Days smear into routine—etiquette lessons, punishing dance drills, nightly prep, harem’s distant but palpable hatred for me—while my mind splits in three.
Nathan and Luca are fated to me—my wolf sings for them, a tugging thread I feel always. Ryder is different—no instant spark, but a slow burn that builds with every night in his chambers, every unguarded conversation.
The strain is tearing me thin.
I haven’t seen Nathan since the garden, though he ghosts my edges. Ryder summons me most evenings; we talk about ruling and everything between, but he dodges the curse.
I share my dreams and the ache of never being enough—and we both avoid the fact that my two fated mates are his closest friends.
Today, I'm walking through a secluded corridor after a particularly grueling dance practice when a familiar figure blocks my path.
Luca leans against the wall, that bright smile lighting his face like sunshine breaking through clouds. But there's something sharper beneath the charm today, something that makes my wolf immediately alert.
"Well, well," he says, voice carrying that playful tone that made me blush at the festival. "If it isn't the king's favorite. Been enjoying his royal company lately?"
My heart stutters in my chest. "Luca, what are you doing here?"
"Can't a man visit the palace without interrogation?" He tilts his head, studying me with those vivid green eyes that see too much. "Though I suppose I should be the one asking questions—how have you been enjoying your nightly visits with our dear king?"
The way he says 'our' makes my pulse race dangerously. "The king has been... kind."
"Kind," he repeats, still smiling, but something dangerous flickers in his eyes like lightning before a storm. "That's one word for it, I suppose. I can think of others. Intimate. Nightly. Exclusive."
"Luca—"
He pushes off the wall with fluid grace, moving toward me with the lazy confidence of a cat stalking prey. I step back instinctively, but he follows, matching each retreat with an advance. "Tell me something, Coralina. When he touches you, does your wolf sing the way she does for me? For Nathan?"
My back hits the cold stone wall. "That's not—"
"Because she does, doesn't she?"
He's close now, so close I can smell him—sunshine and amber, warm and inviting and absolutely intoxicating.
"I felt it that night at the festival. Nathan felt it. The mate bond, pulling us together like gravity itself, decided we belong."
"It's complicated," I whisper.
"Is it?" He places one hand on the wall beside my head, not quite caging me but making it clear I'm not going anywhere. "Because from where I'm standing, it seems beautifully simple. You're our mate. Ours. Mine and Nathan's. The Moon Goddess chose us for you, marked us as yours before we even met."
His free hand comes up, fingers ghosting along my jaw with feather-light touches that leave fire in their wake.
"So tell me, little moon," he murmurs, and the pet name sounds different on his lips than when Ryder uses it—darker, more possessive.
"Why are you warming another man's bed? Why do you go to someone who isn't fated to you when you have two mates waiting, aching for you?"
His fingers trail down my throat, barely there but somehow more intense than if he'd grabbed me. My pulse pounds beneath his touch, and I know he can feel it.
"I feel something for him too," I admit, the words tumbling out desperate and confused. "It's not the mate bond, but it's powerful. I don't know what it means or what to do."
"Then let me show you," his voice drops to something low and seductive that makes heat pool in my belly. "Let me remind you exactly what you are to me."
His mouth is on mine—skilled, precise, devastating. He kisses like he knows exactly how to take me apart, his tongue sliding against mine with practiced confidence. When I gasp, he swallows the sound with a wicked grin.
His hands map my body with precision, one sliding into my hair, the other gripping my hip hard enough to leave marks. He pulls me against him, and I feel how affected he is.
"Mine," he murmurs against my mouth, then trails down to my throat. His teeth scrape my pulse point, and when I whimper, he soothes it with his tongue before biting—not breaking skin, but enough to bruise. "This is what you do to me."
He works down my throat thoroughly, sucking marks into my skin. His hands are everywhere—gripping my hips with pressure that will leave fingerprints, tangling in my hair.
"Luca," I gasp when he finds that sensitive spot.
"Say it again," he commands, nipping there. "Say my name."
"Luca, please—"
He captures my mouth again, kissing until my lips feel swollen. "You're perfect," he whispers between kisses. "Beautiful. Mine. Ours. Fated by the Goddess herself."
When he pulls back, we're both breathing hard. I know I look wrecked—lips swollen, throat marked with darkening bruises. He looks at his handiwork with satisfaction before his expression shifts.
The playfulness drops away completely, and suddenly he's holding me with surprising tenderness, his forehead resting against mine.
"I'm trying," he admits, voice rough with emotion. "Nathan and I, we're trying so hard to understand this. Sharing you with each other is hard enough—we're twins, but we've never shared anything this important. But sharing you with someone who isn't even your mate?"
His voice cracks slightly. "It's killing me, Coralina. Every night you go to him, every morning you come back smelling like cedar instead of sunshine and pine—it's killing me."
"I don't know how to do this either," I whisper, my hands coming up to frame his face. "I never asked for three men in my dreams. Never expected this."
"But you feel it too, don't you? This connection between us?"
"Yes," I admit. "With you and Nathan, it's like my soul recognizes yours. Like I've been waiting my whole life to find you both."
"Then why?" His thumb traces one of the marks he left on my throat. "Why choose him?"
"I'm not choosing," I say desperately. "I don't want to choose. I just... I need time to understand what's happening."
He's quiet for a long moment, then nods slowly.
"Time," he repeats. "I can give you time. But Coralina..." He kisses me once more, soft and achingly tender. "I won't share you forever. Nathan and I are your mates. Eventually, you'll have to decide if that means something to you or not."
He steps back, taking his warmth with him, and I immediately miss it.
"I should go before someone finds us. But think about what I said. Think about what the Goddess intended when she bound us together."
Then he's gone, leaving me slumped against the wall with swollen lips, a marked throat, and even more confusion than before. I touch one of the bruises he left, feeling it throb beneath my fingers.
My wolf purrs at the visible marks, satisfied to carry proof of one mate's claim even as my heart pulls toward another man entirely.
How am I supposed to choose between destiny and whatever is growing between Ryder and me? And why does the thought of choosing at all feel like it would shatter something essential inside me? I don't know how to do this.