Sacrificed To The Triplet Alpha Kings

Lilith’s POV

She woke up feeling different.

Not dramatically. Not in a way she could point to immediately and name.

Just....different.

Like something had shifted in the night while she was sleeping and she was only now catching up to it.

She lay there for a moment staring at the ceiling.

The bond was warm in her chest the way it always was. Nicholas at one end of it....steady and familiar, that constant awareness of him she could recognize anywhere now.

But there were two other things sitting alongside it this morning.

Not the bond, but something else.

Warmer than yesterday. Closer than yesterday.

She pressed her hand flat against her chest, and thought about Sebastian’s hands on her hips yesterday and the way Lucian’s golden eyes had looked at her.

She got up to prepare for the day before she lost herself into thinking about gold and black eyes and what they had done to her yesterday.

***

Agnes was already in the kitchen when she got there.

Already had tea on the counter before Lilith sat down. Did not say anything. Just set it in front of her and went back to whatever she was doing at the stove.

This was what Lilith loved about Agnes.

No performance. No fuss.

Lilith wrapped both hands around the mug and looked out the window at the estate grounds.

The morning was grey and still. Dew on the grass. The forest at the edge of the territory dark and unchanged.

”Drink your tea,” Agnes said without turning around.

Lilith smiled and drank everything in one go, Then she stood up, said thank you to Agnes and decided to go for a walk around the estate.

***

She found Sebastian in the library after leaving the kitchen.

She had not been looking for him specifically. She had been walking...just moving through the estate the way she did when she needed to think....and she turned a corner and entered the library and there he was.

Sitting in the chair by the window, with a book open on his knee.

He looked up when she came in, his dark eyes moved over her face.

She walked toward him and sat down in the chair across from him.

Neither of them said anything for a while.

”You okay,” Sebastian said finally.

”Yes,” she said. ”You?”

”Yes, i am okay” he replied.

The library was quiet around them. The morning light shining through the tall windows.

”Sebastian.”

He looked at her.

”Two days ago,” she said carefully. ”I went to see Nicholas.”

His expression did not change.

”I know,” he said.

She looked at him. ”He told you.”

”This morning. In the office.” He held her gaze. ”He told us about the new post, We are handling it Lilith.”

”I know you are,” she said.

He was quiet for a moment, then he turned to look at her. ”Are you scared?” he asked.

She thought about the question carefully before she turned to look at him.

”Yes,” she said. ”But not the way I used to be scared.” She looked at her hands. ”Before I came here I was scared of everything. Every bill. Every morning I woke up and had to figure out how to keep going.” She paused. ”This is different. This is....I am scared but I know I am not alone in it.”

Sebastian looked at her for a long moment.

”You are not alone in it, Lilith” he said. ”Not even slightly.”

She believed him.

She looked at him sitting there with his book closed on his knee and his dark eyes steady and thought about what Wren had said.

”You are in love with him.”

Wren had said that about Nicholas.

But sitting here now, looking at Sebastian she thought...it was more complicated than that. More than one person. More than one thread. More than anything she had words for yet.

She did not try to find the words.

”The mark,” she said quietly.

Sebastian went still beside her.

She looked at him directly. ”I know it is coming. I can feel the bond....what it is now and what it is not yet.” She held his gaze. ”I am not asking you to rush. I am just....” She stopped. ”I wanted you to know that I know. And that I am not afraid of it.”

Sebastian looked at her for a long moment.

Something moved through his face.

Raw and honest, like he wasn’t trying to hide his emotions at all.

”Okay,” he said.

Lilith nodded and then stood up getting ready to go back to her room.

”Lilith.” Sebastian called out when she was about to walk out of the door.

She stopped and turned back to look at him.

He was still sitting in the chair. Still looking at her with those dark eyes

”Thank you,” he said quietly. ”For telling me that.”

She held his gaze for one moment.

Then she walked out of the library and pulled the door closed behind her.

***

She ran into Lucian on the stairs.

Literally.

She had just turned the corner and walked directly into his chest and his hands came up and caught her before she could stumble back.

”Careful,” he said.

She looked up at him.

His golden eyes were warm as he looked down at her.

”Hi,” she said.

”Hi yourself,” he said smiling down at her.

He didn’t let go of her arms immediately, he just held her there for a moment. Looking at her face the way he always looked at things....like he was memorising them, storing them, making sure he would not forget a single detail.

But underneath his smiling face, Lilith could see the way his golden eyes were more brighter than they should be, which only means that his wolf was close to the surface again.

”Lucian,” she said.

”Yes.”

”Your wolf,” she said carefully. ”Is he.....”

”Impossible,” Lucian said. ”He has been impossible for weeks.” His hands on her arms loosened slightly. ”Less impossible today than yesterday.”

She looked at him, nodded her head and said ”I guess that’s good news then.”

Lucian nodded and then he let go. ”Off you do then, I’ll see you later this evening when i get back home.”

She nodded and then went up the stairs, but she felt his eyes on her back until she turned the corner.