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.

world, I had turned my house into a prison. No one

faith, I entrust myself to

Please save me...

Please... help me...

Steeling myself, I unlocked the door

I neared the bedroom. The door was slightly ajar; the room buried in darkness and

knelt in the center of the room, her head held low, her figure a shadow against the towering windows that

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 forget-me-not from

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

leaving us cloaked

programmed Xanthea's psychology in

mind in such a way that when Xanthea came across her mother's guilt, she instantly owned them as her own

be her new vessel, to take her place and continue Cadence's life from where

tragedy fall on my wife. Xanthea was meant for

before she could face and accept the darkness

and rage toward - and it couldn't be herself, Ezra, or Raven.

in the darkroom, so I know that one day, my Xanthea will come to me and admit that she doesn't deserve any of this. Only then will she understand her true worth, embrace what she's meant to become, and accept both her

that day was

that answering it might hurt her and

sky and she finally lifted her head, her eyes meeting mine. Until now, she hadn't

of her

she tried to get up, but stumbled and

had involuntarily taken towards her to save her from the fall, but

name once, twice, again and again, as though chanting my name was the only way to clear the dark mental daze she had

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

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

a care for

I gritted my teeth.

Fuck this!

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

called for you so many times, again and again. 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?" She whimpered,

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

rage, which abruptly shifted to a

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

she wiped off

me in your dark

her lips as she shook

punishment. I would still be in your embrace,

took another step towards

brides. Because I am... your Xanthea, right?" she looked at me with

rattling against the glass and silence gripped us both,

me now?" she asked, nibbling on her

hard, I averted my eyes, failing to endure

eyes flickered to the floor, her gaze darting around as she tried to hide her frenzy. "This is what you wanted, right? For me to understand that I should hate my mother, not myself. So... I do. I hate my mother. Like I should. Like you want me

insanity, and the only

I wasn't by

to take over me for the last five days, was

she finally understood she should hate her mother, not herself. No... she did it

forget-me-not slipped from my fingers, its petals scattering on the floor. In that instant, my danger sense spiked, paralyzing my

push her

a

clenched my fists,

because right now she was the one

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

there was hesitation in her demeanor, like she wasn't sure if I

for being with me in all my heats. I might not remember the time our souls spent together all these years

darkening. Her words twisted inside me, creating a bittersweet ache

"I remember you.

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

was telling me exactly what I had yearned to hear from the moment I

remembered me, it wasn't enough. Not when

much as I tried to resist, a part

crushed beneath her bloodied feet as she stood

my face grazed against my jaws when