Offered to the Triplet Alphas

[Ezra]

After a relatively tense drive, I finally parked my car near the entrance of the Virgo palace. Xanthea hadn't said a word ever since we began our ride.

I knew she was sitting with her thoughts, revisiting her memories and reliving the pain.

I could read her eyes and how they lit up and dulled with the changing array of her thoughts.

Her breath had an irregular rhythm, but I could still decipher them as words on pages. And the screams she never cried manifested as the assault of her heartbeats against her ribs.

I had a conversation with her silence that spoke to me more than her words ever would.

Shutting her eyes, Xanthea clenched the fabric of her dress over her thighs.

I placed my hand on hers, feeling the subtle tremble in her fingers.

Her eyes, bleary with uncertainty and fear, met mine. She shook her head, her brows knitting together in a silent plea.

Intertwining my fingers with hers, I smiled slightly.

"You can do it. I know you can and you will. Because you know how to play your games with... shampoo poured all over the floor."

With the apprehensive look still sprawled across her eyes, she broke into a soft chuckle.

I smiled back at her.

"I mean, it was a brilliant idea. Stupid, but brilliant," I said.

She shook her head as her chuckles turned into half whimpers and half giggles.

"Hey! I am serious! I would have slipped right on the shampoo and fallen like a clown, given how impulsive I am. Might have fractured my tailbone and then Raven would have to heal my ass and I don't even wanna imagine Raven healing my ass."

"Oh, goddess..." Xanthea puckered her face, placing her hand over her mouth.

The second hand embarrassment had her cracking up badly, laughing while she gave me the weirdest, odd comedic look, as though I was really a clown.

I contemplated her with a subtle smile.

Once Xanthea had controlled her laughter, I licked my lips and said.

"Your smile is your weapon, angel. It's your greatest weapon. So keep it safe, hidden, but handy. Your laughter, your happiness, is what's going to kill them alive."This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.

I kissed the back of her hand.

Biting her lips, Xanthea gave me a determined nod. She looked outside the car and I followed her gaze.

Nikolai, alongside other high-ranking members of the Virgo pack, stood at the entrance, awaiting my arrival. And I was not at all surprised to see the Alpha King, Atticus Dencruz, standing beside Nikolai. That old man liked to pretend to be the one in control of the mortal realm.

He liked to think that he kept a check on us and maintained some kind of balance between the three realms. Last time I checked, Asher just used him to navigate and communicate to the mortal realm.

But when we seized the fallen packs, he couldn't do a thing to help them. He just stood aside and watched, praying to his moon goddess that we didn't capture his kingdom.

Today, too, he had the same terror on his face. I could feel it from the way they stood to the way their petrified eyes hovered around my car. They awaited to see a coffin with Xanthea's lifeless body laid in it.

The frenzied auras around them were the same when we returned the dead bodies of the previous brides and took over their packs.

We returned the bride's dead bodies as peacefully as we could, but the rumors that spread across the mortal realm romanticized how brutal and gruesome it was.

"Look at them, Xanthea," I whispered. "They're waiting to see you dead, to receive your dead body. But it's time to show them just how alive you truly are."

She peered outside through the one sided window glass. We could see what was going outside, but outsiders couldn't look into the car. She took a deep breath and was about to open the door when I held back her hand. "Let me do the honors, wife."

As soon as I emerged from the car, every single soul went into a bow.

The demons lurking around Nikolai in their shadowy, twisted forms writhed with a sinister laughter, compelling him to bow lower. Nikolai stumbled under their weight and the force they put on him. My demons were clearly trying to bring him to his knees, but like Nesryn said, he was resisting them.

Those demons were invisible to mortal eyes. Only the spiritually awakened mortals could see those demons with naked eyes. And it was the duty of us demons to stop the spiritual awakening in the mortals by influencing them with pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. Making them seek external power by blinding them to the inner power they were all born with.

But even when normal mortals couldn't see demons, they had been fighting them for ages with whatever little spiritual and mental strength they possessed, relying on their faith in the celestials.

The demons that haunted Nikolai were among the strongest and most evil. If it had been a normal mortal, they would have succumbed to madness by now.

The dark circles, the restlessness and jumpiness in his eyes, the stiffness in his shoulders, and the weary look on his face were all proof that my demons were influencing him deeply. From his thoughts to his emotions, he was being possessed. So how?

He was clearly not spiritually awakened. So, there could be only two possibilities. Nikolai either had insane spiritual control, or he had already received some celestial blessing.

"Long time no see, Atticus," I greeted the Alpha King with a fake smile as I took off my goggles.

"My lord..." Atticus lifted his head and everyone else followed. "Welcome back to the earthly realm, your highness. We are honored to have you."

"Now, now. Don't lie. I know what you have been doing behind my back," I said in a grim tone, maintaining my eye contact with him.

Fear drained into his eyes faster than the colors that drained out of his face.

"I dare not even think of speaking behind your back, my lord. Our realm lives at your mercy," Atticus said with a nervous smile. "When I received the message that you would visit our realm shortly, I made sure to personally oversee preparations for your welcome."

I broke into laughter.

"Why so serious, good friend? I was just joking. I find it rather difficult to make the humor of my realm work in yours. I know you are on our side. All your intel so far has helped us take over the packs, spot out the real traitors, neutralize the resistance, and maintain our authority and control over the fallen packs," I said, skimming my eyes to Nikolai. "After all, the burden of the entire earthly realm is on your shoulders. You wouldn't jeopardize its safety for one or two packs." Both Atticus and Nikolai's expressions were drenched with alarm and confusion, but they swiftly concealed them behind their poker faces.

Atticus forced a smile onto his face.

"You are right, my lord. I need to think of the safety of my realm. After all, that's my duty," he said in a humble tone.

I smirked.

Before leaving the Infernal realm, I texted Asher that I was bringing Xanthea here. He was ok with it. But he told me to stay alert and not leave Xanthea alone even for a second. As if I would. He also told me to seed a sweet little suspicion among the packs and Alpha King, if possible.

Well, I think I did my job.

Atticus cleared his throat. "My lord, pardon my insolence as I dare to ask if the Virgo pack has failed to provide you with a competent bride?" He inquired cautiously. "Are you perhaps... looking for a new bride?"

My assumption about their assumption was right. I glared at Nikolai, who immediately lowered his head. None of them expected a fate other than death for a feeble, abused omega with royal blood. Playing along with their assumptions, I continued in a dark tone.

"I have brought some gifts for my in-laws. Look for yourself." I looked at the valets and cocked my brow at the dickey of my car.

With a stalled breath, Nikolai took a tight gulp as he looked at the gifts the valets unloaded from my car.

"What's wrong? Won't the new alpha check the gifts? The gifts royals receive goes through a screening process, right?" I asked, my gaze boring into Nikolai. "Or is it different in your realm?" "Absolutely not, my lord. Alpha Nikolai," Atticus looked at him.

Nikolai gave a curt nod and even with all the brave facade, I noticed his hands trembled as he took a gift box from the valet. He held it as though he was holding a ticking time bomb.

"It's important to make sure the gift doesn't have some hazardous substance for the safety of the royals. Who knows what might be in those boxes? It's not uncommon in our realm to receive mutilated body parts of our family members-" Before I could finish my sentence, Nikolai threw the box away. Clenching his fists, he stepped back, panting and shaking violently. Drawing in rough breaths, he stared at the box with pure terror in his widened eyes.

"How imprudent," I mumbled, glaring at Nikolai. "Looks like every house in the Virgo pack will receive a gift with the mutilated body parts of their family members. Let's start with your insolent young alpha, who doesn't know his place." Nikolai lifted his dread-filled eyes to me, but Atticus blocked him from my view.

"I will request you to pardon Alpha Nikolai. He is still a kid. He was just a little scared, my lord. I beg for your mercy, your highness," Atticus said with a bow and Nikolai followed him.

"I didn't mean to be disrespectful, your highness," Nikolai said in a cracking voice.

00000

"Then take that gift and open it." A dark growl escaped my throat that seemed to have pinned everyone under the thickening gravity. Tensing up, Nikolai did as I said and I enjoyed how his hands shivered as he unwrapped the gift box and opened it.

Disbelief, confusion mixed with bewildering relief, sprawled across his face as he peered at the topaz diamond necklace set.

"Were you expecting to see Xanthea's body chopped into pieces?" I asked as a bitter churn clawed its way from my guts to my chest.

I suppressed my laughter as I savored how disoriented and even more amusing he looked than before.

Creeping silence fell over the gathering. No one even dared move or breathe in the wrong way. Honestly, I was barely holding back my bloodlust just because I knew this wasn't my battle. Even if I killed them all, it wouldn't make a difference. They meant nothing to me.

But to Xanthea, they were her biggest battle.

"That's a gift hand-picked by my wife for your younger sister," I said.

Nikolai glanced at me before his frenzied gaze shot towards my car. He squinted his eyes, looking for Xanthea.

I walked to my car and opened the door for her. Stretching out my hand before her, I placed my other hand between her head and the edge of the car.

Xanthea's pounding heart was a lot calmer now, a tranquil impassiveness illuminating her beautiful and confident face. With a subtle inhale, she placed her hands in my palm and stepped down from the car.

We exchanged a soft smile before we faced the lot of trash.

Silence had never been starker and faces nakeder.

The crowd stood thunderstruck, but it was fun to watch Niko-shit-lai.

Shock wrinkled across Nikolai's face as he gaped at Xanthea. It seemed as though he couldn't believe his eyes that the once weak omega was still alive and thriving.

I squinted my eyes as Odeus sensed the change in Nikolai's gaze. Breaking through all the conflicting emotions across his face, lust darkened his eyes as they leered over Xanthea's body.

Odeus was a lust demon. I recognized lust when I saw it.

Suppressing my urge to rip his eyes out, I wrapped my arm around Xanthea's waist and pulled her in.

Nikolai winced, clenching his jaws when Xanthea wrapped her hands around my biceps before she trailed them down to my wrist.

"I know my wife is beautiful, but you guys were so flabbergasted-" my smile faded away and my words came out as a threatening growl "-that you forgot to bow before the High lady of the Infernal pack!" Xanthea's eyes widened, a mix of astonishment and disbelief flickering across her features. Her chest heaved faster as she turned to look at me.

I couldn't blame her. I was taken aback by my unexpected declaration as well.