Sacrificed To The Triplet Alpha Kings

Chapter 161: Elder Aldric Is Suspecting Something

She stayed a while longer, unwilling to break the contact, unwilling to acknowledge that this was the last night she’d spend like this, sitting quietly beside her mother, holding her hand, existing in the small, sacred space between them.

When she finally stood to leave, the night had fully settled over Shadowmere, the medical wing lit only by the soft glow of the machines and the thin moonlight filtering through the window. She looked back once at her mother’s still form, at the pale face on the pillow that somehow still looked peaceful despite everything it had endured.

"Goodnight, Mama," she whispered.

Then she turned and walked out of the room, closing the door softly behind her, closing the door on four months of her life, closing the door on the only home she’d ever really known.

The corridor stretched before her, long and quiet and empty. She walked slowly, not quite ready to leave but knowing she had to, carrying the weight of everything she’d just said and everything she hadn’t had words for.

By tomorrow morning, all of this would be gone. Shadowmere would fade behind her like a dream, replaced by unfamiliar territory, unfamiliar people, unfamiliar rules she’d have to learn how to navigate with three alphas who still felt like strangers even though the Moon Goddess insisted they were meant to be hers.

She held onto the wooden bird in her pocket, and she held onto her mother’s voice in her head, and she held onto the promise she’d made to come back, to keep talking, to give her mother reasons to fight her way back to consciousness.

It was, she thought, the only thing she had left to give.

She stepped out into the cool night air and began walking back toward the Blackwood quarters to pack her things so that she would move back to the omega quarter that night, toward the ending of one Chapter and the terrifying, uncertain beginning of another.

Behind her, in the quiet of the medical wing, Cassandra lay still and silent, but somewhere deep in the folds of her unconscious mind, perhaps, some part of her had heard her daughter’s voice and held onto it like a lifeline.

Perhaps.

***

*The Blacckwood Quarters*

The room was quiet except for the low crackle of the fire in the hearth, the last one they’d have in Shadowmere. Nicholas stood near the window, a glass of untouched wine in his hand, watching the compound settle into its final night before the Summit’s official end. Sebastian sat in the armchair near the fire, and Lucian was sprawled across the sofa, though his usual restless energy had settled into something quieter tonight...contemplative, almost still.

Tomorrow they would leave. Tomorrow Lilith would walk out of the only home she’d ever known and follow them into a life none of them had fully prepared her for.

"I saw something earlier," Sebastian said, breaking the silence. He was staring into the fire, his expression thoughtful. "I was out walking near the guest wing this afternoon. I saw Garrett being led into a private study by one of Aldric’s guards."

Nicholas didn’t turn from the window immediately, but Lucian sat up slightly, his gold eyes sharpening. "Aldric summoned him?"

"Alone," Sebastian confirmed. "No witnesses. No formal setting. Just the two of them, and whatever conversation Aldric wanted to have without an audience."

Lucian’s jaw tightened. "That old wolf has been circling her since the moment he asked to see her in the hall. I could smell his suspicion from across the room."

"He suspects something doesn’t add up," Sebastian said. "The way we defended her. The speed with which we called the debt settled. He’s not a fool. Whatever else Aldric is, he’s spent centuries learning to read the spaces between what people say and what they mean."

Nicholas finally turned from the window, his silver eyes calm despite the subject. "Aldric has always noticed things better than anyone else on that Council. It’s why he’s led it for as long as he has. Suspicion is simply the nature of the man." He took a slow sip of his wine. "But suspicion isn’t proof. And even if he suspects everything, the bond, the truth about the alliance meeting, all of it, there is nothing he can do about any of it."

"He could bring it before the full Council," Lucian said.

"With what evidence?" Nicholas asked, his tone even, almost bored. "A feeling? An instinct that something doesn’t sit right? We never claimed her before witnesses. We never confirmed the bond publicly beyond what Sebastian said in that hall, that the debt was paid. Nothing more. Aldric can suspect until the end of his considerably long life, but suspicion has never overturned three alphas on their own authority, especially not alphas who hold the kind of standing our family holds across every territory that matters."

Sebastian nodded slowly, though his expression remained thoughtful. "He won’t move against us directly. Not without something solid to stand on. But he’ll be watching. And men like him have long memories."

"Let him watch," Nicholas said simply. "By morning, we’ll be gone, and whatever Aldric wants to piece together, he can do it from a distance that no longer concerns us."

Lucian leaned back against the sofa, though the tension hadn’t fully left his shoulders. For a long moment, none of them spoke, the fire popping softly in the silence.

"I still can’t believe we actually promised her that," Lucian said finally, his voice low, almost bitter. "That we’d investigate our own father’s death. That we’d go digging into something we already know the answer to." He shook his head, staring at the flames. "It sits wrong with me, brother. All of it."

"Stop thinking about it that way," Sebastian said, his voice firm but not unkind. "We did what we had to do, brother. You know that as well as I do."

"Did we?" Lucian’s gold eyes flicked toward him.