Three marks, one mate

Forty four

Desiree’s POV

“Hello, my little Binder,” the voice rumbled through her lips. “Thank you for the bridge. It's so much easier to find you when you've already tied yourself to me.”

I instinctively shift back as I stared at Celine who now has her palms pressed against the bars like she wanted to jump out and get on me.

The thought alone made the hair in my body rise up.

“You have your mother's eyes,” the dual voice whispered, the deep, masculine resonane of Elias vibrating through the place. “but you have your father's hunger. I can feel it, Desiree. Hiding deep under that pretty Luna mask.”

“My father?” I breathed in a whisper as I suddenly started to be interested in his words. I knew nothing of him, only the stories of a rogue who had vanished before I was born with no f*****g trace of who took hostage of him, or whether he'd died somewhere.

Celine’s black-void eyes crinkled in a mockery smile as if looking through my daze. “The man who nearly tore the world apart before the Goddess caged him. Did they not tell you? A binder isn't just born of the Moon, she is tempered in the dark!”

A frown settled across my face and behind me, I heard Grayson's breath caught. “Desiree, don't try to listen to him! He's trying to get into your head! That's just his new tactics. To use someone as his bait to get you.”

But I couldn't look away.

“Elder Maeve thought she was so clever,” the voice continued, Celine's head tilting at an unnatural angle. “Using Wolfsbane to weaken a Queen. She didn't realize that poison is just food for someone like you. It didn't work because your darkness swallowed it while, didn't it?”

I had thought it was the Moon Goddess protecting me.

But what if it was something else?

“Get out of her!” I commanded, my voice cracking like a whip.

The pressure in the room spiked and a wave of heat rolled off me, smelling of ozone and forests. I reached out, my fingers tracing the inches from the bars. I didn't think, I simply felt for that violet thread. I wanted it to snap it. I wanted to cut him out of our lives.

“Careful, little bird,” Elias’s voice chuckled, sounding closer now, as if he were standing right behind my ear. “If you break this bond, you break her mind. Is that the kind of Luna you want to be? A murderer of souls? You want to end her?”

I hesitated, my hand trembling.

“She’s a traitor!” Zachary yelled, his voice strained as he fought the invisible barrier. “She sold us out, Desiree! Do it!”

“Is she a traitor, or is she just a girl who was told she was a Queen her whole life, only to find out she was nothing but a pawn?” Celine’s voice—her real voice—broke through for a second, high and terrified. “Desiree... please... it hurts...”

And now, I was left between two worlds that would be the end of nd.

If I embraced the power Hecate spoke of_ the power to unbind — I could save the pack from the sky. But Hecate’s warning echoed in my mind.

The thread works both ways.

If I reached for the thread to break it, I was giving Elias a direct path into my own soul.

“There is a fourth chair at the table, Desiree,” Elias whispered, “The Alphas give you protection. They give you love. But I? I can give you the world. I can give you the power to make everyone bow. No more challenges. No more Maeves. Just... peace. And who knows…I could help you with some information about your father….sure you'd love to know.” His voice trailed off with obvious mockery.

And just like that, a strange, seductive warmth began to curl in my stomach. It felt like the wolfsbane. For a moment, th dungeon didn't seem dark anymore. I could suddenly see the potential, I could see myself standing over Maeve, making her feel pain of everything she had done to me.

I could see the Rogue King at my side.

“Desiree, look at me!”

Brandon’s voice broke through the fog. I turned my head slightly. He had managed to force himself onto one knee, his face drenched in sweat, his hand reaching out for me.

“You aren't the darkness,” he wheezed, his eyes desperate. “You are ‘ours’. Look at the bond, Des. Look at ‘our’ bond.”

I shifted my vision.

There, wrapped around my heart, were three glowing, golden cords. They were thick, warm, and pulsed with the steady rhythm of their love.

Elias wasn't offering me a seat at a table; he was offering me a leash.

“I am not your bridge,” I snarled, turning back to the cell.

I didn't reach for the violet thread to break it. Instead, I reached for the golden cords of my mates. I pulled on them, drawing their strength into me, feeling the raw, Alpha power of Brandon, the tactical brilliance of Zachary, and the fierce loyalty of Grayson flowing into my veins.

The light in the room shifted from obsidian black to a brilliant, blinding white-gold.

“You want to see what a Binder can do?” I screamed.

I slammed my hands against the red-hot bars. The pain was so hard. I used the pain to ground myself, and then I did something Hecate hadn't mentioned.

I didn't unbind. I over-bound

Celine shrieked, her body arching off the floor as the black smoke poured out of her mouth, her eyes, and her ears. The dual voice turned into a roar of pains.

“You... little... brat!” Elias screamed, the sound fading as the connection began to dissolve under the light. “This isn't over! I am coming for what is mine!”

With a final, thunderous crack, the violet thread shattered into a million pieces of glass.

The pressure in the room vanished instantly.

Brandon, Grayson, and Zachary tumbled forward as the barrier dropped. I slumped against the bars, my hands shaking,, my breath coming in uncontrolled gasps.

In the cell, Celine collapsed, her eyes returning to their natural blue before they fluttered shut. She was unconscious, but the darkness was gone.

I felt a pair of strong arms catch me before I hit the floor. Brandon pulled me into his lap, his hands hovering over my burnt palms, his face filled with terror.

“I’ve got you,” he whispered, his voice shaking. “I’ve got you, Luna.”

Grayson and Zachary were there a second later, their hands on my shoulders, their scent wrapping around me like a shield.

“Is he gone?” I managed to ask, my head lolling against Brandon’s chest.

“For now,” Zachary said, his eyes fixed on the empty air where the shadow had been. He looked older, . “But Hecate was right. He knows exactly where we are. And he knows what you’re capable of.”

I had pushed him back. I had saved Celine from his possession.

But as I closed my eyes, I could still feel that fourth spot in my soul.

The bridge was gone, but the hole was still there. And I knew, deep down, that Elias wouldn't stop until he crossed it.

“We need to find the old woman,” I whispered, my voice fading as exhaustion finally claimed me. “We need to find out who my father was.”

Before the darkness took me, I heard a voice—not Elias’s, and not my mates’. It was a woman’s voice, faint and far away.

“The eclipse is coming, daughter. Prepare your heart.”