The days blurred into a haze of secret touches and stolen glances since that moonlit night in the forest. The mate bond thrummed between us like a living pulse, binding me to Thorne, Kasai, and Riven in ways that defied the pack's rigid codes.
I felt it in every fiber, their scents lingering on my skin, their growls echoing in my dreams. My body had changed too; the omega heat that once simmered now glowed from within, a radiant allure that turned heads wherever I went in Blackwood Manor.
The pack noticed. How could they not? During communal meals in the great hall, betas and lesser alphas alike would stare, their nostrils flaring as they caught whiffs of my enhanced pheromones, sweet and fertile, like wildflowers after rain.
One evening, during a strategy meeting Elias called to discu
