Sacrificed To The Triplet Alpha Kings

Sebastian left without another word and the door closed behind him with a soft click.

Nicholas looked at Lucian and found his youngest brother staring at the floor with his jaw tight and his whole body vibrating with tension.

"Are you okay?" Nicholas asked.

Lucian looked up and his eyes were gold. "Do I have a choice?"

"No," Nicholas said honestly. "None of us do."

Lucian laughed again, sharp and humorless. "Seven weeks. Two incomplete bonds. And something out there powerful enough to steal our mate from right under our noses." He met Nicholas’s eyes. "We’re fucked, aren’t we?"

"Probably."

"And there’s nothing we can do about it except wait for her to wake up and hope she still wants us after everything."

"Yes."

Lucian nodded slowly and then turned and walked out of the office without another word, leaving Nicholas alone with his maps and his notes and the crushing weight of everything they stood to lose.

Nicholas sat down at his desk and stared at the map on the wall where he had marked Victoria’s last known locations. Seven weeks until the deadline. Less than that before whatever had taken Lilith came back for her. And somewhere out there in the darkness, enemies he could not see were moving pieces on a board he did not fully understand.

They needed to complete the bonds. Fast.

They needed to protect Lilith from threats they could not identify.

They needed her to choose them when she woke up and learned the truth, because they don’t even know how much information she now has about what they have been hiding from her.

And they needed all of it to happen before time ran out.

Nicholas closed his eyes and reached for the bond, felt Lilith on the other end....sleeping deeply now, her presence steady and warm and completely unaware of the storm waiting for her when she opened her eyes.

"Come back to us," he whispered into the empty office. "And please. Please choose to stay."

Outside the window, dawn was beginning to break over the forest.

And Nicholas sat alone in his office and waited.

***

Sebastian POV

Sebastian walked back down the hallway toward Nicholas’s room with his chest aching and his hands shaking and Rhen clawing at him from the inside.

The incomplete bond was a constant pull now, sharp and insistent, dragging him back to her even though he had only been gone for twenty minutes.

He pushed open the door and found Agnes still sitting in the chair beside the bed, her hands folded in her lap, her eyes on Lilith’s sleeping face. Dr. Aldric was at the bedside checking Lilith’s pulse again, his expression thoughtful.

"How is she?" Sebastian asked quietly.

"Stable," Dr. Aldric said without looking up. "Her vitals are strong. She’s sleeping naturally now. The danger has passed."

Sebastian felt some of the tension leave his shoulders but the ache in his chest did not ease. He moved closer to the bed and looked down at Lilith....She looked so small and fragile against the dark sheets, her hair tangled across the pillow, her face looking too pale.

And there on her throat, opposite from where Kael’s mark sat, was the mark Sebastian had left. Incomplete. Glowing faintly with a silver light that pulsed in time with her heartbeat.

His mark.

His bond.

Half-finished and aching.

"Can I have a moment alone with her?" Sebastian asked.

Agnes stood immediately. "Of course, dear." She touched his arm gently as she passed. "She’ll wake up. She’s strong."

Sebastian nodded but did not trust himself to speak.

Dr. Aldric gathered his supplies and moved toward the door. "I’ll be downstairs if you need me. Send for me the moment she wakes."

"I will."

The door closed behind them and Sebastian was alone with Lilith and the suffocating silence.

He sank into the chair Agnes had vacated and reached for Lilith’s hand, threading his fingers through hers carefully. Her skin was warmer now than it had been when they found her in the clearing, but still too cold. Still too still.

"I’m sorry," he whispered.

The words felt inadequate but he did not know what else to say.

"I’m sorry I marked you while you were unconscious. I’m sorry it hurt. I’m sorry I couldn’t complete it." His thumb brushed over her knuckles. "I’m sorry for all of it."

Lilith didn’t respond. Didn’t move. Just kept breathing slowly and evenly like she was a thousand miles away from him.

Sebastian looked at the partial mark on her throat and reached out with his free hand, touching it gently. The moment his fingers made contact he felt the bond flare between them....incomplete and aching but there, it was real and undeniable.

And it was torture.

Before the marking, the pull toward Lilith had been distant. Manageable. He could feel her presence when she was close but it was like sensing someone in the next room, aware they were there but not connected. Now it was different. Now he could feel her. Every breath she took echoed in his own chest. Every heartbeat pulsed through the incomplete bond like a drumbeat he could not escape.

But he could not reach her.

Could not comfort her or protect her or tell her he was here waiting for her to come back.

It was like having a conversation through a wall, he knew she was on the other side but he could not touch her, could not make her hear him, could not bridge the gap that her rejection had left between them.

"Rhen wanted to mark you the first time I saw you," Sebastian said quietly, still holding her hand. "The second wee, during the contract. But I fought him. Told myself it was impossible. That the curse was making us desperate and we were seeing things that were not there."

He paused and looked at her face, so peaceful in sleep.

"Nicholas marked you first and I was jealous. So fucking jealous I could barely stand it. Watching Kael claim you, hearing you scream his name through the bond, feeling you come apart for him, it made me want to tear him apart even though he’s my brother and I love him."

His grip on her hand tightened slightly.

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