“Get on your knees."

My voice sliced through the room like a serrated knife. Ragnor didn’t hesitate. He sank to the cold stone floor, his knees hitting the ground with a heavy thud that synchronized perfectly with my beating heart. Ryker and Reign followed, their heads bowed, their Alpha pride crumbling at my feet.

"We didn’t have a choice, Candace," Ryker groaned, his head bowed so low his forehead nearly touched the tops of my boots. 

"Everything we do is a choice, Ryker," I whispered, leaning down. "Since you believed a lie over me, now show me,” I commanded, my voice dropping a lower octave. "Show me exactly how much you're willing to crawl to keep the mate you discarded."

"Anything, Daisy," Ragnor choked out, his large, calloused hand reaching for my ankle. His touch sent a traitorous bolt of sparks through my skin, but I didn't budge. He pulled my foot closer, his heat seeping through the silk of my dress. He didn't just kiss it; he buried his face against my boot, breathing in my scent with a hot desperation.

I looked down at the three most powerful men in the pack, all of them reduced to rubble before me, and I felt the tears burn behind my eyes.

"It's a pity that’ll never be enough,” I said, my voice turning to ice. 

"Then break us. Do whatever you have to do, just don't walk out that door. Don’t give up on us," Reign growled, looking up, his hazel eyes burning with lust. “We will burn in hell before we let that happen,”

I forced a brittle, empty laugh. “Say hello to the devil, he’s no different than the beasts you’ve become after what you put me through,”

I pushed Ragnor’s hands away, my touch merciless as I used my knee to shove the other two back. 

"I’m done with you all. Go fuck your sweet Didi. I will get my release elsewhere,” I snapped, my voice coming out stronger than I expected especially with their bodies pressed against mine, and their lips sending tingles across my body. 

I felt their eyes drilling holes into my back, hotter than a thousand lasers all at once as I strode out. I knew they were watching my retreat, but I didn't turn around to let them see the single, traitorous tear that had finally escaped my guard. I couldn't let them know how much their choices had truly cost me.

I was the devil they’d made with each torment. And devils didn't cry.
~
Born the daughter of royalty, Candace Sinclair was once the noble daughter of the formidable Alpha of GraceSpring Pack until her perfect life became a nightmare in one single night.

Labeled the offspring of a traitor, she was plunged into a miserable life of shame, scars and utter disgrace and condemned to serve as an omega slave among those who had once bowed to her. However the Moon Goddess wasn’t done with this queen. On the night of the full moon, Candace was rebonded to the beastly triplet Alphas—Alpha Ragnor, Alpha Reign and Alpha Ryker Pendragon, her sworn enemies.

The triplets planned to reject her. They would have succeeded… if this wasn’t Candace’s last shot at being mated. Having survived three brutal, excruciating rejections, Candace seized control of her fate at the last minute, forcing them into a bond they never expected with her.

That night, the triplets who once loathed her swore to make her life a living hell. But Candace doesn’t care—she will endure every torment if it means uncovering the conspiracy that destroyed her father and plundered her happy family into misery. But Fate is a bastard. Soon, this queen becomes the one obsession they can't escape. The one they crave so desperately they’ll lose their minds just to be buried inside her, until they lose themselves completely. 

As cruel truths claw their way to light in this twisted game of love, betrayal, danger and passion, the Pendragon triplets start to see her for who she is—their queen. But Candace is done begging for scraps of their love. She is done being a weak toy in their twisted games. This queen wants them where they belong— groveling on their knees…forever?

I lay in bed staring at the high ceiling, the sheets twisted around my legs. 


Sleep refused to come. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Ragnor's steel-grey gaze burning into me in that shower, his fingers buried deep inside me, the way his breath had hitched when I moaned his old nickname.


Then the wave of nausea hit me and I bolted upright in bed. A brutal surge of pleasure slammed through the mate bond and for some reason I just knew that it was Ragnor's. 


The pleasure was thick, dark, and vicious. It flooded my veins like molten lava, making my body clench painfully as nausea rolled through my stomach. Star howled inside my head, a raw, agonized sound that tore through my chest.


I curled into a ball, digging my claws into the comforter until the fabric ripped. Another pulse hit harder this time. I could feel him thrusting, brutal and relentless. 


Chapter 36 - CHAPTER THIRTY SIX — THE STRANGER