The Triplet Alphas' Secret Mate-Chapter 36: Familiar
Scarlett’s POV
I flinched as if he’d struck me. Save me? The word echoed in my head, sounding entirely wrong, almost unreal. It didn’t fit him... it didn’t fit this situation.
I wanted to ask what he meant, to make sense of it, but the threat of the Rogue King’s camp was enough to make my legs move before my mind could catch up. I scrambled into the seat, pulling my knees to my chest and trying to take up as little space as possible, as if shrinking myself could somehow make me invisible.
The door slammed shut, sealing out the sounds of the forest. The SUV began to move, the ride so smooth I couldn’t even feel the road.
"You’re bleeding," Ethan remarked after a few minutes of suffocating silence. He wasn’t looking at me; he was looking at a tablet in his hand, but his nose—his Alpha senses—clearly picked up the scent of the blood on my skin.
I touched my bruised cheek, my fingers coming away red. "It doesn’t matter," I whispered, my voice cracking.
"It matters to me," he replied, finally turning his head to look at me. His gray eyes were unreadable. "I paid a high price for ’undamaged goods.’ Don’t make me regret the investment, Scarlett."
My breath hitched. He knew my name.
"You... you know my name?" I whispered, the sound barely audible over the hum of the engine.
Ethan’s brow furrowed, a flicker of something—disappointment? annoyance?—crossing his cold features. "You really don’t remember me?"
I searched my memory, panic rising, but everything felt distant... blurred.
I looked at him properly then, trying to ignore the bruising pain in my ribs and the cold metal of the choker. His jaw was sharp, his gray eyes like polished flint, and there was an air of absolute, terrifying authority about him that felt familiar. I had seen those eyes before, but where?
"Should I?" I asked, my voice trembling. "Do I know you?"
He didn’t respond. He simply turned back to his tablet, his silence more deafening than any shout.
I looked out the window as we approached a heavily fortified border. I expected a struggle, or at least a halt, but as the SUVs rolled forward, the guards on duty didn’t just step aside—they bowed their heads in deep, silent respect. We weren’t just entering another territory; we were entering a kingdom.
"Where are you taking me?" I asked, the panic finally rising past my exhaustion. "What do you want with me?"
Again, he didn’t answer. The silence lasted until the convoy turned into a set of gigantic iron gates. We drove up a long, winding path lined with ancient oaks until a massive, modern mansion made of glass and dark stone came into view. It looked more like a fortress than a home.
Just as the car slowed to a halt, Ethan’s phone began to vibrate. He picked it up immediately, his expression shifting into something even more guarded.
The door on my side was pulled open by one of his soldiers. As I was being led out, the last thing I heard before the heavy door thudded shut was Ethan’s deep, steady voice saying into the phone:
"I have her."
I panicked, twisting my head back toward the darkened glass of the SUV, but I couldn’t hear another word. Who was he talking to?
I was left standing on the gravel driveway, shivering in the cool night air. The soldier didn’t touch me, but he stood close enough to remind me I couldn’t run.
I looked up at the mansion, wishing the ground would open and swallow me whole.
The SUV door opened again, and Ethan stepped out. He didn’t look at me or say a word; he simply began walking toward the towering glass entrance, his long, confident steps forcing me to hurry to keep up.
We entered a vast sitting room where the ceilings seemed to touch the sky. As we passed, members of the household staff stopped what they were doing and bowed deeply, their eyes fixed on the floor. He didn’t acknowledge them. He just kept moving toward a grand staircase.
Panic flared in my chest. Where are we going? My mind screamed the answer I didn’t want to hear. Was he going to have me? Right now? I was a mess of mud and blood, and I was... I was a virgin. The thought of his cold, flinty eyes and his massive strength being used to break me made my knees tremble.
We reached a heavy wooden door on the second floor. He swung it open and gestured to the guards. "Leave us," he commanded.
The hallway emptied in a heartbeat. I stood frozen in the doorway until he turned my way. "Enter," he ordered.
I stepped inside, my heart hammering so hard it felt like it would burst through my ribs. The room was beautiful—expensive and vast—but to me, it looked like a gilded cage. Tears began to blur my vision. This was it. The moment I lose my virginity to him.
He closed the door with a heavy thud and began making his way toward me.
"Please," I sobbed, backing away until my calves hit the edge of the massive bed. "Please, don’t do this."
"Stop moving," he said, his voice flat and annoyed.
"No! Please!" I tried to dodge past him, but he was too fast. In a single motion, he grabbed my shoulders and pushed me back onto the bed.
The weight of him above me knocked the air from my lungs.
"Stay still," he hissed, his face inches from mine, "or I’ll make you stay still."
The last bit of blood drained from my face. I realized there was nothing I could do. No wolf to protect me, no family to save me, and no strength to fight an Alpha of his rank. So I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing myself, waiting for the first cruel touch, for the tearing of my clothes.
