Selene almost hoped he’d say yes and let her go, but he smirked and shook his head.

“No, our blood is stronger. She’ll be fine. But she will be the most powerful offering we’ve ever had.” His mouth went wide across his face, and Selene blew out a breath. The coldness subsided, the heavy ache being flushed out with a warmth that she knew was their blood. She pushed back from Ethan and glared.

“I have no shadows,” she snapped, feeling somehow violated, but the alphas ignored her. Cole looked up at the moon and cursed. “We’re running late. We need to finalize the branding,” he warned, clearly the more serious alpha of the three.

Selene flinched at the idea of branding. She had to brand the cows at the last calving for the year, and the burned flesh smell had made me vomit. She wasn’t cut out for farming. She stuck to the wineries, squishing the grapes, taste testing, bottling. There was something therapeutic about it, but she didn’t have time to think about that now.

She had to prepare for a brand she didn’t want. Ethan nodded, and his fangs dropped. Selene gasped as the other girls took steps back. The other two dropped their fangs. Two elongated canines on the top, two on the bottom, their other teeth looking sharper.

Their eyes went red, and Selene realized what they were doing. “You’re going to bite us?”

She shuddered. Ethan nodded. “The bite of your alpha,” he said, walking forward as the others claimed their offerings.

The girls’ screams made selene jump, piercing the room, echoing, bouncing off the walls, and she knew that’s what she had heard through the door.

She glanced over at them, Cole and Zachary tearing through their clothes to get to their hip. Cole sank his fangs in first. Then Zachary. The girls sobbed, screaming, and I backed up from Ethan. She hated pain.

“No point in running, Selene.”

“She can’t help it. She don’t want it to hurt,” she admitted, not ashamed of her aversion to pain.

He hesitated, then a smirk crept across his face. “It doesn’t have to hurt,” he offered, and she raised a brow.

“Selene have a feeling I am going to regret this, but what do you mean?”

He backed her up against the wall, his finger running up her thigh, slipping under her silk nightie, brushing my hipbone.

“We put the bite here so it is not visible to others, keeps the secret, and can be easily covered. But there are other places to put it that aren’t so painful,” he breathed, leaning closer as she swallowed a stuck breath.

“Like where?” Selene asked, sucking in a breath when he lowered himself down her body, his face in front of her p*ssy.

He lifted the silk, revealing her damp lace panties. He gave a growl of approval before leaning in.

Selene gasped as his warm breath teased me, his lips brushing along her thigh before pressing them against the hot skin on the inner of it.

She almost moaned at the feeling. She clutched the pillar of the wall she leaned against. His fingertips brushed along her outer thigh as he kissed the inner again, his fangs scraping lightly. He tapped the spot he had kissed, then looked up at her.

“If I bite you here, your husband might not appreciate it when he chooses you tomorrow, but it will feel like I just s*ck*d your cl*t.”

He grinned, and selene's eyes fluttered closed. She didn’t care about my ceremony tomorrow, it was tomorrow’s problem. She wanted less pain tonight, so she nodded, meeting his eyes.

“Do it,” she breathed, and he grinned, kissing the flesh under her p*ssy with tender lips before he opened his mouth and latched on to the skin.

Selene cried out as his fangs pierced the skin, sinking into flesh. But holy f*ck, she almost came. Her knees shook to hold her up as blinding pleasure tore through her. She moaned as his fingers teased her through her panties, the lace scratching her folds as his tongue caressed the skin of my thigh. Selene whimpered as her body demanded more, but he pulled away.

She looked down at him as he licked over the wound, sealing it enough to stop the bleeding, before kissing the red marks that were left, the ones that were going to scar. Selene shuddered against him. She didn’t care, that was worth it.

If her future husband cared then he could go f*ck himself, she will still choose the same fate. Ethan stood up, his eyes hooded with lust, and something twisted inside me. Like she could feel his body with hers, his lust was mine, his desire was mine. It was too much. She stepped into him as he growled and gripped the back of my head, fisting her hair before yanking her to his mouth. He almost made it too when cole roared.

“Ethan!”

Ethan froze as Cole and Zachary pulled him away. Ethan fought them as Selene stepped toward him. It took both of them to stop his feral need that she felt in me.

Cole spun Ethan to him as Zachary stood between selene and him. She frowned as she felt fear flicker in her. Not mine. It was Cole's and Zachary.

“We’ve got to follow the rules, Ethan.” Cole tried to break through to the alpha as Zachary's eyes snapped to selene's. She stepped back as he came forward, his eyes wide. He sniffed all around her, lifting strands of my hair as selene smacked his hand away. He stepped back, his eyes still wide as he turned to his brothers.

“We’ve got a problem, boys,” he warned, and selene hated the way he looked at her.Like it was my fault.

Ethan and Cole frowned, glancing between selene and Zachary. Selene held her arms around herself again as the other girls huddled, tears sticky on their faces as they held their brands.

“What now?” Cole snapped.

“Her shadows are whispering to her,” he said, his eyes going back in his head.

“She’s channeling us,” he said as if it meant anything to Selene .

“I’m not doing anything Selene said.”

Cole nodded. “Yes, you are, Spitfire, you just haven’t learned how to harness those shadows yet.”

“What shadows?”

“The winter shadows inside you. They’re part of you, and yours are fiercely loyal to you. Lucky for you.”

“How the hell is that lucky?” She snapped.

“Because if they weren’t, they would try to destroy all the good parts of you, and then we’d have to kill you before you destroyed us all.

“But that’s enough storytelling tonight, Spitfire. We have a ritual to complete before the sun comes up, and Ethan is going to ruin ancient traditions and take you on the dinner table if we don’t hurry the f*ck up. So, shall we eat?” he asked, as if he hadn’t.