Avyaane’s POV

Everything went hazy and the world tilted in and out of focus as wave after wave ofshock and disbelief washed over me. And as the word that hadjust left Chad’s mouth soaked into my brain, I was gasping for breath in short, panicked gulps.

Mate.

No. No, this wasn’t real. Thishad been some twisted, cruel prank the Moon Goddess had played on me. It had to be.

I scrambled backward, my body vibrating fromwhat had just taken place. I turned to face the four of the brothers Chad, Logan, Killian, and Blair mylegs nearly wobbling beneath me. It awoke something fierce and primalin them, something deep and burning that slit their eyes.

Chad gripped my wrist tighter, the woodsy tips of his nails digging into myskin, seemingly terrified that he would blink and find me gone. Kept insulated from this revelation, his lips parted inshock.

“You’re my mate?” His voice was hoarse, frayed withdisbelief.

I swallowed hard,fighting the nausea that rose from deep inside my stomach. I didn’t want this. I didn't want this. Not aftereverything they did to me.

Images from years past flickered through my mind the shame,the torture, the betrayals. I had suffered under their heel, andnow the universe was audacious enough to tie me to them?

A mirth asbitter as bile rose in my throat. “Youhave to be kidding,” I said, shaking my head. “This—this is a mistake. A nightmare.”

Killian cameforward, the red in his eyes drilling into mine. “The MoonGoddess doesn’t err, Avyaane,” he murmured, a hint of a smile tangling at the corner of his lips. “You belong to us now.”

“No,” I said, shaking, myvoice shaking.

Blair chuckled darkly. “Little wolf, you can deny it all youwant, but we felt it the instant before the clock struck midnight. You’re ours now.”

I shook my headviolently, fighting against the dizzy sensation creeping up and paralyzing me. I will not be theirs. I refuse.

I wrenched my arm free from Chad’s handsand took a step back. “ I don’t accept this,” Isaid under my breath.

Chad’s jaw clenched. He looked as if he were fighting himself, caught between his hatred for meand the persuasive lure of the mate bond.

“You don’t get to choose,” Logansaid finally, his voice low and laced with menace. “Fate has decided for you.”

Rage boiled inside me. “I don’t carewho fate decided is who! I screamed, balling my fists. “I wouldrather die than be tied to any of you!”

A somber silence fell betweenus. It was this thick atmosphere of tensionthat was suffocating me. This article has been suppressed for several reasons, but I would urge that you read it if you are not already familiar with my wolf stirring restlessly inside me, my skinprickling with awareness. Itshould not have looked like this on the first shift.

Chad took a step toward me, blueeyes darkening in the way I couldn’t call it. “Oh, youare not getting this, are you?” he said, his voice silk lacedwith steel. “We are not something thatcan be refused.”

Logan crossed his arms over his wide chest and cockedhis head. “If you reject us,you’re going to die. The bond is already settled. Your wolf should die without theseverance.”

My breath hitched. No. That wasn’t true… right?

Killian loomed over me, his breath fanningmy cheek. “And if you do survive, where willyou little mate go?” His fingers grazed my arm, and aworst fear crept up my spine. “Your father? He sold you. The pack? They’ve never cared for you. You have no one.”

A lump formed in my throat. I wanted to scream, to battle and, but what I don’t have to tell you is a part of me knew they wereright. I had nowhere to go.

But that didn’t meanI was going to give up.

I lifted my chin defiantly. “I’d rather take the risk than be yourprisoner.”

Blair whistled lowly. “Feisty. I like that.”

Chad let out a sharp breath, running a handthrough his hair. I could see the battle in his eyes, the war thatraged inside of him. He didn’t want me. Not after what he hadconcluded about me. But the mate bond was already sinking its claws into him,just as it was me.

“We will giveyou time,” he finally said, his voice straining with restraint. “But don’t getit twisted, Avyaane. You will submit. One way or another.”

Iswallowed, my heart banging against my ribs.

This wasn’t over.

Not by a long shot.

Chad’s POV

I watched her tremble, her green eyesstaring wide with fear and defiance. (There was a storm raging inside of her, and I knew it because Ifelt it within myself too.)

The mate bond was merciless. Ihad hated Avyaane for years, had told myself that she was nothing, that she was a liar, that she was a whore. But now the universehad knitted her to me. To us.

A cruel twist of fate.

I turned away, my fists clenchingso hard my knuckles turned white. “Bring her tothe castle,” I commanded in a frosty tone. “She’s not leaving.”

Logan laughed andleaned in, snatching Avyaane’s wrist before she could bolt. When he drew her to him, she made a small surprisedsound.

“You heard him, little wolf,” Logan said, the word tearing fromhim like a gasp as his mouth skimmed the shield of her ear. “Time to go home.”

She struggled, her eyesfierce with rage. “Let me go!”

Killian chuckled darkly. “That’s cute,” he mused. “She still thinks she has asay in it.”

Blair simply sighed. “This is going to be fun.”

I could not let my eyesrest on her any longer. If I did,I didn’t know what I would do.

Itwas a sickly bond, poisoning me, making me long for that which I shouldn’t, that which would prove so unattainable.

Her.

This wasn’t over.

Not for her.

And certainly not for me.

Avyaane’s POV

The castle loomed beforeme an apparition against the rolling lands; its high walls became my new fate, rising with each step I took. The mate bond had tethered me to my most terrifying fears, and now I wasbeing dragged into their world a world in which I had no power, no voice and no way out.

Logan grippedmy wrist tighter and pulled me in. Thefront entry hall gleamed with golden light, the chandeliers dripping crystals, the air thick with sandalwood and burning firewood. It was beautiful beautiful enough forsomeone like me.

I had no place here.

And yet, here I was.

Chadstrode in front, military-erect, jaw tightening the irritating way it did when he was trying to hold it all together. That I wanted to scream at him and hit him in the faceuntil he experienced just one, little piece of the hell I was sloshing around in.

But I held my tongue.

For now.

The moment we walked into the grand hall, we veered left down a dark, shadycorridor, walls covered with abstract portraits of past alphas. It smelled ofantiquity, of history and might.

Coolly Logan stopped and swung opena heavy oak door. “This is your room,” he told me, shoving me into it before I hada chance to protest.

I jerked forward, nearly falling on theshag carpeting. My throat seized in suspension while I took inthe space too grand, too elegant, too much. An enormous four-poster bed draped with velvet sheets, a fireplace cracklingin the corner, floor-to-ceiling windows peering out across the pack’s sprawling lands.

Ihad never seen something like that.”

But I wasnot so foolish as to take this for kindness.

As I turned around, Logan and Killian stood in the doorway, watching me like I was acaged animal.

Chad wasn’t there.

He had left without a word.

Good.

I didn’t want to seehis face.

“What do you want from me?” My throat sore, my voice wavering from the whirlwind of thepast few hours.

Logan was leaning against thedoorframe smirking. “For now? Stay put. We’ll see what we cando with you soon enough. ‘

Killian chuckled, his blood-orange eyesglimmering. “Take it easy, little wolf don’teven think about running off. From this moment you depart this castle, you will behunted. AndI swear we’re going to hunt you down.”

I clenched my fists. “I’m not a prisoner.”

Logan let out a low chuckle,his gaze sliding over me. “No, sweetheart. You’re worse. You’re ours.”

With that they spun ontheir heel and slammed the door behind them.

The lock clicked.

Trapped.

I gurgled hard, my body quaking as I droppeddown onto the bed. I hated this. Hated them. I hated that, nomatter how furious I was, the mate bond flicked like silver in my blood, murmuring things I didn’t want to hear.

I needed to get out.

But how?

Iwas looking out the window, spinning in my head.’ There had to be a way out of this nightmare before it consumed meentirely.

Chad’s POV

The moment I walked outof Avyaane’s room, I felt it.

The pull.

Thebludgeoning, insatiable urge to go back, to find her.

It made me sick.

I walkeddown the corridor like someone was clenching my fists. The castle passed tonight like a curse, air thickand poisonous. Thesmug glances of Logan and Killian only exacerbated it.

Her voicestill echoed in my head breathy with defiance, rage, pain.

She had cried that she’d ratherdie than be one of us.

And it wasn’t something that should have stung the wayit did.

She’s nothing.

She’s a liar.

She’s

My mate.

Like flame it was seethinginside my chest, the signal that ripped every barricade I had made to protect myself from her to pieces. The thoughtof some other man’s hands on her, of her peering into the sky and screaming for me to help her, twisted something black’ and tight in my insides.

She was mine.

Whether she liked it or not.

But I wasn’tgoing to grovel for her acceptance.

She’d sit on her own in front ofme.

And she walked out,never to come back.

Avyaane’s POV

I waited.

Hours passed, the moon rising amongthe trees. The castle was silent, thehallways dim.

I tiptoed and pressed myear to the door. Nothing.

They had left me alone.

Idiots.

They thought they had beaten me, that I was just going totake this as my fate.” Although, they woefullyundercut my assessment.

I wasn’t their prisoner.

And I was about to prove it.

Itiptoed to the window, my heart thrumming in my chest. It was high — too high — but there was a ledge, and if Icould just…

I opened it with tremblinghands. The cold night creeped inside, myskin prickled.

I took a deep breath.

This was it.

Freedom.

I scrambled up onto the ledge, where thewind whipped my hair around me. My wolf twisted inmy belly, hissing complaint in my head

, but I went on.

I wasn’t staying here.

I took one finallook at the castle and steeled myself.

And then I jumped.