Sacrificed To The Triplet Alpha Kings

Friday came earlier than she had expected.

Sebastian was already in her sitting room when she woke up.

Not in her bed.....just in the sitting room, in the armchair by the window with a cup of coffee and a stack of papers he was working through, like this was something he did every morning. Like he’d been doing it for years.

She stood in the archway in her sleep shirt and stared at him.

He looked up.

”There’s coffee,” he said, nodding toward the side table where a second cup was waiting. Still steaming. He’d timed it.

”How did you get in here.”

”I have a key.”

”To my room.”

”To the connecting door.” He turned a page.

She looked at the coffee. Looked at him. Walked over and picked it up.

It was made exactly how she liked it....she hadn’t told any of them how she took her coffee, which meant someone had paid attention the first morning without saying anything about it.

She sat on the sofa and tucked her feet under her.

”I want to visit my mother today,” she said.

He didn’t look up from his papers. ”I know. Car’s ready at ten.”

She looked at him over the rim of her cup.

”You knew I’d ask.”

”You’ve visited her almost every day for one week.” He turned another page. ”You weren’t going to stop because she is stable now.”

”Thank you,” she said quietly.

He picked his papers back up. ”Drink your coffee. Car leaves at ten.”

***

She told the driver to drop her two blocks from the café, Wren had sent her the address last night.

It wasn’t suspicion exactly. It was more like an habit....the particular caution of a woman who had spent the past four months making sure nobody knew more about her life than they needed to. The black car pulling up directly outside felt like too much. Like an announcement.

She walked the two blocks in the cold and pushed open the door of Greer’s and spotted Wren immediately.

Ten years.

Wren Adley looked exactly the same and completely different in the way that ten years always managed simultaneously. Same sharp face, same dark eyes that moved fast and caught everything. But older now....filled out, more settled into herself.

She was already on her second coffee by the look of it and she stood up when she saw Lilith come through the door and for one strange second Lilith didn’t know what to do with her arms.

They hugged, but is was brief and it felt slightly awkward. Ten years of distance compressed into three seconds.

”You look good,” Wren said, pulling back and looking at her properly. Those fast dark eyes moving over her face. ”But.....Different.”

”Different how.”

”I don’t know yet.” She sat back down. ”Sit. I already ordered you a flat white.”

They talked for twenty minutes about nothing important.

Wren’s mother’s new mate’s territory....four hours north, good land, pack that actually functioned. Her job, some kind of logistics work for a mid-sized pack out of the city.

The flat white arrived. Lilith wrapped both hands around it.

”So,” Wren said.

”So.”

”The post.” Wren put her phone on the table between them, screen up. ”I’ve been watching it. It’s spread to three more forums in the last week. Someone’s actively pushing it....it’s not just sitting there organically.”

Lilith looked at the screen.

The original post was still up. Beta Thorne’s wolfless daughter was sent to the Blackwood brothers has payment. Someone should ask what kind of payment it was. Below it now....comments. Speculation. Someone had added her first name. Not her last, but her first name sitting there in a thread being passed between pack networks made her stomach clench.

”Someone’s pushing it,” she said.

”Someone who wants people talking about it.” Wren took her phone back. ”The question is who and why. A random pack member gossiping doesn’t push a post across three forums in a week. That takes intention.”

”I know,” Lilitth said.

Wren looked at her. ”You know who posted it?”

”I know it’s being pushed deliberately. I don’t know who.” She picked up her coffee. ”I’m looking into it.”

The pause that followed had a particular quality.

”You’re looking into it,” Wren said slowly.

”Yes.”

”How.” Another pause. ”Lilith. How do you have the resources to look into a coordinated leak across multiple pack forums.”

Lilith said nothing.

Wren sat back in her chair and looked at her with those fast dark eyes and said: ”You went back.”

It wasn’t a question, but Lilith drank her coffee and chose not to answer.

”Lilith.”

”I’m handling it.”

”You went back to the Blackwood brothers.” Wren’s voice was careful. Controlled. ”After the payment. After whatever happened that you still haven’t told me about.” She leaned forward slightly. ”Are you safe.”

”Yes.”

”Are you sure.”

”Yes.”

Wren looked at her for a long moment. The café moved around them....other tables, other conversations, the sound of the coffee machine and someone’s laptop and the door opening and closing.

”I’ve known you since we were seven years old,” Wren said finally. ”And I know what your yes sounds like when you mean it and what it sounds like when you’re deceiving me.”

Lilith put her cup down.

”I mean it,” she said. ”I’m safe. I promise you that.”

”But you’re not going to tell me what’s actually happening.”

”Not yet.”

Lilith gave her another long look, then she picked up her coffee. ”Not yet,” she repeated. ”Okay.”

’’Then let’s talk about the post.”

They talked about the post for another thirty minutes.

Wren had been thorough about it, she’d screenshotted everything, tracked which forums it had appeared on and in what order, noted the usernames that kept appearing in the comment threads. She slid her phone across the table and let Lilith scroll through the evidence she had gathered.

”Whoever posted it knows pack forum culture,” Wren said. ”They know which communities to seed it in for maximum spread. That’s not a random person venting. That’s someone who knows what they’re doing.”

”Can you send me all of this.”

Wren nodded, then she forwarded everything to Lilith’s phone. Then she picked up her cup before dropping it back on the table without drinking.

”Your father’s name is in two of the threads now,” she said. ”Not just yours. They’re pulling up Beta Thorne. His service history. Some things about how he died.” She paused. ”Lilith. Someone is building a narrative. I don’t know what narrative yet but they’re building one.”