Sacrificed To The Triplet Alpha Kings

The ride back to the estate was suffocating.

Lilith sat in the back of the SUV wedged between Sebastian and Lucian while Nicholas sat at the front with Finn driving, and no one spoke. The silence pressed down on her like a physical weight, made worse by the bonds threading through her....Nicholas’s steady presence, Sebastian’s warmth....both of them reaching for her even now, trying to comfort her when comfort was the last thing she wanted.

Your father was murdered. The Blackwood family is responsible.

Victoria’s words kept circling in her head like vultures.

We were there when he died.

The brothers’ admission felt like a knife twisting in her chest.

Four months. Her father had been dead for four months and these men....these men who had marked her, claimed her, bound themselves to her, had been there when it happened. Had watched him die. Had branded him a traitor. Had punished her for two weeks and had known all these while that he wasn’t guilty. They lied to her.

Through the bonds she could feel their emotions, Nicholas’s carefully controlled guilt, Sebastian’s desperate need to explain, Lucian’s barely restrained violence and it made her want to scream.

When the estate came into view Lilith felt her stomach drop. Nicholas had called it home. But it felt like a cage she had walked into willingly because she had been too stupid to see the bars.

Finn parked and Nicholas got out without a word. Sebastian and Lucian followed. Lilith stayed in the car, her hands clenched into fists in her lap, trying to decide if she had the strength to walk back into that house and face them.

Sebastian appeared at her door and opened it and reached for her.. ”Lilith.”

”Don’t touch me,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Sebastian’s hand froze mid-reach and through the bond she felt his pain like a physical blow. ”Lilith....”

”I said don’t touch me.” She snapped at him.

She got out anyway because sitting in the car was not going to change anything, and walked toward the entrance with all three of them following her like shadows she could not shake.

The moment they were inside and the door closed behind them, Nicholas’s hand closed around her wrist.

Not hard. Not bruising. But firm enough that she could not pull away without a fight.

”Let go of me,” Lilith said.

”No.” Nicholas’s voice was quiet but absolute. ”We need to talk. Now.”

”I don’t want to talk to you...” She said, trying to untangle herself from him.

”I don’t care what you want right now,” Nicholas interrupted, and his Alpha tone made her spine straighten involuntarily. ”You should have reached out to Finn immediately you saw Victoria, You put yourself in danger....”

”She is my aunt....”

”And that is a behavior i won’t tolerate Lilith,” Nicholas continued as if she had not spoken. ”What if Victoria had taken you? What if she had used her magic to bind you and disappear before we could get there?”

”Maybe I should have let her!” Lilith shouted, finally yanking her wrist free. ”Maybe I should have gone with her! Because at least she’s honest about wanting to use me! At least she doesn’t pretend to care while lying to my face!”

The words hung in the air between them and Lilith saw all three brothers flinch.

”We never pretended to care,” Sebastian said quietly. ”Everything we feel for you is real.”

”Is it?” Lilith laughed bitterly. ”How am I supposed to believe that when you’ve been lying to me from the beginning? When you knew.....KNEW.....that you were there when my father died and you said nothing?”

”We were going to tell you....”

”When?!” Lilith screamed. ”After you’d completed all three bonds? After you’d tied me to you so completely I couldn’t leave even if I wanted to? When exactly were you planning to tell me the truth?”

Silence stretched across the room.

Lilith looked at all three of them and saw guilt written across their faces, and something inside her broke.

”You don’t get it,” she whispered. ”You don’t understand what you’ve taken from me. My father was all I had. When he died and my whole world fell apart. My mother went catatonic. I had no one. And I spent months trying to understand what happened to him. I spent weeks trying to understand why he would betray the pack. I spent weeks trying to make sense of why he was branded a traitor and taken from me.”

Her voice was shaking now and she could not stop the tears from falling.

”And you were there. You knew. And you looked me in the eyes and told me you were investigating his death like you were doing me a favor. Like you cared. When the whole time you were part of the reason he’s dead.”

”Lilith....” Nicholas started, he had let go of her hand at this point.

”Were you?” she demanded. ”Tell me right now. Is your family responsible for my father’s death? Yes or no?”

”Yes,” Nicholas said finally, and his voice was heavy with guilt. ”Our father made decisions that led to your father’s death and eventually his own death too. And yes, we were there.”

The admission hit Lilith like a physical blow and she stumbled backward. Sebastian caught her but she shoved him away violently.

”Don’t touch me. Don’t any of you touch me.”

”Lilith, please....” Sebastian’s voice was wrecked. ”Let us explain. It’s not as simple as Victoria made it sound....”

”I don’t care!” Lilith was shouting now, her power surging beneath her skin making the air crackle around her. ”I don’t care about your explanations or your excuses! You LIED to me! You marked me! You bonded with me! And the whole time you knew!”

”We were trying to protect you....” Nicholas started saying but Lilith cut his off.

”From what?! The truth?!” Lilith laughed and it sounded unhinged even to her own ears. ”You weren’t protecting me. You were protecting yourselves. Making sure I was too bonded to you, too claimed by you, to leave when I found out what you’d done.”

”That’s not true,” Lucian said, and his voice was dangerously quiet. ”We marked you because you’re our mate. Because the bonds demanded it. Because we...”

”Because you NEED me,” Lilith interrupted. ”Because of your curse. Because I’m useful to you. Admit it. That’s what this has always been about.”