulse raced, my thighs clenching with heat I couldn't deny. They wanted to claim me. But Lucien wanted me to claim the world.
Kael snarled, shoving Darius back. "You won't even lay a finger on her!"
Darius struck him with a crack of lightning, throwing him into the scorched wall. "And you'll suffocate her before you ever keep her safe!"
The chamber erupted again, fire and storm clashing, shadows twisting between them, my mark searing so bright it hurt to breathe.
I staggered to my feet, my chest heaving, my voice ripping out raw: "STOP!"
For a heartbeat, they did. All three froze, their eyes on me, their bodies vibrating with power and hunger.
I stood in the center, trembling, sweat dripping down my neck, the mark glowing like a brand. "You all think I'm yours. But maybe none of you are ready for what I am."
Kael's fire dimmed, confusion warring with fury in his eyes. Darius's storm faltered, his lips parting like he wanted to plead. Lucien… Lucien only smiled, dark and sure, as though I'd just spoken the words he wanted.
"Scarlett," he murmured, his voice wrapping around me like velvet chains. "Then prove it. Tonight. Step into my shadow, and I'll show you a truth that will tear them apart."
Kael lunged for me, but the shadows surged up between us, a wall of darkness that even his flames couldn't burn. Darius struck with lightning, but the bolts vanished into the black.
And then I felt it.
Lucien's presence wrapping around my waist, pulling me backward, colder than ice, hotter than sin.
Kael roared, his voice breaking. "Scarlett!"
Darius's shout cracked the chamber. "Don't let him take you!"
But the shadows swallowed me whole.
The last thing I saw was their faces, Kael's fury, Darius's anguish as Lucien's grin gleamed in the dark.
Then silence. Then nothing.