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.

had turned my house into a prison. No one could enter, leave, or even teleport here without my permission - not even

all my faith, I

Please save me...

Please... help me...

wavered, Xanthea's words anchored me. Steeling myself, I unlocked the

as I neared the bedroom. The door was

room, her head held low, her

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.

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

faded, leaving us

programmed Xanthea's psychology in the most self-destructive

through her diaries, but she had conditioned her mind in such a way that when Xanthea came across her mother's guilt, she instantly owned them as her own without

Xanthea to be her new vessel,

tragedy fall on my wife. Xanthea was meant for things far greater than Cadence

an external villain to battle and conquer before she could face and accept the darkness within herself and

needed someone 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 burden until she realizes it

she doesn't deserve any of this. Only then will she

day

towards her, I asked her a question, fully aware that answering it might hurt her and tear her identity apart all over again. "Weren't they... your

Until

of her parched lips as a

she tried to get up, but stumbled and

her to save her from the

took my name once, twice, again and again, as though chanting my name was the only

winced, scrambling to her feet as she stood before me,

to the floor where she stood, barefoot. Shards of glass were scattered all over her path, their sharp edges inches

then another, trudging through the shards without a care for the

I gritted my teeth.

Fuck this!

my palm, spreading across the floor like a dark fog, sweeping the shards away from her

Why 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?"

was so scared. How could you-" her voice

suppressed rage, which abruptly shifted to

ok. I'm not blaming you. I deserved it. Even so, I knew you'd come to me when

lowering her gaze shyly as she wiped off her tears,

you had to punish me... you would have isolated me in your dark room,

chuckled, licking tears off her lips as she shook

if you confined me in the dark room, it wouldn't be a punishment. I would still be in your embrace, surrounded by our memories. I have made mistakes and

another

you wouldn't abandon me or discard me like your other brides. Because I am... your Xanthea, right?" she looked

rattling against the glass and silence gripped us both,

even talk to me now?" she asked, nibbling on her

my eyes, failing to endure the

is what you wanted, right? For me to understand that I

edge of insanity, and the only

I wasn't

realization. Icifer, who had been clawing to take over me for the

No... she did it to lure us here. To end her isolation,' Icifer's voice echoed

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

push

cross a line I

my fists, my muscles

right now she was the one playing with

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

was heavy with guilt and pain. She stepped closer, but there was hesitation in her demeanor,

in all my heats. I might not remember the time our souls spent together all these

darkening. Her words twisted inside me, creating a bittersweet

remember you.

hung between us with no emotions, no warmth. They were just as hollow as her

I had yearned to hear from the moment

she remembered us, remembered me, it wasn't enough. Not when the pain behind her eyes said

as much as I tried to resist, a part of me

feet as she stood at an arm's

face grazed against my jaws when