Winter's POV:

Fuck.

Fucking fuck.

The man that forcefully marked me yesterday is not a rogue but the most feared wolf on the continent, Alpha Keon.

None of the rumors whispered about him were accurate enough. He's so tall I would have to turn my neck to catch all of him. His eyes are dark green, so dark it's like the forest floor. My neck won't stop burning. He's built like a Greek god. A beautiful, fatal one. His muscles are on display, the rain pouring outside outlining his torso and V line. I gulp. Luckily, it seems only me catches his words. The wolves are chanting to their Alpha, their King. The hall resonates with their voices.

"Alpha Keon! Alpha Keon! Wise and noble to his people,

Ever wise, ever valiant!

Long may he reign!

By canine and by blood,

Stonefield stands–"

"Silence."

Shit. Is he going to expose me? He knows, he has to. Any no wolf would stand and watch his mate marry another wolf.

The entire room goes dead silent.

"This mating will not stand."

I almost collapse on the spot. Out of the corner of my eye I spot mother's eyes bulge, Ari holding her arm stiffly.

Chaos breaks out. Small whispers turn into loud shouts.

Some are lost, others are angry.

"What? Did he already kill the wizard already?"

"It's the girl, she's marked isn't she? Our people can't be with someone already tainted with another wolf."

"We should just kill all the witches already, haven't they done enough?"

"What the hell is happening?"

"Let the fury of Stonefield rain on all the witches! War on the witches!"

The entire hall is screaming, chanting for our heads.

My heart is beating so violently it might fall out.

Oh well, I heard wolves eat the hearts of their enemies, might as well get a move on.

"Enough." The Alpha speaks once more, forcing everyone, every thought to pause.

His steps toward the altar are delibrate and slow, and my insight is telling me to sprint in the opposite direction. He reaches us, me, Derrick and the priest.

"Do I need to repeat myself? This mating isn't happening." His attention is on the priest.

Derrick hisses beside me. "You can't decide that–"

The Alpha's stare forces him into silence. He smiles, and it's official, the Blackbird Brothers were not built for smiling. It's like he's trying out the movement for the first time, and goosebumps erupt on my spine at the move.

"You were saying?" Derrick's fists tighten.

"Come with me." He turns away, and like a good shadow he follows, out of the halls and away from a confused crowd.

Everyone is staring at me. The feeling makes my skin crawl. I pray to anything and everything no one somehow spots the mark. My Mother is in tears, the Triplets, Paul, Pauline and Paulina are whispering loudly, arguing amoung themselves in the old tongue. The wolves look on with curiosity and disgust. I recognise the blood lust swirling in their eyes. They can't wait to kill me on their King's command. I blink back the tears.

I stand for what feels like forever, but is probably 30 minutes max. A lot of time for a lot of wolves to lose their patience. When they return, I can tell a word from the wolves and we'll be torn to shreds. I gulp.

If Keon ratted me out, then it's over, it's truly all over. I scan their faces. Keon's face is unreadable, but his brother's is calm. Happy even?

What the fuck is happening?

In Derrick's arm is some staff, and I hear Paul and Pauline whisper: "It can't be..." "It is" Paulina completes for them.

Mother's eyes widen even further.

I take a step back, even though my insight isn't telling me to. It's obvious whatever is in Derrick's hand has a lot of power, everyone can tell. He reaches the altar, a small grin on his face. He bellows to the crowd:

"Fear not great people of Stonefield. The mating shall go on." The tension dies down immediately, people sitting back down unsure of what to do next. "My brother here just wants to make sure the witches have no form of escape, an issue noted with the natural marking. Today, the relic of the Blood-Fang known to force bonds permanently between two creatures will be used! What you are about to witness is a once in a lifetime experience!"

The hall erupts in gasps. My jaw loosens. The Blood-Fang is the name for the first witch wolf war that took place centuries ago. Legend says this weapon was used to cause hundreds of deaths on both sides of the war. It was rumored to be lost in the forest. And it's here. It's actually here.

And it's going to be used on me.

Fuck.

Ariana curses under her breath. Mother is on the verge of tears again. Surprisingly, I'm not in the least bit worried. My insight has gone quiet, like there's absolutely nothing wrong about to happen and I'm not about to become a walking puppet for the wolves.

The priest begins the mating, chanting ancient words to deities no one is sure exists anymore. Outside, the rain pours down on us. When the priest lifts the staff to finalise the bond, the staff glows brightly. The people look on, amazed. It flickers like a candle, once, then twice. I'm about to blink when lightning strikes.

Inside the chapel.

Screams erupt in the room. I spot Ariana darting up. Mother's hands are glowing. The Triplets cannot believe their eyes.

I realise half sprint I'm not going to make it. It hit the center of the chapel, right beneath where I stand, and I'm not moving fast enough to not get struck.

Well, this is it. This is how I die. Death by lightning. One of the most unfortunate ways to die. How fitting.

I blink and open my eyes, warmth spreading through me. Above me, Alpha Keon is holding me in his arms, his eyes glowing.

Holy shit.

Winter's POV:

I can't feel the ground.

I can barely feel myself at all.

Alpha Keon's arms are a vice-like grip holding me steadily in place, his bicep hard and warm. Despite the strike behind us, dozens of screams breaking out all around us, all I think about is how good this feels. How right being in his arms feels.

He looks down at me.

His eyes. Up close, they look alive, like his irises are moving, like some sort of live wallpaper. They burn into me like they recognise something I don't. My back pulses, hot enough for my vision to blur at the edges.

He bends down so his breath fans my ears. He licks my ear and I shiver, but the move is so fast it's like he barely moved at all.

"You're mine."

His words are lower than a whisper, meant for only my hearing, and something in me resonates with them. "Keon..." I have no explanation for why I just called his name, but I blame it on the building migraine in the back of my skull.

"Easy streghetta" Did he just call me little witch in Italian? His grip on my waist tightens. "I've got you." Goosebumps spread up my back.

I should be screaming at him, clawing at him for taking a part of me without my wish. Instead I lean into his touch. Too many things are happening at once. It's all coming back.

Ari's scream. Mother's shout. Voices. So many voices. They're overlapping each other, grating against my nerves awfully. My magic is twisting painfully inside me, misfiring, mixing into something that feels a lot like him.

Keon turns quickly. "Move."

The chaos quiets immediately, the crowd splitting in half. He carries me towards the door he came from, my failing eyesight catching Ari's worry and Mother's fear. No one says anything in disagreement. No one tries to stop him.

The thing I see before everywhere goes dark is tanned hands holding on to the still glowing staff.

It's Derrick, and he's smiling, his canines on display.

The last thing I feel is fear. Our eyes meet.

I pass out.

I woke up in a panic.

Normally, witches rarely dream. Unlike humans that sometimes have sleep induced visions, we witches are more or less in a dull fog that we forget about the moment we open our eyes.

This time, I'm dreaming.

I'm on a huge ship, in the pouring rain. Voices are arguing. My head is spinning. Unable to focus on anything with the way the ship sways left to right. The ship sways a little too much to the right and I fall right into the water.

Witches have never been good with water. That's for mermaids. I can't swim, my arms feel heavier than stone. I try to scream but my voice is gone. My body sinks deeper into the ocean floor, and I drown.

I carry my fear into the real world, my body covered with sweat. My arms are shaking, my chest aching as I try to calm myself. Air burns in my lungs as I breathe, like I've run a mile. My nose picks up on the smell of pine, forest and wolf.

I'm not the chapel.

The ceiling above me is made of several precious gemstones around on carved stone. Dim lights flicker from the lanterns above me. I'm lying on something soft. And warm. Really warm.

I sit up, freezing. It's him. Keon is sitting beside me, watching me.

He's calmer now. Looking less like Zeus and more like a man, and that deception is scary in itself. His elbows are propped up beside him, studying me closely.

"You're awake." He says.

"Where am I?" My throat is scratchy. I could really use some water right now. Koen gets up, walking towards the table. He grabs the water and throws it at me. I use my magic to stop it. He nods in approval at me leaving me confused. "You're in my quarters."

My fingers stop opening the bottle. Panic rises in my chest. "Koen, why am I here?" His eyes flicker to my neck, just for a second, before he replies. "Because you're not safe anywhere else."

My laugh is weak and tired. "Yeah right. You interrupted my wedding. I'm pretty sure "safe" left the room when you walked in."

The corner of his mouth twitches. It's not a smile nor is it a frown. It confuses me.

"That wedding was never going to happen." He lays beside me.

I sit up. "You don't get to decide that."

"Already did streghetta."

A heavy charged silence engulfs us. I finally address the huge elephant in the room. "Why did you mark me Koen?" His jaw tightens. He traces my skin delicately. He's careful not to touch the mark. "I didn't mean to."

I raise my brow. "Yeah right. And you expect me to believe that?"

He sighs. "No. But it doesn't matter anyways. The moon chose you."

A cool breeze passes by. What does that mean?

His eyes have darkened, his eyes looking more alive than ever. It looks like something passed through it.

"It means..." he says quietly, "That no matter how many treaties your people sign or who you marry..."

Our eyes meet.

You were never going to belong to anyone else. Anyone other than me.

Winter's POV:

A long line of trees lay up ahead, stretching on for what seems like forever. There are two owls on three trees, and they turn 360 toward me. My insight screams.

Where am I?

These are not parts of the forest I'm familiar with, and I have no idea when and how I got here.

Where exactly is here? I scan my surroundings.

The moon is blood red again, the sight making my skin crawl. My insight screams at me, telling me to get out of here, and fast.

I sprint, trying to find a clearing, an escape, anything away from the creepy forest. The trees are alive, or that's what it looks like. They have ugly faces and sing a creepy tune. The owls follow me, adding more bad vibes to the scene. The ground is soggy, like it just finished raining, slowing me down. It sticks to my feet and the bottom of the dress I'm in. My powers aren't working well, shooting me forward at times, other times pushing me back.

Finally, when it feels like I'm about to faint from exhaustion, I spot what seems like a building, its light pushing me on. I'm nearly there when I trip on a huge root springs out of nowhere, and my ankle gets caught, twisting at an unnatural angle. Pain, sharp and endless travels through me.

I scream as I brace for impact on the mud floor, when everything goes black.

I wake up from sleep, my forehead damp with sweat, my chest heaving. My back burns in pain and I wince. Trying to sit up only makes the pain worse. I mutter my discomfort aloud. "Ow"

Warmth spreads through my body like someone poured hot tea into my veins. Not exactly painful, just really intense.

That's when it hits me. I've been marked. I'm mated to Derrick Blackbird, and his brother Keon saved me at the chapel.

I was his now.

To which brother though?

The one that marked me in the dead of night, when the forest bled, with only the trees as a witness?

Or the one who forced my hand into a mating, regardless of my feelings?

Fate versus fortune?

Moon-bound or man-bound?

This was hard.

If I had the choice, who would I choose?

The Alpha or his Brother?

Keon or Derrick?

Keon, on one hand, had saved me from certain death, jumping to my rescue. His brother just stood there. Though, maybe not being the Alpha made his reaction time slower. I couldn't even judge both of them evenly. I didn't know the first thing about Derrick, besides the engagement we'd barely said anything to each other. I sigh loudly.

This really was hard.

I inhale, trying to calm my nerves, when my nose picks up on a scent. It smelt like rain, wet trees in winter, like a wolf.

Like him.

My heart skips a beat, but my mind remembers what happened.

"You're awake, I have-"

"I'm still upset about what you did Keon. You marked me. Against my will." I fold my arms in irritation, glaring at him.

His brows raise as he stalks towards me. "Haven't we done this already?" "Stop trying to change topics Keon." He sighs. "Okay I'm sorry. I understand this is all new to you but..."

I interrupt him. "No Keon you don't get it. My people could start a war over this. All hell will break loose if anyone, and I mean anyone, hears about this."

"They already might streghetta." His voice is gentle, the usual arrogance in his tone absent for once.

I raise my brow. "What does that mean?" My brain catches up with the rest of his sentence. I frown. "And stop calling me that." I get up, ignoring his curious stare, heading for the door he just came from. The floor is usually cold, even though my body is hot. The nightgown I'm wearing sways to the side, its owner obviously bigger than me. I reach the door. "Whatever it doesn't matter anyways, I'm out of here, to my real mate, you know, your brother?" I have to remember, no matter what happened on that night, we're in-laws.

I ignore his scowl and reach for the doorknob, when pain shoots through my enter body. My vision turns white and I scream, my knees giving in to the force but he catches me before my body touches the ground. When my hand slips from the knob the pain disappears. My head pounds. What the hell just happened?

"What... what was that Keon?"

He sighs, his brows furrowed, clearly agitated. "It's what I was trying to tell you," he hisses at me. "The mate bond, it won't let you leave me until it completely settles. It takes time, now please, go back to bed Winter."

He drops me on the edge of the bed, his scent floating around me. It takes everything in me not to inhale. His mouth opens to say something, but someone enters the room suddenly.

I jump, trying to create distance between us, but he's already on the other side of the room, pretending to be working on something on the desk. I look up, realizing it's my sister Ariana. Her fiery hair looks weird, dull and soggy like. It's unusual. Ariana was the fashion queen at home, and never left home without taking care of herself. Even during a war her hair would be shiny and beautiful. This is unusual, to say the least.

In my chest, my insight beats around, like it knows something I don't.

It does, and that fact makes my heart beat loudly in my chest.

She looks worried, the panic making her seem centuries older than her age. I try to stand, but my legs won't allow it. I can feel Keon glaring at me. I ignore him. If my sister is in some kind of danger, I'm getting involved, damn some bond. "Ariana, what's wrong?"

She shakes her head. "I have bad news, Winter. Really bad news."