The realization crashed through him even as he thrust into her. She wasn’t just experiencing pleasure, she was experiencing desperation. She was trapped in Shadowmere, unable to escape the dreams, unable to stop her body from responding to him and his brothers. She was drowning in confusion and arousal and fear.

And he could feel it all through the bond.

Lucian drove into her harder, faster, his wolf screaming beneath his skin. Zev wanted to claim her completely. Wanted to mark her, brand her, make it impossible for her to deny the connection between them. The wolf recognized her as theirs with a certainty that transcended logic.

She came around him, her entire body shaking, her back arching off the bed. The orgasm was intense, he could feel it ripple through the bond, could feel her pleasure spike and crash. And it made him lose control.

Lucian came with a growl that sounded more animal than human. His release was brutal and overwhelming, and as he emptied himself inside her, he felt the bond pulse between them. A connection that defied distance. A claim that transcended the contract.

But even as the pleasure faded, the desperation remained.

She wasn’t with him. She was across pack territory in omega housing, alone, confused, suffering through the same connection that was consuming him. And there was nothing he could do about it. Nothing except feel her through the incomplete bond and go slowly insane from the want.

The dream shifted. Changed. He was still inside her, but now Nicholas was beside them and Sebastian was behind her, and all three of them were moving together in perfect synchronization. It was chaos and control all at once. It was everything and not enough.

She was gasping their names. Begging. Her body responding to all of them simultaneously. And Lucian could feel not just her pleasure, but also the pleasure of his brothers moving through the bond. They were all connected. All experiencing her. All desperate to claim her completely.

The dream escalated into something almost violent. Three alphas taking what they needed from their mate while she took everything they gave her and begged for more. Her arousal spiked higher and higher. His desperation matched hers. The bond between them pulsed like a living thing.

And then....

Lucian’s eyes snapped open.

His body convulsed as he came, his hips thrusting against the sheets, his cock throbbing with release. He was drenched in sweat. His breathing was ragged. His heart was hammering so hard he thought it might break through his ribs.

The dream was fading, but the connection remained.

He could still feel her. Still sense her through the bond....her fear, her confusion, her arousal. She was awake now, just like he was. She was gasping and shaking and trying to understand what was happening to her body.

Lucian sat up slowly, his body still trembling.

His cock was still hard, still throbbing. The arousal hadn’t faded with the dream. His body was demanding more. Zev was clawing at him from the inside, desperate and feral and completely consumed by the need to reach her.

He grabbed a handful of tissues and cleaned himself up mechanically. His mind was still reeling. The connection through the bond was growing stronger. Every time they dreamed, the link between them intensified. Every time she experienced pleasure, he felt it. Every time she was afraid or desperate or confused, he felt that too.

It was like she was becoming a part of him. Like the mate bond was weaving them together on a cellular level, whether she understood it or not.

Lucian was still sitting on the edge of the bed, shirtless, his body still glistening with sweat, when the mindlink hit.

It came from Nicholas, powerful and commanding: "Come to my office. Both of you. Now."

The message was urgent. And the timing....arriving right as Lucian was sitting here gasping and aroused and reeling from the connection, made everything crystallize.

Nicholas had experienced something too. Sebastian had experienced something too. They’d all felt it simultaneously. They’d all felt her.

Lucian stood up on shaky legs and threw on a pair of pants.

He was moving toward the door when another realization hit: Nicholas wouldn’t have called them to his office unless he’d figured something out. Unless he had a plan. Unless he’d decided it was time to stop waiting and start acting.

Lucian felt Zev surge with excitement.

Finally.

***

Sebastian was under the spray of the coldest water the shower could produce, and it still wasn’t cold enough.

His hand was wrapped around his cock, stroking deliberately, trying to ease the relentless arousal that had woken him up gasping and shaking. The dream had been vivid...all of them with her, taking her apart, claiming her completely. And he could still feel her through the bond. Could still sense her confusion and fear and desperate need.

The water cascaded over him, cold enough to make his skin prickle with goosebumps, but it wasn’t enough to kill the arousal. His hand moved in steady strokes, his breathing becoming heavier. He was close. So close.

The pleasure was building. His muscles were tightening. He was almost there when....

Nicholas’s mindlink hit like a physical blow: "Come to my office. Both of you. Now."

Sebastian’s hand stilled.

He stood there under the cold spray, his cock still hard and throbbing in his grip, water running down his body, and processed the message.

Nicholas had felt it too. The connection. The bond. Their mate reaching out to them across the distance.

Sebastian’s rational mind knew he should be concerned. Should recognize that this was escalating in ways they couldn’t control. But all he felt was anticipation.

Because if Nicholas was calling them to his office with that level of urgency, it meant one thing:

He’d figured out what to do about her.

Sebastian turned off the shower and stepped out, grabbing a towel. He didn’t bother with a full shower, he’d deal with the arousal later. Right now, he needed to get to Nicholas’s office.

Whatever his eldest brother had realized, whatever plan was forming in Nicholas’s mind, Sebastian knew it was going to change everything.

And he couldn’t wait to hear it.