Sacrificed To The Triplet Alpha Kings

Nicholas looked at him and he didn’t even care to dispute the claim.

He simply held Sebastian’s gaze with a look that said "Yes, and so what?"

The look that had ended more arguments than any words he’d ever spoken.

Sebastian held it for three seconds.

Then exhaled through his nose and looked away first.

"Lucian," Nicholas said.

Lucian didn’t respond immediately.

"How is Kael holding up," Lucian said, without raising his head. His voice was carefully measured, like he was choosing each word from a very short list of safe ones. "Is he giving you any sign that the curse will affect him tonight. More than usual."

"That’s what I need to know too," Sebastian said, straightening slightly in his chair. The laziness burning off him now, replaced by something more alert. "Because I need to understand what the next thirty minutes looks like, Nicholas. Are we going under together. Or will you have enough of yourself left to keep things in check while Rhen and Zev are...."

"I don’t know," Nicholas said.

The office went quiet around him.

"Honestly," he continued, "I don’t know. The mark has helped. The way Kael responds to the moon’s pull tonight...it’s different from last month, it....more quiet.

Like he has something to hold onto now that he didn’t have before." He paused, choosing his words with the same care Lucian had. "But the curse requires all three marks. Not one. All three. Until you’ve both claimed her the curse is still active. Still present. So whatever relief i feel right now....it is partial." He looked at them. "Which means tonight is still dangerous. For all of us."

Sebastian nodded once.

"So if anything goes wrong....if either of you feel Rhen or Zev going somewhere you can’t pull them back from, Callum and your betas will have the chains ready." Nicholas held Sebastian’s gaze, then Lucian’s. One after the other. Making sure they both heard this completely. "Because if we go under, we will kill her. All three of us. She will not survive it."

The room was very quite around them, outside the windows the sky had deepened to the unique dark blue that came just before full moon. The moon has not yet fully risen but Nicholas could feel it....the pull of it already sitting heavy in his chest, Kael pacing underneath his ribs with slow deliberate steps.

"She barely survived Kael," Sebastian said quietly. The humor was entirely gone from his voice now. "And the state she was in afterward...."

"I know." Nicholas said.

"She would not survive Rhen." Sebastian’s jaw tightened. "Not like this. Not with the curse running hot and the bond incomplete. He would not..." He stopped. Started again. "Rhen would not know to stop. He would not be able to."

"I know," Nicholas said again.

"She would break," Sebastian’s voice came out flat. "She would die, Nicholas. And we would not even...." His voice stopped.

He pressed his fingers to his mouth briefly.

Looked at the desk.

At the surface where she had been forty minutes ago.

Lucian had gone completely silent on the sofa.

He had been silent for several minutes now.

"Lucian," Nicholas called out to him, but Lucian didn’t reply.

"Are you all right?" He called out again

Lucian raised his head and Nicholas could see that his golden eyes were not entirely golden anymore.

The amber had bled into them....the unique shade that meant Zev was not close to the surface. Zev was already there. Had been there, Nicholas realized, for longer than any of them had acknowledged.

"Not really," Lucian replied.

Sebastian looked at his younger brother.

"Do you need the chains now, brother?" he asked.

Lucian turned his head and looked at Sebastian with his golden eyes.

"Fuck you," he said quietly.

Despite everything, the corner of Sebastian’s mouth moved.

Nicholas looked at Lucian for a moment longer....at the tension in every line of his body, at the way his hands were gripped together between his knees, knuckles pale, and made a decision.

"Her scent," Lucian said, before Nicholas could speak. His voice was low and rough at the edges. "It’s still....I can still smell her. In this room. In the air."

He exhaled slowly. "Zev knows exactly where she is right now. He can feel it, The bond....even incomplete....he can feel her through it. That she is upstairs. That she is safe. That she is...." He stopped. His jaw worked. "It is not helping."

"No," Nicholas said. "I imagine it isn’t."

"He wants to go to her."

"I know."

"Not to hurt her." Lucian’s eyes met his. "I need you to understand that. It is not....Zev does not want to hurt her. He wants to....." He stopped again and pressed his mouth shut.

"Claim her," Sebastian said quietly.

Lucian closed his eyes briefly.

"Yes," he said.

Nicholas looked at his younger brother....at the cost of what it was taking to sit in this chair and say these words instead of following the pull that Zev was putting on him, the instinct of an unclaimed wolf whose mate was forty feet above him, then he made the decision for the three of them.

"Callum is already outside her room," Nicholas said. "I called him over before I came back in. No one goes near that door tonight. No one." He paused. "But I’m going to call him here now. I want him and your betas in this room, with us, while we go over the plan. Because I am not leaving anything to chance tonight."

Sebastian looked at Lucian then looked back at Nicholas.

"Call them," he said. His voice was steady now, the humor was gone and something more serious replace it "Let’s get this done. The moon won’t wait."

Nicholas pressed the mindlink open.

Callum. Bring Eli and Finn to my office. Now. Leave one of your men at her door.....nobody enters, nobody exits, no exceptions.

The response was immediate.

On our way, Alpha. Two minutes.

Nicholas closed the link.

The three of them sat in the office that still smelled of their mate, with the moon rising outside the windows and the wolves pressing closer with every passing minute.

They were choosing this.

That was what Nicholas held onto....the only thing, in this moment, worth holding onto. They were choosing, with full knowledge of what it cost, to lock themselves away from the woman sleeping upstairs rather than risk her.

That was not weakness.

That was the only thing that looked like love, tonight.

The knock came at the office door.

"Come in," Nicholas said.

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