Sorin
The last of the sunset bled orange and gold through the blinds, throwing warm stripes across my desk. Fitting, given the way my mind kept dragging me back to the memory it evoked—Aliana, impaled on my cock and bent over that same desk, the low light catching the sheen of sweat along her spine.
I exhaled slowly and forced my finger back to the guest list, tracing down the names one at a time.
Rev cleared his throat.
“What is it?” I asked, not bothering to look up.
My men had developed the unfortunate habit of treating every silence as a countdown to their own execution—as though a single misplaced word might have me reaching for a blade.
“Alpha King—”
My head snapped up at his tone. I didn’t like it. There was hesitation in it, the kind Rev rarely allowed himself.
“—the Luna Queen visited Marianne earlier,” he continued, each word measured like he was picking his way across broken glass.
I relaxed, some of the tension bleeding out of my shoulders. Everyone was so—
“They discussed a prophecy,” he said, bowing his head. “About you both. And your progeny.”
“Who listened?”
“Talon.”
I relaxed. He was loyal to the core.
“Continue.”
“We didn’t quite understand it, but your bond to your Queen is—different. Stronger. But then Marianne brought in a soothsayer.”
“Who?” I snapped, the word cracking out sharper than I intended.
“We don’t know. Someone outside our pack. Talon tailed her, but lost her trail.”
That seemed highly unlikely. He was the best hunter we had.
“Continue.”
“Uh—the woman said you’ll have triplets,” he murmured, glancing up as though bracing for impact.
Three pups, Malakh rejoiced. Three.
“Three daughters,” Rev continued.
I clutched my chest, the words hitting harder than any blade ever had.
Three daughters?
How—
Protect.
Three tiny pups.
Daughters.
“True Luna princesses.”
Luna.
“Over my dead fucking body. No one shall lay claim to my daughters,” I snarled, already scanning the desk for something to throw.
Paperweight.
He was too fast.
Malakh growled, low and vicious, fully awake now and baying for blood.
I gave chase.
Rev shouted for Talon and bolted from the office, boots skidding on the polished floor.
The piece of shit had left the door open.
He was still screaming for Talon when Malakh burst forth.
Bones cracked and reshaped themselves in the same breath, muscle twisting and stretching beneath skin that could no longer hold it.
My spine bowed, vertebrae popping into new alignment one after another, and my jaw unhinged with a wet, grinding pull as it lengthened into something built for tearing rather than speaking.
Clothes tore apart at the seams, fabric shredding as fur erupted through skin in a single violent ripple. All I needed was teeth.
He turned back and we launched onto him, taking him down, my mind consumed by the single image of someone—anyone—trying to take my girls from me.
“Alpha King. It was a good prophecy. Your daughters will change the world,” he cried, both hands braced against Malakh’s throat, straining to keep our snapping jaws from his face.
Then I felt her.
Our eyes flew to the staircase.
She was already running, and with four stairs left, she launched herself into the air.
I panicked and moved to catch her.
Her dress tore down the seams as she transformed mid-fall, the change ripping through her faster than I’d ever seen a shift happen—no hesitation, no gradual unfolding, just a blur of motion and sound.
Scraps of ivory silk floated down behind her like shed feathers.
Where a woman had been a heartbeat ago, a wolf landed instead—rich, dark grey fur rippling with the momentum of the fall, ears sharp and pointed, and eyes blazing the same blood-red as my own.
She circled us once, twice, unhurried despite the violence still coursing through my own body. We turned to track her, forgetting Rev entirely.
I was going to tell you. After dinner, she said, then paused, reconsidering. And after mating. Possibly as you were falling asleep.
Malakh growled—low this time, more rumble than threat.
Why was he spying on me anyway?
For your protection, I said, my voice hard and cold, though it lost some of its edge the longer she held our gaze.
Her head dipped low, and Zira pressed herself against our fur, warm and solid, before ducking beneath our jaw entirely.
Malakh went still and breathed her in—the true scent of her, animal and unfiltered, reaching us for the first time.
Something in my chest, in whatever part of me was still capable of rational thought, settled.
Triplets, I said, resigned.
There was no point continuing the conversation.
Malakh had already abandoned every scrap of dignity, tail high, fully given over to Zira as the two of them tore off together, racing circles through the foyer before bolting for the open door.
We flew past Rev, Talon, and Jax in a blur of fur and displaced air.
The fury started to climb in me again—thoughts of daughters, of threats, of Rev’s terrified face—but Zira peeled back from her run and drove her head into my side, hard enough to stagger me, like she meant to knock the anger clean out of my skull.
Beneath it all, sorrow filled my heart. Alphas would come, one day, and take my babies away. True Lunas—claimed by other packs, other men, carried off to build bonds of their own the same way I’d carried Aliana off from Silvermere.
Malakh whined, the sound low and helpless, nothing like the roar that had chased Rev through the compound minutes ago.
Zira came in close, pressing her weight against us until there was no space left between grief and comfort.
If anyone harms our daughters, I will tear their heads clean off their bodies, our mate growled at us.
I could breathe again.
Of course. We could just eliminate them all.
Yes.
Let’s run, I growled.
Grass and soil flew into the air as Zira took off, powerful hindquarters driving her forward in long, ground-eating strides. Officers and the gardener scattered to clear the way, flattening themselves against hedges and fences as she tore past.
I gave our mate a few seconds’ lead—enough to watch the dark grey blur of her weaving between the trees—before I howled our intention to the whole compound and burst into a sprint after her.