Sacrificed To The Triplet Alpha Kings

Chapter 227: The Curse Hasn’t Lifted

The bond hummed in his chest.

Rhen pressed forward gently.

Not demanding this time, Just present. Reminding Sebastian that he was there. That they were both there. That they had been waiting for this specific woman since before they knew she existed.

"Can I ask you something?" Lilith said

"Yes" He replied.

She looked up. Met his eyes properly. "When you held me. That night, after what happened with Lucian." She paused. "Was that just because you felt sorry for me?"

Sebastian looked at her for a long moment.

"No," he said.

"Then why?" she asked.

"Because you needed it," he said. "And because I needed to." He held her gaze.

She was quiet, and he almost thought she wouldn’t say anything about it again.

"I can feel something," Lilith said carefully. Like she was testing the words before she committed to them. "Since this morning. When I came back. Something different. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know how to describe it." She touched her mark briefly. "It’s not the bond. I know what the bond feels like now. This is something else. Something..." She stopped.

"Separate," Sebastian said.

Her eyes sharpened. "Yes. Separate. How did you..."

"Because I can feel it too," he said.

She stared at him.

He pushed off the counter.

Crossed to where she was sitting.

Stopped directly in front of her. Close. Closer than was strictly necessary. Close enough that she had to tilt her chin up slightly to keep looking at his face.

He looked down at her with everything he had been holding for three days sitting right at the surface where she could see it clearly if she wanted to.

Like he was done hiding it.

"Lilith." His voice came out rougher than he intended. "I am not Nicholas. I cannot keep things away to think about them later. I cannot be strategic about this." He held her gaze. "I have been trying. For weeks I have been trying. And I am telling you right now that I am running out of patience."

Lilith looked at his face. "What does that mean?" she asked. Very quietly.

"It means," he said, "that I am going to need you to tell me to wait. If you need me to wait. If you need more time. If this is too much. If last night was..." He stopped. Exhaled. "Tell me to wait and I will wait. I will wait as long as you need."

She was looking at him with those eyes that saw everything.

"And if I don’t tell you to wait," she said.

Rhen slammed forward in Sebastian’s chest so hard his vision went slightly white at the edges.

But he still managed to hold himself perfectly still. "Then I’ll stop waiting," he said.

The kitchen clock ticked.

The bond hummed.

Lilith looked at him for a long moment. Reading him the way she read everything. Quietly. Carefully. Missing absolutely nothing.

She reached out, and put her hand flat against his chest.

Over his heart.

The same way she had done to Nicholas at the waterfall. He knew because he could feel the echo of it in the bond. The particular gesture that was hers. That she did when she needed to feel that something was real.

He felt her hand like a brand through the fabric of his shirt.

Rhen went completely still.

"I’m not telling you to wait," she said.

The words landed in Sebastian’s chest like a physical blow.

He looked at her hand on his chest.

Looked at her face.

At the dark eyes and the mark on her throat and the slight lift of her chin that was so entirely her. That stubborn refusal to be anything other than exactly what she was. Wolfless and scared and still standing. Always still standing.

He covered her hand with his.

Held it there.

His thumb traced across her knuckles slowly.

"Okay," he said.

And Rhen....

Rhen who had been pressing and pacing and counting down for weeks went quiet.

Not the grief-quiet of this morning.

Not the demanding-quiet of all the days before.

Something else entirely, it was

"The kind of calmness that only comes after hearing the response you have been longing to hear."

***

Nicholas’s POV

He called the meeting at noon.

He sent a short mind link to his brothers. "Come to my office now." Simple and direct, and he closed the link before Lucian could look for a way to avoid the meeting like he has being doing for days now.

Sebastian arrived first.

Took the chair across the desk without being invited and sat with his forearms on his knees.

Lucian came in two minutes later, he didn’t sit, he just went straight to the far wall and leaned against it with his arms crossed and his golden eyes moving between his brothers with that expression that meant Zev was very close to the surface.

Nicholas looked at both of them.

Then he said it.

"The curse hasn’t lifted." he said.

Neither Sebastian and Lucian reacted, because they were not surprised.

"I know," Sebastian said.

"We all know," Lucian said. "We have known since the morning after the marking, we woke up and the weight of the curse was still sitting exactly where it always sits." His jaw tightened. "Nobody wanted to say it."

"I’m saying it now," Nicholas said.

"Good," Lucian said. "Then let’s actually talk about it."

Nicholas moved to the window.

"The triple bond," he said. "All three of us. The Moon Goddess’s original terms were not three kings find a mate to break the curse." He paused. "They were three kings claim a mate. Together. Completely. One bond or two means nothing. All three sealed or the curse stands."

Sebastian’s jaw tightened.

Lucian pushed off the wall.

Crossed to the other window and stood there with his back to both of them for a moment. His hands found the windowsill and he gripped it hard.

"So your marking her," Sebastian said carefully. "Was real. The bond deepened. Kael is more settled now."

"Yes."

"But the curse itself....." Sebastian’s voice trailed off

"Unchanged," Nicholas said. "Because it cannot change until all three bonds are complete."