Three marks, one mate

43

Desiree’s POV

I could hear the heavy thud of the dungeon doors closing from the hallway as we walked into the Alpha's private wing.

Celine was gone, her screams for mercy directed entirely at Brandon had faded into a deep silence now, but the air in the room was still filled with tension that made my wolf pace restlessly.

I stood by the window, my fingers tracing the stone of the sill. It felt different tonight.

“You're shaking,” Grayson murmured.

I hadn't even realized he had moved until his warmth settled behind me. His warmth was like a balm, usually grounding my presence and nerves. But even his touch today, couldn't put a stop to the storm Zelda had started and the old woman, their mother intensified.

“I'm fine,” I lied, my voice sounding thin even to my own ears.

“You aren't,” Brandon countered from across the room. He was leaning against his desk, his jaw set so tight that I could see the muscle leaping in his cheek. His gaze was fixed on the woman sitting in the armchair, the woman who had abandoned them.

Avery stood near the door, her arms wrapped tightly around herself, her expression a painful mosaic of longing and betrayal, somehow. She hadn't moved toward her mother since we entered. It was as if she was afraid that if she got too close, everything was going to dissolve.

“You have questions,” the woman started, her voice entirely unapologetic.

“Questions?” Zachary's laugh came through. He was pacing the length of the rug with rage. “Mother, we have a lifetime of questions. You left us to lead a pack in the middle of a brewing war. You left Avery when she needed a mother. You left me searching for ghosts for years.”

He stopped in front of her, his chest heaving. “and now you show up, calling my mate a ‘Moon-Born’ and claiming you've been lurking in the shadows? Where were those shadows when the Rogue king started gathering his army?”

The woman, whom they called Hecate, didn't react immediately. She simply looked up at her son with sadness. “I was where I had to be, Zachary,” she said quietly. “To stay neat you was to draw the darkness to you before you were ready to face it. The prophecy required the Moon -born to be found by her own light, not by my interference.”

She turned her gaze back to me, and I felt.yjat same electric jolt, a pulling sensation in my navel that made me want to either kneel or run.

“Desiree,” she said, my name sounding like a prayer and a curse all at once. “Come here.”

Brandon stiffened beside the desk, and Grayson's hand tightened slightly in my waist, their protective instincts flaring up. It was clear that they didn't trust her. To them, she was the mother who left; to me, she was the only one who held the map to the maze I was currently trapped in.

“It’s okay,” I whispered, stepping out of Grayson’s hold.

I walked toward her, my heart hammering against my breastbone. As I sat on the ottoman facing her, the scent of white sage and ozone filled my lungs. Up close, she didn't look like a rogue or a wandered. She looked like a piece of the moon that had fallen to earth and forgotten how to get back.

Or was she ?

“Zelda told me I am a ‘maker of bonds’,” I started, my voice gaining strength as the need for answers overrode my fear. “She said I bound Elias to Celine. I didn’t mean to. I just... I thought it. I wished it.”

Hecate reached out, her skin papery and warm as she took my hands in hers. The moment our skin met, the room vanished.

For a heartbeat, I wasn't in the office, I was standing in a clean, silver sea under a sky filled with a thousand moons. With golden threads, like sunlight, spreading out from my fingers and weaving into the darkness, connecting points of light I couldn't see.

“A wish from a Moon-Born is not a mere thought, child,” her voice echoed in the void. “It is a command to the universe. You are the vessel of the Goddess’s will. The original architects of our kind were not Alphas or Lunas—they were the Bindings. Those who decided who belonged to whom. Those who ensured the bloodlines remained pure and the power remained balanced.”

The vision snapped back to the office, leaving me gasping for air. I slumped forward, my forehead nearly touching her knees as the weight of the revelation crashed down on me.

“I am a Binder?” I whispered.

“The first in three centuries,” Hecate confirmed. “And the most powerful. Because you were born under a blood eclipse—a moment when the moon and the earth are in perfect, violent alignment.”

“Is that why Elias wants her?” Grayson’s voice was filled with growl. He had moved to stand directly behind me, his hands resting on my shoulders as if to anchor me to the earth. “To use her to bind his enemies? To force loyalty?”

“He wants more than that,” Hecate said, her expression darkening. “He doesn't just want to bind followers. He wants to unbind the world. He believes that if he can control the Moon-Born, he can sever the existing mate bonds of every Alpha in the territories, leaving them broken, weakened, and soulless. He wants to rewrite the laws of the Goddess in his own image.”

A sickening realization washed over me. The pain I had felt in my chest earlier—the searing heat when I went to the door—it wasn't just a physical reaction.

“He’s trying to reach me now, isn't he?” I asked, looking at Hecate. “That pain... it felt like a hook.”

“He has the other end of the thread,” she said grimly. “Because you touched his soul when you bound him to Celine. You created a bridge, Desiree. And he is a King who knows how to walk across bridges.”

“Then we burn the bridge,” Brandon said, stepping forward, his eyes glowing a fierce, golden amber. “We kill him before he gets anywhere near this pack.”

“You cannot kill what you cannot find,” Hecate reminded him sharply. “And right now, he is everywhere. He is in the whispers of your elders, he is in the shadows of your borders, and he is in the heart of that girl in your dungeon.”

Avery finally spoke, her voice cracked and small. “Celine... she said she wanted to be friends. She wanted to take Desiree out tonight.”

“To the Blackwood Ridge,” Hecate said. “Where the ley lines are thinnest. Where Elias is waiting with a ritual that would have turned our Luna into a puppet by dawn.”

Silence fell over the room, heavy and terrifying. I looked at my mates—three powerful, capable men who would die to protect me—and I realized that for the first time, their strength wouldn't be enough. This was a war of spirits, of threads, of things that couldn't be fought with claws and teeth.

“What do I do?” I asked, my voice trembling. “How do I stop him from using the bridge?”

Hecate gripped my hands tighter, her eyes boring into mine with a fierce, maternal light. “You must learn to pull the threads back, Desiree. You must go into the dungeon, and you must face the woman you bound to him. You have to see the bond you created, understand its texture, and learn how to guard your own end of it.”

“No,” Zachary interrupted, his face pale. “She’s not going down there. Celine is unstable, and Elias is practically in her head.”

“She has to,” I said, standing up. I felt a strange, cold calm settling over me. The fear was still there, but under it was a budding sense of purpose. “If I am the one who opened the door, I am the only one who can lock it.”

I looked at Brandon, Grayson, and Zachary. Their bond with me was making loud thrumming.

“I need to see her,” I said firmly. “I need to see what I’ve done.”

Brandon studied me for a long moment, searching for any sign of hesitation. When he found none, he nodded slowly. “We go together. We stay outside the cell, but we don't leave your side.”

“Beta Kyle!” Brandon barked toward the door.

The door opened instantly. “Yes, Alpha?”

“Prepare the interrogation room. We’re moving Celine to the high-security block. The Luna needs to speak with her.”

As we began to move toward the door, Hecate stood up, her long, tattered cloak billowing behind her. “Wait,” she called out.

She walked over to Avery, who was still standing by the door. For a moment, time seemed to stop as the two women—mother and daughter—stared at each other. Hecate reached out, her hand trembling slightly as she tucked a loose strand of hair behind Avery’s ear.

“I didn't leave because I didn't love you,” she whispered, so softly I almost missed it. “I left so you could grow strong enough to be her shield. And look at you... you are magnificent.”

Avery’s eyes flooded with tears, and she let out a choked sob, falling into her mother’s arms. It was a brief reunion, a second of peace in the middle of a gathering storm.

Hecate looked over Avery’s shoulder at me, her expression turning deadly serious once more.

“Be careful, Desiree. When you look into a bond, remember one thing: the thread works both ways. If you can see into Celine’s heart, Elias can see into yours. Do not let him find the things you love most.”

I nodded, my heart heavy. I thought of the laughter, the music, and the way Brandon’s hand felt in mine. I thought of the pack I had promised to protect.

I turned and walked out of the room, my mates flanking me like the shield I needed most.

The more we walking into the dungeon, the more I felt like I was walking into the throat of a Beasty form. I could feel goosebumps all around me, until we reached the heavy bars of the high- security wing.

Celine was already there.

She wasn't screaming anymore. She was sitting on the floor in the center of the cell, her hair matted, her clothes torn from her struggle with Kyle. But it was her face that stopped me.

She was smiling.

A smirk that didn't quite belong to her and it was scary. “You’re late, Luna,” she whispered, her voice echoing with an unnatural, dual tone—her own high pitch layered with a deep, masculine resonance that made the hair on my arms stand up.

“Elias,” I breathed, the l.

Celine’s eyes snapped up to mine. They weren't blue anymore. They were a void of pitch black, swirling with silver sparks.

“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.”