Elder Markov arrived at the Estate with Dr. Thorne, both looking grave as Mrs. Blackwood led them into the sitting room where Eve and the three brothers waited.
Eve had fed that morning....gentle, controlled sex with Silas while the other two watched carefully, ready to intervene if his wolf showed any signs of surfacing. It had been almost clinical in its carefulness, so different from the wild claiming just yesterday.
"Thank you for coming so quickly," Damian said, gesturing for them to sit.
"You said it was urgent," Elder Markov said, his ancient eyes studying Eve with unnerving intensity. "That one of your wolves surfaced during intimacy and nearly killed your mate. I assu you an that literally, not hyperbolically?"
"Literally," Damon confird. "Kane....Damian’s wolf....took complete control. Two hours of the most brutal claiming I’ve ever witnessed. Eve passed out from the intensity. If she wasn’t succubus, if she didn’t have supernatural healing....she’d be dead or permanently damaged."
Dr. Thorne imdiately moved to Eve, pulling out dical equipnt. "May I examine you? Check for any lingering damage?"
"Of course," Eve agreed, letting the doctor check her vitals, examine the already-faded marks on her body, assess her overall condition.
"Remarkable," Dr. Thorne murmured after several minutes. "Your healing factor is even more advanced than I thought. Based on the brothers’ description of the encounter, you should still be covered in bruises, possibly have internal injuries. But you’re...." She shook her head in amazent. "You’re completely healed. Not even residual inflammation."
"Is that normal for succubi?" Silas asked.
"For royal succubi, possibly," Dr. Thorne said. "The more powerful the succubus, the more advanced the healing factor. Eve’s royalty, plus the amplification from bonding with three mates....it’s creating a healing ability beyond anything I’ve seen."
"Which is good," Elder Markov said, "because she’s going to need it. Tell everything that happened. Every detail. Don’t leave anything out."
Damian recounted the morning....how he’d been in control initially, how Eve had been riding him, how everything was normal until suddenly his eyes went gold and Kane simply took over.
"I couldn’t control him," Damian said, frustration and guilt clear in his voice. "I was aware, watching through Kane’s eyes, but I had no control over my body. He just....claid her. Over and over. Alternating positions, never stopping, never gentling. Just pure feral possession."
"And you tried to intervene?" Markov asked Silas and Damon.
"We wanted to," Silas confird. "But Kane snarled at us. Made it clear he’d see us as threats if we tried to take her from him. We couldn’t risk escalating the situation."
"Wise," Markov said. "Alpha wolves in claiming mode are extraordinarily dangerous. They’re operating on pure instinct....protect the mate, claim the mate, feed the mate. Anything that interferes with those directives becos a threat to be eliminated."
"So what do we do?" Eve asked. "Because if one wolf is that dangerous, what happens when all three try to claim at once?"
"You die," Markov said bluntly. "No ambiguity, no possibility of survival. Three alpha wolves in feral claiming mode simultaneously? You’d be torn apart. Literally or figuratively, doesn’t matter....the result is the sa. Death."
The room fell into heavy silence.
"Then how do we complete the bond?" Damian asked. "The wolves need to claim her. That’s not optional...it’s biological imperative. They’re getting more restless every day. If we don’t let them claim her properly, they’ll eventually force the issue. And if that happens without preparation..."
"Catastrophe," Markov finished. "Yes. Which is why we need a strategy. A controlled claiming that allows each wolf to bond with Eve individually, without triggering the others to surface simultaneously."
"How?" Damon demanded. "If Kane surfaced spontaneously during normal sex, how do we prevent the others from doing the sa?"
"Distance," Markov said. "Physical distance between the brothers during each claiming. The wolves are connected through you...they feel what you feel, sense what you sense. If all three of you are in the sa room while one wolf is claiming Eve, the others will feel the intensity and want to join. But if there’s sufficient distance....say, one brother in the house, the other two several miles away....the connection is weaker. The wolves are less likely to surface simultaneously."
"You want us to separate during the claiming?" Silas asked, disbelief in his voice. "Leave our mate alone with a feral wolf?"
"Not alone," Dr. Thorne interjected. "I’ll be there. With sedatives strong enough to stop an alpha wolf if necessary. And we’ll have safety asures in place....restraints, intervention protocols, ergency procedures. It’s not ideal, but it’s the safest option."
"There’s another consideration," Markov added. "The claiming needs to happen in a specific order. Damian’s wolf has already claid her, which ans he’s sowhat satisfied. His wolf won’t be as desperate to join when the others surface. We start with whichever wolf is most restless next...probably Damon’s, based on pack hierarchy."
"Rex," Damon said quietly. "He’s been going crazy since Kane got to claim her. He’s pushing at my control constantly, wanting his turn."
"Then you go next," Markov decided. "Damon stays here with Eve and Dr. Thorne. Damian and Silas go to the pack house...far enough that the connection is muted but close enough they can return quickly if needed."
"And if sothing goes wrong?" Damian asked. "If Rex doesn’t stop when she passes out? If he hurts her worse than Kane did?"
"Then I sedate him," Dr. Thorne said, patting her dical bag. "I’ve brought specialized tranquilizers....designed for alpha wolves specifically. One injection and he’ll be unconscious within seconds. Eve might still be injured, but she’ll be alive."
"I don’t like this," Silas said. "Any of it. We’re talking about leaving our mate alone and hoping sedatives work if things go wrong. That’s.....that’s insane."
"It’s the best option we have," Markov said firmly. "Unless you want to risk all three wolves surfacing at once and definitely killing her, this is how it has to be. One wolf at a ti, controlled circumstances, dical supervision. It’s not perfect, but it’s survivable."
Eve had been quiet throughout the discussion, processing everything. Now she spoke up.
"When?" she asked. "If we’re doing this, when?"
"Today," Markov said. "The longer we wait, the more restless the wolves beco, the harder they’ll be to control. Damon’s wolf is already pushing. If we don’t give him an outlet soon, he’ll take control whether Damon wants him to or not."
"Today," Eve repeated, feeling ice in her stomach. "So in a few hours, I’m going to be claid by another feral wolf. Possibly for hours. Possibly violently enough to need sedation."
"Yes," Markov said, not sugar-coating it. "That’s exactly what’s going to happen. And then, probably tomorrow or the next day, Silas’s wolf will claim you. Three separate claimings, three potentially brutal experiences. But Eve...." His ancient eyes softened slightly. "You’re strong enough for this. You survived Kane. You’ll survive Rex and Silas’s wolf."
"Cain," Silas provided. And he’s....." He paused, struggling with words. "He’s the most dominant of the three. The most possessive. When he surfaces, when he claims her....it’s going to be worse than Kane. Possibly worse than Rex. I can feel it."
"Then we’ll be even more prepared for that claiming," Dr. Thorne said practically. "But one crisis at a ti. Right now, we focus on Rex. On getting Damon’s wolf to claim Eve safely."
"How long do I have to prepare?" Eve asked, trying to keep her voice steady.
"A few hours," Markov said."
"It sounds like you’re preparing for a dical procedure," Eve said.
"We are," Dr. Thorne confird. "Because that’s essentially what this is. The wolf needs to claim you. We’re just making sure you survive the claiming."
Eve looked at Damon, seeing the guilt and fear written across his face. "It’s okay," she told him. "I can handle this. I handled Kane. I’ll handle Rex too."
"You shouldn’t have to handle this," Damon said, his voice rough. "You should be claid gently, lovingly, by your mates who are in full control. Not by feral wolves who might kill you."
"But that’s not the reality we have," Eve said softly. "The reality is I’m mated to three alpha wolves, and their second half need to claim . So we do it safely. We do it carefully. And we survive it. Together."
"When you put it like that," Damon said, almost smiling despite the situation, "it sounds almost reasonable."
"It’s not reasonable," Silas said. "It’s terrifying. But it’s necessary. So...." He stood. "Let’s start preparing. The sooner we set everything up, the sooner we can get this over with."
*****************
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON - 2:00 PM
The bedroom had been transford and everything breakable had been removed. dical equipnt filled the adjoining room where incase of any ergency
Eve stood in the center of it all, wearing nothing but a simple robe, and tried not to panic.
"Rember," Dr. Thorne said from the doorway, "we’ll be outside the door the entire ti. If it gets too dangerous, if I see signs of serious injury, I’ll intervene imdiately. You’re not alone in this."
"I know," Eve said, though her voice shook slightly.
Damian and Silas ca to say goodbye before they left for the pack house.
"We’ll be monitoring through the bond," Damian said, pulling Eve into a tight embrace. "We’ll feel what you feel. If it’s too much, if you need us, we’ll break every speed limit getting back here."
"Don’t," Eve said. "Don’t co back unless Dr. Thorne calls you. If you co back while Rex is claiming , your wolves might surface. Then we’re back to the original problem....three feral wolves and one succubus. I won’t survive that."
"She’s right," Silas said, though he looked like the words physically pained him. "We have to trust the plan. Trust that she’ll survive. Trust that Rex will eventually let her go like Kane did."
He kissed her....long and deep and full of desperation. "Be strong. Be brave. Survive. And when this is over, when all three wolves have claid you, we’ll never have to do anything like this again."
"I’ll survive," Eve promised, with more confidence than she felt. "I always do."
They left, and suddenly it was just Eve and Damon in the modified bedroom.
"How do you want to do this?" Damon asked, his voice carefully controlled. "Do you want to....to ease into it? Or just...."
"Just do it," Eve said. "Get on the bed. Let Rex surface. The anticipation is worse than the actual claiming will be."
"You don’t know that," Damon said.
"No," Eve agreed. "But sitting here dreading it isn’t helping. So please....just let him out. Let’s get this over with."
Damon nodded, moving to the bed. Eve joined him, her heart pounding.
"I love you," Damon said. "No matter what Rex does, no matter how rough it gets....I love you. And I’m so fucking sorry you have to go through this."
"I love you too," Eve said. "Now stop apologizing and let your wolf claim his mate."
Damon closed his eyes, and Eve felt the mont he stopped fighting for control.
His eyes snapped open....pure molten gold.
Rex had arrived.
And from the feral grin spreading across his face, he had every intention of making his claiming even more morable than Kane’s.
"MATE," Rex growled, and lunged.
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