Sacrificed To The Triplet Alpha Kings novel Chapter 31

Chapter 31: It’s Getting Worse

The silence that followed was the most honest thing any of them had said all night.

Because they all knew the answer.

A feral wolf during a full moon didn’t negotiate.

Didn’t hold back.

Didn’t remember agreements or contracts or payment schedules.

It took what it wanted and marked what it claimed and there was no reasoning with it.

And for four days, all three of their wolves had been completely, devastatingly focused on exactly one thing.

"We send her away," Nicholas said.

Both brothers looked at him.

"During the full moon," he continued. "We send her to the east wing. Lock it down. Guards on every entrance. She doesn’t come near us and we don’t go near her until it passes."

"And if our wolves lose control completely without her nearby?" Lucian asked.

"Then we deal with it ourselves." Nicholas’s jaw was tight. "Like we always have."

"It’s getting worse, Lucian said."

"I know. Sebastian responded"

"We need to be careful," Nicholas said. "She’s here for a reason. A month. Payment for a debt. That’s what she is to us."

"Is it?" Lucian looked at him.

"That’s what she has to be."

"You keep saying that," Sebastian said quietly. "And every time you say it, it sounds less true."

Nicholas looked at his brother for a long moment.

Then he picked up his whiskey. Drank it in one motion and set the glass down.

"We need to find that witch," Lucian said quietly. "The one from the record. Or at least find out which coven helped our ancestor and why. Because eleven years of stability didn’t come from good luck and iron discipline."

"Agreed," Nicholas said. "After the full moon. We dig deeper."

"And in the meantime?"

Nicholas looked toward the window. Toward the dark grounds beyond.

"In the meantime," he said quietly, "we have seven days to figure out how to be in the same estate as her without losing everything we’re trying to hold together and fucking her to death"

***

Seven days.

She counted them again, standing in front of the bathroom mirror, just to make sure she hadn’t lost track.

Seven days since the car pulled away from omega housing with her inside it.

Seven days since she’d come through those iron gates.

Seven days of hands and mouths and commands and the particular exhaustion that came from having your body treated like it belonged to someone else.

She looked at herself in the mirror and tried to recognize the girl looking back.

It was getting harder.

Her face was the same. Same dark eyes, same sharp jaw, same mouth that had learned to stay pressed shut when it wanted to say things that would only make everything worse.

But the rest of her told a different story.

The bruises had shifted color, the deep purples fading to greens and yellows at the edges, new ones layered over the healing ones like paint on canvas. Her hips bore the clearest evidence. Handprints, both sides, fingerprint-shaped bruises that mapped exactly how each of them held her when they wanted her still.

Bite marks on her shoulder. Her collarbone. The curve of her neck.

Inner thighs.

She looked at those the longest.

Seven days of this.

Twenty-three more to go.

She turned away from the mirror before the thought could finish forming into something she couldn’t push back down.

***

The bedroom was quiet.

The estate had a particular kind of silence in the late afternoon.

Not peaceful. Just empty. The kind of quiet that made the walls feel closer and the days feel longer and the marks on the wall feel like they were multiplying instead of shrinking.

Lilith was still staring at them when the knock came.

Mrs. Hallowell entered without waiting for an answer. She carried a small wooden box and a bowl of warm water. She didn’t explain herself. Just set everything on the dresser and turned to look at Lilith with those sharp eyes.

"I should have come sooner," she said. "Sit still child."

It wasn’t a question.

Lilith turned to face her.

Mrs. Hallowell opened the wooden box. Inside were small glass jars, folded cloth strips, things that smelled medicinal and herbal and faintly of something Lilith couldn’t name.

"Give me your hands first," the older woman said.

Lilith held them out.

The old woman examined them with the efficiency of someone who’d done this many times. Turned them over. Checked the wrists where grip marks had bloomed purple and were only now fading to green.

She dipped cloth into the warm water and began cleaning the skin with careful strokes.

Lilith said nothing.

The silence was surprisingly comfortable.

"You’ve been counting," Mrs. Hallowell said after a while. Her eyes moved briefly to the wall. To the seven marks.

"Yes."

"How many left?"

"Twenty-three."

The older woman nodded. Opened one of the small jars, something pale and thick that smelled like arnica and something else underneath. Applied it to the worst of the bruising on Lilith’s wrists with gentle fingers.

"Does it help?" Lilith asked. "The salve."

"It speeds the healing. Reduces the deeper bruising, You’ll still mark easily for a while. That’s just how it is when the healing can’t keep up with the damage."