Free Web NovelChapter 56: She Can Not Be Our True Mate
He released his grip on the desk and turned to face them.
"Something about her affects us in ways that shouldn’t be possible," he continued. "Our wolves need her in a way that suggests something beyond the normal alpha-omega dynamic. Something beyond simple sexual possession. Something that I don’t understand, and something that I’m increasingly convinced is dangerous."
Sebastian’s expression shifted.
"You’re not suggesting....." he started, but Nicholas cut him off.
"I’m not suggesting anything," Nicholas said firmly. "I’m stating facts. Fact one: our wolves respond to her in abnormal ways. Fact two: when separated from her, they become subdued and dangerous. Fact three: when together with her, we lose all control and hurt her. Fact four: she’s wolfless, so she cannot be our true mate, which means this is something else entirely."
Lucian made a sound of frustration.
"So what does that mean?" he demanded. "What are we supposed to do? We keep her? We send her back damaged? We kill her to stop this from happening again?"
The suggestion hung in the air like poison.
Nicholas’s expression didn’t change, but something flickered in his silver eyes.
"No," he said quietly. "We wait. We wait until tomorrow morning. We wait for Agnes to report on her condition. And we hope...." He paused, and the word seemed to cost him something. "We hope that she recovers enough that we can return her to Shadowmere as agreed."
"And if she doesn’t?" Sebastian asked.
"Then we will figure out what to do," Nicholas said. "But for now, you both need to go to your rooms and rest. We will discuss what to do about the omega tomorrow morning when we have more information."
Sebastian didn’t move. He stood there, his body vibrating with tension, his eyes locked on Nicholas with an expression that suggested he wanted to argue. Wanted to fight. Wanted to do something other than accept this dismissal.
But then he turned toward the door. He didn’t wait for Lucian. Didn’t acknowledge his brothers. Just pushed the door open with enough force that it slammed against the wall, and he stalked out into the hallway.
Lucian watched him go, then looked back at Nicholas.
"This is going to end badly," Lucian said quietly. "Whatever this is, whatever she is, however our wolves are responding to her....this is going to end in a way that destroys us all."
Nicholas didn’t respond. He just turned back to the window and looked out at the darkening grounds, and his expression was the expression of a man who was beginning to understand that he couldn’t control everything. That sometimes, despite all of his strategy and all of his power, life had other plans.
Lucian turned and followed his brother out of the office, closing the door quietly behind him.
In the silence that followed, the only sound was the soft ticking of the clock on Nicholas’s wall, counting down the hours until morning. Counting down the time until they would know if Lilith had recovered or if they had broken something that could never be fixed. ƒгeewebnovёl.com
***
Lilith slept in her small room with no dreams and no nightmares. Just an absence. A void. A place where her mind had retreated because consciousness was too much to bear.
Agnes sat in the chair beside her bed, watching her breathe. The older woman’s wrinkled hands were folded in her lap. Her eyes, wise from a lifetime of service, tracked every small movement. Every breath. Every twitch of muscle that suggested her body was still fighting, even if her mind had checked out.
"You’re going to be okay," Agnes whispered, though she wasn’t entirely sure she believed it. "You’re going to wake up, and you’re going to be okay. I promise you that."
She reached out and adjusted the blanket that covered Lilith’s body, pulling it up slightly higher, making sure every inch of her was protected from the cool night air.
"Those boys," Agnes continued softly, "they don’t understand what they’ve done. But they will. Eventually, they will understand. And maybe, if there’s any mercy left in this world, that understanding will change them."
She settled back into the chair and waited. Waited for morning. Waited for improvement. Waited for a sign that the girl breathing so shallowly in this bed would find her way back from the darkness she’d retreated into.
***
In his room, Sebastian stood under a cold shower. Water ran down his face, his chest, his body, and he didn’t feel it. Rhen was still quiet. Still absent. Still leaving him feeling hollowed out and incomplete.
He thought about the way Lilith had looked when she broke. The way her eyes had gone empty. The way her voice had become mechanical as she repeated those words over and over. And he understood, with a clarity that was almost painful, that he’d done something that couldn’t be undone.
***
In his room, Lucian lay on his bed and stared at the ceiling. His hands were clenched into fists. His entire body was rigid with tension and frustration and something that felt like grief.
Zev was still quiet. And Lucian was beginning to understand that the silence of his wolf was the most terrifying thing he’d ever experienced. Because when Zev was silent, it meant something fundamental had shifted. It meant something precious had been broken. It meant that all of his power, all of his strength, all of his dominance meant absolutely nothing in the face of what they’d done to that small omega.
***
Back in his office, Nicholas poured himself a drink. The whiskey burned as it went down, but he welcomed the burn. Welcomed the pain. Because pain was something he could understand. Pain was something he could control.
But this, this aching sense of having destroyed something irreplaceable, this understanding that his brothers and he had crossed a line that couldn’t be uncrossed, this he couldn’t control.
He sat in the darkness and waited for morning, and he understood that everything had changed. Whatever she was, whoever she was, Lilith Thorne had become essential to them in ways they didn’t yet comprehend. And losing her, truly losing her....would destroy them in ways that no amount of power or control could prevent.
He drank his whiskey and waited. And outside, the night deepened, and the world held its breath. Because something fundamental had shifted in the Blackwood estate. And no one....not the brothers, knew how to fix it.
