Sacrificed To The Triplet Alpha Kings

The silence that followed was deafening.

Lilith looked at all three of them and saw the truth written on their faces....the guilt, the shame, the desperate need to deny what she was saying even though they could not.

"That’s what I thought," she whispered.

She turned to walk away but Nicholas moved faster than she could track, his hand closing around her upper arm and spinning her back to face him.

"You don’t get to walk away from this," he said, and his eyes were burning gold now.

"You don’t get to run every time things get hard."

"Let go of me....." Lilith struggled, trying to untangle herself from him.

"No." His grip tightened just slightly....not enough to hurt but enough to keep her in place. "You want the truth? Fine. We’ll give you the truth. All of it. But you’re going to stand here and listen."

"I don’t want to hear anything you have to say...."

"Too bad." Sebastian moved to her other side, boxing her in. "Because you’re going to hear it anyway. Starting with what actually happened the night your father died."

Lilith tried to pull away but Nicholas’s grip was iron and Sebastian had moved close enough that she was trapped between them. Lucian stood behind her, completing the circle, and she could feel all three of them through the bonds....their guilt, their desperation, their absolute refusal to let her leave.

"Victor Thorne was helping the Morvaine coven and a couple of other covens hide from hunters," Nicholas said, his voice hard. "Witches were being hunted across the territories.....captured, tortured, killed. Your father was one of the few wolves who believed the covens deserved protection. Our father disagreed."

Lilith’s breath caught but she did not interrupt.

"There was a meeting," Nicholas continued. "A negotiation between packs and the covens. Victor was there as a mediator from his own pack. We were there as well The meeting went badly. The hunters found the location. And everything went to hell."

"There was an ambush," Sebastian added quietly. "Hunters on one side, wolves on the other, witches caught in the middle. Our father and the Shadowmare’s pack Alpha made a call, The chose to protect the packs over the covens. They ordered the wolves to retreat and leave the witches to fend for themselves."

"Your father refused," Lucian said from behind her. "He stayed to help the witches evacuate. He fought alongside them while our father pulled the pack back to safety. And he died for it."

Lilith felt like she could not breathe. "Your father left him there to die?"

"Yes," Nicholas said bluntly. "Our father prioritized pack safety over everything else. It was the pragmatic choice. The strategic choice. And it got your father killed."

"And you just left him there?" Lilith’s voice rose.

"We were under orders...." Sebastian started.

"You were ADULTS!" Lilith screamed. "You could have fought back! You could have stayed! You could have done SOMETHING instead of just abandoning him!"

"You’re right," Nicholas said, and his voice was heavy with guilt. "We should have fought our father’s orders. We should have stayed. But we didn’t. And your father died because of our cowardice."

"Don’t call it cowardice," Lilith spat. "Call it what it was. You chose your pack over him. You chose to follow orders over doing what was right. And now my father is dead and my mother is catatonic and I have nothing left because of YOUR choices!"

The bonds were pulling at her now, Nicholas trying to send comfort through his connection, Sebastian’s desperate need to fix this bleeding through and Lilith wanted to tear them out of her chest.

"I need to leave," she said, turning toward the door. "I can’t be here. I can’t look at you..."

Nicholas moved faster than she could track, his hand closing around her wrist and spinning her back to face him. "No."

"Let go of me..." She tried to remove his hands from her wrist.

"No." His other arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her back against his chest, pinning her in place. "You don’t get to run. Not this time."

"I’m not running...I’m LEAVING...."

"Same thing." Nicholas’s breath was hot against her ear and she felt his control slipping, felt Kael rising to the surface. "You’re angry. You’re hurt. And you want to punish us by walking away. But I’m not letting you go."

"You can’t keep me prisoner...." she said.

"I’m not keeping you prisoner," Nicholas said, and his voice dropped to something dangerous. "I’m keeping you safe. From Victoria. From yourself. From making a decision you’ll regret."

Lilith tried to pull free but his grip was iron. "The only thing I regret is ever signing that contract that brought me to you as the payment for a debt my father never owned in the first place!"

Sebastian appeared in front of her, cutting off her words when his hands came up to cup her face. "Don’t say that, Lilith."

"I hate you." she said with so much venom in her voice.

"No you don’t," Sebastian said, and his thumbs brushed away tears she had not realized were falling. "You’re angry. You’re betrayed. But you don’t hate us. The bonds won’t let you."

"Fuck the bonds...."

"The bonds are the only honest thing between us right now," Sebastian interrupted. "Everything else is words and explanations and excuses. But the bonds don’t lie. You can feel what we feel. Feel our guilt. Our regret. Our desperate need to make this right."

Lilith could feel it. Could feel all three of them through the connections threading between them....Nicholas’s steady determination at her back, Sebastian’s fierce protectiveness in front of her, Lucian’s barely controlled violence somewhere behind Sebastian.

And underneath all of it, threaded through everything else, was love.

Desperate, consuming, absolutely uncompromising love.

It made her want to scream.

"Let me go," she whispered.

"Never," Nicholas said against her ear.

"Please....." her voice came out so small and so broken.

"Listen to us first," Sebastian said, his hands still cupping her face. "Let us explain what really happened. All of it. And then if you still want to leave, we’ll...."

"You’ll what?" Lilith demanded. "Let me go? We both know that’s not true. The bonds won’t let you. Your wolves won’t let you."

"You’re right," Nicholas admitted. "We won’t let you go. But we’ll give you space if that’s what you need. We’ll give you time. We’ll give you anything except the option to walk away and choose Victoria over us."