CLAIMED BY FIVE ALPHAS

Conclave

The freezing night air suddenly felt like it was on fire.

The five men who ruled this world were still frozen under the invisible force coming from my body. But this power was not something I could control. Like a dam that had just cracked, it had exploded on instinct to protect me, then faded as quickly as it had appeared.

The silver light on the back of my neck dimmed. The force crushing their bones vanished into thin air and in its place, my human body demanded its price.

It felt as if my lungs were being torn apart from the inside. My breath caught. My knees gave out, and the world spun violently around me. I fell, expecting to hit the frozen ground below. But I never touched the ground.

A pair of arms as solid as concrete caught my waist, pulling me close with a speed almost impossible for human eyes to follow. The scent of rain, blood, and pine hit my nose. I looked up, my eyes meeting a pair of golden ones burning wildly in the darkness.

Aurevian.

The war commander I had just forced to his knees. His jaw tightened, and the muscles in his neck tensed, but he did not let go of me. Instead of killing me for humiliating his pride, his grip on my back revealed something far more dangerous. A possessiveness that was barely under control.

We were so close that I could feel his heart pounding violently beneath his torn shirt. "Who the hell do you think you are?" Aurevian growled. His voice was rough, low, and trembling right against my lips.

I tried to push his chest away, even though my hands were shaking badly. "Let me go, monster."

Instead, Aurevian lowered his head, his hot breath brushing against my jaw. "A war commander never kneels, Seraphina. Not even before a god." His large, rough fingers traced my neck, stopping just above my racing pulse. "But tonight... you didn't just break my knees. You broke my mind."

His eyes dropped hungrily to my lips before returning to mine with an intensity that left me unable to move. "You're no longer my prisoner. You're my downfall."

Before Aurevian could do anything else, a much larger, rougher hand grabbed the collar of his shirt and violently pulled him away from me.

Theron.

The wild monster from the west didn't care about politics or wounded pride. He immediately took Aurevian's place, pulling me against his scarred, bare chest.

His golden-red eyes did not look at me with anger. Instead, he stared at me with a fierce admiration that made my breath catch.

His calloused fingers touched the blood at the corner of my lips, gently wiping it away. The tenderness of his touch was completely at odds with his brutal appearance.

"They want to lock you inside a golden cage," Theron whispered. His voice sounded like distant thunder, and his eyes flashed wildly. "But what cage can hold a storm? You're not someone's pet, Seraphina. You're a predator."

"I'm not one of you," I hissed, fighting back the sobs choking me again. "I'm human."

Theron let out a rough laugh, dark and almost intoxicating. "You just brought five rulers to their knees with a single breath. If you're human, then starting tonight... we're the ones who belong on your leash."

"Step back, Morvayne. You're choking her."

Evren's voice cut through the air like a silver blade. The dark-blue-eyed aristocrat stepped closer. There was no deadly smile on his lips anymore. His elegant mask had completely fallen apart. Evren didn't pull me roughly like Theron or Aurevian. He stopped right in front of me, then slowly, very slowly, lowered himself onto one knee.

Not because of magic. Not because he was forced to.

He did it willingly.

Evren took my right hand. His incredibly cold fingers gently kissed the back of it, sending a strange electric shock through my skin.

"I always thought the highest power belonged to the one sitting on the throne," Evren whispered, looking up at me from below. The longing in his eyes made my chest tighten. "But I was wrong. The highest power is being willing to burn that throne to the ground just so you won't feel cold at night."

He stood up, his gaze holding mine until I could no longer look away. "You don't need my protection, Seraphina. It seems... I'm the one who needs your forgiveness."

The rough sound of a silver cane striking stone broke the silence. Vaelric stepped forward. His pale, calculating face now looked completely shaken. His perfectly styled hair had been messed up by the night wind.

The man who controlled the wealth of the entire world stared at me with a kind of desperation he had never known before. "I can buy every kingdom in Lunaria. I can buy loyalty, laws, and lives," Vaelric said. His voice was cold, but there was a tremor in it, as if his entire way of thinking had just fallen apart. His silver eyes seemed to look straight into my soul. "I've always put a price on everything. But tonight... looking at you made me realize that I'm completely broke when it comes to feelings. You're priceless. And that makes me want to lock you away somewhere no one else can ever see you."

Their words were intoxicating. They offered power, freedom, worship, and obsession all at once. It was poison served in a golden cup.

And I almost drank it.

Almost.

My attention shifted to the only man who had not approached me.

Azrien.

The executioner was still kneeling on the ground, several feet away from me. His silver dagger lay useless on the grass. His black hood had fallen back, revealing his dark hair covered in snow and his completely black eyes.

He looked at me with so much guilt that I felt as if I could reach out and touch it. I walked past him. Aurevian, Theron, Evren, and Vaelric let me through, as if they knew that my business with this shadowy man was not over yet. I stopped directly in front of Azrien. I looked down at the man who had just tried to stop my heart at my own father's request.

"You failed to kill me, Executioner," I said.

My voice was cold as ice, even though my heart was bleeding inside from the betrayal. Azrien did not look up at my face. His eyes remained fixed on the hem of my dress, stained with dirt and blood.

"Your death was the only task I gave myself to atone for my ancestors' sins," Azrien whispered.

His voice broke. The merciless man sounded so fragile. "I spent twenty-two years killing my own feelings just for this day."

He finally raised his head. His dark eyes were filled with tears, and the pain in them was almost unbearable. "But your blood... refused my blade, Seraphina. My wolf would rather die than tear your skin." Azrien leaned forward, pressing his forehead against the tip of my shoe in an act of complete surrender. "You refused to die by my hand... so in return, the rest of my life is yours to take. Use me as your shield, or use me as your sword. I belong to you."

My throat tightened. Tears began to fall again. The pull of these five bonds was starting to tear my mind apart. I was surrounded by five monsters willing to destroy the universe for me, yet they were also the reason my world had fallen apart.

Before I could answer Azrien, a piercing sound split the night sky. It did not come from the maze, it came from above us.

A war horn.

Its long, dark, terrifying call was so powerful that I felt it shake my ribs. The emotional silence between us shattered in a fraction of a second.

Azrien shot to his feet, his silver dagger back in his hand. Evren and Vaelric immediately turned their backs to me, taking defensive positions. On the other side, Aurevian and Theron let out savage growls as their muscles began to grow larger, their wolf forms taking over their bodies.

In the blink of an eye, the five Alphas who had just been fighting each other formed a tight defensive circle around me. There were no enemies between them anymore. Their instincts had taken over completely.

Protect the Mate.

"What is that?" I asked in panic, covering my ears as the sound of the horn made them ring. Aurevian turned his head slightly toward me. His eyes were filled with the fury of a real war.

"Your power just attracted the attention of the central authority, Seraphina," the war commander growled.

At the far end of the maze, the night fog parted, revealing hundreds, perhaps thousands, of silver torchlights marching in tight formation toward us. Their synchronized footsteps sounded like a deadly earthquake.

"The Silver Legion," Evren whispered, his eyes narrowing as he stared into the darkness.

"The Conclave's execution squad." He turned toward me. "They're here to take your life."