Sacrificed To The Triplet Alpha Kings

Chapter 158: I Owe You An Apology

"I promise that too."

Emma reached out and squeezed her hand one final time. "I’ll check on your mother every week. I already told Dora I’d need the time, and she’s agreed to work around it. You don’t have to worry about that part."

"Thank you," Lilith whispered. "For everything. For seeing me when nobody else did."

They sat together a while longer after that, not saying much, just existing in each other’s company the way they had so many times before, soaking in the last of it before duty and departure pulled them apart for good.

It was Luke who found her there, his expression apologetic as he approached. "Lilith. Alpha Garrett wants to see you in his office."

Lilith’s stomach tightened, though she nodded and rose, giving Emma’s hand one last squeeze before following Luke through the compound. She wondered, as she walked, what this final summons might mean, whether it was simply a formality, or something more.

She got her answer the moment Luke opened the office door.

Garrett stood behind his desk, but he wasn’t alone. Elder Theodore sat in one of the chairs facing the desk, his weathered face calm and familiar. Beside him stood two other Elders she recognized....Elder Mateo, broad-shouldered and quiet, and Elder Rivers, whose sharp eyes had watched the Summit proceedings all week with quiet intensity.

Lilith froze in the doorway, her pulse spiking. "You wanted to see me, Alpha?"

"Come in, Lilith," Garrett said, his voice gentler than she was used to hearing from him. "Please. Sit."

She stepped inside cautiously, lowering herself into the empty chair beside Theodore. The door closed softly behind her, and for a moment, no one spoke.

"We wanted to see you before you left," Garrett said finally. "Properly. Not in the middle of duties, not summoned before the entire hall the way the Council requested you the other night." His eyes flicked briefly toward Theodore, Mateo, and Rivers before returning to her. "This is simply a goodbye."

Elder Theodore leaned forward slightly, his voice warm despite its age-worn roughness. "I’ve watched this pack for many years, Lilith. I watched you grow up as the beta’s daughter, and I watched you endure what came after with more grace than most adults I’ve known." He shook his head slowly. "I won’t pretend to understand everything the Moon Goddess intends when she weaves fates as tangled as yours. But I have come to believe, over many years, that she rarely gives without purpose, even when the purpose isn’t visible to those living through it."

"My father used to say something similar," Lilith said quietly, surprised at how easily the words came.

Theodore’s expression softened further. "Victor was a good man, whatever the record says of him now. I served alongside him for years before that night. I choose to hold onto the memory of who he was to me, rather than the story that replaced it." He reached out and took her hand gently. "Wherever you go, whatever waits for you there, I hope you carry a piece of Shadowmere with you. And I hope, someday, Shadowmere sees you again, not as the traitor’s daughter, but as who you actually are."

Lilith’s throat tightened, unable to respond beyond a small, grateful nod.

Elder Mateo spoke next, his voice deep and measured. "The bond you carry is a rare one, Lilith. Three mates, simultaneously. I have read of such bonds in old records, though I’ve never witnessed one myself. Whatever difficulties brought you to this point, know that the bond itself is sacred. Trust it, even when you cannot yet trust everything surrounding it."

Elder Rivers said little, only offering a respectful nod when Lilith glanced toward him, though something in the Elder’s sharp gaze lingered a moment too long, assessing, the same way Aldric’s had.

Garrett cleared his throat, drawing her attention back to him. The Elders, sensing the moment shifting, offered their final farewells, Theodore’s hand resting briefly on her shoulder, Mateo’s respectful bow, Rivers’ measured nod, before filing out of the office, leaving Garrett and Lilith alone.

For a long moment, neither of them spoke.

"I owe you an apology," Garrett said finally, his voice heavier than she’d ever heard it. "Not one I can fully give, because I don’t think there are words adequate for what I put you through. Threatening you with Emma and Cole’s safety to secure your compliance." He shook his head slowly. "I told myself I had no choice. That the Blackwoods left me no room to maneuver. But I’ve had time since then to sit with what I did, and I don’t think the excuse holds the way I wanted it to."

Lilith was quiet for a moment, surprised by the rawness in his admission. "The brothers told me they would be taking care of my mother’s medical bill, and i am sure that that suggestion must have come from you, and for that, i am grateful," she said finally. "You made sure I wasn’t claimed on Shadowmere soil. You tried to give me some dignity in the middle of something that had none."

"It doesn’t undo the rest," Garrett said.

"No," she agreed. "It doesn’t. But it matters anyway."

Garrett studied her for a long moment, something unreadable passing over his weathered face. "You’ve endured more in four months than most people endure in a lifetime, and you’ve done it without losing whoever you were underneath it all. That’s not nothing, Lilith. I hope you know that."

"Thank you," she said quietly. "For saying that."

He came around the desk, and for a moment she thought he might embrace her, though he stopped short, settling instead for a formal, respectful nod. "Safe travels," he said. "If you ever need anything from Shadowmere, anything at all....you send word. I’ll answer it myself."

"I will," she said.

She left his office a few minutes later, stepping back out into the compound where the last of the Summit’s formal decorations were being taken down, where carriages continued rolling out through the front gates one by one, carrying visiting alphas back toward their own territories. The Elders’ carriage was among them, she noticed, Elder Aldric ’s weathered face visible briefly through the window before it turned down the main road and disappeared beyond the trees.

One more goodbye remained.

She turned toward the medical wing and began to walk.