The mont he did, Lilith felt the pull to follow him, to move toward the one brother who had been gentle with her, But Nicholas’s presence in the room was like gravity....heavy, inescapable, terrifying in a way she couldn’t articulate.
She stayed where she was, her head down, her hands clasped in front of her.
Nicholas stood from his chair and walked toward her. His footsteps were asured, controlled, each one deliberate and slow. When he reached her, he stopped close enough that she could feel the heat radiating from his body.
"Lilith," he said, and the sound of her na in his voice was almost her undoing.
She kept her head down.
"Look at ."
She lifted her gaze to his face. His silver eyes were cold, analytical, but there was sothing underneath that coldness...sothing that looked almost like regret.
"We will be sending you back to your mother," Nicholas said, his voice steady and absolute. "This weekend."
The words took a mont to process.
When they did, Lilith’s head snapped up.
"Why?" The word ca out sharp with panic. "Did I do sothing wrong?"
Her eyes were darting between the three brothers now, looking for so kind of explanation, so hint of what had triggered this. Was it because she had fainted? Was it because of what had happened that day in the office?
"Was it because of what happened the other day?" Her voice was shaking now, the panic rising higher in her chest. Her eyes were beginning to water, tears threatening to spill over. "I’m sorry I fainted. I’m sorry I blacked out."
Sebastian’s jaw clenched at her words. Lucian made a sound....sothing between a curse and a groan that he covered by turning away.
Lilith was full-on panicking now. Without thinking, without planning, her hands went to the zipper at the back of her dress.
"Please punish instead," she said, her voice fracturing. "Please don’t send back before the end of the 30 days agreent."
The zipper slid down. Cold air hit the bare skin of her back and she didn’t stop.
"Let repay the debt," she continued, tears streaming down her face now, her hands fumbling with the fabric. "Because if I don’t... if I don’t complete it..."
Nicholas’s expression shifted. A flash of sothing dark and pained crossed his features, but he didn’t move to stop her.
Lilith pulled the dress away from her shoulders.
"I know what you will do to my pack," she whispered, her voice breaking completely. "I know what you will do to my mother. So please... please let complete it. I promise I won’t faint again."
She was nearly half-undressed now, moving with the frantic desperation of soone trying to offer everything they had as paynt for a chance to save the people they loved. Her skin was exposed, her vulnerability on full display, and she didn’t care. She would offer this. She would offer anything.
"Please," she begged.
Lucian moved.
He stood abruptly, his chair scraping back against the hardwood floor with a sharp sound that seed to shatter the mont. In two long strides, he crossed the room and reached for her hand, the one that was pulling at her dress.
He caught her wrist gently but firmly and pulled her to his chest, his other arm coming around her back and holding her against him. He was warm. Solid. Real in a way that cut through her panic.
Lilith’s heart was racing against his ribs.
Lucian looked at his brothers, and she felt the mont sothing shifted between them. A connection. A choice being made.
He released her and stepped back just enough to reach up and pull her dress back into place, adjusting it carefully, drawing the fabric back up over her shoulders. His hands were surprisingly gentle.
"Listen to ," Lucian said, his voice low and urgent. "We are not punishing you for anything. Do you understand?"
Lilith’s eyes were wide, still wet with tears.
"We didn’t touch you because we wanted you to recover from what happened that day," he continued. "We don’t know what caused you to black out. We don’t know why it happened. And we didn’t want to take any chances of that happening again. That’s why we kept our distance."
Lilith stared at him. "Really?"
"Yes," Lucian said firmly. "Really."
He pulled up her zipper, his fingers brushing against her spine, and stepped back.
Lilith was trying to process this. Trying to understand why they would send her back if they weren’t angry with her. The logic of it wasn’t connecting.
Sebastian walked toward her again. This ti she didn’t back away. When he reached her, he cupped her face in his hands just like he had before.
"And also because you have already repaid the debt," he said quietly. "So now there is no need to keep you here again."
The words didn’t make sense. How could the debt be repaid? She had only been here for twelve or thirteen days out of thirty. There was no way she had repaid a debt that was supposed to keep her here for a full month.
But she was looking into Sebastian’s eyes, and she saw the lie. She saw him struggling with it, saw the way his jaw clenched, saw the way his golden eyes...the eyes of his wolf, flickered with sothing that looked almost like pain.
Lilith looked at him, then at his brothers. She searched their faces for an explanation that wasn’t there.
"Really?" she asked. "I can go ho now? I can go now and won’t be punished for it?"
Sebastian’s eyes closed for just a mont. When they opened again, there was sothing broken in them.
"Yes," he said, and the word sounded like it was costing him sothing precious. "You can go ho now."
The relief that flooded through Lilith was overwhelming. It swept away the fear, the confusion, the panic. Ho. She was going ho. She would see her mother. She would be away from this estate with its terrifying alphas and its impossible dynamics.
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