Sacrificed To The Triplet Alpha Kings

Chapter 219: Can You Swim?

Nicholas POV

He was standing at the edge of the tree line with his hands in his pockets watching her.

He hadn’t moved since they arrived.

She had gone straight for the water like it had called her. Crouched down. Put her hand in. Laughed at the cold like it surprised her and delighted her at the same time. Stood up and tilted her face back into the mist with her eyes closed and her arms slightly out.

Like she was being given something.

Like she needed to be big enough to receive it.

She turned and looked at him.

Her face was wet from the mist. Her eyes bright in the moonlight.

"You’ve been here before," she said.

"Many times."

"How did you find it."

"I was seventeen," he said. "I needed somewhere to be that wasn’t the estate."

She looked at the waterfall again.

The she started walking along the bank slowly, trailing her fingers through the mist, looking at everything. The roots going into the water. The moss on the rocks. The way the trees closed over the far side of the pool like a ceiling.

"Does Sebastian know about this place?" she asked.

"No."

She looked at him.

"Lucian?"

"No."

"You’ve never brought anyone here."

"No, I haven’t" Nicholas replied.

She nodded her head and then turned back to look at the waterfall.

Nicholas walked to the flat rock closest to the water and sat down.

After a moment, she came and sat down beside him.

The waterfall filled the silence completely.

She asked about Kael first.

He hadn’t expected that. He’d expected her to ask about the post. About the plan, about what Callum and Eli and Finn were doing about it.

But instead she asked about Kael.

"Your wolf," she said. "What is he like."

Nicholas looked at the water.

"Old," he said. "Older than he should be, for my age. Most wolves are....restless and young. But Kael has never been restless." Nicholas turned and looked at her. "Certain. That’s the word. He’s always been certain of things before I am."

"What has he ever been certain about before? She asked.

"Finding our mate." Nicholas kept his eyes on the water. "He never doubted it. Even at the worst of the curse. Even when you.... " He stopped talking like finishing the sentence felt wrong.

But Lilith knew what he wanted to say so she completed the sentence for him "When i first came to the estate."

"He knew before I was willing to accept it."

"What does that mean?"

He looked at her then.

"It means I told myself reasons why you cannot be our mate," he said. "Kael didn’t bother with reasons. He just knew."

She touched the mark on her throat, then she looked at him and said "You said you’d explain some things about the curse to me"

Nicholas nodded his head and adjusted his position so that he was sitting face-face to her.

He told her everything about the curse, how it affects them during the full moon and the fact that it had gotten worst in recent years, he told her about the timeline they have to complete the mate bond, but what he didn’t tell her was what he found out about her bloodline or information about why they had branded her father a traitor.

She listened without interrupting.

When he finished she was quiet for a moment.

"Your fore-fathers," she said carefully. "What did they do. Exactly."

Nicholas went still, deciding what he should tell her and what ti withhold.

"They persecuted people," Nicholas said. "Bloodlines that were considered....threatening. To wolves. To the pack’s power."

He looked at her and then said "They was not a good men."

She was looking at him.

"But?" she said, looking at him.

"There is more to it," she said. "I know because you stopped yourself just now."

He looked at her and instead of responding he turned to look at the waterfall.

"Nicholas...."

"There are things," he said quietly. "That I will tell you. When the time is right."

"And now isn’t?" She asked.

"Not tonight." Nicholas responded.

He waited for her to ask more questions. She had every right to ask him because he had promised her honesty tonight and he was sitting three feet away from her withholding the most important truth she would ever hear from her..

"Okay," she said.

He looked at her, as if surprised by her response.

"Don’t look at me like that," she said. "I’m not letting it go. I’m just...." She exhaled. "Saving it for later."

"Saving it for later?." Nicholas asked.

"Yes, for later." She met his eyes. "When the time is right. Apparently."

There was no accusation in her voice, because she knew he was keeping something from her, But she was choosing to trust him anyway.

They sat with the waterfall for a long time after that.

The mist drifted over them slowly. The pool caught the moonlight and threw it back.

Somewhere in the forest a wolf called once and then went silent again.

He was aware of exactly how close she was.

She turned her head to look at him at the same moment he turned to look at her.

They were closer than a foot apart, and he didn’t know when that had happened.

Her eyes were very dark in the moonlight. The mist had put a fine dampness on her hair and her skin. She smelled like the waterfall now, cold and clean....and underneath it like herself.

Her gaze dropped briefly to his mouth.

Then he looked back up.

And he knew that he had to do something to distract himself before he does something that would make her more scared of him than she is already so instead he said "Can you swim?"

Lilith blinked.

"What?" she said.

"Can you swim?" He asked again

She stared at him for another second, her brain trying to process what he was saying.

"Yes," she said. "I can swim."

He looked at the river.

"Do you want to?"

She followed his gaze to the water. Dark and wide and the waterfall dropping into it twenty feet away.

She looked back at him.

"Right now?" she asked. "In the dark?"

"The moon is full," he said. "It’s not dark."

She looked at the water again.

The mist drifting over it. The moonlight on the surface.

"I don’t have anything to swim in," she said.

Nicholas said nothing, he just looked at her and she understood what his silence meant.

"Okay," she said.