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CHAPTER 2
~Rhiannon's POV~
The first thing I noticed was the cold. Sharp, biting, and deep in my bones. The second was the wild scent that assailed my nostrils.
It was neither rot nor mould nor stone nor blood.
It was them.
The scent struck like a blow to the chest—feral, wild, heady.
Leather worn in battle. Crushed pine needles. Spice and smoke. Fresh steel. Sun-warmed skin after a run under the moon.
Five separate scents, potent, different, and all twisted together like a storm fighting for space in my lungs as if they were trying to prove something just by being near me.
My eyes flew open, and I shot upright too fast. The cold chain at my neck clinked against stone. My wrists were bound but loose enough to slip free if I wanted.
Perhaps, they weren't worried I'd run.
Smart because I wouldn't. Not yet.
I looked up finally to see all five of them in the room, standing there and watching me with curious eyes.
They looked carved out of the elements—too much power and danger, packed into one space.
I didn't know their names or their faces, but my bones and blood knew from their aura.
They were alpha born and the very kind I was taught to hate. A flicker of that ingrained aversion sparked within me, quickly overshadowed by something far more primal.
Their presence pressed down on me like gravity, and somehow, I recognized each of their voices before they even spoke.
The one in the centre stood like a storm ready to break—tall, steady, arms crossed, glacial blue eyes locked on me. Raven-black hair tousled over his forehead as dark clothes hugged a body built for war.
His silence weighed heavier than chains. He didn't blink. He didn't look away. His stare pinned me in place as he silently controlled the room.
To his left, another, leaner, sharper, golden blonde hair that seemed to capture the sunlight. Ice-blue eyes bore into me with the focus of a blade poised to strike. Tension rippled off him, ready to move at a heartbeat's notice.
Against the far wall lounged the wild one, all careless and in mischief. Reddish-blond hair messy, dagger spinning between his fingers, crystal-blue eyes glinting with something reckless, hungry and a face too handsome to trust.
Near the stone archway, shadowed and still, stood another. Brown hair which shone the faintest burgundy sheen when he shifted in the low light. Hazel-green eyes flickering, calculating, watching everything at once.
My gaze darted to the one furthest back—the tallest, the broadest. His red hair burned like firelight, emerald-green eyes raw with emotion he couldn't hide.
He vibrated with unspent energy, like he was seconds away from shattering and rushing toward me.
I didn't know their names or their intentions. As soon as I took in their appearance, the way their intense eyes stared at me, their scents collided again, crashing into the air.
Something inside me cracked.
My head snapped back as heat bloomed under my skin. My spine bowed. Fire surged through my veins.
Not a full shift—no claws, no fur—but my wolf rose from exile.
"Finally," she growled inside me. "Finally, you let me breathe."
My mind raced back to the day I first heard her speak and how she introduced herself—the day I had wolfed out first. It wasn't on my eighteenth birthday, like most, but on my sixteenth.
My father had always said I was a blessed child, which was why, when she spoke, I felt a chill run down my spine.
"My name is Ravyn. And I don't bow."
Ravyn didn't ask for permission, not after she had been shunned all those years. She took over, and in that moment, I felt it, the bonds snapping into place at once. The inherent, undeniable connection of the mate bond, something my father had warned me against, flared to life.
Bonds snapped into place so fast it stole my breath.
Five cords, five pulses, syncing into one unbearable rhythm.
"Mate. Mate. Mate. Mate. Mate."
"No," I gasped, stumbling back against the wall. "No, that's not—"
"It's real," Ravyn crooned triumphantly. "You've been starving us. They're the feast. And I want every bite."
I bit my cheek hard enough to bleed.
Across the room, the jittery redhead stepped forward. "What's happening to her?" he demanded.
"She's syncing," the golden-haired fighter said coolly, as if my world wasn't collapsing. "Her wolf's waking up."
The blond snarled under his breath. "I can smell it—her scent. It's not normal."
"She's not normal," the dagger-spinner murmured, grinning without humour. His dagger froze mid-spin, but his focus didn't.
The black-haired leader—the one who hadn't spoken yet—stepped forward. I flinched instinctively.
The air stretched taut between us, pulling, crackling, and tearing at my defences.
"Kael?" the emerald-eyed one called out.
My entire body recoiled, not out of fear, but from sensation as Sparks erupted beneath my skin. "Get away from me," I rasped hoarsely.
"Liar," Ravyn purred triumphantly. "We want them closer."
A harsh gasp tore from my lungs, making Kael halt mid-step, frowning. "Are you—" he started.
"Don't talk to me!" I snapped, more panic than anger.
Silence slammed down.
The one with burgundy-brown hair cocked his head, amused.
"We?" he corrected quietly. "Or do you mean your wolf, mate?" The word resonated with a weight that made my stomach clench.
Around me, I felt it.
Possessiveness. Hunger. Restraint. The primal urges of five alpha wolves, suddenly tethered to me.
They wanted to move toward me.
They wanted to touch. To claim. To tear each other apart for the right to stand nearest.
But they held back.
Barely.
The tension thickened like a brewing storm.
I saw it in their eyes—the struggle not to give in, not to lunge, not to lose themselves to the bond already sparking in the air.
And then it came—their thoughts, crashing into me like a tidal wave.
"She's mine."
"The Moon Goddess must love us to bless us so well."
"This changes everything."
"If the others touch her, I'll kill them."
"This is the moment I dreamed. She's the one."
I shook, chest heaving.
They weren't just voices in my head.
They were real.
And somewhere in the tangled storm of their emotions, Ravyn whispered smugly:
"The Moon Goddess really must love me—for she gave me five rewards."
I barely held onto myself as the world shifted beneath my feet.
Kael's voice finally broke the silence—low, dangerous, absolute:
"Chain her properly," Kael ordered and attempted to turn, but before he could fully pivot, the raw panic and defiance churning within me erupted.
"Don't you dare come closer," I snarled, hoping they would take my threat seriously as my gaze darted between all five of them.
Like a trapped animal assessing its predators, my chest heaved with each shallow, rapid breath.
The strange connection pulling at me, the bond I didn't want, all clashed with my deep-seated fear and mistrust.
I noticed his lip curled at the side, a fleeting hint of something calculating, as he turned his head to look at me. "She's still processing, brothers."
"But she's a wild one," the emerald-eyed alpha spoke up, his gaze intense. A flicker of something akin to understanding crossed his features.
"That she is." Almost as if a switch had been flicked, the faint amusement in Kael's expression vanished, replaced by the same glacial coldness I had witnessed before. A dark glint, sharp and decisive, flickered in his blue eyes.
"Knock her out."