One Rejected Luna, Three Ruthless Alphas.

Two Nights Until the Moon.

They burned the temple complex before they left.

Every wooden structure, every supply cache, every remaining trace of the ritual preparations went up in flames. Black smoke rose into the gray sky as the Nightfall column turned south for home. The wounded rode in the center. The dead were carried. Selene stayed between her three Alphas the entire march back.

Two nights until the full moon.

Thorne was still out there.

The ritual knowledge still existed in his head.

The fortress came into view near dusk of the second hard day. Warriors on the walls raised a shout when they recognized the returning column. Gates opened. Healers rushed forward. The three Alphas gave short, clipped orders and then took Selene straight to their private chamber without stopping for the full report.

The door locked.

For a long moment none of them spoke. The only sound was their breathing and the distant noise of the pack receiving its wounded.

Then Ronan moved.

He pulled Selene against him and kissed her like he had been holding his breath since the temple. Kael stepped in behind her, already working the blood-stiffened leathers from her body. Darius dropped to his knees, pressed his face to her stomach, and simply breathed her in for several heartbeats before dragging her remaining clothes down.

They needed to feel that the bonds were still there.

Ronan sat on the edge of the bed and guided her down onto him. She sank onto his c**k slowly, the stretch pulling a shared groan from both of them. Kael stayed at her back, one hand wrapped lightly around her throat, the other reaching down to stroke her c**t in tight, deliberate circles. Darius stood beside them and guided her mouth to him, letting her take him while she rode.

The rhythm was slower than after previous battles—deeper, heavier, almost reverent. Yet the competition never disappeared. Every time Ronan thrust up and made her breath catch, Kael stroked faster. Every time Kael whispered something cold and possessive against her ear, Darius pushed deeper into her mouth. They watched her face. They watched each other. They adjusted every touch to pull the strongest reactions from her.

Selene came first, trembling, muffled sounds vibrating around Darius. Ronan followed with a low, drawn-out groan, holding her tightly through it. They shifted without breaking contact. Kael lifted her, turned her to face him, and thrust up into her while Darius and Ronan flanked them—mouths on her breasts, hands stroking, voices low and certain. When she shattered again, Kael finished deep inside her moments later.

Darius took her last. He bent her forward over the bed, gripped her hips, and drove into her with long, steady strokes while the other two held her open and kissed every broken sound from her lips. She came a third time before he finally let go.

Afterward they lay tangled together, Selene in the center, the heavy scent of all three Alphas sunk deep into her skin once more.

Kael’s fingers traced the nearly vanished rejection mark on her shoulder.

“Two nights. He will come before the moon rises or during it. He has no other move left.”

Ronan’s arm locked around her waist. “Then we end him this time.”

Darius pressed a slow kiss to the back of her neck. “And after that, we keep you in this room until the next full moon. Maybe the one after that.”

Selene closed her eyes between them, body warm and thoroughly claimed. Outside, the pack prepared for one final defense. Inside, three ruthless Alphas held their shared Luna tighter, already planning blood and already wanting her again.

Two nights.

That was all the time left before the last and bloodiest confrontation.

Sleep did not come easily that night.

Even after the thorough claiming, the three Alphas remained restless. Kael sat up against the headboard with Selene half in his lap, fingers slowly combing through her silver-white hair. Ronan lay on her other side, one heavy arm draped over her waist, eyes open and fixed on the ceiling. Darius stretched out across the foot of the bed, one hand wrapped loosely around her ankle as if he needed the contact to stay calm.

“He will try the ritual even without the temple,” Kael said quietly. “The location was convenient, not essential. All he truly needs is her blood, our presence, and the full moon.”

Ronan’s voice was rough. “Then we don’t give him the chance. We take the fight to him before the moon rises tomorrow night.”

Darius turned his head, golden eyes gleaming in the low firelight. “Scouts already lost his trail after the temple. He’s gone to ground with whatever fighters he has left. We won’t find him in time if he doesn’t want to be found.”

Selene listened in silence. The old rejection mark on her shoulder was little more than a pale memory now. In its place she could feel the three distinct claims—Kael’s cold precision, Ronan’s fierce protectiveness, Darius’s heated possession—woven so tightly that the idea of anyone burning them out felt almost impossible. Almost.

“What if we use me as bait?” she asked.

All three males went still.

Kael’s fingers paused in her hair. “No.”

Ronan’s arm tightened. “Absolutely not.”

Darius sat up fully, expression dark. “He doesn’t get to look at you again, let alone get close enough for a ritual.”

Selene met each of their eyes in turn. “He’s coming for me either way. If we control where and when, we control the battlefield. If we wait inside these walls, he chooses the moment.”

A long silence followed.

Kael was the first to speak again, voice low and reluctant. “There is an open ridge half a day’s ride north of the fortress. Clear sight lines. No caves. No dense forest for ambush. If we let information slip that you will be there tomorrow at dusk to ‘perform a counter-ritual,’ he will not be able to resist.”

Ronan growled. “I don’t like it.”

“Neither do I,” Kael admitted. “But she is right. He is obsessed enough to walk into a trap if she is the bait.”

Darius looked at Selene for a long moment, then cursed under his breath and nodded once. “We do it. But she stays between us every second. No exceptions.”

The decision settled over the room like a blade.

They did not sleep much after that. Instead they took her again—slower this time, almost desperate in its thoroughness. Ronan held her open while Kael licked her until she came apart shaking. Kael held her afterward while Darius thrust into her with deep, steady strokes, eyes locked on hers. Ronan took her last, face buried in her neck, whispering that no ritual in existence would ever erase what they had put into her body and her soul. By the time they finished, Selene was limp and glowing between them, every bond reaffirmed in the most physical way possible.

Morning brought cold preparation.

The pack was informed of the plan in carefully limited detail. Sixty warriors would accompany them to the ridge. The rest would remain to guard the fortress in case of a second force. Lila, still locked in the lower cells, was left under heavy guard with orders that she was not to be released under any circumstances.

They dressed Selene themselves once more. Ronan laced her fighting leathers with deliberate care, hands lingering at her waist and breasts. Kael checked every weapon sheath and then cupped her face, kissing her once with cold intensity. Darius knelt to secure her boots and looked up at her with open heat.

“When this is over,” he said quietly, “I’m not letting you out of bed for a week.”

Selene touched his cheek. “I’m counting on it.”

They rode out at midday.

The ridge was exactly as Kael had described—high, open, and difficult to approach without being seen. Nightfall warriors took positions among the rocks and low scrub. Kael, Ronan, and Darius remained in the center with Selene, visible, waiting.

The sun began to drop.

For a long time there was only wind and the distant cry of birds.

Then the first howl rose from the treeline below the ridge.

It was answered by a second, then a third, then many more. Shadows moved between the trees. Thorne had taken the bait.

He emerged first into the open ground at the base of the ridge, still in human form, chest bare, eyes locked on Selene with raw, unfiltered hunger. Behind him came the remnants of Moonridge, a cluster of Ironfang survivors, and a larger group of Redclaw wolves than they had expected. He had found more allies in the last two days.

Thorne’s voice carried easily on the wind.

“You offered her to me. Here I am.”

Kael stepped forward, frost-pale eyes glittering. “We offered you a chance to die in the open instead of the dark. That is all.”

Ronan’s growl rolled down the ridge. “Come and take her if you can.”

Darius only smiled, sharp and lethal, one hand already resting on Selene’s lower back in open possession.

Thorne’s gaze never left Selene.

“I will empty you of them. And then I will take what was always mine.”

The full moon would rise in less than two hours.

The final battle for the bonds—and for the female at the center of them—had begun.