Fated To Not Just One, But Three-Chapter 653: The Truth

Lennox’s POV

​The moment Olivia teleported, my hand, which had been clutching Elena, went limp. I pushed her away and slumped back into the pillows, a hollow, rattling sound echoing in my chest. I’ll move on. Her words played over and over in my head like a death sentence. It was exactly what I wanted. It was exactly what I’d planned for.

​So why did it feel like she’d reached into my chest and finished what the cancer started?

​"Lennox..." Louis stepped toward the bed, his face twisted in pure horror. "This is wrong. This is so fundamentally wrong. You heard her. She’s cold, Lennox. You’re turning the woman who worshipped you into a stranger. She’s going to hate us forever for helping you do this."

​"Let her," I wheezed, closing my eyes against the stinging behind my lids. "If she hates you... she won’t... she won’t die with me. Levi, tell the doctors... to get out. I need... silence."

​Levi didn’t move. He stood at the foot of the bed. "I can’t do this anymore, Lennox. I can’t watch you die while she’s down the hall wishing for it to be over. This isn’t protection. It’s torture."

​"Go," I barked, a fresh wave of pain lancing through my brain, making the room spin. "Both of you. Now."

​They lingered for a moment, the tension thick enough to choke on, before they finally turned and walked out. The silence that followed was heavy, broken only by the steady, clinical hiss of the oxygen and the faint beep of the monitor.

​Elena moved quietly, adjusting the IV drip.

​"Alpha Lennox," she said softly, her voice echoing in the empty room. "This is not right. I’ve seen people pass in anger, and I’ve seen them pass in love. Believe me, the anger doesn’t make the end any easier for the ones left behind. It just leaves them with questions that have no answers."

​I didn’t open my eyes. "She... she said she’d move on. That’s the goal."

​"She said it because she’s bleeding, and she wanted to hurt you back," Elena countered, leaning over me to check my pupils. "Let her know the truth. Cherish your last moments. Hold your children without a lie between you. You’re wasting the only thing you have left—time."

​"I am an Alpha," I whispered, the words tasting like ash. "My last act... must be to ensure the survival of my others. If she stays bonded... if she stays in love... the Moon Goddess will take her when I go. I won’t... I won’t let my sons be without a mother."

​"And what happens when she finds out later?" Elena asked, her voice dropping to a whisper. "When she realizes you spent your final days making her believe you were a monster? She won’t just move on, Lennox. She’ll break in a way that can never be fixed."

​I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. I just pulled the oxygen mask over my face and turned my head toward the window, watching the sun begin to set over the territory I wouldn’t be leading for much longer.

​I was a monster. I had to be. Because a monster is easier to forget than a hero.

Hours later! 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

​I could hear the frantic rhythm of the monitor, that persistent, high-pitched ping-ping-ping that warned everyone in the room my time was measured in minutes, not hours.

​"Lennox! Stay with us, damn it!" Levi’s voice was a roar from somewhere far away, thick with a sob he was trying to hide. "It’s too early! You can’t leave them like this! Fight, you stubborn bastard!"

​"His blood pressure is bottoming out!" a doctor yelled, his voice sounding like it was underwater. "Inject the epinephrine now! Elena, get the paddles ready!"

​I wanted to tell them to stop. I wanted to tell them to let the tide take me. I was so incredibly tired of the lies, the pain, and the mask. But my tongue was lead, and the darkness was pulling me under, heavy and cold.

​Then, the air in the room didn’t just shift—it shattered.

​The familiar, electric hum of teleportation buzzed through the room, and the scent of honey, nutmeg, and home—her scent—hit me like a physical blow to the chest. It was the only thing that could have reached me in that abyss.

​"What is happening?!" Olivia’s voice was sharp, a blade of light cutting through the medical jargon.

​"We’re losing him!" Elena shouted. The professional nurse was gone; she was just a woman watching a man die. "His heart is failing, Luna! He’s flatlining!"

​I felt the bed dip violently. Suddenly, two palms slammed onto my bare chest. They weren’t cold like the doctors’ hands; they were burning. It was a violent, beautiful intrusion of life. Even without my wolf, my soul screamed in recognition.

​"Get back!" she snarled at the doctors who tried to pull her away.

​She began to pour her energy into me. It wasn’t the gentle healing I was used to; it was a desperate, raw command for my body to obey her. I felt the surge of her power hit my heart like a bolt of lightning, stitching together my frayed nerves, forcing my lungs to expand against the weight of the fluid, demanding that my system restart.

​Thump. My heart rolled. Thump-thump. It caught the rhythm.

​The monitor’s frantic, flat tone broke, evening out into a weak, fragile pulse. I opened my eyes, my vision swimming, to see Olivia hovering over me. Her hair was wild, her eyes glowing with a terrifying, piercing look. She wasn’t looking at me with the "hate" I had tried so hard to build. She was looking at me like she was dissecting my very soul.

​She let go of my chest, her breath coming in ragged gasps, and slowly stood up. She didn’t look at the doctors. She didn’t look at Louis or Levi, who were frozen in the corner.

​She turned toward Elena.

​In one fluid, predatory motion, Olivia moved across the room. She grabbed Elena by the front of her scrub top and slammed her against the wall with enough force to rattle the windowpanes.

​"Olivia, no." Louis cried out, but a flick of her wrist sent a wave of kinetic energy that pinned him to the opposite wall.

​Olivia ignored him. She slammed her glowing hand onto Elena’s forehead, her fingers splaying across the nurse’s skin. I watched, paralyzed and wheezing, as Olivia’s eyes closed for a split second. She wasn’t just checking for a pulse; she was searching for the bond. She was searching for the "illness" I claimed we shared.

​Her eyes snapped open, blazing with a golden fire I hadn’t seen in years.

​"You aren’t sick," Olivia whispered, her voice a low, dangerous growl that vibrated in the floorboards. "Your cells are perfect. Your blood is clean. Your heart is strong."

​She turned her head slowly, her gaze traveling from the medical machines—which were all tubed and wired into me—to the handkerchief soaked in my blood on the nightstand, and finally back to my pale, sweating face.

​The silence in the room was deafening.

​"If she isn’t the one dying..." Olivia paused, the words catching in her throat as the horrifying truth finally broke through my wall of lies. Her hand dropped from Elena’s head, and she looked at me with a face so full of soul-crushing realization it hurt more than the cancer.

​"Does that mean... there is no third-chance mate?"

​She walked back to my bedside, her eyes landing on an IV bag that had Oncology printed in bold, black letters—something I had fought so hard to hide.

​"There is no bond killing you, Lennox," she whispered, her voice trembling with a mix of agony and fury. "It’s you. You’re the one who’s sick."