novelraw Chapter 103: Not repeating my fathers’ lives.
Chapter 103: Not repeating my fathers’ lives.
Leo’s POV
The moment we were in a private corner of the hallway, far enough away from Scarlett’s door, I spun around. My blood was still boiling.
"Stay away from Scarlett," I said, my voice low but vibrating with a rage I’d spent my whole life suppressing. "Both of you. Stay the hell away from her."
Liam and Leon stopped dead. They looked at me as if I’d suddenly started speaking a foreign language. Usually, I was the one who kept the peace. I was the bridge between Liam’s cold authority and Leon’s hot-headed violence. But that part of me was gone now.
"All my life, I have shared everything with you two," I spat. "Everything. We shared the same womb before we were even born. We share this face—every time I look in the mirror, I see you. We shared our toys, our clothes, our first hunts. I’ve lived my entire life as a third of a whole, never asking for a single thing that was just mine."
I stepped into their personal space, my eyes darting between them. "But Scarlett? I’m not sharing her with either of you. Not now. Not ever. You both need to back off. Now, while you still can."
Liam let out a cold, sharp scoff. He adjusted the collar of his shirt, looking down at me with that same "Alpha" arrogance that used to make me proud, but now only made me want to hit him.
"And on what grounds should we let you have her, Leo?" Liam asked, his voice icy. "She isn’t your fucking mate."
"Even if she was mated to all three of us, I still wouldn’t share her!" I snapped. The thought of them touching her, of her looking at them with the same softness she gave me, made my vision go red at the edges. "You two would have to reject her. You’d have to step aside and let me have her. I’m not sharing Scarlett. But it’s a moot point, isn’t it? Because it seems you two aren’t even her mates."
"And you are?" Liam bared his teeth, stepping up until we were chest-to-chest. "You aren’t her mate either, Leo. You’re just as deluded as the rest of us."
I bared my fangs, the truth sitting right at the tip of my tongue, burning to be let out. I wanted to scream it in their faces—but I held it back.
No. Not this way. I wasn’t going to give them the chance to prepare. I was going to shock them. I couldn’t wait to see the look of pure defeat on their faces when they realized she was mine and mine alone.
Liam tilted his head, his green eyes flashing. "So tell me, Leo. What will you do if Scarlett is mated to me? If the Moon Goddess decides she belongs to me?"
I let out a dark, bitter laugh. "Not possible. If Scarlett is mated to any of the three of us, it’s definitely me. If it’s not... then the Moon Goddess just declared war on this family."
I looked at my brothers. These were the men I had loved with my entire soul. These were the men I would have died for yesterday. Now, they were just obstacles. "I am not sharing Scarlett with you two."
Leon, who had been leaning against the wall, finally moved. He had been unusually quiet since Liam ripped him off her in the library. He didn’t look at Liam at all. He looked straight at me, his eyes dark and unreadable.
"We will see about that," he said, his voice a low growl that promised war.
Without another word, he pushed off the wall and walked away, his heavy boots echoing against the stone floor. Liam watched him go for a second before giving me one last warning look and following.
I marched into my room, the heavy oak door slamming shut behind me with a force that shook the frames on the wall. I didn’t turn on the lights. I didn’t need to. I walked straight to the cabinet, pulled out a bottle of dark whiskey, and opened it with my teeth.
The liquid burned down my throat, but it wasn’t enough to drown the fire in my blood. I sank into the leather chair, staring into the shadows. My mind drifted, even though I didn’t want it to, to our fathers. Three men sharing one woman. They had shared our mother in a way people talked about with awe. Growing up, I watched them move as one, always circling around her like planets around the sun. To the pack, it was the greatest blessing of the Moon Goddess. A "Triple Bond."
But to me, it was a slow, quiet nightmare.
I remembered being a boy, watching them. I saw how my mother had to carefully divide her smiles, her touches, even her looks. If she kissed one, she had to kiss the others. If she spent a night in one wing, she had to move to the next. She wasn’t just a woman; she was something to be shared. A peace deal that kept three powerful Alphas from killing each other.
I saw the small flashes of jealousy in my fathers’ eyes when they thought we weren’t looking. The way one would go still when our mother leaned too long into another. They called it "sharing," but it looked more like a life of never truly being first. Never being the only one.
I took another long drink from the bottle, the alcohol finally starting to dull my thoughts.
I knew the stories. I knew the strong chance of triplets like us having one mate. It was the "Tri-Soul" theory. But Liam and Leon hadn’t said anything about a bond, and the brothers I knew would have already said it if they were mated to her.
And Scarlett... if she were mated to all three of us, she would have said it too.
Even if the worst happened—even if the Goddess, in her twisted humor, had tied Scarlett to all three of us—I wouldn’t accept it. I wouldn’t live the life my fathers lived. I wouldn’t spend my life checking a calendar to see when I was allowed to hold my own mate. I wouldn’t watch my brothers touch her and stay quiet because of brotherhood. Never... I am not repeating my fathers’ lives.