It all made sense.

Now that I thought about it, it all did. The late-night meetings with the Alpha triplets that happened more often than they should, the unfamiliar female perfume I sometimes smelled on him when he returned home… and even the damn red lipstick stain on his shirt that I’d seen last week.

A disbelieving scoff slipped past my lips as I chuckled bitterly under my breath.

There were signs. So many signs. But I chose to ignore them. I’d told myself that Kael had helped my family and me enough, that he’d assured me of his loyalty and that he wouldn’t do something like this.

But that had only been a fool’s dream.

I should’ve listened to that nagging voice in my head. But I didn’t.

And now…

“S-So this whole time… this past month, you’ve been cheating on me with her? You found your mate and hid it from me? Is that what you're telling me?” I asked, my voice trembling as I stared at Kael.

He lowered his head in shame, refusing to meet my gaze, looking completely flustered.

“I—I didn’t know she was pregnant, I swear I didn’t—”

“But you do now,” Seraphina cut him off sharply. “So what are you going to do? Cut ties with her completely… or lose our child?”

Both of us turned to Seraphina at the same time. She had her hands on her hips as she glared at Kael, her red lips curled into a deep frown.

My chest tightened as I watched just how far she was willing to go to force Kael into cutting me off completely. I wasn’t even sure what I had done to her.

Even though we were never that close, I’d once considered her a friend, we had hung out together a few times. But everything changed after what happened to my family.

All of my so-called friends, including Seraphina, had outright distanced themselves from me.

According to them, I no longer belonged in their social class.

But this?

This went beyond anything I could’ve imagined.

To go as far as threatening Kael not to pay for my mother’s hospital bills, fully aware she’d die without them was something I couldn’t understand.

What had I done to her?

What did I do to deserve this?

The tears spilled freely down my cheeks, hot and relentless, as I lowered my head, already knowing how this would end.

There was no way Kael would continue helping me when his unborn child was involved.

“Seraphina,” Kael called her name breathlessly, and I watched as he stepped toward her, hand reaching out, his eyes pleading like he was desperate not to make this choice.

“Please be reasonable. Aunt is the only person Lilith has left in this world. The hospital bills are high, she can’t afford them alone. If she’s left on her own, Aunt will die. I promise to cut off all ties with her completely… but don’t make me do this.”

Seraphina’s lips curled into a snarl as she yanked her hand away and glared at him.

“What does that have to do with me? Why do I always have to be the one who’s understanding? Why should I care about her?” Her voice trembled with fury as she pointed at me, eyes burning with hatred and jealousy.

“I can’t believe that for a whole month, I let you hide me because you didn’t want to hurt her precious little feelings.” She scoffed bitterly. “You kept saying it wasn’t the right time to tell her, that her mother’s health was getting worse but enough is enough. I am your mate. I will never be the other woman. So it’s your choice, Kael. You either cut off all ties with her… or we reject each other.”

Kael looked slightly taken aback, as though he hadn’t realized she’d been feeling this way.

“B-but—” he stammered, trying to find the right words, but before he could finish, I inhaled a shaky breath and cut him off.

“Please…” I whispered, my voice barely audible.

Both of them turned to me at the same time, but I kept my gaze fixed on Seraphina. And as she stared at me in surprise, I slowly began to crawl toward her, stopping just inches away, catching her completely off guard.

At that moment, the world felt like a cruel joke as I slowly clasped my hands together and brought them up in front of me.

Yes, I was about to beg the woman who had been sleeping with my boyfriend for a month. I was about to throw away the last shred of my dignity and plead.

Ever since my eighteenth birthday, life had been nothing but a cruel joke, but no matter what happened, I couldn’t lose my mother. She was the only thing keeping me alive.

So… I begged.

“Please, Seraphina… don’t do this to me. I know you’re upset, but I promise, I’ll cut all ties with Kael. Just… please don’t let him stop.”

Especially not now—now that my mother needed surgery soon. Even if it wouldn’t cure her, it would keep her alive long enough for me to find a witch doctor skilled enough to help her. And with my job at the restaurant, there was no way I’d be able to raise enough money in time.

“P-please, for the last time… my mum needs this surgery,” I pleaded, my voice cracking. “He doesn’t have to give me the money for free—I swear I’ll pay him back as soon as I can. So… please, don’t do this.”

I could see Kael look away from the scene, his hands clenched tightly into fists.

Seraphina’s eyes narrowed at me, but her expression shifted in a blink. The corner of her lips twitched into an amused smirk as her gaze locked onto mine.

There was delight in her eyes as she watched me cry. Slowly, she curled her lips into a mocking smile and stepped toward me, hands on her waist as she looked down at me.

“Aww, this is really sad, and I feel sorry for you, Lilith,” she said in a sweet voice. “But I’m not the one who makes that decision. That’s Kael’s choice to make.”

She turned to Kael, who still had his head lowered.

“Right, mate? So, what will you choose?”

Her tone was confident as she asked Kael and rubbed her belly, clearly already knowing what his choice would be.

And as Kael let out a sigh of frustration and his fists slowly unclenched, I knew, he had already made up his mind.

Fresh tears blurred my vision as I lifted a hand to my face, my body wracked with sobs.

“Lilith…” he whispered, “I’m really sorry, but this is my child. I can’t—”

“Of course, you can’t,” I cut him off with a bitter laugh. “Of course you can’t reject your mate when she’s pregnant.”

I slowly rose from the ground, though my legs felt far too weak to hold me.

Anyone else would’ve made the same choice in his position. I hadn’t expected anything different, it would’ve been selfish of me to hope otherwise.

I drew in a deep, shaky breath and wiped my tears away before meeting his gaze. His familiar blue eyes held mine, and in them, I saw it clearly—pity.

Now that I realized it, that was the look he had always given me. When the tragedy struck my family… when he started helping with my mother’s hospital bills… when he whispered those words—

“I love you.”

“I’ll never leave you.”

“You’re enough for me.”

—It was always that same look.

The look of pity.

Kael had never loved me. No… he pitied me.

And I was the fool who had known it deep down but still chose to believe him.

“Lilith…” he whispered, but I reached up and wiped at my tears, shaking my head to stop him.

“Don’t say anything… please.” I took a step back. “Even if all you’ve done is hurt me in the end, I’m still thankful for the help all these years. So… thank you, Kael. And congratulations on becoming a father.”

That was all I could manage to say before I turned and walked toward the exit without looking back.

“Lilith…” I heard him whisper again.

But he didn’t come after me.

Not when I stepped out into the heavy rain pouring from the sky.

As I walked into the street, the rain soaked me from head to toe, and the cold air wrapped around me, making me shiver but I felt nothing.

No pain. No hurt. Just emptiness, as I wandered aimlessly with no destination in mind.

What was I supposed to do now?

I worked as a waitress at a restaurant, and that was only because my boss had been kind enough to hire me when no one else would.

After everything that happened, everyone seemed to believe I was a curse. No one wanted to hire me. They thought I’d jinx their businesses.

And it didn’t help that I was wolfless… or that my mother had poisoned herself with wolfsbane—something every werewolf despised. They saw it as a sin, an unforgivable shame and because she drank it, my family’s reputation was ruined.

Now I needed money to save her, and I couldn’t ask my boss for another advance. I had already asked last month, and even if I did again… it wouldn’t be enough. So…

“What should I do? What should I do? I’m tired… I’m so sick of everything. I just want to die,” I whispered under my breath, tears streaming down my cheeks, blending with the rain.

It truly felt like I had been abandoned—abandoned by my father who died and left me all alone, abandoned by my mother who chose to poison herself, abandoned by the one man I trusted who left me for his mate, abandoned by the world... and worst of all, abandoned by the goddess.

“Goddess…” I stopped walking and stared up at the sky, tapping my chest with a trembling hand. “Why am I alive? If this is the life you gave me, then why did you bring me into this world at all? Why am I alive if I can’t even be happy? Why? What did I ever do wrong?.

My voice cracked as it rose in frustration.

“Why are you letting me live like this? Why did you let him die?! Why are you so cruel? You couldn’t even protect him. You took the one person my mother loved most. And now, even though I know she wants to be with him on the other side, I can’t let her go. I know I’m selfish… I know I couldn’t even fulfill her dying wish.”

I muttered under my breath, my voice a whisper as I remembered the last words my mother said to me before she lost consciousness that day.

“I’m sorry, my child. I know this is wrong… but I can’t live without your father. Please don’t make me live without him. I want to see him again. Please forgive me, my daughter. Don’t cry for me.”

My fists clenched as I looked up at the storming sky. “But why are you just sitting there—doing nothing, no matter how much I cry out to you?! Why are you so cruel?!”

Thunder rumbled above me at my words, but I didn’t stop.

I didn’t care if I was committing a sin, speaking this way to the mother of all werewolves.

I just wanted to let it all out.

To blame someone for everything I’d lost.

“If this is the life you want me to live…” I whispered, breathless, my gaze dropping to the ground as I hissed out the final words, “then I’d rather die.”

A deafening clap of thunder tore through the sky, louder this time, as if it could crack the earth itself.

And before I could take my next breath, time seemed to slow.

A flash of light burst before me.

I blinked, glancing up, just in time to see a car speeding straight toward me, its horn blaring wildly.

My breath caught in my throat. I froze, unable to move as the car closed in, ready to hit me at any second.

I should move. I knew I should. But my feet stayed rooted to the ground, completely frozen.

And as the car came closer, I slowly closed my eyes, a single tear slipping down my cheek.

This was it. The moment I would meet my end.

I wasn’t scared. I wasn’t even sad.

The only regret I had… was leaving my mother behind.

As I accepted my fate, I prayed, hoped that if I died, Kael would continue to look after her.

I know it was foolish. I know I shouldn’t trust him, not after everything. But still… I hoped.

“I’m sorry, Mother,” I whispered, bracing myself for the pain.

Except… it never came.

Even after counting five seconds in my head… nothing happened.

My eyes snapped open.

The car had stopped, right in front of me. Just an inch away.

A shaky breath tore from my chest as my knees buckled, and I dropped to the ground, gasping, my hand pressed tightly to my pounding heart.

The sound of the heavy rain was all I heard as I stared at the ground, struggling to catch my breath. But as I tried to wrap my head around what had just happened, I felt a hand touch my shoulder and heard a voice.

“Are you okay, miss?"

The soothing voice of a man reached my ears, and the moment I looked up and saw the figure standing in front of me, all the air seemed to leave my lungs.

I was staring into a pair of completely white eyes, eyes that seemed to pull me in.

The world stopped again.

“If you want to kill yourself, I suggest you don’t do it in the middle of the road and inconvenience other people,”

An annoyed voice snapped me out of my daze.

I looked past the man in front of me and saw another standing behind him, wearing a cold expression, his lips tugged into a slight frown as he looked down at me with the same haunting white eyes.

“Aw, brother. Don’t you think that’s a bit harsh for a woman?”

I tore my gaze from the second man and turned to the third person who had just spoken, his eyes were fixed on me. The corner of his lips pulled into an amused smirk.

“And she’s pretty too,” he added with a lazy grin. “Drenched, but still pretty.”

I swallowed hard as my body trembled—not from the cold, not from fear, but from the realization that I knew exactly who they were.

The Alpha triplets.

Silas, Lucien, and Claude.

The cursed Alpha triplets.

That was what everyone called them.

They were the ones destined to die on their twenty-sixth birthday if they didn’t find, mate, and mark their true mate before then.

Everyone feared and respected them. Feared them because they were ruthless, they killed without hesitation, unlike their father, who had been known as a kind Alpha. Yet people respected them because they were unlike any Alphas the Fangspire Pack had ever seen.

They were powerful men, each blessed with a white wolf—the strongest breed there was.

And now, those very men were standing before me, white eyes locked on mine.

I wasn’t sure if it was the intensity of their piercing stares or the cold, heavy rain pouring down on me, but my body trembled, and my breathing grew heavy—almost suffocating. I clutched my chest and shut my eyes against the pain as the world blurred around me.

“Are you alright, miss? Do you feel unwell?” the man in front of me asked.

When I opened my eyes to look at him, his face was unreadable, not a flicker of emotion despite the concern in his words.

Alpha Silas.

Brown-haired, with eyes as piercing as the white moon.

“I don’t think she’s okay, Silas,” a low, lazy voice hummed.

I turned to the blond-haired man leaning casually against the car, arms folded, an amused smirk tugging at his lips as the rain poured down over him.

“I mean, we did almost run her over a few minutes ago,” he added with a low chuckle, water sliding down the sharp line of his jaw. “Pretty sure that’s the opposite of okay.”

My heart hammered against my chest as I met his gaze, and when his eyes narrowed on me, that smirk widened, his irises flashing whiter.

Alpha Claude.

I immediately lowered my head, looking away.

“If running her over meant not standing in the rain, I’d take that choice,” a cold voice drawled. “Let’s go. I’d rather not catch a cold after that boring meeting with that old man.”

I didn’t need to look up to know who had just spoken.

Alpha Lucien.

These three men stood before me, and I was in a daze—drenched, trembling, and unsure of what I was even doing.

But more than anything, what kept running through my mind was how I had almost died.

How I had stood there, frozen, as the car came barreling toward me… how I had nearly abandoned my mother.

In that moment, I had truly seen my life flash before my eyes but it wasn’t the bad memories I saw. It was the good ones, the ones from before my father died and everything in my life turned upside down.

And one memory had shone brighter than all the rest.

The day before my father left for the war with the late Alpha.

That day, it was just the three of us, my father, mother, and I—sitting together, smiling as we drank tea and talked.

We laughed, joked, and spoke about his return in time for my eighteenth birthday.

He had promised me he’d be home.

That promise never came true but I had also made a promise too.

Whenever he went off to war against the rogues, my father always made me promise that if anything ever happened to him, I would stay strong.

That no matter what, I would remain unbroken. That I would never give up.

At the time, I’d thought he was just treating me like a child.

I thought it was ridiculous.

But now I understood.

He knew the risks that came with his position.

He knew one day, he might leave… and never return.

A tear slipped down my cheek before I even realized it, and as I brought my hands to my face, more followed, my body wrecked with sobs. And as I cried, I could feel three intense gazes locked on me.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry,” I whispered, crying harder because I had almost broken that promise. I knew I wasn’t strong, but I couldn’t give up.

“Damn, is she crying? I think you made her cry, Lucien. That’s pretty mean of you,” I heard Claude murmur, followed by an unamused scoff.

“Can you stand up?” Silas, who was kneeling in front of me, asked. And as I lifted my head, eyes blurred with tears, I found a slight frown tugging at his lips.

“It’s raining,” he added, brown strands of hair clinging to his face as he reached his hand out for me to take. “Let’s get to the car, and we’ll talk.”

My lips trembled as I stared at him, but before I could say a word, the sharp ringing of a phone cut through the moment. I blinked, then shakily lowered my gaze to my pocket and instinctively reached for it.

I already knew who it was.

The hospital.

And when I saw the caller ID, I was right.

I didn’t think twice before answering, even though I was still in front of the three Alphas.

As soon as the call connected, the voice on the other end spoke urgently.

“Mrs. Lilith, we’ve been trying to reach you for a while now. Can you come to the hospital? Your mother—your mother—”

My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach as the voice became static and inaudible. My eyes widened in panic.

“My mother—what happened to her? Hello? Can you hear me?” I asked, my voice rising with worry, but the line had already disconnected.

“Hello?! Please, can you hear me? What happened to my mother?!”

No response.

I brought the phone to my face with shaky hands and saw that it had died.

Without thinking twice, I shot up from the ground and turned around, running through the rain, leaving the three men behind me.

As I ran toward the hospital, the only thing I could hear was the pounding of my heart in my ears as I silently prayed to the goddess that my mother would be fine—that this wouldn’t be the day I received the news I had always feared.

It wasn’t long before I arrived at the hospital.

By then, the rain had already stopped, and as I stepped inside, one of the receptionists who recognized me immediately stepped forward but I rushed past her, heading straight to the ward where my mother was staying, ignoring her as she called after me.

As soon as I reached there, I stopped.

The doctor was standing in front of the door, instructing the nurses around him.

“We don’t know when her body will start convulsing again due to the wolfsbane spreading fast, so make sure you check on her—”

“Doctor,” I cut in, stepping forward, my voice breaking.

He stopped speaking and turned to look at me, a sad frown forming on his face.

Ever since my mother had been admitted to this hospital three years ago, I had learned to read the doctors’ expressions and even without him saying a word, I already knew what he was going to say.

I bit my bottom lip and walked past him toward the window.

And as I saw my mother’s frail figure on the hospital bed, with life support machines hooked up to her, my heart cracked even more.

“Miss Lilith,” the doctor’s voice came from beside me, but I didn’t look away from my mother. Still, he continued,

“I’m sorry to say this, but your mother’s condition is getting worse. It’s beyond our control now. As you know, we don’t have a cure for wolfsbane yet. The only option is surgery to slow the spread but we can’t begin until you…”

His words trailed off, but I already knew what he meant.

Until I pay.

Silence stretched between us, heavy and suffocating. Then finally, I whispered,

“Give me a day… just one more day. I’ll have the money by tomorrow.”

My breath trembled as I closed my eyes.

I knew he wanted to say something but instead, he sighed and nodded.

“Okay, Miss Lilith. Please don’t be late. We can’t afford to delay the surgery.”

With that, he left.

I turned away from the sight of my mother and sank to the floor, curling in on myself, arms wrapped tightly around my head.

What was I supposed to do now?

How was I supposed to come up with that kind of money by tomorrow?

I couldn’t even cry anymore. I just needed to think.

I needed to find a way.

And right then, as if the universe had heard my desperate questions, two women passed by in front of me, their voices loud as they chatted.

“Did you hear that Stella got real gold just for spending the night with the Alphas?” one of them said in disbelief.

Lifting my head slowly, I watched as the other woman responded, “Really? Is it because of that ritual where the Alphas are sleeping with different women to find their mate? Even if she wasn’t their mate, they still gave her gold?”

As they continued walking away, the first woman nodded.

“She just had to offer her body for the night and they paid her.”

My gaze dropped to the ground, breath catching as my chest tightened.

That was it. The only choice I had left.

If I wanted to save my mother.

If I wanted to keep my last piece of family alive.

Then I had to give myself to the Alpha triplets. I had to participate in the ritual.