Chapter 51: Alpha Trifecta, Celeste Objecta

Three Alpha-blooded men locked onto the same target like horny heat-seeking missiles and not one of them noticed the other two idiots doing the exact same thing.

Two were brothers and didn’t so much as glance at one another. The third was farther across the clearing and nearly shifted on the spot, before moving at Alpha speed.

They reached her at the same time. Of course they did. Chests heaving. Wolf-gold eyes. It was only then that they noticed each other.

Nobody said a word. Nobody so much as breathed wrong. It was wolf silence, the kind reserved for once-in-a-generation entertainment. The people streaming from home were having the night of their lives. Popcorn sales across Helix had never been higher.

The white wolf at Nova’s side let out a whine. The sound was small and high and wrong in a way that made Nova’s skin prickle.

The golden wolves flanking each Alpha responded immediately, all three throwing their heads back and howling in unison. They didn’t touch the white wolf. They didn’t come closer. The howl was communicating on a frequency that transcended language, older than words, older than wolves, older than the fire itself, and every shifted and unshifted wolf in the clearing could translate it without trying.

Something was wrong.

All three of the men’s actual wolves surged again. Their eyes grew brighter, irises burning so hot the gold looked liquid, and Nova could see the glow reflecting off the wet ground beneath their boots.

Nova gasped.

Her knees buckled and she went down, one hand slamming over her chest as an excruciating pain tore through her body like someone had reached between her ribs and squeezed. She fought the urge to scream, her mouth open and pulling air that wouldn’t come, like her lungs had forgotten the mechanics of breathing.

She started to fall forward, knowing she was not going to catch herself, bracing for a puddle.

Before she fell flat, the Thunderfang who had given her his cloak moved. No hesitation.

His arm hooked around her waist and he lifted her off the ground in one motion, pulling her against his chest like the concept of watching her hit the dirt was physically impossible for him to allow.

"If this is how you ask to be held, I’m listening. Loudly." He looked down at her with an expression that was seventy percent smart-ass and thirty percent something he’d never admit to out loud.

Nova couldn’t respond. The silver on her wrists and ankles was burning. Her eyes were burning. She was cold but sweating, shaking in the arms of a man whose name she still didn’t know, and she didn’t understand what was happening to her body.

Immediately, the other two Alphas’ wolves surged so hard that the clearing flinched.

"Drop her, Thunderfang." The Emberclaw Alpha’s voice came out layered, half man, half something deeper, and his jaw was so tight the words had to fight their way through his teeth.

"Now, Derek." The other Thunderfang brother stepped forward with his suit glowing bright enough to turn the rain-puddles gold, and the command in his voice carried the weight of an Alpha.

Derek gave them both a look that communicated exactly how many flying fucks he gave.

"Two of the most powerful Alphas on the continent are yelling at me in the rain and I still don’t care. Someone write that down. I want it framed."

Maverick’s growl deepened. "I said put her down."

"And I said no during this very circular conversation," Derek replied. "Christ, both of your deliveries need work."

"Derek. We both asked nice," the other Thunderfang said.

"If I drop her, she collapses in a puddle. And she likes being held by me. Don’t you, honey?" He glanced down at Nova, whose eyes were currently shut because she was trying to breathe through the pain wracking her body. "That’s slave for ’don’t you dare put me down.’"

"This isn’t funny, Derek."

"It’s a little funny."

"ALPHAS." An elder’s voice cut across the clearing. "THIS IS SACRED GROUND. Put 7709 back on the ground, Thunderfang, per Moonfire protocol."

Derek Thunderfang didn’t move.

Before he could deliver whatever smart-ass response was loading behind his teeth, the white wolf intervened.

It dissolved into light and moved into Nova like water into dry earth, absorbed through her skin in a pulse that was visible to every wolf watching. The pain dimmed immediately, not gone but quieter, and her breathing steadied enough that she could feel her own heartbeat again.

The three golden wolves howled once more, long and mournful and final, then turned and ran back into the fire.

The flame swallowed them without ceremony. Then the fire itself collapsed, shrinking from its towering white column down to a regular campfire, orange and crackling, no longer white, no longer divine, no longer anything other than wood and heat and the faint smell of ash.

Celeste Starborne’s composure exited her body through her face.

"THREE ALPHAS. The Goddess scanned the whole clearing and handed a SLAVE the jackpot. I’m a STARBORNE. My ancestors built the protocols this ceremony runs on. Three of them. For a girl in silver who can’t even shift." She whipped toward the elders. "Please tell me someone else sees this bullshit glowing in neon."

The elder panel didn’t need to be asked twice. One of them was already standing before Celeste finished the sentence, like he’d been sitting on the words and she’d just given him permission to say them.

"The princess is correct. There has been a mistake. None of you are fated to this girl. She has no wolf. A matebond requires two wolves and she has zero, which means whatever you are feeling is the result of interference."

He paused. The wind picked up.

"This slave tested in the 99th percentile of intelligence. She has demonstrated abilities tonight that are consistent with dark manipulation of the sacred flame. It would be a logical conclusion that every pairing made after her arrival is compromised." He swept his hand across the clearing. "Every wolf here who believes they found a fated mate tonight is operating under the influence of whatever this girl has done. None of these matebonds are legitimate."

Growls answered him immediately, rumbling under ribs across the clearing, the three Alphas included.