Offered to the Triplet Alphas

Chapter-108. Grave of love

[Asher]

The numbers on the screen of the laptop before my eyes blurred into meaningless shapes. The voice of my cabinet members sitting around the round table faded into a distant noise.

I was supposed to focus on the budget plan, the foundation for the pack's next financial year - a matter of irrefutable importance, especially with the impending celestial trying to break into our realm every day. We had to put extra monetary focus on tightening the pack's security.

Yet, my mind had abandoned the conference hall entirely.

It was just my body in this room. My everything else was with Xanthea.

Since last night, Xanthea had been sitting motionless on the cold marble floor, staring at the forget-me-nots with sunken, dead eyes, watching the last of blue blossoms wilt and droop in the flowerpot.

And I had been staring at her in the back of my mind, waiting patiently, desperately trying to understand what it could mean for her to watch the flowers die.

Was she waiting for her own death?

Was it a timer for something?

I tried to care about anything that was being discussed. But no matter how badly I tried to focus on the cabinet meeting, Xanthea's silence and the depth of her hollow gaze overshadowed everything. And then I heard her voice echo in my mind. A soft, trembling whisper that barely reached me, but it was enough to end my longing.

I finally heard her beautiful voice.

Not her screams, her sobs, or her cries. But her tranquil voice - the voice that breathes life into my very soul.

I took a deep breath, my heart pounding a few beats faster as I sat straighter in my chair, loosening my tie.

"How could you?" she murmured.

I squinted, sharpening my focus on her voice.

"How could you... so casually... wield your curiosity... as such a cruel weapon against so many innocent people?"

Her words sliced through the noise of the meeting, absorbing me wholly. I shut my eyes.

Her hands trembled as they pulled the flowerpot close and cradled it to her chest, her tears dripping on the parched soil, damping it dark.

"Mom..." she whispered.

And then it happened. The moment I had been waiting for.

It happened so suddenly, so explosively, I felt its impact with a physical jolt as adrenaline flooded my veins, the tips of my fingers tingling as they dug into the armrest of my chair.

"I HATE YOU, MOM!"

Her scream tore through my mind with such force that my eyes snapped open as she hurled the flowerpot across the room.

The sharp sound of shattering clay merged with the thunder cracking in the dark sky. The flowers, leaves, dried soil and broken shards scattered on the black marble in a mess around Xanthea as she glared into nothingness, panting badly, her hands clenching her chest.

My chair scraped loudly against the floor as I shot to my feet. The abrupt movement startled everyone in the cabinet, their murmurs ceasing in an instant.

All heads turned toward me. Bewilderment and alarm stunned their expressions. Everyone abruptly rose to their feet, disoriented.

"What happened, Alpha?" Draknor took an alarmed stance, his tone wary, as though he was bracing himself for a war or an invasion.

Without wasting another second, I strode out of the conference hall.

'Draknor. Take over the meeting,' I commanded through the mindlink.

'Alpha, what could be more important than the budget meeting at a time like this?' he asked, his voice a mix of concern and confusion.

'My wife,' I replied, breaking into a sprint as the corridor stretched endlessly ahead.

***

My shadows twisted and folded the air around my body as I ran forward. The corridor walls dissolved into a void of swirling darkness and light. My steps came to a halt as the void collapsed and reshaped around me into the familiar hallway outside my penthouse.

I gazed at the door, knowing that my Xanthea was just beyond it.

I took a deep breath, bracing myself as I strode toward it, but stopped, my hand lingering over the handle as I shut my eyes.

house into a prison. No one could enter,

faith, I entrust myself

Please save me...

Please... help me...

anchored me. Steeling myself, I

grew heavier as I neared the bedroom. The door was slightly ajar; the room buried in darkness

in the center of the room, her head held low, her

blood-red raindrops pattered against the glass, the sound suffusing with Xanthea's heartbeats creating a resonating hypnotic melody as though nature had embraced her pain because I could not. Soothed it because I could not. I stopped in front of her. Kneeling on one knee, I picked up the last surviving

clouds as lightning flooded our bedroom in fleeting bursts of light. For a moment, it felt as though the storm didn't just

us

Xanthea's psychology

through her diaries, but she had conditioned her mind in such a way

be her new vessel, to take her place and continue

on my wife. Xanthea

to battle and conquer before she could face and accept the darkness within herself and come into her

to blame, someone to hate, someone to channel her pain and rage toward - and it couldn't be herself, Ezra, or Raven. So, I will have to bear this

so I know that one day, my Xanthea will come to me and admit that she doesn't deserve any of this. Only

that day

might hurt her and

mine. Until now, she hadn't even noticed my

name trembled out of her parched lips as

body trembled with weakness as she tried to get up, but stumbled and fell on

towards her to

and again, as though chanting my name was the only way to clear the dark mental daze she had been stuck in for

with an impassive face. She winced, scrambling to her feet as she stood before me, peering at me with tears streaming down

she stood, barefoot. Shards of glass were scattered all over her path, their sharp

shards without a care for the pain they caused, or how her feet

I gritted my teeth.

Fuck this!

palm, spreading across the floor like a dark

didn't you come to me? I know I hurt you. I knew you were mad at me, but I needed you more than ever. But you?" She whimpered, lowering

you again... I was so scared. How could you-" her

suppressed rage, which abruptly shifted

blaming you. I deserved it. Even so, I knew you'd come to me when the time was right. You were watching me. I could feel your

gaze shyly as she wiped off her

your dark room, not here, where I am

her

confined me in the dark room, it wouldn't be a punishment. I would still be in your

took another

am... your Xanthea, right?" she looked at me

howled outside, rattling against the glass and silence gripped us

you won't even talk to me now?" she asked, nibbling on her

averted my eyes, failing

what you wanted, right? For me to understand that I should hate my mother,

slipping towards the edge of insanity, and the only

when I wasn't by

been clawing to take over me for the last five days,

mother, not herself. No... she did it to lure us

petals scattering on the floor. In that instant, my danger sense

I push her

cross a line

fists,

be because right now she was the one

"Asher... I'm sorry..."

but there was hesitation

with me in all my heats. I might not remember the time our souls spent together all these years as vividly as you do,

words twisted inside

remember you. And... I remember our

hung between us with no emotions, no

yearned to hear from

it wasn't enough. Not when the pain behind her eyes said

part of me longed to believe every hollow word she

flower crushed beneath her bloodied feet as she

to touch my face grazed against my jaws