Sacrificed To The Triplet Alpha Kings

Lilith’s POV

Lilith woke up with no intention of doing anything useful that morning.

She lay there for a while staring at the ceiling. Listening to the estate wake up around her. Distant sounds. Footsteps in the corridor. Somewhere below the familiar clatter of Agnes in the kitchen.

She did not move for a long time.

But eventually she got up.

Not because she wanted to. Just because lying there was starting to feel worse than getting up.

She pulled the blanket around her shoulders and moved to the window.

Sat down on the window seat and looked out.

The pack training ground stretched out below her. Already busy even this early. Warriors running drills in two lines.....moving in formation, breaking apart, coming back together. Their breath misting in the cold morning air. A trainer at the far end calling instructions she could not hear through the glass.

To the left a group of younger wolves were running sprints between two markers. One of them....barely older than a teenager, kept falling behind and kept getting back up without being told to.

Lilith watched him get up for the fourth time.

She pulled the blanket tighter and kept watching.

A group of female warriors were sparring on the far side of the ground. Proper sparring....no holding back, no careful movements. One of them took a hit that would have floored Lilith and shook it off and came back harder.

Lilith watched her.

Thought about what it must feel like to move through the world like that.

Like your body was something you trusted completely.

She stayed at the window until the cold coming through the glass made the blanket useless and her tea had gone completely cold in her hand.

Then she went downstairs.

Agnes had made enough food for an army again like always.

This was not unusual. What was unusual was the way Agnes was moving around the kitchen and giving out to omegas instructions that morning. Not the warm way she always does it every other mornings, it just felt different.

Lilith sat down at the counter.

Looked at the spread in front of her.

Looked at the empty chairs where the brothers usually sat.

”Where are they,” she said.

Agnes set a fresh cup of tea in front of her without being asked.

”Pack duties,” she said.

”All three of them.” Lilith asked.

”All three of them.” Agnes replied.

Lilith looked at Agnes but Agnes avoided her gaze and looked at the stove instead.

”Agnes.” Lilith pressed.

”Eat your breakfast Lilith.” Agnes said and then moved to the stove.

Lilith didn’t say anything after that, she focused on the food in front of her and ate her breakfast.

***

She went outside after.

Not with any particular destination in mind. Just....out. Into the compound. Into the morning air that was colder than she expected and smelled like pine and wood smoke and something else underneath that she was starting to recognize as simply the pack. The particular scent of a lot of wolves living in close proximity.

The compound was busy.

Busier than usual. She noticed that immediately.

Pack members moving with intention. Not the ordinary morning drift of people going about their day....something more directed. More purposeful. Warriors carrying large bundles of wood from the forest edge and stacking them in a cleared area near the far end of the ground. Two older omegas sweeping the pack gathering center with long brooms, clearing it of leaves and debris. A group of women stringing something between two posts that looked like it might be lanterns.

Lilith stood in the middle of it all and watched them move around her.

Something was being prepared but nobody had told her what.

She watched a young warrior roll a large stone into position near the wood pile and thought about asking him, but she decided against it almost immediately because had the expression of someone with a job to do and no time for questions.

She kept walking.

The young wolves were playing near the eastern wall.

A group of maybe eight or nine of them. Various ages....the youngest looked about four, the oldest maybe twelve. Running and tumbling and making noise in the way that children made noise when they had been told to stay out of the way of the adults and had interpreted that as permission to do whatever they wanted.

Lilith stopped and watched them.

One of them....a small girl with dark braids and a gap where her two front teeth should have been.....noticed her watching and stopped running.

She looked at Lilith and tilted her head.

Then ran directly at her.

Lilith had approximately two seconds to prepare before the small girl skidded to a stop in front of her and thrust a handful of wildflowers at her face.

”These are for you,” the girl said. Very seriously.

Lilith looked at the flowers. Then at the girl.

”For me,” she said.

”Agnes said you are the Alpha’s mate,” the girl said. Still very serious. ”My mum said that means you are important. Important people get flowers.”

Lilith took the flowers.

They were slightly crushed from being carried in a small fist. Mostly yellow. One of them was missing most of its petals.

”Thank you,” Lilith said.

The girl looked satisfied. Then immediately turned and ran back to her friends like the transaction was complete.

Lilith looked at the flowers in her hand.

Something tightened in her chest.

She stood there for a moment with the crushed wildflowers and the sound of children playing around her and thought.....without meaning to.....about her father. About the way he used to bring her flowers from the garden when she was small. Always slightly crushed. Always presented with enormous seriousness like they were the most important thing in the world.

She closed her fingers around the stems.

And kept walking.

She had been sitting with a group of female pack members near the eastern wall for maybe twenty minutes....listening more than talking, laughing at something an older woman named Bria said about her mate’s terrible cooking....when she felt eyes on her.

She looked up.

Sera was standing at the edge of the group.