Sacrificed To The Triplet Alpha Kings

She looked at the map. ”Wren called,” she said. ”About the post, she said It’s spreading further. More forums. Someone is pushing it deliberately across multiple networks, she is worried that it’s not organic because my father’s name is appearing now. His Beta record. Someone is connecting it to the alliance meeting.” She paused. ”Wren documented everything again. More screenshots, usernames that keep reappearing across different platforms. She sent it all to me.” she looked up at him and the said . ”I thought you should know.”

Then she turned her face to the wall like it was the most thing to look at in the room.

Nicholas looked at her standing there with her eyes fixed on the wall and he understood exactly what had happened. She had walked down here. Stood outside his door without knocking. Stood there long enough that he’d had time to notice her through the glass and still not left. She hadn’t come because of the information. She’d come because she hadn’t been able to stay away.

He stood up.

She kept her eyes forward until he was close enough that she couldn’t anymore. They dropped to the floor, and he put two fingers under her chin and tilted her face up and looked at her properly for the first time in two days.

”Lilith.”

She didn’t respond.

”Look at me.” Nicholas said.

Her eyes came up. Dark, a little wide, her breath held tight in her chest.....and then the exact moment she realized he could see all of it, the flush moving up her throat slow and involuntary and entirely honest, and something in his chest pulled so hard his wolf surged with it, both of them feeling the same thing at once, and it took him a moment to regulate his breath.

She was responding to him. Right now, standing here, her body pulling toward him even as everything else in her was trying to pull back from him. It isn’t the way it would have felt if she’d had her wolf....not the full force of it.....but the bond had taken root in her anyway, quiet and certain, and it was making itself known.

His thumb moved across her jaw slowly.

Her breath caught in a way she couldn’t have hidden even if she’d tried.

He held her face a moment longer than necessary, watching her try to hold his gaze but was failing at it. Then he said ”I’ll contact Callum. He’ll bring Eli and Finn. We’ll look into it.”

She nodded.

”Okay?” He asked her

”Yes,” she said. Quietly and a little unsteady.

He didn’t move his hand. He kept on looking at her flushed cheeks, the line of her throat and the unaffected face she was trying to maintain. ”Come with me tonight, Lilith, I want to show you something.”

Her eyes shifted. ”Will Sebastian and Lucian be there?”

He looked at her face. At the question underneath the question. ”No,” he said. ”Just me and you.”

The hesitation moved through her face immediately, and for a brief moment he saw that the idea of being alone with him terrifies her.

He moved his hands and cupped her face properly and she went completely still.

”You’re my mate, Lilith.” He held her gaze and tried to make her see the truth in his eyes. ”I won’t hurt you.” He paused. ”What happened three nights ago....” He pursed, studying her expression. Then he said ”Come with me tonight. I’ll explain everything. Okay?”

She looked into his eyes, then after what felt like forever, she finally nodded.

He let her go slowly, stepped back, watched her turn and walk to the door without looking back, and it clicked shut behind her.

Nicholas stood in the middle of his office and closed his eyes and took one breath, then he walked back to his desk and sat down, then he sent a mind link to Callum.

Callum.Come to my office now. Bring Eli and Finn with you.

He closed the link and leaned back in his chair.

***

Callum arrived first.

He always did. Nicholas had barely closed the mind link before he heard the knock....two quiet taps, then Callum came through the door and took his position to the right of the desk without being asked, the way he had done for fifteen years.

Eli came in two minutes after, already pulling out his tablet.

Finn was last, dropping into the chair across from Eli and looking immediately at Nicholas. ”You look like you haven’t slept,” he said.

”Finn,” Callum said, without looking at him.

”I’m just saying.” Finn replied, and then he leaned back on his chair.

Nicholas put the updated documentation on the desk between them.....Wren’s new screenshots, the expanded thread map, everything Lilith had forwarded him laid out in order. ”The post has escalated,” he said. ”Seven forums now. The same coordinated push, same recurring usernames. But something has changed since the last time we discussed about it, Victor’s name is in the threads. His service record. Someone is building a direct line between his history the alliance meeting.”

Callum leaned forward and picked up the top sheet. His eyes moved across the updated information. ”They’re not after her reputation,” he said. ”They never were. She’s the thread they’re using to get to something else.”

”Victor and how he died” Eli said, not looking up from his tablet.

”Exactly,” Callum agreed.

Finn looked at the documentation and said, ”Someone with access to Shadowmere pack archives,” he said. ”This service record isn’t public. You don’t pull a Beta history from another pack’s files unless you have a connection inside that territory or you’re willing to do something illegal to get it.” He looked at Nicholas. ”Either way that narrows it.”

”That’s where I need you,” Nicholas said. ”Shadowmere. I need to know if this has reached Garrett yet and through what channel, before I make contact with him directly. Don’t go through official routes....quietly, side channels only. I need to know what he already knows.”