Sacrificed To The Triplet Alpha Kings

The sound Lilith made was inhuman. Pure grief and betrayal and rage all twisted together. She stumbled backward and Victoria caught her, wrapped her arms around her, held her while she shattered.

”You lied to me,” Lilith sobbed. ”All of you. You said you were investigating what happened that night. You said you didn’t know if he really betrayed the meeting, you said you didn’t know if he truly committed the offence you accused him of, when you were there, you would have known if he truly.....”

”We are investigating,” Sebastian said desperately. ”We’re trying to find out exactly what happened Lilith. We didn’t understand the full picture...”

”You were there and you didn’t tell me!” Lilith’s scream cut him off. ”You marked me! You bonded with me! And the whole time you knew you were there when my father died and you said NOTHING!”

”We were going to tell you,” Nicholas said, and his voice was raw. ”When the time was right....”

”When?!” Lilith demanded through her tears. ”After the third bond? After you’d tied me to you completely? When I couldn’t leave even if I wanted to?”

”You can always leave,” Lucian said quietly. ”The bonds don’t trap you. You can walk away any time you want.”

”Can I?” Lilith laughed bitterly. ”Can I really? When I can feel you in my head constantly? When my body aches if I’m away from you too long? When the bonds pull at me every second demanding I come back to you?”

”That’s what bonds are,” Sebastian said. ”They’re permanent. They’re supposed to....”

”They’re chains,” Victoria interrupted. ”Beautiful chains wrapped in pleasure and destiny and lies. And they’re using you, Lilith. Using your power to break their curse while they lie to you about who killed your father.”

”Enough,” Nicholas said, and his Alpha voice rang through the room with enough force that even Victoria flinched. ”Lilith is not a child. She’s our mate. And she deserves the truth. All of it. But not here. Not like this. Not from you.”

Victoria’s eyes narrowed. ”You don’t get to decide....”

”Neither do you,” Nicholas cut her off. He looked at Lilith, only at Lilith. ”We lied. We kept things from you we shouldn’t have. And if you want to hate us for that, you have every right. But come home. Let us explain. Let us tell you everything.”

”Why should I believe anything you say?” Lilith whispered.

”Because the bonds don’t lie,” Nicholas said. ”You can feel us through them. Feel our emotions. Our truth. Come home and feel whether we’re lying or not.”

”Don’t listen to them,” Victoria said urgently. ”Lilith, please. Come with me. Let me protect you....”

”Protect her from what?” Sebastian demanded. ”From us? We would die before we let anyone hurt her.”

”You already ARE hurting her!” Victoria’s power flared, the air around her crackling with magic. ”Every day you keep her, every bond you complete, you’re destroying her! And I won’t stand by and watch you do to her what you did to Victor!”

The room was silent except for Lilith’s ragged breathing and the steady beep of the machines keeping her mother alive.

Nicholas could feel her through the bond, the war raging inside her between what Victoria was saying and what the bonds were telling her. Between the family she thought she knew and the mates she was terrified to trust.

”Lilith,” he said softly. ”Come home.”

He held out his hand.

And waited.

Lilith looked at his outstretched hand. Then at Victoria’s fierce protective stance. Then at Sebastian and Lucian standing in the doorway looking like they would burn the world down before they let her go.

”I can’t,” she whispered finally. ”I can’t think here. I can’t....I need space. I need to process....”

”Then come home and we’ll give you space,” Nicholas said. ”We’ll give you anything you need. But please. Don’t let her take you from us.”

”Take her?” Victoria laughed. ”She’s not yours to lose, Alpha. She never was.”

”She’s ours,” all three brothers said in unison, and the bonds flared so bright between them that Lilith gasped and pressed her hand to her chest.

”I can feel them,” she whispered, looking at Victoria with something like desperation. ”I can feel them pulling at me. Demanding I go back.”

”That’s the curse,” Victoria said. ”That’s what they’re doing to you....”

”No,” Lilith interrupted. ”It’s not just the bonds. It’s...” She looked at Nicholas and the expression on her face broke something fundamental inside him. ”I don’t know what to believe. I don’t know who’s telling the truth. But I need to go back. I need to hear your side. I need....”

”You’re making a mistake,” Victoria said, and there were tears streaming down her face now. ”Lilith, please. When you realize the truth, when you understand what they’ve done, what they’re planning, it will be too late. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Then she stepped back from Lilith, her hands falling away, and the loss in her eyes was devastating.

”I’ll give you three days,” Victoria said quietly. ”Three days to hear their lies. And then I’m coming back for you. Whether you want to come or not.”

”You can’t take her against her will....” Sebastian started.

”Can’t I?” Victoria’s smile was dangerous. ”I’m a Morvaine witch, Alpha Sebastian. The last of an ancient bloodline. And Lilith is my blood. If I want to take her, there is nothing your wolves can do to stop me.”

The air crackled with power, wolf and witch facing off across the hospital room and Lilith was caught in the middle looking like she wanted to disappear.

Then Victoria simply vanished. No warning. No flash of light. Just there one moment and gone the next, leaving only the faint scent of old magic hanging in the air.

Nicholas moved immediately, crossing to Lilith and pulling her into his arms before she could collapse. She was shaking violently, her whole body trembling with the aftershocks of everything that had just happened.

”I’ve got you,” he murmured against her hair. ”I’ve got you. You’re safe.”

”Am I?” Lilith’s voice was muffled against his chest. ”Am I really safe with you? Or is she right? Is everything you’ve told me a lie?”

”Not everything,” Nicholas said honestly. ”But too much. And we’re going to fix that. Right now.”

Sebastian moved to Lilith’s other side and Lucian closed the door, sealing them in. The four of them stood there in the quiet hospital room with Lilith’s unconscious mother as witness, and Nicholas felt the weight of everything they had kept from her pressing down on all of them.

”Let’s go home,” Nicholas said quietly. ”And we’ll tell you everything. All of it. The truth about your father. The truth about the curse. The truth about what we are and what you mean to us.”

”And if I don’t like what I hear?” Lilith asked.

”Then we’ll deal with that when we come to it,” Nicholas said. ”But you deserve the truth.”

Lilith pulled back just enough to look up at him, her eyes red and swollen from crying. ”Promise me. No more lies.”

”No more lies,” Nicholas agreed.

”Even if the truth destroys everything?”

”Even then.”

Lilith nodded slowly and let him lead her out of the room, Sebastian’s hand on her lower back and Lucian clearing the path ahead of them.

And with every step they took toward the parking lot, toward the car, toward home, Nicholas felt the clock ticking down.

Three days. Victoria had given them three days.

And Nicholas had no idea if that would be enough time to convince Lilith to stay.

Or if they were about to lose her forever.