Bound to the Triplet Alphas-Chapter 40: Blood Secrets

ARIA POV

I crashed to the ground as the bright light faded. My head pounded like someone was hitting it with a hammer. The stranger—my predecessor—was gone. So was Alpha Darius and his troops. Only Kael remained, unconscious beside me.

"Kael!" I shook him softly, but he didn’t wake up.

Footsteps pounded toward us. I looked up to see Jaxon running across the yard, his face twisted with worry.

"What happened?" he asked, dropping to his knees beside his brother. "I felt something—like the bond was being ripped apart."

"I’ll explain later," I said, checking Kael’s pulse. It was steady. "He’s alive, just knocked out."

"We need to get you both out of here," Jaxon said quickly. "Dad’s gone crazy. He’s telling everyone you’ve tainted Kael with dark magic."

"That’s not what happened," I argued.

"I know," Jaxon said, startling me. "But we don’t have time to fight. Dad will be back with more fighters." He helped me to my feet. "Can you walk?"

I nodded, though my legs felt like jelly.

"Good. I need to show you something," he said. "Something I found."

"What about Kael?" I asked.

"Lucien is coming. He’ll take care of him." As if on cue, Lucien emerged at the edge of the garden with Mira.

Jaxon grabbed my hand. "Now, before it’s too late."

We snuck through the pack grounds, hiding whenever someone passed by. I was stunned at how good Jaxon was at this—ducking behind bushes, slipping through shadows.

"You’ve done this before," I whispered.

He flashed me his famous troublemaker grin. "More than you know."

We reached the main pack house—Alpha Darius’s home. Jaxon led me to a window at the back.

"My father’s office," he explained. "He keeps all the important pack records there."

"Including my birth records?" I asked, finally understanding why we were here.

Jaxon nodded. "And more. Much more."

He popped the window open with practiced ease, then helped me climb through. We landed softly in a big office with dark wooden walls. Bookshelves lined one wall, and a huge desk sat in the center.

"Check the desk," Jaxon whispered. "I’ll watch the door."

I quickly went through the drawers. Most contained boring pack business—money reports, area maps. But the bottom box was locked.

"It’s locked," I told Jaxon.

He pulled a small tool from his pocket. "Not for long."

The lock clicked open, and I pulled out a stack of folders.

"Hurry," Jaxon urged. "We don’t have much time."

I flipped through the folders until I found one with my name on it. My hands shook as I opened it.

"What does it say?" Jaxon asked.

"It’s my birth certificate," I whispered. "My mother’s name is given as Elena Moonstar. My father is..." I gasped. "Marcus Blackwood."

"Dad’s brother," Jaxon confirmed. "Just like Elder Malin said."

I dug deeper into the folder and found a scribbled note. "Listen to this: ’The child must never know her background. The Moon Alpha bloodline stops with her. The Blackwood curse depends on it.’" I looked up at Jaxon. "Your father knew who I was all along."

"There’s more," Jaxon said, pulling out another folder from the drawer. "Look at this."

The folder held three small vials filled with dark red liquid. Each was identified with a name: Kael, Jaxon, Lucien.

"Blood?" I asked, confused.

"Our blood," Jaxon said grimly. "Dad’s been taking it from us every month since we were thirteen. He said it was for pack records, to track our Alpha skills."

"But why would he need your blood?" I wondered.

Jaxon pointed to a leather-bound book next to the bottles. "I think the answer’s in there."

I opened the book carefully. It was handwritten in Alpha Darius’s tight, neat writing. Most of it was in the old language, but some parts were in English. " ’The curse needs blood of the cursed line to maintain its power,’" I read aloud. "’Three drops from each son at every full moon. The bond between them must stay balanced—never too strong, never too weak—or the curse will begin to break.’"

"He’s been keeping us cursed," Jaxon said, his voice shaking with anger. "Our own father."

"But why?" I asked. "Why curse his own sons?"

Jaxon shook his head. "I don’t know. But look at the next page."

I turned the page and found a diagram—three circles linked to a larger circle. Inside the bigger circle was a crude drawing of a moon.

"The Moon Alpha," I whispered. "The curse is connected to the Moon Alpha somehow."

Something clicked in my mind. "Jaxon, what if the curse wasn’t meant to hurt you three? What if it was meant to stop the Moon Alpha from rising?"

"By binding us to you," Jaxon said slowly. "The guardians to their charge."

I remembered what the stranger had said: "The three bonds must become one."

"That’s why the bond between us has felt so strange," I said. "It’s not just a mate bond or a guardian link. It’s both, twisted together by the curse."

Jaxon looked away, guilt on his face. "I knew something was wrong with the bond," he revealed. "I could feel it wasn’t right."

"What do you mean?"

He sat on the edge of the desk, running his hands through his messy hair. "When you first came of age, I felt something—a pull toward you. But it wasn’t like the mate ties I’d heard about. It was darker, more desperate."

"And you didn’t tell anyone?" I asked.

"I told Dad," Jaxon said. "He said I was dreaming things. But I knew better." He paused, looking ashamed. "So I did something stupid."

My stomach tightened. "What did you do, Jaxon?"

"I found an old spellbook in the library. Magic that could strengthen ties." He couldn’t meet my eyes. "I thought if I could make the bond stronger, it would feel right."

"You used forbidden magic on our bond?" I gasped.

"I was trying to fix it!" he defended. "But it failed. Instead of making it stronger, it made it more twisted. That’s when things got really weird between all of us."

I remembered how confused I’d been, feeling pulled to all three brothers at once.

"Your magic is what made the bond spread to all three of you," I realized.

Jaxon nodded weakly. "I think so. I’m sorry, Aria. I just wanted to understand what was happening to us."

Before I could reply, we heard voices in the hallway. Alpha Darius had returned.

"We need to go," Jaxon whispered quickly.

I quickly grabbed my folder, the book, and the tubes of blood. As we turned to leave through the window, something caught my eye—a small wooden box on a high shelf. It seemed to call to me.

"Wait," I said, grabbing for it.

"Aria, we don’t have time!" Jaxon hissed.

But I couldn’t leave without it. I grabbed the box and stuffed it into my pocket just as the office door started to open.

Jaxon pulled me through the window, and we ran as fast as we could away from the pack house. We didn’t stop until we reached the old shed where Lucien was treating Kael.

"Did you find anything?" Lucien asked as we burst in.

"More than we bargained for," Jaxon answered, locking the door behind us.

I showed them everything we’d found. Lucien looked sick as he studied the vials of their blood.

"Our own father," he whispered. "All this time."

Kael was still asleep on a makeshift bed in the corner. I sat beside him, taking his hand in mine.

"We need to break this curse," I said strongly. "For all of you."

"But how?" Mira asked. She had been quietly listening to everything.

I pulled out the small wooden box I’d taken from Alpha Darius’s office. "Maybe the answer is in here."

The box was locked, but the moment I touched it, the lock clicked open. Inside was a single metal key and a folded piece of paper.

"’The key to the Moon Chamber,’" I read from the paper. "’Where the curse began, so it must end.’"

"The Moon Chamber?" Lucien asked. "I’ve never heard of it."

"I have," Jaxon said quietly. "Dad mentioned it once. It’s supposed to be a secret room under the pack house where the original Alpha made deals with the Moon Goddess."

I held up the key. It glowed dimly in my hand, resonating with the power inside me.

"This is it," I said. "This is how we break the curse."

Suddenly, Kael gasped and sat up, his eyes wide with fear. "Don’t go there," he choked out. "I saw it—in my vision while I was unconscious. The Moon Chamber is a trap."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Dad isn’t trying to maintain the curse," Kael said, his voice shaking. "He’s trying to transfer it—to you."

The door to the shed burst open. Alpha Darius stood there, the Blade of Severing in his hand. Behind him stood Elira and a dozen soldiers.

"Give me the key, Aria," he ordered. "Or watch your friends die one by one."