Sacrificed To The Triplet Alpha Kings

The medical wing was quieter at night than it ever was during the day. The evening staff had completed their rounds, the day healer gone home to rest, leaving only the night attendant at the main desk, a young omega named Eva who barely looked up as Lilith passed.

Lilith had lost count of how many times she’d walked this corridor in the past four months. Hundreds, maybe. The path had become so familiar it was muscle memory now...past the empty patient rooms, past the supplies cabinet, down to the last door on the left where the only person left in this world who loved her unconditionally lay waiting for a voice she might or might not be able to hear.

Tonight felt different though. Tonight carried a finality that none of the other visits had carried, a weight that made each step feel heavier than the last.

She pushed open the door to her mother’s room and stepped inside.

Her mother lay exactly as she always did...still, peaceful, breathing the slow, even breaths that had become the rhythm of her existence. The machines beside the bed beeped their steady, unconcerned song, indifferent to everything that was about to change. Lilith moved to the chair she’d sat in so many times before and pulled it close, settling into the familiar position.

”Hi, Mama,” she whispered.

The room remained silent except for the machines.

She took her mother’s hand, holding it between both of hers the way she always did, marveling, as she always did, at how thin the skin had become, how fragile everything felt when you were trying desperately hard not to break it.

”I have to tell you something,” Lilith said, her voice barely audible in the quiet. ”And I need you to listen, even though I know you can’t respond. I need you to hear me, Mama. I need to believe that some part of you is still in there, listening to me and that you can still understand what i am saying.”

She squeezed her mother’s hand gently.

”I’m leaving tomorrow,” she continued. ”Early morning, before most of the pack is even awake. The Blackwood alphas are taking me with them to their territory.” Her voice wavered slightly, but she pushed through it. ”I know how that sounds. I know what you’d say if you could speak. You’d probably scold me for being reckless. You’d tell me to be careful. You’d make me promise a thousand times that I wouldn’t let myself be hurt.”

She brought her mother’s hand to her chest, holding it against her heart.

”I can’t promise that, Mama. I can’t promise I won’t be hurt, because I think some of that is inevitable. But I can promise you that I’m trying. I’m trying to be brave. I’m trying to be strong. I’m trying to be the kind of person you always told me I could be, even when the world was telling me something different.”

She closed her eyes, letting the silence settle around her for a moment.

”I still cant believe that i am their mate Mama,” she said quietly. ”All three of them. Nicholas, Sebastian, and Lucian. It doesn’t make sense. And it seems impossible, given everything that happened with Papa and with their father. But apparently the Moon Goddess doesn’t make mistakes, according to everyone who’s had an opinion on the matter.” A sad smile pulled at her mouth. ”Papa used to say that too, didn’t he? He said the same thing when I didn’t shift.”

She opened her eyes and looked down at her mother’s still face.

”I think he was right,” she continued. ”I think maybe all of this, all of the pain, all of the fear, all of the impossible things that have happened in the last four months, maybe they’re all pieces of something bigger that we can’t see yet. Maybe the Moon Goddess knows something we don’t.”

Her voice broke slightly, and she had to pause, swallowing hard before she could go on.

”I’m going to miss you so much, Mama,” she whispered. ”I’m going to miss this. Sitting with you. Talking to you. Pretending that maybe somewhere, somehow, some part of you is hearing me.” Tears began sliding down her cheeks, and this time she didn’t try to stop them. ”I’m going to miss Shadowmere. I’m going to miss Emma. I’m going to miss the life I was supposed to have, even though I know that life was never really mine to begin with.”

She let herself cry for a moment, still holding her mother’s hand, still pressing it against her heart like she could somehow transfer all of her courage, all of her strength, directly into the woman lying before her.

”But I’m going to come back,” she said finally, her voice steadier now despite the tears still falling. ”I don’t know when. I don’t know how often the brothers will let me leave Blackwood territory to visit. But I’m going to come back, Mama. I’m going to sit in this chair and I’m going to talk to you and I’m going to tell you everything that happens to me out there. You’re going to hear about every moment of it, and maybe...maybe that will be enough to bring you back. Maybe hearing about my life will be the thing that finally wakes you up.”

She wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand, not bothering with the tears anymore, letting them fall freely.

”And if you don’t wake up,” she continued, her voice dropping to barely a whisper, ”if you stay like this forever, I want you to know that’s okay too. I want you to know that you didn’t fail me by getting sick. You didn’t fail me by being unconscious for these four months. You couldn’t have protected me any better than you already did, and I need you to know that I’ve made peace with that.”

She brought her mother’s hand up to her lips and kissed it gently.