Sacrificed To The Triplet Alpha Kings

"But?" Nicholas asked.

"But I have no proof," Victoria admitted. "All I know is that Thalia was in the main house when it burned. I found remains I believed were hers. Performed death rites. Mourned her along with everyone else."

"And now she’s alive," Nicholas said. "Which means either you made a mistake identifying the body, or..."

"Or she faked her death deliberately," Victoria finished. "Used the attack as cover to disappear. Spent fifteen years making dark deals and corrupting her magic so she could come back strong enough to do what our mother never let her do."

"Control supernatural bonds," Nicholas said.

"All of them," Victoria confirmed. "If what she told Lilith is true..if she really plans to ’reshape the world’....then she’s not just talking about manipulating individual connections. She’s talking about controlling every bond in existence. Pack bonds. Mate bonds. Coven connections. Everything."

Nicholas’s expression darkened. "That’s not possible."

"With pure Morvaine magic, it might be," Victoria said. "If she can force Lilith to channel ancestral power while Thalia wields it, if she can corrupt that pure magic the way she’s corrupted her own...then yes. It might be possible."

"Then we can’t let her take Lilith."

"Obviously," Victoria said. "Which is why I agreed to this truce. Thalia is the immediate threat. But Nicholas..." She met his gaze directly. "Once Thalia is dealt with, this alliance ends. And I will do whatever it takes to make sure Lilith chooses to leave you."

"Even if that’s not what she wants?"

"Especially if that’s not what she wants," Victoria said. "Because she’s bonded to you. Her judgment is compromised. She’ll sacrifice herself to save you because that’s what mate bonds make you do. And I won’t let that happen."

Nicholas stood. "You don’t give her enough credit."

"I give her exactly the credit she deserves," Victoria shot back. "She’s strong and brave and stubborn. But she’s also twenty years old and in love with three men who need her to die or destroy herself to save them. That’s not a fair choice. That’s coercion dressed up as free will."

"And taking that choice away from her entirely is better?" Nicholas challenged.

"If it keeps her alive, yes."

They stared at each other across the small room...two people who wanted the same thing but could not agree on how to achieve it.

Finally, Nicholas spoke. "What do you know about breaking mate bonds that have already completed?"

Victoria’s eyes narrowed. "Why?"

"Because if Lilith chooses the magic sacrifice option, if she burns out her power to save us, then we have to sever the bonds to keep them from killing her. And I need to know if Henrik can actually do that without killing her in the process."

Victoria was quiet for a moment. "Henrik is the best bond-breaker I know. But severing three complete mate bonds simultaneously? That’s..." She stopped. "That’s never been done before. Not successfully."

"What happens if he tries?"

"Best case scenario? Lilith survives but the magical trauma leaves her permanently damaged. Memory loss. Emotional instability. Chronic pain. Worst case? The backlash kills her instantly."

Nicholas’s jaw tightened. "Then we need a better plan."

"Agreed." Victoria moved back to her desk and pulled out a specific grimoire, one she had been studying for years. "There might be a way to sever the bonds more safely. A ritual that spreads the trauma out over time instead of doing it all at once. But it requires..." She stopped.

"Requires what?"

"It requires all three Alphas to participate willingly," Victoria said. "To consciously release your claim on her. To choose to let her go."

"That’s...." Nicholas stopped. Took a breath. "That’s not easy to do when every instinct is screaming to hold on."

"I know," Victoria said. "But if you truly want what’s best for her, if you’re willing to lose her to save her, then this is the only way to do it that doesn’t risk killing her."

Nicholas looked down at the grimoire. "Show me."

Victoria opened the book and turned it so he could see the ritual outlined on the pages. They stood side by side, Alpha and witch, reading through instructions that would tear apart bonds neither of them wanted broken.

"This could work," Nicholas said finally.

"If Lilith chooses the magic sacrifice," Victoria said. "And if you’re all strong enough to let her go."

"We will be," Nicholas said. "If that’s what she needs."

Victoria wanted to believe him. Wanted to think the Alphas would actually release their mate even when it destroyed them.

But she had seen too many bonds, seen how they twisted people, made them possessive and desperate and willing to hurt the people they loved rather than let them go.

She would believe it when she saw it.

"There’s something else," Nicholas said. "Something I haven’t told Lilith yet."

Victoria looked up. "What?"

"Morgana said the curse is feeding on Lilith’s magic," Nicholas said. "That’s why her power keeps exploding. The curse is using her Morvaine abilities to strengthen itself. Which means the longer we wait, the more her magic grows....the faster the curse will kill her."

Victoria felt ice slide down her spine. "How long do we have?"

"I don’t know," Nicholas admitted. "Morgana didn’t give us a timeline. Just said that Lilith’s power awakening is accelerating the curse’s progression."

"Then we have even less time than I thought," Victoria said.

"Yes."

They stood in silence for a moment, the weight of impossible choices pressing down on them both.

"Can we actually work together?" Nicholas asked finally. "Can we trust each other enough to protect Lilith from Thalia while knowing we’re going to be enemies again the moment the threat is over?"

Victoria considered the question. Considered this man who had bonded her niece and cursed her and was now standing in her room looking for ways to save Lilith even if it meant destroying himself.

She still hated him. Still blamed his family for Marcus’s death. Still wanted to take Lilith far away from this estate and these bonds and this curse.

But she also recognized something in Nicholas that she understood intimately.

Desperation born of love.

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