Sacrificed To The Triplet Alpha Kings

Chapter 185: How Many Times Do You Think We’ll Have To Do This

He drank it in one long pull, and his dark eyes were burning when he lowered the glass.

Nicholas remained where he was, watching both his brothers with the calmness of a man who’d already braced himself for what was coming. But his hands, Lilith would have noticed if she’d been there to see them, were gripping the edge of his desk hard enough that his knuckles had gone white.

"She’s gone," Lucian said, his voice rough, barely above a whisper. It wasn’t a question, wasn’t asking for confirmation. It was simply a statement of fact, acknowledging the moment when the last thread of restraint they’d been clinging to finally snapped.

"She’s safe," Nicholas said, his voice still measured. "That’s what matters. She’s away from this. Away from us."

"Two days," Sebastian said, his voice tight. "We have two days to survive without her before the moon is at its peak. Two days to hold onto ourselves knowing she’s not here."

"Longer than that," Lucian corrected bitterly. "Even after the full moon passes, even after we come through the other side, we can’t have her here for at least another week while we stabilize. The aftermath is sometimes worse than the moon itself."

Nicholas’s jaw clenched at that, but he didn’t argue. They both knew it was true. The full moon broke them apart. And the days immediately following could be just as dangerous, the feral energy taking time to settle back into something manageable.

"We made the right choice," Nicholas said. It sounded like he was trying to convince himself as much as them.

"Did we?" Lucian turned from the window, his gold eyes wild. "Because right now, with her gone, I can feel the curse like teeth in my skull. It was quieter when she was here. Manageable. And now..." He shook his head. "Now I remember why we were so desperate to mark her in the first place."

"Because the alternative is this," Sebastian said, though his voice lacked conviction. "The alternative is what we’re about to go through. And at least now she won’t be here to see it. Won’t be here to be afraid of us."

"She should be afraid," Lucian spat. "If she knew what we were actually capable of, what the curse actually makes us do..."

"She doesn’t need to know," Nicholas cut him off, his voice dropping into something colder, sharper. "And she won’t. We’ll handle the full moon the way we’ve always handled it. Separately. Controlled. And when she comes back, we’ll be the version of ourselves that she’s learning to trust."

"What if we can’t?" Lucian asked, and there was genuine fear beneath the feral edge now. "What if one of us breaks? What if...."

"We won’t," Nicholas said flatly. "Because we have to. Because the alternative is losing her completely, and I won’t have that."

The three brothers stood in silence for a long moment, the weight of what was coming settling over them like a physical thing. Beyond the windows, the day continued on....ordinary, indifferent to the supernatural crisis building in the walls of Blackwood estate.

Sebastian moved to stand beside Nicholas at the window, both of them looking out toward the gates that had closed behind Lilith’s carriage. "How many times do you think we’ll have to do this?" he asked quietly. "Leave her behind during the moon? Fight through it knowing she’s somewhere else, safe, but without her?"

"As many times as it takes," Nicholas said. "Until we can trust ourselves not to break. Until the curse is manageable. Until we’re the kind of mates she actually deserves."

Lucian joined them at the window, and for a moment all three brothers stood together, watching the gates that had already swallowed Lilith’s carriage, already removed her from their reach, already made their decision for them in a way that had seemed merciful yesterday but felt like torture now.

"Three months," Lucian said, his voice hollow. "We have three months to mark her, to bind her to us completely, to make the curse manageable enough that we don’t kill her in the process. And we’ve already used a month getting here."

"We have eight weeks," Nicholas corrected. "Let’s not waste time second-guessing the math."

"Eight weeks to build what should take years," Sebastian said. "Eight weeks to make her actually want this. Want us. Not just want to survive what we are, but actually want it."

"It’s possible," Nicholas said, though the word sounded like he was testing its weight, seeing if it would hold. "She’s beginning to. You both felt it before she left. The way she looked at us yesterday. The way she’s starting to trust."

"Trust isn’t love, Brother" Lucian said bitterly. "And love is what the curse demands. True love"

Nicholas didn’t respond immediately. When he finally spoke, his voice carried the weight of his leadership, the burden of being the one making decisions that affected all their futures.

"Then we have eight weeks to help her find it," he said simply. "And we have two days to remember what we’re fighting for when the moon tries to take everything from us."

Behind them, the estate settled into the afternoon, the curse pressing against all three of them with increasing pressure as the full moon drew closer. They could feel it building now, feel the feral energy that had been quieted by Lilith’s presence beginning to rise again, beginning to demand satisfaction.

Lucian gripped the windowsill so hard his knuckles cracked. Sebastian’s hands were shaking as he poured a second whiskey. Nicholas stood perfectly still, silver eyes fixed on something beyond the visible horizon, already bracing for what the next forty-eight hours would bring.

The gates remained closed behind Lilith’s carriage.

The full moon waited in the sky, patient and inevitable and merciless.

And the three brothers stood together in the quiet of Nicholas’s office, holding onto the last threads of their humanity, knowing that very soon, they would have to let go.