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.

Xanthea from the rest of the world, I had turned my house into a prison. No one could

faith, I

Please save me...

Please... help me...

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

legs grew heavier as I neared the bedroom. The door was slightly

in the center of the room, her head held low, her figure a shadow

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

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 invade

leaving us cloaked in

psychology in the most self-destructive

conditioned her mind in such a way that when

a daughter. She wanted Xanthea to be her new vessel, to take her place and

on my wife. Xanthea was meant for things

villain to battle and conquer before she could face and accept the

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

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,

that day was not

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

her head, her eyes meeting mine. Until now, she hadn't even noticed my presence. Tears flushed her eyes,

my name trembled out of her parched lips as

body trembled with weakness as she tried to get up, but stumbled and fell on the floor again, bruising her

towards her to

chanting my name was the only way to clear the dark

scrambling to her feet as she stood before me, peering at

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

without a care for

I gritted my teeth.

Fuck this!

the

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

I'd never see you again... I was so

was tinged with suppressed rage, which abruptly shifted to a

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 on me

gaze shyly as she wiped off her tears, taking

punish me... you would have isolated me in your dark room, not here,

her lips as she shook her

dark room, it wouldn't be a punishment. I would still be in your embrace, surrounded by our memories. I have made

another step towards

discard me like your other brides. Because I am... your Xanthea, right?" she looked at me with uncertain eyes, fidgeting with her fingers anxiously. Her emotions were all over the place and while I expected it, something...

glass and silence

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

averted my eyes, failing to endure the intensity

"This is what you wanted, right? For me

insanity, and the only thing that was keeping her grounded to reality was

when I wasn't by her

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

herself. 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

I push

a line

clenched my fists, my

It can't be because right now she was the one playing with my

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

guilt and pain. She stepped closer, but there was hesitation in her demeanor, like she wasn't sure if I

heats. I might not remember the time our souls spent together

eyes darkening. Her words twisted inside

"I remember you. And...

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

had yearned to hear from the

if she remembered us, remembered me, it wasn't enough. Not when the pain

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

as she

touch my face grazed against my jaws when I turned my back towards