The Triplet Alphas' Secret Mate-Chapter 17: Followed Me
Scarlett’s POV
I slipped out of the back servants’ entrance, moving like a ghost through the long shadows of the late afternoon. The packhouse was buzzing with preparations for tomorrow’s festivities; tomorrow, being my birthday, is also the memorial day for Luna Olivia.
I walked until my lungs burned, pushing through thorns and thick brush until I reached the ruins. This was where we had lived before the world broke. Our small cottage was mostly reclaimed by the earth now, the roof caved in and covered in moss.
Behind the skeleton of the house, I sank to my knees before two small mounds of earth.
When they executed my parents, they didn’t give them a proper burial. They threw their bodies into the deep ravine at the edge of the territory, letting the scavengers have what was left. They said traitors didn’t deserve a place in the pack’s hallowed ground.
So, I had come here. I had buried my mother’s favorite silk scarf and my father’s old carving knife. I had built them a home in the soil because I had nowhere else to visit them.
"I’m leaving," I whispered, the words catching in my throat as I touched the cold, damp earth of my mother’s "grave."
A single tear fell, disappearing into the dirt. "The Alphas are sending me away tomorrow night. I won’t be here to clear the weeds anymore. I won’t be here to tell you about my week."
I sat there for a long time, the silence of the forest wrapped around me like a shroud. I felt small and utterly alone. For two years, this spot had been my only comfort, the only place where I wasn’t the servant or the traitor’s daughter. I was just their little girl again.
"I don’t know if I can do this," I sobbed, bowing my head until my forehead touched the ground between the two graves. "I don’t know who I am without this pack, even if they hate me. How am I supposed to live in the human world?" 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶
I stayed there until the sun began to dip below the horizon, painting the sky in streaks of bruised purple and orange. The air was getting colder, the scent of the coming night sharpening my senses.
I needed to get back. If I was late for the evening meal, Liam or Leon would come looking for me, and I couldn’t risk them seeing this place. I stood up, brushing the dirt from my knees, and leaned down to kiss the top of each stone I had placed as markers.
"Goodbye," I whispered.
I turned to leave, but as I stepped past the rotted doorframe of my old home, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. The forest was too quiet. The birds had stopped singing.
I froze, my heart hammering. Then, a scent hit me—heavy, dark, and smelling of burnt wood and musk.
Leon.
He was standing twenty feet away, leaning against a gnarled oak tree with his arms crossed. He didn’t look angry; he looked hollow. His eyes stayed fixed on the two graves behind me, then slowly moved to my tear-streaked face.
"So this is where you disappear to," he said, his voice strangely quiet. "I’ve been following your scent for miles, Scarlett. I thought you were trying to run away."
"And where would I run to?" I lied, the words trembling as they left my lips. I tried to walk past him, my heart hammering against my ribs so hard I was sure he could hear it. "I have nowhere else to go."
Leon didn’t answer immediately. He didn’t move from the tree, but his gaze was heavy, tracking every micro-movement of my face. The silence of the forest seemed to amplify the sound of my ragged breathing. I tried to step around him, heading for the trail back to the packhouse, but in a blur of predator speed, he was suddenly in my path.
He didn’t grab me roughly this time. Instead, he boxed me in, his large hands flat against the gnarled bark of the tree behind me, pinning me within the heat of his shadow.
"Scarlett," he murmured, his voice dropping to a low, gravelly frequency. He leaned in, his nose brushing against my temple as he inhaled deeply, scenting the salt of my tears and the underlying scent of my fear. "Something isn’t right."
I tried to look away, but he caught my chin, forcing my eyes to meet his. The gold in his irises was swirling, restless.
"You smell... different," he whispered, his brow furrowing in genuine confusion. "You smell like grief, but there’s something else. Something strange." His grip on my chin softened, his thumb grazing my lower lip in a gesture that was terrifyingly tender compared to his usual brutality. "What is happening? Why were you saying goodbye to the dirt?"
For a second, the mask of the cruel Alpha heir shifted, and I saw the boy who used to share his snacks with me under the summer sun. He looked concerned—deeply, dangerously concerned.
"I told you," I choked out, the weight of the secret pressing against my lungs. "I was just... paying my respects. It’s my birthday tomorrow. It makes me miss them more."
"Don’t lie to me," he hissed, the "burnt wood" scent of his anger beginning to flare. "I know you, Scarlett. Better than my brothers do. You’re hiding something. Why did you look at those stones like you were never going to see them again?"
He pressed closer, his chest crushing against mine, and for a moment, I almost broke. I almost told him everything—that his fathers were sending me away, that I was being erased, that I was terrified of a world without him in it.
But then, I remembered Alpha Lennox’s warning.
"I’m just tired, Leon," I whispered, my voice breaking. "Please. Just let me go back to the kitchens."
He stared at me for a long, agonizing moment, his eyes searching mine for the truth. He looked like he wanted to shake it out of me, but instead, he reached out and tucked a stray lock of my chocolate-brown hair behind my ear.
"You’re coming to my room tonight," he said, his voice returning to a cold, possessive edge. "Don’t make me look for you."
And with that, he walked away.
