FATED TO THE ALPHA TRIPLETS

CHAPTER 3: THE BREAKING POINT

~SELENE~

The next morning came too soon. I could still feel the happenings of the previous night dancing in my brain. I hadn’t been able to sleep. Not really. Not with the memory of their touch so firmly pressed in between my fragile layers, and their words forming a coat of eggshells pressed in my chest. We were joined in a way that could not be denied, whether I would have liked to or not. It appeared to be growing stronger by the minute.

But I could not succumb to it. Not yet.

I hastily put on a simple black dress that hugged my body. It wasn’t much, not fancy… but it would help me to blend in outside the walls that surrounded their community. I needed space. Time to breath, time to ponder over things. I couldn’t do that surrounded by them, their presence tugging at me until I could feel them unraveling me bit by bit.

As I stepped into the hallway, the house was silent. In the harsh daylight, the place looked somewhat different… silent and cold, a little more like a jail than a sanctuary. But I wasn’t ready to confront any of them yet. Not Darius. Not Lucian. Not Caspian. I needed some space.

I headed down the marble corridor towards the kitchen, with the soft, rhythmic sound of my heels clicking on the floor. The large house felt empty, most of the most of the staff had probably gone on about their business, leaving me with the strange sense of alienation that had come over me since my arrival.

But then I heard him speak, voice low and commanding.

“Selene.”

My heart thundered in my chest as I came to a stop.

Darius. Shirtless, arms crossed over his chest, leaning against the threshold to the kitchen. Looking unfathomable.

I sighed trying to calm my nerves “I’ve got to have some time,” I said to him, doing my best to keep my voice steady, even though I knew the fissures were beginning to show.

“Time to work these things out. To figure out where I stand.”

“You may think as much as you want,” he responded, his voice low but firm and his eyes locked into mine.

“But you won’t have it so easy.”

“I don’t…” I caught myself, too irritated now.

“I don’t want to be one of your game pawns. I'm not some piece to be moved around at your will.”

Now he frowned at me not quite as deeply, but there was still that dangerous look on his face.

“You’re not a pawn. But you are part of this world now, in it or not.”

I clenched my fists, unable to simply shove him away, the sensation was so strong.

“I don’t want any of this.”

“I know you don’t,” he replied, his voice growing low.

“But you’re here now, Selene. And we are not going to let you get away. Not without a fight.”

The words lingered over me, like a promise… or a threat, I couldn’t discern which. Either way, my heart started racing. There was something in his eyes, something about in it made me feel that I was the only thing he wanted, and it scared me.

“I’m not a toy, Darius,” I said more harshly than I had intended.

“I am no man's prize.”

His expression darkened slightly, but he did not move from where he was.

“I never said you were.”

The silence between us was thick with unspoken tension. I wanted to turn back, to flee, to rid myself of this suffocating connection that was starting to pull me down. But I couldn’t do it. Not here, not with him so near, his presence too heavy to be ignored.

“I won’t make it easy for you,” my voice steadied naturally as I hungered to look him in the eyes.

His mouth shaped into sort of a smile. “I wouldn’t expect you to,” he replied.

"But you’ll see. Soon you’ll understand why this is so.”

I didn't know what to say. Instead, i walked past him and out into the crisp, slightly cool air of the hallway hitting my skin as I made my way through the door.

I needed to leave. I needed to clear my head.

But Darius’s high voice stopped me again, this time with urgency.

"Selene.”

I slammed to a stop, gripping the handle tightly.

“You can’t escape from this,” he said, his voice more commanding.

"We’ll find you. And when we do, you’ll not want to leave.”

I hesitated for a moment, turning to face him and with my pulse quickening up.

“You're sure of it?”

Then he held my gaze for what felt like forever, settling the weight of his words onto my heart as well.

"You are going to return. You are going to return.”

I said nothing, and then turned and left through the door. The door clicked gently shutting behind me as the cool morning air caressed my face, the scent of rain heavy in the breeze.

But wherever I walked, they seemed to be there… dark figures, waiting… slinking just behind like shadows on my every step.

***

I stepped outside and was hit by the cold morning air that hit my face as my heart began hammering. I had to get away. Away from them. From this tug that was intensifying by the second.

But as vigorously as I walked, as far… as fast as I attempted to push my body, I knew the truth. I wasn’t free.

I had barely gotten outside the garden door before I heard footsteps behind me, slow and heavy. I knew who it is without needing to look. Darius’s presence was a storm, going everywhere I went.

“Running away again?” His voice was low and smooth, like the texture of velvet caressing my senses as it lured me in, despite my attempt to escape.

I didn’t stop. I continued walking, heels clicking on the stone path, the weight of his gaze pushing into my back like a physical thing.

“Why can’t you just leave you alone?” I asked clenching my teeth, my voice dripping with frustration.

I wanted to shake the heat away, to deny how my body responded to him, but I couldn’t. Every part of my body was attuned to him… to how he moved, how he breathed.

“You know you want to follow me,” he said, his footsteps pacing mine, never hurried, always present, as if a shadow walked beside me.

“You would not have come out here if you didn’t.”

I have frozen, spinning around to face him. The sun was coming up behind him, surrounding his frame in a golden halo. His face was unreadable, but his eyes… his eyes were dark, filled with something that caused my breath to hitch in my throat.

“What do you want from me?” I asked, my voice faltering a little.

With one graceful step, he closed the distance between us and enveloped me whole. His smell… woodsy, musky… encircled me, it tightened, pulling me in, and I froze. I couldn't breathe. I couldn’t move.

He reached over, fingertips gliding over my arm in a gentle, almost teasing caress.

“I want everything you have to give me, Selene,” he whispered, his voice a promise and a challenge all in one.

“And I’m not going to stop until I get it.”

My body responded before my brain had a chance to, heat rushing through my veins, breath quickening. My heart raced as I took a step back, but my body betrayed me.

Beneath his touch, his hands left a path of burn on my skin as my feet remained planted.His fingers slid down my arm and over the bend of my wrist as Darius’s gaze remained focused on me.

“You feel it too, don’t you?” he said, his voice lowering to a husky growl.

“It’s not just a choice, the way we’re drawn to each other…. It’s fate. It’s us.”

I swallowed, my throat dry, my body on fire with the urge to get closer, to feel him pressed at my back, to submit to the chemistry that was so blazing from him I thought it would have burned me in to a cinder.

“I…” I began, but the words got stuck on my tongue as he moved even closer, his body a shadow looming over mine. His hand tracked to my waist, guiding me toward him with a draw so slow and steady it was a conquest.

“You’re not fooling anyone,” he whispered, his lips against my ear.

“I see how you look at me. You want this, just as much as I do.”

A thrill shuddered through me, my knees wobbling at the burden of his closeness. My hands acted out of instinct, one curling to wrap around his shirt, pulling him closer, while the other barreled into his hair.

A low growl emanated from Darius, his lips colliding with mine before I could process what just happened. His kiss was fierce, possessive… he dominated the way only an Alpha could. His hands fisted at my back and kept me pinned against him, the heat between us… hot enough to drown.

I kissed him back, my body leaping without pause. I pressed my fingers into his chest… holding him even closer, letting the world around us disappear. I was hyper aware of each movement, each breath. He kissed me not gently… but demandingly, hungry. It was what I was trying to avoid, a reminder of everything I was resisting.

But at that moment, with his hands on my body, his heat engulfing me, I didn’t want to fight it.

I broke the kiss, my breathing shallow, my chest rising and falling with the weight of what had just transpired between us. I could sense the thrum of desire between us, a tension that hadn’t been born merely last night. This had been in the work for months, slowly creeping in, until it was unbearable.

“We’re not done yet, Selene,” Darius breathed against my lips, voice low, teasing, and dark with want.

“You can’t walk away now.”

I looked into his eyes, felt the storm brewing there, the threat of more. My body was on fire, my head spinning between l**t and terror. I should pull away. I should shove him away, tell him there was no right in this, that I wasn’t prepared, that I couldn’t let myself fall into this game.

But then I felt another presence behind me. A shift in the air. I smelled Lucian before I heard his voice.

“You’re both wasting time,” said Lucian, amused. He emerged from around a corner of the garden, eyes dark and mischievous.

“We both know what she seeks.”

My heart stopped, the realization downing on me as Darius and Lucian came closer, both of their predatory vicious eyes focused on me.

This became something much bigger than just one. This had to do with all three of them.

***

The air between us charged with an energy so palpable it almost felt like an electric current.

Lucian’s presence was undeniable… his eyes locked onto mine with a mix of challenge and curiosity, as though he were watching me for the slightest c***k in my resolve.

Darius didn’t step away, his hands were still circled possessively around me my waist, his thumb still running gently against my skin in slow, deliberate circles.

I swallowed, torn between the pull of both their stares. The desire that surged through me was overwhelming, like I was standing on the edge of a cliff, waiting for something to push me over

Lucian was practically grinning at me now, his lips curling upward in that familiar, teasing way.

“ Do you really think you can walk away from us, Selene?” he murmured, his voice smooth was velvety smooth like silk, but there was an edge of something darker beneath. His glanced towards Darius, a silent challenge passing between them.

“This is not something only you feels, you know.”

My heart raced, each beat thumping in my chest like a countdown to something inevitable. I wanted to push them away, to tell them this was wrong. But every part of me… every aching, burning part of me… wanted to give in, to succumb to the connection that was pulling me toward them both.

Darius moved closer and brushed his lips against my ear as he whispered into it, his voice carrying a deep intensity as he said,

"You cannot escape, Selene. Not when we're this close. Not when you know you want this just as we do.”

His words were like a physical caress, igniting a fire that burned hotter with each second that passed. I gasped for breath as his hands continued to slip down my back possessive and demanding. His lips came tantalizingly closer to mine, but he made no move to kiss me again. He was waiting, testing me, drawing out the boundaries and pushing me to the edge.

Lucian, on the other hand, was not so patient. He came forward, lifted my chin gently and and firmly, forcing me to look at him.

“Don’t think we didn’t notice the way you looked at me last night,” he said softly, his finger tracing my lower lip.

“You wanted this just as much as Darius does. Don’t deny it.”

His touch sent a shiver through me, the intensity of it completely overwhelming. I opened my mouth to respond, but no words came out… only a breathless exhale, a sound that both men seemed to take as a silent invitation.

Darius’s grip on me tightened, pulling me even closer, the heat between us practically unbearable.

“Let go, Selene,” he growled, his lips touching mine but not kissing me… teasing me, daring me to take the next step.

“Let go of everything you believe to be true. Everything that’s holding you back.”

The tension in the air thickened, an unspoken understanding forming between them. This was no longer a game of just one. This was a dangerous dance between all three of us, one where boundaries blurred, and control was a distant memory.

I closed my eyes, my body trembling with the weight of their proximity. Every instinct screamed at me to run, to break free from the suffocating pull of them, but I couldn’t.do that. I didn’t want to do that.

Before I could think any more about it, Lucian’s lips were on mine… soft, demanding, coaxing me into a kiss that was entirely different from Darius’s. It wasn’t rough or possessive; it was slow, almost intimate in a way that made my head spin. His gently stroking hands moved up to my neck, pulling me closer, his thumb brushing over the pulse in my throat.

But Darius wasn’t going to let Lucian run things at will. As soon as Lucian’s lips left mine, Darius surged forward, crashing his mouth against mine with a raw intensity that left no room for doubt. This kiss was fierce, a storm of lips and teeth, it awoke a force and it every nerve in my body sing with need.

I kissed him back, the passion between us exploding into something too big to contain. The desire… the hunger… was unbearable.

I could feel them watching me, the weight of their gazes upon me as they watched me give in, as they waited for me to decide which of them I wanted more, or if I could even choose.

I pulled away, gasping for air, my chest rising and falling with the intensity of what was happening. Both of them were breathing heavily, their eyes dark with want. I was caught between them… trapped in their game which I didn’t know how to play, but didn't want to escape.

“Tell me you don't feel it,” Lucian whispered hoarsely, his breath hot against my ear.

“Tell me you don't want this.”

I couldn’t speak. The words were caught in my throat, locked behind the storm that raged inside me. There was no denying it anymore. The connection was there. It had always been there.

Darius stepped forward, his hand gently sliding down to my back again, pulling me in so close I could feel the heat of his body pressing against mine.

“You’re not leaving here without us,” he murmured, his voice low and filled with something dangerous.

“We’re not going to let you walk away. Not this time. Not after this.”

My mind screamed at me to run, to fight back, but my body betrayed me. My hands moved to their chests, feeling the hard planes of muscle, the strength of them, the force that both of them exuded. And just like that, I knew I was no longer in control.

The game was no longer about who could get the upper hand. It was about what I was willing to surrender.

And I wasn’t sure I was ready for what would come next.