Fated Mate to the Triplet Alpha

Chapter 103: Chapter 103: The Breaking Point

The original Alpha’s chains sparked with dying power. Each crack sent shivers through the cave floor. "You feel it too, don’t you?" he whispered to Elara. "The baby knows I’m here.

It wants to meet its ancestor." Elara’s stomach twisted with another growth spurt. Her shirt stretched tight across her growing belly. "Stay away from us." "I don’t need to come closer." His red eyes gleamed.

"My blood calls to the child. Soon it will answer." Suddenly, the cave filled with bright white light. When it faded, twelve figures in silver robes stood between them and the chained Alpha. "The High Council," Tobias breathed.

"They’re here." The tallest figure removed her hood, showing an ancient woman with pure white hair. "We are too late. The acceleration has begun." "Council Elder Vera," Kael stepped forward. "We need your help." "Help?" Elder Vera’s voice was cold as winter. "You have doomed us all.

The prophecy child grows uncontrolled." Another Council member pointed at Elara. "She carries death itself. The end of our secret world." "That’s not true!" Darian’s shadows flared around him. "The baby could save everyone."

"Or destroy everything," a third Council member said. "We cannot take that risk." Elder Vera raised her staff. "By order of the High Council, the vessel must be contained." "Vessel?" Elara’s voice shook with anger.

"I have a name!" "Names don’t matter now," Elder Vera said. "Only preventing catastrophe matters." The Council members began singing in an ancient language. Magic circles emerged around each person in the cave. "What are you doing?" Kael demanded.

"Separating you," Elder Vera announced. "Each of you will face a trial alone. If you survive, perhaps the child can be saved. If not..." "If not, what?" Tobias stepped protectively near Elara. "Then we end this bloodline forever." The magic circles began to glow brighter.

Elara reached for Kael’s hand, but her fingers passed through empty air. "No!" she screamed as the rings pulled them apart. "Don’t split us up!" "The bonds between you are too strong," Elder Vera explained. "They corrupt the child’s growth.

Apart, you might find clarity." "This is wrong!" Kael fought against the magic holding him. "We’re stronger together!" "Together, you are chaos," another Council member said. "The child feeds on your combined feelings. Your fear, anger, love - it all makes the baby grow faster." Elara felt the truth in those words.

Every time the boys got upset, her stomach cramped. Every surge of their protective feelings made the baby kick harder. "Where are you sending us?" Darian demanded. "To face your greatest weaknesses," Elder Vera said.

"Alone." The original Alpha laughed from his chains. "Divide and conquer. How predictable. And how wonderful for my plans." "Silence!" Elder Vera pointed her stick at him. "Your influence ends here."

"Does it?" The old wolf’s voice followed them as the magic circles began to spin. "Can you really keep me from my own blood? From the child that carries my power?" Elara’s world became a tornado of light and sound. She felt herself being pulled away from everything familiar.

Away from her friends. Away from safety. When the spinning stopped, she stood alone in a forest she didn’t recognize. Ancient trees stretched forever in every direction. No wind. No bird songs. Complete silence. "Hello?" she called out.

Her voice echoed weirdly, as if the trees were swallowing the sound. A rustle came from behind her. She spun around to see a woman stepping out from between the trees.

A woman who looked exactly like her, but older. "Hello, daughter," the woman said with Elara’s face and voice. "You’re not my mother," Elara said, backing away. "My mother is dead."

"I am what you could become," the woman responded. "If you make the right choices." "What choices?" The other Elara smiled, and it wasn’t a kind look. "Whether to let the child live or die."

Meanwhile, Kael found himself in the Alpha’s office back at the pack house. But everything was wrong. The walls showed scenes of pack members bowing before him. Images of wolves from other regions kneeling in submission.

"Beautiful, isn’t it?" a voice said behind him. Kael turned to see himself sitting in the Alpha chair. But this other Kael wore a crown of metal and bone. His eyes glowed with cold power.

"This is your future," the crowned Kael said. "If you’re strong enough to take it." "I don’t want to rule through fear," Kael said. "Don’t you?" The other version stood up.

"Haven’t you always felt it? The desire to make them all obey? To never be questioned again?" Kael felt the truth of those words in his chest. Sometimes he did want total power. Sometimes he was tired of fighting and explaining and convincing.

"The child will give you that power," crowned Kael added. "Through it, you can control every supernatural thing on Earth. No more councils. No more votes. Just your word as law." "And Elara?" Kael asked. "What happens to her?" The other version’s smile turned nasty.

"She becomes unnecessary." In a burning wasteland, Ronan faced down an army of creatures that looked like everyone he’d ever hurt with his anger. His father with a broken nose from their last fight. Pack members he’d injured during training.

Humans who’d gotten in his way. "Look what your anger created," they said in unison. "Look at the destruction you cause." "I protect people," Ronan said, but his words lacked conviction. "You destroy them," the army replied. "And now you’ll destroy the child too.

Your rage will ruin it. Turn it into a tool of pure violence." Ronan felt his berserker power rising. The familiar red haze that made fighting easier. Made hurting people easy.

"Maybe you’re right," he allowed. "Maybe I am just a monster." "Then embrace it," the army said.

"Stop trying to be good. Let the child learn from your true nature." Deep underground, Darian stood in a library filled with every secret he’d ever kept. Books lined the walls, each one holding his lies, manipulations, and hidden truths. "Impressive collection," said a voice that sounded like his own.

He turned to see another form of himself, but this one was transparent. Made of darkness and whispers. "I am your hidden self," the shadow-Darian stated. "The part you never let anyone see."

"I keep secrets to protect people," Darian said. "Do you?" The shadow pulled a book from the shelf. "What about the secret that Elara isn’t the first prophecy child? What about the others who came before her?" Darian’s blood went cold.

"What others?" "The ones who died," the shadow said carelessly. "The ones the Council killed to avoid this exact situation. Should I tell her, or will you?" Back in the silent bush, Elara clutched her growing belly as her other self circled her like a predator. noveldrama

"The Council is right, you know," the other Elara said. "The child is dangerous. You can feel it, can’t you? The way it reacts to violence? The way it grows stronger when people suffer?" Elara did feel it.

Every time the brothers had fought, every moment of pain or anger, the baby had moved more aggressively. "But I can teach it to be good," she said. "Can you?"

The other version laughed. "When you yourself carry so much darkness? So much anger at being called weak? So much jealousy of those who had better lives?" "I’m not like that anymore." "Aren’t you?"

The other Elara’s eyes began to glow silver. "Then why does the baby’s beating speed up when you think about revenge? Why does it kick when you imagine having the power to hurt those who hurt you?"

Elara pressed her hands to her stomach, terrified to realize it was true. The baby did react to her darker emotions. "There’s only one way to save everyone," the other Elara said, pulling out a silver dagger.

"End it now. Before it’s too late." "I won’t hurt my child." "Even if that child will destroy the world?" The dagger sparkled in the strange forest light. Elara could feel the baby moving frantically inside her, as if it felt the threat.

But before she could answer, a new voice spoke from the shadows between the trees. "She won’t have to make that choice." A figure stepped into the opening, and Elara’s heart stopped. It was her real mother. The one who had died protecting her years ago.

"Hello, my darling," her mother said, very much alive and smiling. "I think it’s time you learned the truth about what you really are." The other Elara with the dagger hissed and stepped back. "Impossible. You’re dead."

"Death," Elara’s mother said calmly, "is more difficult than you think. Especially for those of us who serve the Moon Goddess directly." She turned to Elara, her eyes filled with love and ancient knowledge. "The baby isn’t a threat, sweetheart.

It’s a key. And I’m here to teach you how to use it." But as her mother reached out to touch her face, Elara saw something that made her blood freeze. Her mother’s image in the silver dagger showed something completely different.

Something with bright red eyes and a familiar cruel smile. The original Alpha had found a way to reach her after all.