Fated To Not Just One, But Three-Chapter 657: Shave off

Lennox’s POV

​I sat there, frozen, staring at the dark strands tangled between my fingers. It shouldn’t have come as a shock. The doctors had warned me about the side effects of the aggressive treatments, but seeing it—holding a piece of my own fading life in my hand—made the reality of my death unavoidable.

​"Lennox, let us..." Louis started, his voice thick with emotion. He didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t have to.

​I simply nodded, my gaze fixed on a spot on the wall. I felt like a statue, cold and carved from stone, while the world moved in a frantic blur around me.

​Levi brought over a chair and a pair of clippers. The sound of the hum was loud in the silent room, a mechanical buzz that felt like it was vibrating through my very skull. I didn’t move as they began to shave what was left.

​"We should have informed Olivia before doing this," Levi muttered, his hands shaking as he worked.

​"I don’t want her to see this," I whispered. My voice was a ghost of what it used to be. "I wanted her to remember the Alpha. The man who could protect her. Not... this."

​"She doesn’t see an Alpha or a weak man, Lex," Louis said, kneeling beside the bed so he could look me in the eye. "She just sees the man she loves. And right now, you’re breaking her heart twice over by keeping her out."

​I looked down at the floor. A carpet of my own hair surrounded the bed. I felt lighter, but not in a way that brought relief. I felt diminished. Exposed.

​"The specialist says a month," I said, changing the subject because the thought of Olivia’s face was more painful than the cancer. "Is that the final word?"

​The room went silent. Levi stopped the clippers, the sudden absence of the noise making my ears ring.

​"Unless there’s a miracle," the specialist said from the doorway, his tone professional yet tinged with a heavy pity. "Your heart is too weak for the more experimental surgeries now. The stress of tonight... it took a toll we can’t reverse."

​I leaned my head back against the pillow, feeling the cool air on my newly shorn scalp. A month. Thirty days before I disappear again... this time for good.

​"I need to see my sons," I whispered. "Bring Leon, Leo, and Liam."

​Louis nodded and left to fetch them.

​The door opened, and the heavy, sterile silence of the room was punctured by the sound of small, hurried footsteps. My heart, as weak as it was, gave a painful thud against my ribs.

​Leon, Leo, and Liam burst in, their faces bright with that desperate childhood hope—until they reached the edge of the bed. They stopped dead. The carpet of dark hair on the floor was impossible to ignore, but it was my face, now gaunt and framed by a bare, shorn scalp, that anchored them to the floor.

​"Daddy?" Liam whispered, his lower lip trembling.

​"Hey, guys," I said, my voice cracking. I tried to reach out, but my arm felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.

​Leon was the first to break. A sob tore from his throat as he lunged forward, burying his face in the mattress near my hip. Within seconds, all three of them were a tangle of shaking shoulders and muffled cries, clutching at my blankets as if they could physically hold me onto this earth.

​"Why is your hair gone?" Leo wailed, his eyes wide and wet. "You look... you look different. You look like you’re leaving."

​"Shh, listen to me," I rasped, placing a shaky hand on Leo’s head. "I need you to be strong. You are the sons of an Alpha. You have the blood of the moon in your veins. You have to be brave for your mother."

​"No!" Liam screamed, clenching his fists in my sheets. "I don’t want to be brave! I want you to be better! Mommy said you weren’t going to go! She promised!"

​The guilt sliced through me. Olivia had promised them a miracle I couldn’t give.

​"I’m not leaving this second," I lied, my heart breaking. "But I need you to remember what I taught you. Look after each other. Protect the pack. Love your mother with everything you have."

​"We’re staying here," Leon sobbed, his small fingers locking around my wrist. "We aren’t going to sleep. We’re staying right here."

​They refused to move. For an hour, they clung to me, their tears wetting my gown, their small bodies radiating a warmth I was losing. I held them until my muscles burned and my breath grew too shallow to speak.

​Finally, I caught Levi’s eye. I couldn’t do this anymore. The monitor was beginning to spike, and the exhaustion was dragging me toward sleep.

​"Take them," I whispered, closing my eyes.

​"No! Daddy, no!"

​The room erupted in chaos as Levi and Louis stepped forward. They had to physically peel the boys away from the bed. It was a chorus of screams and kicking legs.

​"Let go! I want my dad!" Liam shrieked, his voice fading as Louis carried him and Leo into the hall.

​Levi stayed for a moment, holding a sobbing Leon in his arms. The boy was reaching back toward me with both hands, his small fingers stretching as if he could still grab hold of me and keep me here.

​"Daddy... please," Leon cried, his voice breaking.

​My chest burned, but my body wouldn’t move. I didn’t have the strength to lift my arms anymore.

​"I’ve got them, Lex," Levi said softly, though his voice was shaking. Tears streamed down his face as he tightened his hold on Leon. "I’ve got them. Just rest now. Please... just rest."

​Leon kept crying, calling my name, fighting against Levi’s grip until the sound of his sobs slowly faded down the hallway.

​Then the door closed.

​The sound was soft. Final.

​The silence that followed was crushing. It pressed down on my ears, my chest, and my soul. No voices. No footsteps. Just the steady, unforgiving beep of the machine beside me, reminding me that time was running out.

​I lay there, staring at the ceiling, unable to blink.

​Closing my eyes, I knew it.

​This time, there would be no miracle.

​No sudden cure.

​No last-minute hope.

​No one coming to save me.

​I had reached the end of the road.

​There were no more plans to make. No more fights to win. No more cards left to play.

​Only death—waiting quietly for me to accept it.

​