Sacrificed To The Triplet Alpha Kings

Rhen shifted back to Sebastian immediately, and Sebastian was on his hands and knees on the floor, gasping, staring at Lilith with wide eyes. ”She....she pushed me off. I was halfway through the mark and something just...threw me.”

Nicholas looked at Lilith and felt his blood run cold.

She was still convulsing but the force that had thrown Sebastian was gone now, pulled back inside her. Her body was glowing faintly....just barely, a silver light pulsing beneath her skin in time with her heartbeat.

”What is happening to her?” Nicholas demanded, turning to Dr. Aldric.

Dr. Aldric moved closer carefully, his eyes fixed on Lilith, and when he spoke his voice was awed and terrified in equal measure. ”She rejected the mark.”

”What?”

”Her body...or her magic....rejected being claimed while she’s unconscious.”

Dr. Aldric gestured to Lilith’s throat and Nicholas saw it clearly now. The mark was there. Sebastian’s bite had broken skin, had started the bond forming. But it was incomplete. Half-finished. Glowing faintly and pulsing but not settled.

”She doesn’t want to be dominated while she can’t consent,” Dr. Aldric continued quietly. ”Even trapped in a dream, even dying, something inside her said no.”

Sebastian was still on the floor, one hand pressed to his chest where the incomplete bond was pulling at him. ”But the mark is there. I can feel it. It’s not complete but it’s there.”

”Yes,” Dr. Aldric confirmed. ”The partial bond should be enough. Combined with Alpha Nicholas’s complete bond, you should be able to reach her now.”

Nicholas did not wait. He reached for the bond immediately, pushed against the barrier with everything he had, and this time it gave. Just slightly. Just enough.

He felt Lilith on the other side...distant and faint and scared but there.

Lilith, he called through the bond. Come back. Follow my voice. Come back to us.

He felt Sebastian do the same, felt his brother reach through the new incomplete bond and pull.

For a long moment nothing happened.

Then Lilith gasped.

Her whole body went rigid and her eyes flew open....actually open this time, her pupils visible and focused. She sucked in a desperate breath like she had been drowning and just broke the surface, and her hand shot out and grabbed Sebastian’s arm where he was still kneeling on the floor beside the bed.

”Sebastian,” she whispered, her voice hoarse and broken.

”I’m here,” Sebastian said immediately, covering her hand with his. ”I’m right here.”

Her eyes were unfocused and glassy and she was shaking violently but she was awake. She was back.

Then her eyes rolled back and she went limp again.

”No!” Lucian lunged forward. ”No no no, what’s happening....”

Dr. Aldric caught his arm. ”She’s sleeping. Naturally this time. Not the spell. She’s exhausted and her body shut down to recover. But she’s out of danger.”

Nicholas let out a breath he had not realized he was holding and sank down onto the edge of the bed, his hand finding Lilith’s and holding it tightly. She was breathing normally now, her color already starting to return, and the silver glow beneath her skin had faded completely.

She was alive.

She was here.

They had gotten her back.

”Agnes,” Nicholas said without looking away from Lilith’s face. ”Stay with her. Do not leave this room.”

Agnes appeared in the doorway immediately like she had been waiting. ”Yes, Alpha.”

Nicholas stood slowly and looked at his brothers. Sebastian was still on the floor, one hand pressed to his chest where the incomplete bond was clearly causing him pain. Lucian was standing at the foot of the bed with his hands clenched into fists and his whole body shaking.

”We need to talk,” Nicholas said quietly. ”Now.”

He walked toward the door and his brothers followed without argument. Dr. Aldric stayed behind to monitor Lilith, and Agnes moved to sit in the chair beside the bed.

Nicholas walked down the hall to his office with his mind racing and his chest tight and the image of Lilith’s glowing body burned into his vision.

She had rejected Sebastian’s mark.

She had power enough to throw an Alpha wolf across a room.

And somewhere out there, Victoria was waiting.

They were out of time.

****

The office door closed behind them with a heavy finality that made Nicholas’s chest tight. He walked to his desk but didn’t sit, just braced his hands against the edge and stared down at the maps and notes scattered across the surface without seeing any of them.

Behind him, Lucian was already pacing, his footsteps sharp and agitated against the floor. Sebastian stood by the window with one hand pressed flat against the glass and the other against his chest, his breathing uneven.

The silence stretched for a long moment before Sebastian broke it.

”She rejected me.”

His voice was quiet but it carried through the room like a gunshot. Nicholas looked up and found his brother still staring out the window, his reflection ghostly in the glass.

”Even unconscious,” Sebastian continued, his hand pressing harder against his chest. ”Even dying. She rejected my mark.”

”Sebastian....” Nicholas started.

”No.” Sebastian turned to face them and his expression was not angry. It was awed and terrified and desperately sad all at once. ”You felt it. You both felt it. That force that threw me across the room....that was her. Something inside her said no and I couldn’t fight it. I couldn’t override it. Even Rhen couldn’t.”

Nicholas had felt it. Had felt the raw power that erupted from Lilith’s unconscious body and sent Sebastian flying. Had seen the silver glow beneath her skin and known with absolute certainty that whatever Lilith was, it was waking up whether she was ready for it or not.

”The bond is there,” Nicholas said carefully. ”Incomplete, but there. You marked her. The connection exists.”

”And it’s torture.” Sebastian’s laugh was bitter and broken. ”It’s worse than before, Nicholas. Before I could feel the pull but it was distant. Manageable. Now I can feel her. I can sense her emotions, her pain, her fear. But I can’t reach her fully. I can’t complete what I started. It’s like having half a conversation through a wall....I know she’s there but I can’t touch her.”