Aria POV
My hands wouldn't stop shaking as I stood at the edge of the ceremonial clearing.
The full moon hung overhead like a spotlight, illuminating hundreds of wolves in their finest clothes. Music played. People laughed and chatted, excited for the Mating Ceremony—the most important night of any wolf's life.
I clutched my patched blue dress tighter, suddenly aware of how wrong I looked. Everyone else sparkled in silk and jewelry. I looked like I'd crawled out of a garbage bin.
"Maybe I should go," I whispered to myself.
But then I saw Damien near the platform, and my heart did that stupid flutter thing it always did. He looked so handsome tonight. So perfect.
He'd choose me. He'd promised.
"Move, orphan." Someone shoved past me, nearly knocking me over. A group of she-wolves giggled as they walked by, not even bothering to apologize.
I was used to it. Being invisible. Being nothing.
But tonight was different. Tonight, Damien would stand up in front of everyone and prove I was worth something. Worth loving.
Alpha Cedric's voice boomed across the clearing: "Welcome, Shadowmoon Pack! Tonight we gather under the moon's blessing to witness sacred mate bonds!"
The crowd cheered. My stomach twisted with nervous excitement.
"Let the ceremony begin!"
Couples started stepping forward one by one. Each pair walked to the platform, declared their choice, and kissed while the pack applauded.
Every declaration was beautiful. Romantic. Perfect.
My turn was coming. I could feel it.
I spotted Damien moving toward the platform, and my heart started racing. This was it. This was our moment.
I took a step forward—
Luna Victoria's hand clamped onto my arm like a vice.
"Where do you think you're going?" she hissed in my ear.
"Damien's about to—"
"Stay. Right. Here." Each word was punctuated with her nails digging into my skin. "You stay where you belong."
"But—"
"Silence." Victoria's smile was terrifying. "Just watch."
She shoved me forward—not toward the platform, but into the middle of the crowd where everyone could see me. I stumbled in my patched dress, suddenly visible to five hundred staring wolves.
Heat flooded my face. This was wrong. I was supposed to be on the platform with Damien, not standing here like—
"I, Damien Cross, have made my choice," Damien's voice rang out across the clearing.
My heart soared. Finally. He was going to call my name and everything would be okay and—
"I reject Aria Blackwood as my mate."
Time stopped.
The words didn't make sense. They couldn't be real. This had to be a nightmare, and any second I'd wake up and—
"She is wolfless, worthless, and beneath my station."
Each word was a knife stabbing into my chest. The pain was so sharp I couldn't breathe. Couldn't move. Couldn't think.
This wasn't happening. Damien loved me. He'd promised. He'd kissed me and sworn I was his forever and—
"I choose instead Scarlett Blackwood. My true mate."
Scarlett appeared on the platform in a beautiful white dress, looking like a princess. She threw her arms around Damien and kissed him.
The crowd exploded in applause and congratulations.
And I stood there, dying inside while everyone watched.
Someone laughed. Then another person. Then the whispers started:
"Did she really think he'd choose her?"
"Poor delusional girl."
"Wolfless freak actually believed she deserved a Beta."
The laughter grew louder. Crueler. It wrapped around me like chains, squeezing until I thought my ribs would crack.
I tried to move, but my legs wouldn't work. Tried to look away, but my eyes stayed locked on Damien kissing Scarlett like I'd never existed.
Luna Victoria appeared beside me, her voice dripping with fake sympathy. "Oh dear. You actually believed he cared about you. How embarrassing."
Something inside me shattered. Not just my heart—something deeper. Something that had been holding me together through nineteen years of abuse and pain and hoping for better.
I'd been so stupid. So pathetically, desperately stupid.
Damien had never loved me. He'd just been killing time with the pack's slave until something better came along. And I'd believed every lie because I'd wanted so badly for someone—anyone—to think I was worth loving.
Tears burned behind my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I wouldn't give these people that satisfaction. I wouldn't—
The temperature dropped so fast my breath turned to fog.
It happened in seconds. The warm summer night became winter. The torches flickering around the clearing went out one by one, plunging us into darkness lit only by moonlight.
The music stopped. The laughter died.
And every wolf in the clearing went completely silent.
Power pressed down on us—not normal Alpha power, but something ancient and crushing and absolutely terrifying. My knees wanted to buckle, but somehow I stayed standing while wolves all around me dropped to the ground.
Even Alpha Cedric fell to his knees.
Three massive shadows materialized from darkness that shouldn't exist. They moved like liquid night, forming into three of the most powerful, most dangerous, most beautiful males I'd ever seen.
Identical faces. Different eyes. Each one radiating enough power to level mountains.
The Moonshadow Triplets.
I'd heard stories about them my whole life. The Lycan King's sons. Warriors who'd destroyed rogue armies single-handedly. Princes so powerful that Alphas bowed before them.
What were they doing here?
The one in the center—with ice-blue eyes that could freeze your soul—looked directly at me. His expression was cold fury that made my blood turn to ice.
"ENOUGH," he said, and the single word cracked across the clearing like thunder.
Every wolf cowered except me. I was too numb to be afraid. Too broken to care if these terrifying Alphas killed me where I stood.
Maybe that would be better than living through this humiliation.
The Alpha with storm-gray eyes studied me with frightening intensity, like he was looking straight into my soul and seeing things I didn't know were there.
The one with amber eyes smiled, but it wasn't friendly. It was the smile of a predator who'd found something interesting.
Then the ice-eyed Alpha spoke again, his voice carrying across the silent clearing:
"That girl is Seraphina Moonshadow. The Lost Princess. Our sister."
The world tilted sideways.
Princess? Sister? That was impossible. I was Aria Blackwood. I was nobody. I was the orphan who scrubbed floors and took beatings and—
"She's also," the storm-eyed Alpha continued, never breaking eye contact with me, "our fated mate."
Three golden threads slammed into my chest—so sudden and overwhelming that I gasped. They wrapped around something deep inside me, connecting me to these three terrifying strangers in a way I didn't understand.
The mate bond.
Not just one bond. Three.
My brain couldn't process it. Couldn't handle the information that was being thrown at me. Princess. Sister. Mate. None of it made sense.
The amber-eyed Alpha stepped closer, his movements predatory and graceful. "Hello, little mate. We've been looking for you for a very long time."
His voice was gentle despite the danger radiating from him. Like he was trying not to scare a wounded animal.
Was I the wounded animal?
"I—" My voice came out broken. "I don't understand."
"You will." The ice-eyed Alpha's expression softened slightly. "We'll explain everything. But first—"
His gaze shifted to Damien, who'd gone pale as death on the platform. The temperature dropped even further, and ice actually started forming on the ground.
"—we're going to deal with the male who just publicly humiliated our mate."
The amber-eyed Alpha's smile turned deadly. "I vote we rip his throat out."
"Too quick," the storm-eyed one said calmly. "He should suffer first."
They were talking about killing Damien. Right here. Right now.
And part of me—the broken, shattered part that wanted someone to hurt as much as I hurt—didn't want to stop them.
But the ice-eyed Alpha held up his hand, silencing his brothers. His gaze found mine again, and something in his expression made my breath catch.
"What do you want us to do, little mate?" he asked softly. "He's yours to punish however you see fit."
Five hundred wolves stared at me, waiting.
Damien looked terrified.
Scarlett had gone white as snow.
Luna Victoria's expression was pure panic.
And I—broken, worthless, wolfless Aria—suddenly held the power of life and death over everyone who'd ever hurt me.
What did I want?