Fated Mate to the Triplet Alpha

Chapter 112: Chapter 112: The Test of Hearts

The corrupted troops circled them like hungry wolves. Ronan stood at the front, his eyes glowing with that strange light. Celeste clung to his arm, her face twisted with success.

"Surprised to see me?" Celeste asked sweetly. "I told you I’d never let an omega take my place." "You’re working with them," Elara breathed.

"You’ve been working with them all along." "Working with them? Darling, I AM them." Celeste’s form shimmered and changed. Her human appearance melted away, showing something ancient and terrible underneath. "She’s one of the original beings," Elder Vera gasped.

"Like the stranger!" The silver-haired man nodded approvingly. "My daughter has played her part perfectly. Years of acting to be a jealous Beta’s child, all to get close to you." Kael’s ice burst outward.

"You used Ronan! You corrupted him!" "I gave him what he wanted," Celeste responded. "A family that would never leave him. Look how happy he is now."

Ronan’s corrupted smile was terrible to see. "I don’t hurt anymore," he said in that thick voice. "I don’t fear being left behind. I belong somewhere." "This isn’t belonging!" Darian yelled, his shadows writhing.

"This is slavery!" "Is it?" The man tilted his head. "Or is it simply acceptance? We don’t judge Ronan for his rage. We don’t try to control his nature. We accept it." "You destroyed it!" Kael snarled.

"We perfected it." The twins stepped forward, their too-old eyes studying the corrupted force. "They’re not happy," the first twin noticed.

"They’re hungry," the second added. "Always hungry. Never satisfied." "Quiet!" Celeste snapped. "You’ll understand soon enough." "Understand what?" Elara pulled the twins protectively behind her.

"That you have a choice to make," the stranger stated. "Join us freely, and keep your family together. Refuse, and watch them be torn apart one by one."

"We’ll never join you," Kael stated. "Won’t you?" The stranger pointed to the corrupted wolves surrounding them.

"Look closer, young Alpha. Do you know any faces?" Kael’s blood ran cold. In the crowd of glowing-eyed monsters, he saw pack members he’d grown up with. Warriors who’d sworn loyalty to his family. Even some of the adults who’d helped raise him. "How many?" he whispered.

"Half your pack so far," Celeste said proudly. "It’s amazing how easily people turn when they’re offered what they really want." "What did you offer them?" Alpha Marcus asked. "Power without duty. Strength without loss.

The chance to take what they’ve always wanted without worry." The stranger’s smile was cold. "Humans are remarkably selfish creatures when you strip away their pretenses." "That’s not true," Elara argued.

"Isn’t it? Let’s test that theory." The stranger lifted his hand, and the corrupted army stopped moving. "I’ll give each of you a choice.

A real choice. No tricks, no lies." "What kind of choice?" Darian asked suspiciously. "The decision to save the people you love most. But only one person each. Choose wisely."

The air shimmered, and suddenly they were no longer in the forest. They stood in a vast, empty space filled with floating platforms. On each platform was someone they cared about.

Kael saw his pack members, including Beta Rivers and other loyal fighters. All of them stuck in cages of dark energy. Elara saw her adopted parents, the elderly couple who’d raised her after her real parents died.

They were calling her name, reaching through the bars. Darian saw Tobias Grey, the rogue who’d tried to warn them.

He was barely aware, blood streaming from multiple wounds. "Choose," the stranger ordered. "Each of you can save one person. The rest will join our army."

"This is impossible," Kael said. "We can’t choose between innocent lives." "Then choose between guilty ones." The man waved his hand again. New platforms emerged. On them were people who’d hurt them in the past.

Corrupt pack members who’d bullied Elara. Nobles who’d opposed Kael’s rule. Even some of the warriors who’d stood with Alpha Marcus against the twins.

"Save your enemies," the stranger offered. "Show us this great love you claim to have." "It’s a trap," Darian warned. "Whatever we choose, he wins." "Perhaps.

But if you don’t choose, everyone dies." The twins walked to the middle of the space, their small hands clasped together. "We choose," they said in agreement. "You’re children," the man laughed. "You don’t get to choose."

"We choose everyone," the twins continued, ignoring him. "Friends and foes. Good and bad. All of them." "Impossible. The magic doesn’t work that way."

"Your magic doesn’t work that way," the first twin amended. "Ours does," the second added. Their eyes began to glow, but not with the strange light of the corrupted ones. This light was warm, bright, full of life.

"What are you doing?" Celeste shrieked. "What we were born to do," both twins said together. Power erupted from their small forms.

Not the destructive force that had destroyed the cave, but something else entirely. Something that healed instead of hurt. The cages around the prisoners began to crack and break. "Stop them!" the stranger roared.

The corrupted army rushed forward, but Kael stepped in their way. His ice powers had changed too. Instead of cold, bitter frost, his ice now sparkled with warmth and light.

"You’re right about one thing," Kael told the man as he fought. "Love does make us stronger. But not weaker. Stronger." He’d spent years thinking his feelings made him a poor leader.

But watching his family face this trial, he realized the truth. Love didn’t cloud his judgment. It sharpened it. "I choose love over fear," Kael stated, his ice powers blazing.

"I choose trust over control. I choose family over everything else!" His ice spread outward, but instead of freezing the corrupted dogs, it began to heal them.

The alien light faded from their eyes, replaced by confusion and pain. "My pack," Kael said gently to the freed wolves. "Come home."

Ronan snarled and attacked his oldest brother, but Darian intercepted him. The youngest triplet’s shadows had changed too, becoming shields of pure protection instead of weapons of doubt. noveldrama

"I choose to act instead of plan," Darian said, his shadows wrapping around Ronan like soft restraints. "I choose to trust instead of fear. I choose to believe in us!"

For the first time in his life, Darian stopped thinking and started feeling. He reached deep into his bond with Ronan, past the evil, past the pain, to the brother he’d always loved.

"I see you," Darian whispered to Ronan. "I see your fear. I see your hurt. I see how much you love us. Come back." Ronan’s glowing eyes flickered.

For just a moment, the real Ronan looked through. "Darian?" he whispered. "I’m here, brother. We’re all here." But Celeste wouldn’t let go so easy. She grabbed Ronan’s arm, her true form blazing with old power.

"He’s mine now! I won’t let you take him!" "You can’t take what was never yours," Elara said, moving forward. She’d been watching her mates fight for their family, and she finally understood something important.

She wasn’t just their Luna because of the mate bond. She was their Luna because she chose to be. "I choose all of them," Elara stated. "Kael’s strength, Ronan’s zeal, Darian’s wisdom.

I don’t want to pick winners. I want the whole deal." Her own power exploded, not the suppressed omega energy she’d always hidden, but something magnificent. Luna power. True Luna power.

The golden light from the twins combined with Elara’s silver glow and the transformed powers of her mates. Together, they made something the stranger had never seen before. Complete, perfect union.

"Impossible," the stranger breathed. "The prophecy said one would betray—" "The prophecy was wrong," Elder Vera said from somewhere in the chaos.

"Or rather, we read it wrong. The betrayal wasn’t about picking sides. It was about abandoning their old selves." "What do you mean?" Alpha Marcus asked.

"Kael betrayed his view that duty comes before love. Ronan revealed his fear of abandonment. Darian betrayed his confidence that he wasn’t worthy.

They all betrayed who they used to be to become who they needed to be." The stranger’s face twisted with rage. "No! This isn’t how it ends!"

"It’s how it begins," the twins said together. Their united power reached Ronan, burning away the corruption like sunlight through fog. He fell, gasping, but his eyes were his own again.

"Did I miss anything important?" he asked softly. "Just the part where we save the world," Kael answered, grinning. But their victory party was cut short when Celeste’s scream shattered the air.

Her true form was revealed now - something old and terrible, with too many teeth and eyes like black holes. "If I can’t have what I want," she shrieked, "then no one can!" She raised her hands, and the entire magical space began to fall.

Reality twisted and bent around them. "She’s going to destroy everything!" Tobias yelled from his freed platform.

"Not everything," the stranger said, his form beginning to fade. "Just your world. We’ll find another." "No!" Elara screamed.

But it was too late. The collapse had started. The last thing they saw before everything went white was the twins holding hands, their eyes blazing with purpose.

"We can fix this," they said together. "But it’s going to cost us everything." And then the world burst into light.