The Triplet Alphas' Secret Mate

Chapter 5: His Secret

Liam’s POV

​I stood on the balcony, my knuckles tightening as I gripped the stone railing. Below me, Scarlett was a small, trembling figure kneeling under the merciless afternoon sun. My wolf was pacing in my head, a low, constant snarl vibrating in my chest. "She is ours," he howled. "She is burning. Set her free!"

I ignored him, but the pain was clawing at my throat.

​Yes, Scarlett was my mate. I had known the day she turned eighteen, two years ago—barely hours after I had dropped my hand to signal her parents’ execution. It was the cruelest joke the Moon Goddess ever played.

I had spent years dreaming of the day I would finally be able to claim her. Before the betrayal, I had planned to pull Leon and Leo aside on her eighteenth birthday and finally confess that I wanted her. I was going to ask for their blessing to court her, to make her my Luna.

​But then the tragedy happened. Her parents plotted my mother’s death and betrayed our pack. The love I once felt had turned into a poisoned well of shame.

​How could I admit that the girl I had sworn to break was the only person I was fated to love? If my brothers knew, they would look at me with the same disgust we reserved for rogues. I refused to be a laughingstock. I refused to be the Alpha who mated with a traitor—a traitor that filled my thoughts every blessed day.

​My plan was simple: wait until she turned twenty and realized the bond, then reject her so harshly she would never dare speak of it. It was cruel, but it was the only way.

​I watched her palms hit the scorched gravel as she nearly collapsed. A sharp, stinging pain shot through my heart; that was the mate bond’s physical response to her distress. I had run into the yard the moment my wolf felt her being flogged, my blood boiling with the need to rip the guard’s head off. But I had to stay back. I had to play the part of the cold Alpha. If I showed mercy, the pack would whisper. They would say the "Traitor’s Daughter" had bewitched me.

​"What has the bitch done this time?"

me out of my thoughts. He stepped up beside me, folding his arms across his chest as he stared at Scarlett, his

I honestly don’t know who hates her

wonder if he even remembers that there was a time he

concern from my face and replaced it

was caught stealing the kitchen purse," I replied smoothly. It was a lie. I knew Scarlett wasn’t a thief; she was too proud for that. But I needed a

side. "I caught her sneaking books

lower. She was sobbing silently. Every

​Fuck this mate bond.

it!" Leo grunted suddenly. He looked genuinely agitated, his jaw

three. We shared everything—women, secrets, battles. Except this. I was the one keeping a secret

soon," Leon commented, sounding somewhat worried, or maybe it was

"She won’t

my heart like a noose. We stood there, watching the girl we once fought each other for going through such torture. If a seer had told me years ago that we would stand by and let tears fall down Scarlett’s cheeks without lifting a finger, I would have called them mad.

nicer to her... but doing that felt like I was betraying

limp. She hit the gravel, her face flat on the

wrong..." Leon said, sounding panicked, or perhaps I

The world went silent. The suffocating pressure

wolf roared. "GO

I could