One Rejected Luna, Three Ruthless Alphas.

Hunt for the Traitor.

Dawn broke cold and gray over Nightfall.

Kael stood at the head of the war table, maps spread out under his hands. Ronan leaned against the wall with arms crossed, still carrying the tension of the last battle. Darius sat close to Selene, one hand resting possessively on her thigh under the table as if the simple contact was the only thing keeping him calm.

“Marcus knows every tunnel, every weak point, every supply route,” Kael said. “If we wait for the next attack, we will lose more wolves. We hunt him first.”

Ronan nodded once. “I’ll take the northern tracking team.”

“No,” Kael replied. “We all go. The pack can hold the walls for two days under Beta Command. Marcus is too dangerous to leave to anyone else.”

Darius’s golden eyes slid to Selene. “And she comes with us.”

It was not a question.

Selene met each of their gazes in turn. “I’m not staying behind.”

The decision settled quickly after that.

They left before the sun fully cleared the trees—Kael, Ronan, Darius, Selene, and a small elite unit of six warriors. The rest of the pack remained behind to guard the fortress. The northern forest closed around them, thick and quiet. Every broken branch and disturbed patch of earth was examined.

Even on the hunt, the three Alphas could not stop competing for her attention.

When they stopped to check tracks, Ronan pulled Selene against his chest under the excuse of sharing body heat. When they moved again, Kael kept her on his left side, fingers occasionally brushing the back of her neck. At every brief rest, Darius found a reason to stand behind her, mouth close to her ear, voice low enough that only she could hear the things he wanted to do once they returned.

The constant, quiet claiming kept her blood warm even as they tracked a traitor.

By midday they found the first clear sign: a scrap of Nightfall cloth caught on a low branch, still carrying Marcus’s scent mixed with Moonridge wolves. The trail turned west, toward a series of old caves that once belonged to a long-dead pack.

Kael’s voice was quiet. “He’s not alone. At least eight wolves with him.”

Ronan’s hand settled on the hilt of his blade. “Then we end it here.”

They approached the caves in silence. The elite unit spread out. Selene stayed between her three Alphas, senses sharp. Her wolf had grown stronger with every battle and every night spent between them. The old rejection wound no longer ached. In its place was something harder and brighter.

A howl rose from inside the largest cave—short, warning.

Marcus had scented them.

The fight that followed was close and brutal. Moonridge and Ironfang wolves poured out of the cave mouth. Nightfall met them head-on. Selene shifted with the three Alphas and stayed in the tight formation they preferred: Kael on her right, Ronan on her left, Darius covering her back.

She killed two wolves that tried to reach Kael’s blind side. Blood sprayed across the snow-dusted ground. When she looked up, all three of her Alphas were watching her again for that split second of fierce, shared pride before they turned back to the slaughter.

Marcus appeared at the cave entrance, face twisted with hatred.

“You turned our pack into a joke!” he shouted. “Three Alphas sharing one discarded female—”

He never finished the sentence.

Ronan reached him first in a blur of dark fur and rage. The two crashed together. Kael and Darius kept Selene clear of the worst of the fighting while still ending every enemy that came close. The elite unit cleaned up the rest.

When it was over, Marcus lay broken on the ground, still alive but barely. Ronan stood over him in human form, chest heaving, blood dripping from his claws.

Kael’s voice was ice. “Where is Thorne planning the next full assault?”

Marcus spat blood and laughed. “You’ll find out soon enough. He has more allies than you know. And the little rejected Luna is the only thing he still wants.”

Darius stepped forward, golden eyes glowing. “Then he will die wanting.”

Kael looked at Selene, then at the other two. A silent decision passed between the three of them.

They did not kill Marcus quickly.

They made sure the traitor understood exactly whose Luna he had betrayed before the end.

Afterward, the forest was quiet again. The elite unit secured the caves. Selene stood between her three Alphas, blood on her skin, heart still racing. Their hands found her one after another—checking, touching, claiming—even here, surrounded by the dead.

Ronan’s voice was rough. “We return tonight.”

Kael nodded. “And then we prepare for whatever Thorne brings next.”

Darius leaned in and kissed the corner of Selene’s mouth, uncaring of the blood. “First we remind our Luna that she is still the only prize worth this war.”

The hunt had ended.

The larger war had only grown sharper.

They turned back toward Nightfall with the traitor’s blood still fresh on the ground behind them.

They reached the fortress well after dark.

The elite unit peeled away to report and rest. Kael, Ronan, and Darius took Selene straight to their private chamber without a word to anyone else. The door locked. The moment it did, the last of their restraint dropped.

Ronan reached her first. He backed her against the wall and kissed her like he had been holding back for hours. Blood still streaked his skin and hers, but neither of them cared. Kael pulled the torn fighting leathers from her body with precise, impatient hands. Darius dropped to his knees, dragged her pants down, and put his mouth between her thighs without warning.

Selene’s head hit the wall. A broken sound left her throat as Darius’s tongue dragged through her folds, already wet from the constant low-level claiming that had followed her through the entire hunt. Ronan’s mouth stayed on hers. Kael’s hands cupped her breasts, thumbs circling, pinching, competing for every reaction.

They moved her to the bed in a tangle of limbs and urgency.

Ronan lay back and pulled her over him. She sank down onto his c**k in one smooth motion, the stretch dragging a moan from both of them. Kael knelt beside the bed, guiding her face to him so she could take him into her mouth while she rode. Darius stayed behind her, chest pressed to her back, fingers working her c**t in tight, perfect circles.

The competition was sharper tonight.

Every time Ronan thrust up and made her gasp, Kael pushed deeper into her mouth. Every time Kael groaned, Darius stroked faster and bit down on the side of her neck. They watched each other. They watched her. They adjusted every touch to pull stronger sounds from her than the last man had managed.

Selene came hard on Ronan’s c**k, shaking, muffled cries vibrating around Kael. Ronan followed almost immediately, gripping her hips and pouring into her with a low, possessive snarl. Before she could recover, Kael lifted her off him and settled her onto his own lap. He entered her in one controlled thrust and began moving with deep, steady strokes, eyes locked on hers.

Darius and Ronan never stopped touching her. One kissed her open mouth. The other sucked marks into her breasts and shoulders. When Kael made her come a second time, he followed right after, burying himself deep and holding her through it.

Darius took her last.

He flipped her onto her hands and knees, gripped her hips, and thrust into her hard enough to rock the bed. Kael and Ronan stretched out on either side, hands and mouths everywhere—stroking her c**t, pinching her n*****s, kissing her through every broken sound. The three of them worked her together until she shattered a third time, arms giving out, face pressed into the furs.

Darius finished with a rough curse, collapsing over her back for a moment before rolling them both to the side.

They lay in a heavy, satisfied tangle, Selene in the center, thoroughly claimed and marked once again. The scent of the three Alphas covered every inch of her skin.

Kael’s fingers traced the place where her old rejection mark used to burn. It was almost gone now.

“Marcus is dead. But he already gave Thorne everything he needed.”

Ronan’s arm tightened around her waist. “Then we make Thorne pay for every name on that list.”

Darius pressed a slow kiss to the back of her neck, golden eyes still dark with leftover hunger. “And every time they come for you, we bring you back here and remind the entire territory who you belong to.”

Selene closed her eyes, body warm and heavy between them. The traitor was gone. The war was only growing. But here, surrounded by three ruthless Alphas who still competed for every one of her reactions, she had never felt more certain of her place.

Outside, the fortress prepared for the next assault.

Inside, the only war that mattered for the rest of the night was the quiet, relentless fight for her attention—and she was winning it simply by existing.