He released his grip on the desk and turned to face them.
"Sothing about her affects us in ways that shouldn’t be possible," he continued. "Our wolves need her in a way that suggests sothing beyond the normal alpha-oga dynamic. Sothing beyond simple sexual possession. Sothing that I don’t understand, and sothing 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 beco 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 ans this is sothing else entirely."
Lucian made a sound of frustration.
"So what does that an?" 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 sothing 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 seed to cost him sothing. "We hope that she recovers enough that we can return her to Shadowre 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 oga 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 sothing 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 slamd 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 sotis, 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 ti until they would know if Lilith had recovered or if they had broken sothing that could never be fixed.
***
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 lifeti of service, tracked every small movent. 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 rcy left in this world, that understanding will change them."
She settled back into the chair and waited. Waited for morning. Waited for improvent. 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 beco chanical as she repeated those words over and over. And he understood, with a clarity that was almost painful, that he’d done sothing 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 sothing 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 ant sothing fundantal had shifted. It ant sothing precious had been broken. It ant that all of his power, all of his strength, all of his dominance ant absolutely nothing in the face of what they’d done to that small oga.
***
Back in his office, Nicholas poured himself a drink. The whiskey burned as it went down, but he welcod the burn. Welcod the pain. Because pain was sothing he could understand. Pain was sothing he could control.
But this, this aching sense of having destroyed sothing 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 beco 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 sothing fundantal had shifted in the Blackwood estate. And no one....not the brothers, knew how to fix it.
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