Sacrificed To The Triplet Alpha Kings novel Chapter 169

Chapter 169: A Month Feels Impossible

Sebastian moved away from the desk, pacing to the window though the glass showed only the darkening twilight outside. His reflection stared back at him...tired, strained, caught between the man he was trying to be and the beast the curse was trying to make him.

"Alright," he said finally, his voice steady again. "Four days. We watch. We assess. We determine if she’s ready or if we wait." He turned back to face his brothers. "But we don’t jump to conclusions yet. We don’t assume we know what she’s thinking or feeling just because she arrived willingly. We actually pay attention."

"Agreed," Nicholas said.

Lucian nodded slowly, though his gold eyes betrayed the struggle happening beneath the surface. The curse was demanding, pulling, screaming for what it wanted. Zev wanted to claim her, mark her, bind her irrevocably to them. But Lucian’s human consciousness, the part of him that had begun to understand love as something more than possession...was holding the wolf back.

"A month feels impossible," he admitted quietly. "But knowing that we’re doing it for her, for us, for something real... maybe that makes it survivable."

The three brothers fell silent after that, each lost in their own thoughts, each wrestling with the weight of their own nature and the determination to be better than their base instincts demanded.

Eight days until the full moon.

Four days of observation.

And the unspoken understanding that everything...their control, their future, their very ability to be the mates she deserved, depended on what they learned about her in those four days, and what she chose to accept of them in return.

***

Lilith woke to the late morning sunlight.

Not the thin, uncertain light of early morning that filtered through cheap curtains, but real sunlight....warm and golden and abundant, streaming through tall windows in waves of brightness that made her squint against the glare. For a moment, she didn’t remember where she was. She lay still in the unfamiliar bed, her mind catching up to her body, slowly piecing together the reality of her new surroundings.

Blackwood. She was at Blackwood.

She pushed herself up on her elbows, taking in the room in the full light of day for the first time. The pale cream walls she’d barely registered the night before now showed their true color...soft and warm, almost welcoming. The four-poster bed she’d collapsed into exhausted was even more impressive in daylight, its dark wood carved with intricate patterns, its linens impossibly soft beneath her fingers. The late morning light caught the edges of the wardrobe, the vanity, the writing desk, painting everything in shades of gold.

When she finally emerged, toweling off with fluffy linens that were softer than anything she’d owned, she felt almost human again. She dressed in the pale blue dress, took time with her hair, and was just finishing pinning it back when there was a soft knock on her door.

"Come in," she called, turning to face the entrance.

Agnes entered, and she was carrying a tray laden with breakfast items: fresh bread, cheese, fruit, tea, honey, butter. Her sharp eyes assessed Lilith quickly, taking in her appearance, her apparent wellbeing, taking in information the way someone who’d spent years managing people knew how to do.

"Good morning or should i say good afternoon, because you slept for most the morning and i didn’t want to wake you up" Agnes said, setting the tray on the small table near the window. "I trust you slept well?"

"Very well, thank you," Lilith said, moving toward the table. "I’ve never slept in a bed this comfortable."

Agnes made a small sound that might have been approval. "That’s good to hear. The previous occupant had specific preferences about the furnishings." She busied herself arranging the breakfast items, though Lilith caught the weight of that statement, someone had prepared this room carefully, had thought about what would make Lilith comfortable.

"Agnes," Lilith said carefully, "did you prepare this room for me?"