The Triplet Alphas' Secret Mate-Chapter 78: His Excuses
Scarlett’s POV
"I was scared of what people would say," he snapped, turning to look at me with eyes that were pained. "I’m the son of the Luna. The Luna who was murdered in cold blood. Every time I looked at you, I saw the girl I grew up with... but the pack? They saw the daughter of the traitors who helped coordinate the assassination of my mother."
I swallowed hard.
"How could I be seen with you?" he went on, his voice cracking. "How could I be ’friends’ with the girl whose parents let the killers into our territory? I thought if I showed you even an ounce of kindness, the pack would think I didn’t care about her memory. I thought they’d think I was a traitor, too."
He reached out, his fingers brushing the stone between us but not quite touching my hand.
"I chose my reputation over you. I chose the pack’s approval over the girl who was my entire world," he whispered. "Every time I saw you scrubbing those floors or even being abused, a part of me wanted to scream at them to stop. But then I’d hear someone whisper ’traitor’s blood,’ and I’d turn away. I was a coward because I was afraid of the whispers, Scarlett. I was afraid of the shame."
The honesty was brutal. It stripped away the Alpha mask and showed me the broken boy underneath. Zoe was quiet in my head now, her anger replaced by a deep, mourning sadness. We had both been victims of that night—I had lost my parents to the noose, and he had lost his mother to the knife.
"So, what changed?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper. "Why now? Are you not ashamed anymore?" 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢
Leo moved then, shifting on the rock until he was facing me fully. He reached out and cupped my jaw, his thumb dragging slowly over my lower lip. His touch was electric, burning through the cold mountain air.
"Now I realize I can’t live without you, Scarlett," he whispered, his voice filled with an honesty that made my chest ache. "In all my life, I have loved only one person, and that is you. I thought I could let you go. I thought I could bury the bond and be the son the pack expected me to be. But I was wrong. I can’t breathe when you’re not in the room."
He leaned in closer, his forehead resting against mine. The heat from his body was the only thing keeping the mountain chill at bay.
"Give me some time," he pleaded, his thumb tracing the line of my jaw. "Just a few weeks. Let things settle with the transition and the elders. I will tell everyone you are mine. I’ll stand in the middle of the pack circle and announce it, and there is nothing they will do about it."
I looked away, staring out at the dark treeline below. A cold shiver of dread washed over me.
What would happen when they found out? The chaos would be absolute. Three Alpha brothers, all entangled with the same "traitor’s daughter." It wouldn’t just cause a rift; it would tear the pack apart.
"Scarlett, look at me," Leo murmured.
I was shivering now, the high-altitude wind biting through my thin shirt. Noticing my tremble, Leo didn’t hesitate. He reached back and pulled off his heavy black leather jacket. It was warm, carrying the scent of cedarwood, rain, and him. He draped it over my shoulders, the warmth from it driving the cold away.
As he reached around to pull the lapels closed over my chest, his hands lingered. He didn’t pull away. Instead, he kept his arms wrapped around me, pulling me into the circle of his embrace.
"You’re freezing," he whispered, his eyes dropping to my lips.
"It’s cold up here," I managed to say, my breath hitching as his fingers brushed the sensitive skin of my neck.
"Then let me keep you warm," he rasped.
He didn’t wait for me to agree. He tilted my head back, his hand tangling in my hair, and brought his mouth down to mine.
The moment our lips touched, the world simply ceased to exist. It wasn’t like the hurried, guilty fumbling with Liam, and it wasn’t the sweet, alcohol-soaked longing of Ethan. This was passionate.
I gasped into his mouth, my hands flying up to grip the front of his shirt, pulling him as close as humanly possible. Zoe was howling in my head, a triumphant, wild sound. Ours. Finally ours. Leo groaned, a deep, primal sound that vibrated through my entire skeleton. He shifted, pulling me onto his lap right there on the cold stone, his tongue sweeping against mine with a hunger that told me he wasn’t planning on stopping anytime soon.
Leo didn’t just kiss me; he consumed me. His hands were everywhere, fast and possessive, as if he were trying to make up for every second he had spent ignoring me. I was arched back over his arm, my fingers clawing at the thick muscles of his shoulders.
"I need to feel you," he growled against my lips, his voice a dark, vibrating rumble.
He didn’t wait. His hands slid under the leather jacket, finding the hem of my shirt. When his palms hit my bare skin, I let out a jagged gasp. He was like a furnace. The heat was so intense it felt like a brand, sending jolts of electricity straight to my core.
Zoe was practically purring in my head, pushing me to get closer. Give him everything, she whispered. He’s ours.
Leo shifted, his boots scraping against the stone as he pulled my shirt up and over my head, tossing it onto the rock behind us. I shivered for a split second as the mountain wind hit my skin, but then he was there, his large, calloused hands cupping my waist and pulling me flush against him.
"You’re so beautiful," he rasped, his eyes glowing with admiration.
He moved his mouth to my neck, his tongue dragging over my pulse point before he suddenly bit down—not enough to tear the skin, but enough to make me sob his name. He sucked the skin there, marking me with a bruise.
I reached for the buttons of his shirt, my fingers shaking with a mix of cold and desperation. I needed to feel his heart beating against mine. I ripped the last few buttons open, and he shrugged the fabric off, baring his massive chest to me.
When he pulled me back into him, skin-on-skin, I thought I might actually melt. My breasts pressed against his hard pectorals, the friction making my head spin. I wrapped my legs tighter around his waist, my hands moving down to the waistband of his jeans, pulling him closer until there was no space left between us.
Leo let out a pained, hungry groan, his hands sliding down to my backside to lift me higher. He was hard—so hard it made me ache—but he kept his focus on my skin, his kisses moving down to the swell of my breasts, his teeth grazing the lace of my bra.
