“Hold still.”

Rowan pressed a cloth soaked in cooling solution to my collarbone.

The medical wing smelled like antiseptic and dried herbs. The black blood from the fourth mark had stopped flowing, but the fever beneath my skin kept climbing. A monitor beside the bed flashed 103.7.

I slapped his wrist away.

“I said I’m fine.”

“You are many things,” Rowan said. “Fine is not one of them.”

He caught the cloth before it fell and rinsed it in the steel basin.

Unlike Cassian, he did not crowd me. Unlike Kieran, he did not look at me as if I had personally insulted his bloodline. He worked with the same quiet focus I had seen when he treated injured combat students after training.

“You’re not going to ask me which one I want?” I said.

Rowan wrung out the cloth. “You met three of us as mates less than an hour ago. If you already know which one you want, your fever has reached your brain.”

A laugh escaped me before I could stop it.

It hurt my neck.

Rowan’s mouth tilted. “Good. You can still laugh. That rules out total organ failure.”

“Comforting.”

He held out a cup of water. “Drink.”

I took it this time.

“The fourth mark worries me,” he said. “It is not behaving like the others.”

“Because the fourth Alpha wasn’t in the room?”

“Possibly. A mate mark usually stabilizes after both people come within scent range. Yours appeared across distance.” Rowan glanced at the dark crust along the final line. “And black bleeding is not normal.”

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know yet.”

The answer made me trust him more than a confident lie would have.

He pulled a stool closer but left an arm’s length between us.

“For now, you need rest, fluids, and distance from concentrated Alpha aura. Four bonds are pulling at your nervous system. Until your body adjusts, too much dominance around you could trigger another fever.”

The door slammed open.

So much for distance.

Cassian filled the doorway, still wearing his ceremonial uniform. Kieran stood behind him with his arms crossed, silver eyes hard.

Rowan did not even turn around. “Out.”

Cassian’s jaw tightened. “I need to speak with her.”

“You need to lower your aura before you send her temperature over one hundred and four.”

“I am in control.”

The monitor immediately began beeping faster.

I pointed at it. “Very convincing.”

Cassian looked at the screen, then at me. His expression shifted for half a second. Guilt, maybe. Fear.

Then the royal mask returned.

He took one deliberate step back and forced his aura down.

Kieran stayed in the hall.

“I came to make something clear,” Cassian said.

“Your rejection was pretty clear.”

His mouth flattened.

“My engagement to Vivienne Ashbourne remains in effect. It is tied to a military treaty between our families. Whatever happened at the altar does not erase five years of obligations.”

I stared at him.

“You chased me across the amphitheater to tell me you’re engaged?”

“I chased you because the mark opened.”

“That sounds like your problem.”

Kieran made a sound suspiciously close to a laugh.

Cassian shot him a look, then returned his attention to me.

“Until the council understands what this is, stay away from the royal wing. Stay away from public events where Vivienne will be present. We need to prevent speculation.”

There it was.

Not Are you all right?

Not I should not have threatened you with a knife.

Public image.

I set the water down.

“You don’t need to worry about me embarrassing your engagement,” I said. “I have classes. I have a job. I have no interest in following you around hoping the Moon Goddess upgrades my social status.”

His eyes flashed gold again.

“You think this is about status?”

“I think you decided what I wanted before you bothered to ask.”

Cassian stepped forward before he could stop himself.

The mark nearest my shoulder heated instantly.

His gaze dropped to my throat.

For one dangerous second, hunger erased every trace of royal discipline. He looked like he wanted to cross the room, put his mouth over the mark, and prove the bond was real in the most primitive way possible.

Rowan stood.

“Back up.”

Cassian’s hands curled at his sides.

He obeyed.

That small victory surprised everyone in the room.

Kieran pushed away from the doorframe. “This is exactly why I want nothing to do with it.”

I looked at him. “Then why are you here?”

His face went blank.

Rowan glanced over his shoulder, clearly interested in the answer.

Kieran’s jaw worked.

“I came to make sure he didn’t do something stupid.”

Cassian laughed without humor. “You followed my scent trail halfway across campus.”

“I was going this direction.”

“The combat wing is the other direction,” I said.

Kieran swore under his breath and walked away.

Rowan waited until his footsteps disappeared.

“Your admirers are charming.”

“They are not my admirers.”

“Of course not.”

Cassian looked as though he wanted to argue, but another voice came from the hall.

“Cassian.”

A woman stepped into view.

Vivienne Ashbourne was exactly what a future Luna was supposed to look like: tall, composed, silver-blond hair pinned neatly at her nape, academy dress coat tailored to perfection. The diamond on her left hand was impossible to miss.

She looked at Cassian first.

Then at Rowan.

Then at me.

Her gaze settled on the bandage around my throat.

“May I have a moment with Elara?”

Cassian stiffened. “Vivienne—”

“I asked her.”

That shut him up.

I almost admired her for it.

Rowan looked to me for permission.

I nodded.

Cassian left reluctantly. Rowan followed, leaving the door open.

Vivienne stepped inside but did not approach the bed.

“I am not going to blame you for a ritual neither of us controlled,” she said.

I waited.

Her calm expression never cracked.

“But if you want to survive Blackthorn without becoming the center of a pack war, you need to understand one thing.”

She lifted her left hand, letting the engagement ring catch the fluorescent light.

“Stay away from my fiancé until you understand what these marks are capable of making him do.”

“Move, Alpha Collector.”

Clara Mercer blocked the entrance to the dining hall the next evening, her eyes fixed on the high-collared scarf covering my marks.

“Did you paint them on?” she asked. “Or did you find three desperate Alphas and ask them to take turns?”

I tightened my hand around my tray.

Before I could answer, Vivienne appeared at my side.

“Clara.”

She did not raise her voice.

Clara stepped back immediately.

“I was joking.”

“You were embarrassing yourself.” Vivienne linked her arm through mine. “Elara is sitting with me tonight.”

The dining hall went quiet around us.

I let her steer me toward a velvet-lined alcove because refusing would create a bigger scene.

“You did not need to do that,” I said once we were alone.

“Yes, I did.” Vivienne sat across from me. “Blackthorn runs on rank. People attack uncertainty. Right now, you are the largest uncertainty on campus.”

She raised her hand.

The diamond ring flashed.

“Cassian and I have been engaged for five years. My family funded the Northern Pack’s border fortifications after the Red Winter raids. His father backed my father’s council seat. We trained together. We fought together. We were raised to rule together.”

“I told him I don’t want his crown.”

“I believe you.”

That answer surprised me.

Vivienne leaned back.

“What I do not believe is that wanting matters once a mate bond starts rewriting instinct.”

Kieran appeared at the edge of the alcove with a glass of amber liquor he was definitely not supposed to have on academy grounds.

Vivienne glanced at him.

“Ask Kieran.”

His silver eyes sharpened. “Don’t.”

Vivienne ignored the warning.

“His mother was commander of the Southern Guard. Brilliant fighter. Terrifying strategist. Then she found her mate.”

Kieran’s fingers tightened around the glass.

“She surrendered command to follow him to a smaller pack,” Vivienne continued. “Two years later, he led them into a rogue ambush he had no business entering. They both died.”

“Shut up.”

Vivienne’s expression softened, but not enough to hide the calculation behind the story.

“Kieran does not hate you, Elara. He hates the part of himself that could make the same choice.”

The glass cracked in Kieran’s hand.

He set it down before it shattered and walked away.

I watched him disappear into the crowd.

“You collect their weaknesses,” I said.

Vivienne smiled faintly. “I remember what people survive.”

She reached into her clutch and placed a folded sheet of paper on the table.

It was a photocopy of an old council bulletin.

SILAS CROWE — DECEASED.

The grainy image showed a dark-haired young man with hollow eyes and a scar across one brow.

“Who is he?”

“The former Crowe heir. Three years ago he killed his father inside their estate.”

I looked up.

“Why are you showing me this?”

“Because Professor Ashbourne was there that night. My uncle testified that Silas died during the escape.” Vivienne tapped the page. “My uncle also told me, privately, that the body was never identified.”

A chill moved through me.

“The Crowe crest is a raven,” she added.

Before I could ask why that mattered, the headmaster called everyone to their seats for the welcome banquet.

Vivienne stood.

Her face changed as she crossed the room. The guarded woman who had just told me about dead heirs vanished. In her place was the perfect future Luna. She sat beside Cassian at the head table. He leaned toward her when she spoke. She rested a hand on his sleeve.

They looked effortless together.

I told myself the hollow pull in my chest was the bond, nothing more. I also reminded myself that Vivienne had earned that place long before the Goddess decided to write my name across Cassian's skin. Whatever happened next, I would not turn another woman into my enemy just because four men could not manage their instincts.

“Enjoying the view?”

Lord Julian Thorne leaned over the back of my chair.

I smelled wine before I saw his face.

“Move.”

Instead, he caught the loose end of my scarf.

“I only want to see what has half the academy losing sleep.”

I grabbed his wrist.

He laughed and caught both of mine in one hand.

“Careful, little Omega.”

The room exploded.

Cassian crossed twenty feet before I processed that he had moved.

He seized Thorne by the shoulder and threw him into a marble pillar hard enough to crack the decorative molding.

“Touch her again,” Cassian said, fangs down, “and I will remove the hand.”

Music stopped.

Every face turned toward us.

Thorne raised both palms. “You rejected her yesterday.”

Cassian’s grip tightened.

“I did not give you permission to touch her.”

The words hit me wrong.

Permission.

As if I belonged to him even after rejection.

I pushed out of the alcove before he could turn his rage into another claim.

Cold air hit my face on the terrace.

Vivienne followed a minute later.

She shut the glass doors behind her.

“He almost started a blood feud over you,” she said.

“I did not ask him to.”

“That stopped mattering the moment the marks appeared.” For the first time, exhaustion showed beneath her perfect posture. “Cassian has trained since childhood to put the territory above instinct. Tonight instinct won in front of half the northern court.”

I looked through the glass.

Cassian stood inside with his father’s advisers surrounding him. Kieran watched from the far wall. Rowan had appeared beside Thorne to examine the bruise on his skull.

Every line led back to me.

“I’m leaving Blackthorn,” I said.

Vivienne’s gaze snapped to mine.

“Tomorrow. I will transfer somewhere without royal heirs and territorial Alphas.”

She searched my face.

Then she reached into her clutch and pulled out a black envelope.

“A dorm prefect brought this to me. It was pinned to your door.”

The wax seal was stamped with a raven.

My fingers went cold.

I tore it open.

Inside was one sentence written in hard, slanted ink.

When the fourth mark bleeds again, do not let Blackthorn lock you away.

No signature.

No explanation.

At the bottom of the page, someone had drawn four short lines.

The last one was black.

The black envelope stayed at the bottom of my gym bag the next morning.

I should have gone to the headmaster. I should have shown Rowan. Instead, I spent dawn filling out a transfer request, then went to combat training because missing class would jeopardize the scholarship I still needed until the transfer cleared.

“Pair up!” Coach Graves shouted. “Alphas, control your aura. Omegas, stop expecting your partner to go easy because the ceremony bruised your feelings.”

I wrapped tape around my knuckles.

“Vale. Elara. Mat four.”

Of course.

Kieran stepped onto the blue square in a fitted gray training shirt. He did not bow.

“I’m not going easy on you.”

“I would be offended if you did.”

His mouth tightened.

Then he attacked.

His first punch hit my guard hard enough to numb my forearm. I pivoted away from the second and barely ducked a kick aimed at my shoulder.

“Too slow,” he said.

“Too angry.”

I drove a jab toward his ribs.

He blocked it and shoved me back.

“You think everything is about the bond now?”

“No. I think you are trying to punish me for existing.”

His next strike stopped an inch from my jaw.

Something dangerous flashed in his silver eyes.

“I am trying to prove I can stand this close to you without becoming my father.”

I lowered my fists slightly.

“Your father did not kill your mother.”

“He made her weak.”

“Vivienne said he made one reckless decision.”

Kieran went still.

“Vivienne talks too much.”

“She said your mother chose him.”

“She chose the bond over herself.”

His voice changed. Less angry. More afraid.

“My mother commanded three hundred wolves. She never asked permission from anyone. Then she met him, and suddenly every decision became what he needed. Where he wanted to live. Which patrol he wanted her on. She called it love.”

He stepped closer.

“When they died, people told me it was romantic that she stayed with her mate until the end.”

Kieran laughed bitterly.

“I thought it was pathetic.”

I held his gaze.

“I am not asking you to stay with me until the end.”

“No. Your scent is doing the asking for you.”

“You keep blaming my body for your choices.”

His face hardened again.

I circled him instead of attacking. “I filed a transfer request this morning.”

That landed harder than any punch.

Kieran's stance broke for half a second. “Where?”

“I haven't decided.”

“You cannot transfer while the marks are unstable.”

I raised my brows. “Interesting. Yesterday you wanted me as far away from you as possible.”

“I still do.”

“Then why do you care?”

His hands curled into fists. “Because leaving Blackthorn puts you outside the northern wards. If the fourth Alpha is a rogue, you would be walking toward him without knowing it.”

The warning sounded practical, but the bond told on him. The mark tied to Kieran gave one hard pulse, hot enough to make me wince. His eyes dropped immediately to my scarf.

“You felt that,” I said.

He looked away.

“Kieran.”

“I felt nothing.”

“Another lie.”

He stepped close enough that the air between us changed. “You want honesty? Fine. The thought of you leaving makes my wolf want to tear the gates off their hinges. I hate that reaction. I hate that I can know you for less than a week and still feel responsible for whether you breathe.”

For once, I had no clever answer.

Kieran saw it and backed away first.

“Good,” he muttered. “Now we both hate something.”

Coach Graves blew his whistle.

“Free scrimmage. Protect your square. No claws.”

The gym erupted.

Students spilled across the mats, changing targets and testing openings. I turned toward a smaller Beta rushing my side.

I never saw Jaxson Miller coming from behind.

“Let’s test the famous four-mate Omega.”

Both hands hit my shoulders.

I flew backward toward the steel weight racks.

Kieran moved faster than thought.

One arm locked around my waist. He spun us. My back hit his chest instead of two hundred pounds of iron plates.

He set me on my feet.

Then he became something else.

Kieran crossed the mat and tackled Jaxson so hard the floor shook.

His first punch split Jaxson’s lip.

The second broke his nose.

“Kieran!” Coach Graves shouted.

He did not hear.

“You don’t touch her!”

The third strike landed with a wet crack.

Two upperclassmen tried to drag him away. Kieran threw them off without even looking.

His aura exploded through the room.

Several Omegas dropped to their knees. One Beta staggered into the bleachers.

Jaxson covered his face, but Kieran kept swinging.

He was going to kill him.

I ran forward and caught Kieran’s wrist in both hands.

“Stop.”

He froze.

Not Coach Graves.

Not two senior Alphas.

Me.

Kieran’s fist hovered above Jaxson’s face. His eyes had gone almost black.

Slowly, they returned to silver.

He looked at my fingers around his wrist.

I released him.

The whole gym had gone silent.

“Why?” I asked.

Kieran stood.

Blood coated his knuckles.

He stared at Jaxson, then at me, horror spreading across his face as he understood what he had done.

“I don’t know.”

“Yes, you do.”

His jaw clenched.

“You hate the bond. You hate what happened to your mother. You keep saying I’m a liability.” I stepped closer. “So why did you lose control when someone touched me?”

Kieran backed away.

“Don’t.”

“Answer me.”

He looked trapped.

For the first time since the ceremony, he did not hide behind disgust.

“Because I hate what you do to me.”

His gaze dropped to my mouth.

The mark tied to him burned hot beneath my scarf.

Kieran swallowed.

He took another step back as if distance were the only thing keeping him sane.

“If I stay in this room another minute,” he said, voice rough with restraint, “I am going to put my teeth in your neck and claim you in front of everyone.”

Then he turned and walked out before his wolf could make the choice for him.