Betrayed By One. Bound To Three-Chapter 67: Silas Fears

The night was far gone, and behind the thick wooden doors of his private chamber, Alpha Silas was sound asleep.

The room was silent except for the steady rhythm of his breathing. His cloak lay draped across a nearby chair, his boots abandoned beside the bed.

It had been a long day of strategizing, of carefully moving pieces across a board only he believed he truly understood.

Every decision had been calculated, every outcome predicted with the quiet confidence that had carried him to power.

For once, the Alpha had allowed himself a full night of rest.

Then a frantic pounding struck the door.

"Alpha!"

The sound tore through the quiet.

Silas stirred with a sharp inhale, his brow tightening as consciousness returned. The pounding came again, louder this time, echoing against the chamber walls with an urgency that immediately soured his mood.

"Alpha Silas!"

His eyes snapped open.

For a moment he stared into the darkness, irritation already rising in his chest as he tried to shake the remnants of sleep from his mind.

"What?" he growled.

Another knock rattled the door.

"Alpha, it’s urgent."

Silas pushed himself upright, running a hand through his hair as he swung his legs off the bed. The cold stone beneath his feet helped shake away the last of his sleep.

"If this isn’t important," he muttered darkly as he crossed the room, "someone is going to regret waking me."

He pulled the door open.

A guard stood outside, breathing hard, sweat visible along his temple as though he had run through the entire palace to reach him.

Silas’ irritation sharpened immediately.

"Well?"

The guard bowed quickly.

"Alpha... the prisoners in the dungeon..."

Silas’ eyes narrowed.

"What about them?"

The guard hesitated, his throat working nervously.

"The rogues... the triplets... they’ve escaped."

For a moment Silas didn’t move.

The words didn’t quite make sense.

"Escaped," he repeated slowly.

"Yes, Alpha."

Silas leaned slightly against the doorframe, studying the guard’s face as if expecting him to suddenly laugh and admit the mistake.

"That dungeon is reinforced with iron and guarded on every level," he said calmly. "And you’re telling me three rogues broke out of it."

The guard swallowed.

"They broke the door and overpowered the guards, sir."

Silas’ gaze hardened.

"How?"

"They... used their abilities."

A flicker of irritation crossed Silas’ face.

He had expected resistance down the brothers eventually. But not this kind. Not the kind that shattered doors even a hundred men would hesitate to challenge.

"They shouldn’t have had the strength," he muttered, more to himself than the guard.

Silas frowned slightly as the thought settled uneasily in his mind.

The dungeon had been designed precisely to prevent something like this. Iron restraints forged to weaken the strongest alphas abilities. Wards placed along the walls to dampen supernatural power.

Even standing for long periods inside those cells drained the strength from most prisoners.

The triplets had been there for days. They should have been exhausted, starved, broken.

Yet somehow they had still managed to overpower trained guards and break through reinforced doors.

Silas’ eyes narrowed slowly.

Unless...

His gaze returned sharply to the guard.

"Tell me something," he said, his voice quieter now, edged with suspicion. "Did anyone else enter the dungeon tonight?"

The guard blinked in surprise.

"No, Alpha. Not that we know of."

Silas studied his expression carefully, searching for the slightest sign of uncertainty but found none.

Silas’ mind began moving quickly now, running through possibilities. The escape itself was irritating, but not catastrophic.

His eyes shifted toward the dark window at the end of the corridor.

"And the princess?" he asked.

The guard lowered his head.

"She’s gone, Alpha."

Silas’ jaw tightened.

For a moment he simply exhaled through his nose.

Of course they had taken her.

But the thought did not alarm him the way the guard clearly expected it to.

Selena was weak.

The Vermora in her blood would make sure she stayed that way for long, if it did not kill her outright first.

"They won’t get far," Silas said calmly, the certainty in his voice returning. "She’s barely able to stand. Even if they carry her, she will slow them down."

The guard shifted uneasily but remained silent.

Silas pushed away from the doorframe and began pacing slowly across the chamber, his thoughts moving through the situation with cold precision.

Still...

The triplets had risked everything to break out.

For her.

His mind lingered on that thought longer than he liked.

How far would they go?

He turned back to the guard.

"Where are they heading?"

"The western forest paths, Alpha. The outer guards saw movement shortly after the escape."

Silas nodded once.

Good.

That forest was dense and difficult to navigate. Even experienced trackers struggled in its depths.

Selena would slow them down.

The Vermora would finish what he had started.

He was already preparing the orders in his mind when another thought surfaced, unwelcome and persistent.

His gaze returned to the guard.

"The healer," he said.

The guard looked up.

"Yes, Alpha?"

Silas’ voice lowered slightly.

"Where is she?"

The guard hesitated.

Silas felt something cold move through his chest.

"Answer me."

The man swallowed.

"She... she’s missing, sir."

The words landed like a blow.

Silas went very still.

"What?"

The guard spoke quickly now, clearly nervous.

"She isn’t in her home, Alpha. The triplets went there after escaping the dungeon. The guards believe... they believe they took her with them."

For the first time that night—

real fear crept into Silas’ mind.

The healer.

They had taken the healer.

And with that realization came another, far more dangerous thought.

If the healer was with them, then she might speak.

She might tell them the truth about Selena’s illness, about the tea, about the poison he had so carefully disguised as medicine.

The fear that she might reveal his involvement gnawed at him, a sharp and growing unease that tightened around his chest.

His thoughts raced suddenly, far faster than before.

The calm certainty he had felt moments ago cracked sharply.

Because if the healer was with them...

then the Vermora was no longer guaranteed to finish the job.

Silas’ chest tightened.

"How long ago?" he demanded.

"Not long, Alpha. Perhaps an hour."

An hour.

In the forest.

With the healer.

Silas’ stomach twisted with a cold, unfamiliar sensation that he could not easily dismiss.

The triplets were reckless.

Dangerous.

But they were also loyal in a way he had always underestimated.

They would tear the world apart to save someone they believed belonged to them.

How far would they go to save her?

Silas suddenly didn’t like the answer to that question.

He turned sharply toward the window overlooking the dark forest.

For the first time since the guard had knocked on his door—

he felt the edge of real panic.

Because if the healer managed to keep Selena alive...

If the triplets found a way to fight the Vermora...

Then everything he had planned would begin to unravel. And worse— if Selena survived long enough to tell them the truth

Silas’ jaw tightened.

The triplets were not men who accepted betrayal quietly.

He had seen the way they looked at her even through iron bars and weakening wards.

The protectiveness in their eyes had been unmistakable, something primal and unyielding that no dungeon wall could fully contain.

If they discovered that the poison in her blood had come from his own hand—

Silas knew they would not run for long.

They would come back.

And next time they would not be escaping his dungeon.

They would be hunting him.

His fingers slowly curled into fists.

"Wake the hunters," he said quietly.

The guard straightened immediately.

"Yes, Alpha."

"Every tracker we have."

"Yes, Alpha."

Silas’ gaze remained fixed on the forest stretching endlessly beyond the palace walls.

"They cannot reach safety," he murmured.

The guard nodded quickly.

"We’ll find them."

Silas didn’t answer.

Because now a single thought kept repeating in his mind.

The triplets had escaped.

They had taken Selena.

And now—

they had the healer.

For the first time in a very long time...

Silas realized something terrifying.

He might actually lose everything.