Scarlett’s POV
Luna Olivia sighed, her eyes filled with pity. "But the plan failed, didn’t it? Despite everything—the lies, the blood, the ’death’—the bond still ford. They still want you. And now, they are closer to killing each other than ever before."
I looked around the room at these powerful people who had played with my life like a ga of chess. They looked like royalty—well-dressed and well-fed—while I had been living in a nightmare.
"So what now?" I asked, wiping a tear from my face. "You kidnapped from the bathroom. You drugged . What is your next plan? Kill ?"
Sir Levi looked at Sir Lennox and then back at . "Plan B is simple, Scarlett. You have to leave. And not with Ethan. We are sending you away to a place where no one can find you. If you aren’t here, there is nothing for them to fight over. The prophecy can’t co true if you disappear."
"I was already leaving!" I shouted, thinking of Ethan waiting for . "Ethan was taking to France!"
"Ethan is too close to the family," Levi said coldly. "The triplets would have tracked you down in days. They would have burned Paris to the ground just to find you. You need to go sowhere they can never reach. For their sake... and yours."
I looked at my mother, hoping for so spark of the woman who used to tuck in at night. "Are you going to let them do this? Are you going to let them throw away again?"
My mother’s lips trembled, but she didn’t move. "It’s for the best, Scar. It’s the only way we can protect the triplets. Scar, if you love them, you will do this."
My heart sank. I realized then that I wasn’t a daughter to them anymore. I was just a problem that needed to be solved.
"Where are you taking ?" I asked, my heart turning to stone. "Where will I be staying?"
"With us," my father said, his voice steady but lacking the warmth I rembered from my childhood. "You’ll co with us to Switzerland. We have gone back to our ho pack, Scarlett. My father passed away, and my elder brother—the new Alpha—unbanished . , your mother, and Luna Olivia... we have been staying there."
Fresh tears fell, hot and bitter. While I had been sleeping on a thin mattress, eating scraps, and being called a traitor’s daughter, they were living as royalty in another country. It explained everything—the expensive fabrics they wore, their healthy glow, the way they stood with such misplaced pride. They hadn’t been suffering. Only I had.
"You will stay there," Alpha Levi added, crossing his arms over his chest. "You’ll stay until the triplets marry and mate with the won we have chosen for them. Once they are bonded to others, we can co out with the truth. By then, the prophecy will be broken. They won’t be able to claim you again."
The thought of it was like a physical weight crushing my lungs. I thought of Liam’s protective growl, Leon’s fierce eyes, and the way Leo had just held through the freezing cold of the poison. They were going to be forced into the arms of other won while I hid in Switzerland, waiting for my life to be "allowed" to start.
"The triplets... they will search for ," I whispered, my voice trembling. "They won’t just give up. And Ethan... Alpha Ethan won’t let you just take ."
Sir Louis stepped forward, his expression unreadable. "Alpha Ethan already knows the truth, Scarlett."
My eyes widened, and the air left my lungs. "What?"
"He has known we were alive for a month now," Louis continued. "We reached out to him when he started getting too close to you. We begged him not to say a word, to keep the secret for the sake of the triplets’ safety. He agreed."
My heart didn’t just sink; it shattered. Every word Ethan had said in the shower—every promise of a new life and art school in Paris—felt like a dirty lie. He knew my parents were alive while I was mourning them. He knew the whole ti.
"Does he know about this?" I gestured to the guards and the drug they used on . "Does he know you kidnapped ?"
"No," Levi said shortly. "But we will tell him, and trust , this is for his advantage. With the triplets married and mated to other won, you both can be together... if you want."
"And as for the triplets," Alpha Lennox added, "they won’t find you because we are going to fake your death. Again. A witch is standing by to silence your bond... but it will only work if you agree to it. If you don’t fight the spell, the bond will go quiet. To them, it will feel as if you have died. They will feel the snap, they will mourn, and eventually... they will move on."
I looked at the faces of these people—my parents, my leaders. They wanted to voluntarily "die" in the minds of the n I was bonded to. They wanted to help them kill the only thing I had left.
"You want to let them believe I’m dead?" I asked, a hollow laugh escaping my lips. "After what you put through when I thought you were dead? You want to do that to them?"
Luna Olivia moved closer, her eyes brimming with tears. She sank onto the edge of the bed and took my ice-cold hands in hers. "Scarlett, please," she whispered, her voice cracking. "Do you think I’ve enjoyed this? For two years, I’ve been a ghost. I’ve lived in hiding, away from my ho, away from the sons I birthed. My heart has been hollow every single day."
I wanted to pull away, but she held on tighter.
"I don’t want this for you," she continued, "but for my sons... for their lives, I am willing to do anything. I am willing to be dead to them if it ans they don’t tear each other apart. And you... you know we aren’t lying. You’ve seen it, haven’t you? In your dreams?"
I swallowed hard, the bile rising in my throat. My mind flashed back to the horrific nightmares that had plagued for days. I saw the pack lands scorched by fire. I saw the Great Hall stained in red. And most vividly, I saw the three of them—Liam, Leo, and Leon—dead.
The silence in the room was suffocating. They were all watching , waiting for the girl who had been broken a thousand tis to break once more for them.
"If you love them, Scarlett," Olivia said, her voice dropping to a haunting plea, "if you truly love them, you will do this. You will let them go so they can live."
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