Bound to the Triplet Alphas-Chapter 34 - 35: Blood Secrets

ARIA POV

I threw myself in front of Elira’s blade, grabbing her wrist just before it could plunge into Lucien’s heart. The silver light from my skin burned her hand, and she screamed, dropping the knife.

"Don’t touch him!" I yelled, my voice louder and stronger than I’d ever heard it.

Alpha Darius indicated his wolves to attack, but they couldn’t enter the stone circle. The silver light had formed a barrier around us.

"This is ancient ground," Lyra yelled at Darius. "You have no power here!"

I knelt beside Lucien, whose chest was glowing where my light touched him. The wound was healing. He was my true mate—I felt it now, clear as day.

"How touching," Alpha Darius sneered. "Just like your mother. Always making the wrong choice."

"What do you know about my mother?" I demanded, standing to face him.

"I knew everything about her," he said, his voice suddenly soft with a feeling I couldn’t name. "Serena was meant to be mine."

The name hit me like a punch. My mother’s name. Something I’d never known.

"Liar!" I shouted. "My mother would never have wanted someone like you!"

"Tell her, Lyra," Darius ordered. "Tell her the truth about her precious mother."

Lyra’s face was grim. "Darius loved your mother first, Aria. They were childhood friends. Everyone thought they would mate when they came of age."

"But she rejected him," Darius spat. "For a nobody. A weak wolf from another pack."

"My father," I whispered.

"Alexander wasn’t weak," Lyra said furiously. "He was kind and brave—everything Darius wasn’t."

"He was nothing!" Darius roared. "And she chose him anyway!"

Something clicked in my mind. "That’s why you hate me. I remind you of her."

"I don’t hate you, child," Darius said, his voice strangely gentle. "I’ve protected you your whole life."

"Protected me?" I laughed bitterly. "By making me an omega? By treating me like dirt?"

"By keeping you alive!" he shouted. "The only way to hide what you really are!"

The triplets had risen to their feet now, the ritual’s power healing their wounds. They formed a protective circle around me.

"What do you mean, hiding what I am?" I asked.

Lyra stepped forward. "After your mother refused him, Darius made a deal with a dark spirit. He cursed your mother’s bloodline—that any girl born to her would die before her eighteenth birthday."

My blood ran cold. "But I didn’t die."

"No," said a new voice. "Because I wouldn’t let you."

A tall woman with silver-streaked dark hair stepped through the trees. She held herself like royalty, and her face...her face looked just like Kael’s.

"Mother?" Jaxon whispered in shock.

The woman—their mother, the Luna—nodded. "Hello, my sons."

Alpha Darius looked like he’d seen a ghost. "Elena? You’re supposed to be—"

"Dead?" she finished for him. "Not quite yet, husband."

She walked toward me, somehow passing through the block of light.

"You’ve grown so beautiful," she said, touching my cheek. "Just as I knew you would."

"You know me?" I asked, confused.

"I was there the night you were born," she revealed. "The same night another baby was born in our pack—a true omega who didn’t survive her first breath."

Understanding dawned on me. "You switched us."

Luna Elena nodded. "The dead child became Serena’s daughter in everyone’s eyes. And you became the omega no one would look twice at."

"You betrayed me," Darius growled at his wife. "All these years..."

"You betrayed yourself when you cursed an innocent woman," Elena shot back. "When you made that deal with darkness."

"I did it for power!" he yelled. "For our sons!"

"No," Elena said sadly. "You did it for revenge."

The triplets looked stunned. Kael stepped forward. "Mother, why didn’t you tell us?"

"To protect you," she said. "The curse bound you three together. If you knew about Aria too soon, the spirit would have taken one of you instantly."

"But why did you disappear?" Lucien asked. "We thought you were dead."

"I had to find a way to break both curses," Elena stated. "Yours and Aria’s. I’ve spent years looking for the answer."

"And did you find it?" I asked desperately.

Elena looked at the blood moon sky. "Yes. But it takes sacrifice."

"What kind of sacrifice?" Mira asked from outside the group.

"The one who made the deal must give up what they value most," Elena said, looking at Darius.

Alpha Darius went pale. "No. I won’t do it."

"Then your sons will die," Elena said simply. "One now, the others soon after. And your pack will fall."

I felt Lucien’s hand slip into mine. Our relationship hummed between us, getting stronger by the second.

"What about Elira?" I asked, noticing how the girl was watching everything with calculating eyes. "What’s her role in all this?"

"She’s the backup plan," Elena said with disgust. "If the curse killed you, she would take your place as Luna. Darius has been grooming her for years."

Elira smirked. "I’m better than you’ll ever be, Aria. I was born for this."

"No," Elena amended. "You were born normal. But Darius has been feeding you dark magic since you were a kid. That’s why you hate Aria so much—the magic inside you knows what she truly is."

Elira’s smug face faltered. "That’s not true."

"He’s using you," I told her. "Just like he used his own sons."

Darius suddenly lunged toward the barrier, his face twisted with rage. "Enough! I won’t let you turn everyone against me!"

To everyone’s shock, he passed through the silver light. The magic didn’t stop him.

"How?" Lyra gasped.

"Blood recognizes blood," Elena whispered.

Darius grabbed my arm, his grip painful. "You’re coming with me, Aria. This ends now."

Lucien tried to pull me back, but something strange happened when Darius touched me. Images flashed through my mind—a younger Darius holding a baby, tears running down his face. My mother’s voice saying, "She’ll never know you, Darius. That’s your fate."

I jerked away from him, staring in fear. "No. It can’t be."

"What is it?" Mira called. "Aria, what’s wrong?"

The truth crashed over me like ice water. Why the evil couldn’t kill me. Why he could pass through the barrier.

"You’re not just the man who loved my mother," I whispered, backing away from Darius. "You’re my father."

Gasps echoed around the clearing. The triplets looked shell-shocked.

"That would make us..." Kael couldn’t finish the thought.

"Half-siblings," Elena confirmed sadly. "I always knew Serena’s child was also his. It’s why I couldn’t let you die, Aria."

"But that means..." I turned to Lucien in horror. "If we’re related, how can you be my true mate?"

"He’s not," Darius said quietly. "None of my kids are. It’s another lie."

"Then who is?" I asked.

Before anyone could answer, howls arose from beyond the trees—not Darius’s wolves, but something else. Something worse.

"They’ve found us," Elena said quickly. "The dark forces. They’ve come to claim their debt."

The ground began to shake. The stone circle cracked. Our security was failing.

"We need to finish the ritual!" Lyra shouted.

"But if Lucien isn’t my true mate, who is?" I cried, feeling the bonds stretching, tearing.

A shadowy figure emerged at the edge of the clearing, its form shifting between man and beast. It pointed straight at me.

"The daughter of betrayal," it hissed in a voice that chilled my soul. "Come to me."

And then I felt it—a pull stronger than any tie I’d felt before. Not toward Lucien or any of the triplets.

But toward the darkness itself.