Bound to the Triplet Alphas-Chapter 138: Lucien’s Sacrifice

LUCIEN POV

I pressed my hands against Marcus’s chest as his life slipped away, putting every bit of healing energy I had into his wounds.

"Stay with me," I whispered desperately. "Come on, Marcus. Your kids need you."

His eyes fluttered open for a moment, and I felt the relief wash over me. That was the fifteenth pack member I’d saved in the last hour. But I could feel my own power fading with each healing.

Around me, the battlefield was chaos. After we’d escaped Elder Malin’s trap, the Shadow Lords had started a full attack on our territory. Pack members were spread everywhere, some fighting, others bleeding out on the ground.

"Lucien!" Mira’s voice was terrified. "Over here! Sarah’s not breathing!"

I stumbled toward her, my legs shaky from tiredness. Sarah, one of our pack moms, was lying unconscious with claw marks across her throat. Deep ones.

"I don’t know if I can—" I started to say.

"You have to try," Mira begged. "She has three little ones at home."

Three little ones. I thought about those kids losing their mother, and somehow found the strength to kneel beside Sarah. I placed my hands over her wounds and dug deep into my healing powers.

The energy flowed out of me like water through a broken dam. I felt my own heart rate slow as I gave Sarah mine. Felt my own breath grow shallow as I shared my life force with her.

But it worked. Her eyes opened, and she gasped for air.

"Thank you," she whispered.

I tried to smile, but everything was getting blurry. "Just... just keep fighting," I managed to say.

"Lucien!" Another voice. Another injured pack member. Another life hanging by a thread.

I forced myself to stand, even though my knees wanted to fall. A young fighter named Tom was crawling toward me, leaving a trail of blood behind him.

"My leg," he gasped. "I can’t feel my leg."

A Shadow Lord had torn it nearly off. The cut was so bad that I could see bone. If I didn’t heal him quickly, he would die.

But I wasn’t sure I had enough energy left to save him and survive myself.

I looked around the battlefield, seeing so many others who needed help. Vampires from Queen Seraphina’s troops. Fae fighters who had joined our cause. Even some of Jaxon’s dragon friends who had been injured in the fighting.

All of them counting on me. All of them believing that I could save them.

"Lucien, no," Aria said, appearing beside me. Even in the middle of war, she’d noticed my condition. "You’ve done enough. You need to rest."

"I can’t rest," I said, already kneeling beside Tom. "Not while people are dying."

"But if you keep this up, you’ll die too," she said, her voice breaking. "And then what? What happens to everyone else who needs healing?"

She was right. I knew she was right. But I couldn’t just watch Tom bleed out when I had the power to save him.

"Maybe our mate bond isn’t real," I said quietly, putting my hands on Tom’s mangled leg. "Maybe Elder Malin was telling the truth about the shadow magic. But this is real. These people are real. Their lives matter."

"Our bond is real," Aria said strongly. "I don’t care what Elder Malin said. I know what I feel."

I wanted to believe her. But the question was there now, eating at me. Had everything I’d felt for her been artificial? Had the Shadow Lords manipulated my feelings from the very beginning?

It didn’t matter right now. What mattered was saving Tom.

I poured my healing energy into his leg, feeling my own life force drain away. My view went dark for a moment, and I thought I might pass out. But Tom’s leg began to mend itself, bone and muscle and skin joining back together.

"There," I whispered. "You’re going to be okay."

But when I tried to stand up, I fell.

"Lucien!" Aria caught me before I hit the ground. "No, no, no. Stay with me."

I could barely keep my eyes open. "Did Tom... is he...?"

"He’s fine," she said, tears running down her face. "He’s walking. You saved him."

Good. That was good.

"How many?" I asked softly.

"How many what?"

"How many people did I save today?"

Aria looked around at all the pack members who were back on their feet, fighting because I’d fixed their wounds. "Twenty-three," she said softly. "You saved twenty-three lives today." Twenty-three people who would go home to their families. Twenty-three people who would live to see tomorrow because I’d given them some of my life force.

It was worth it.

"Lucien, you have to let me help you," Aria said desperately. "Use your Earth Guardian link. Draw energy from the earth to heal yourself."

"Can’t," I mumbled. "Too tired. Used everything."

"Then I’ll give you some of mine," she said, pressing her hands against my chest.

I felt a warm glow as her Earth Guardian power flowed into me. Not enough to make me strong again, but enough to keep me living.

"Thank you," I whispered.

"Don’t thank me yet," she said grimly. "Because I just felt something through my earth link. Something that’s going to change everything."

"What?"

"The Prisoner isn’t just awake," she said, her face pale with fear. "It’s moving. It’s coming this way. And it’s bringing an army with it."

I forced myself to sit up, even though my body screamed in anger. "How long do we have?"

"Maybe an hour," she said. "Maybe less." freёnovelkiss-com

An hour to prepare for a fight with the most powerful Shadow Lord that had ever existed. An hour to get ready for a battle that would decide the fate of not just our pack, but all the supernatural realms.

And I was so weak I could barely stand.

"Aria," I said quietly. "There’s something I need to tell you. About my healing powers. About why I’ve always been different from my boys."

"What?"

"I’m not just a healer," I said. "I’m something else. Something the Shadow Lords have been looking for almost as long as they’ve been hunting Earth Guardians."

Her eyes went wide. "What are you talking about?"

"I’m a Life Guardian," I said. "The last one. And if the Prisoner gets hold of me, it won’t just be able to drain individual lives. It will be able to drain the life force from entire worlds."

Aria stared at me in shock. "You’re telling me this now?"

"I was trying to protect you," I said. "If you’d known what I really was, you would have been in even more danger."

"How long have you known?"

"Since I was twelve," I admitted. "Elder Malin told me. He said it had to be our secret."

"Elder Malin knew?" Aria’s voice was barely a whisper.

"He’s known everything about both of us from the beginning," I said. "Earth Guardian and Life Guardian. We’re the two most powerful supernatural families that exist. And he’s been exploiting both of us for years."

"Which means," Aria said slowly, "he’s been planning this final battle for a very long time."

"And now I’m too weak to fight," I said sadly. "I used up all my energy saving everyone else, and now when they need me most, I have nothing left to give."

But even as I said it, I felt something stirring deep inside me. Not healing energy. Something else. Something I’d never accessed before.

"Lucien?" Aria said, backing away from me. "Your eyes are glowing."

I looked down at my hands and saw light coming from my skin. Not the warm glow of healing magic. This was different. Brighter. More strong.

"What’s happening to me?" I whispered.

"I don’t know," Aria said. "But whatever it is, the Shadow Lords can feel it. They’re all turning this way."

And that’s when I heard the Prisoner’s voice in my mind, speaking straight to me across the miles.

"Hello, little Life Guardian," it said with dark delight. "Ready to come home?"

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