Semua Bab Stepbrother’s Obsession: Claimed By The Triplet Alphas: Bab 161 - Bab 170

The plateau stretched out like a wound in the mountain—flat, open, and far too exposed for my liking. Every instinct screamed at me to drag Isabella and the kid back into shadow, but the smoke curling against the pale sky anchored me forward.Warmth. Fire. Maybe even food.Or maybe a knife between the ribs. At this point, I couldn’t decide which I’d welcome more.Kaia crouched low at the edge, one hand braced against stone, the other resting on the hilt of her blade. Her eyes narrowed on the faint shapes flickering around the fire. Too distant to read faces. Too close to pretend we hadn’t already been spotted.“They know we’re here,” she murmured.“No kidding,” I rasped, tightening my grip on the kid. My voice came out raw, shredded from wind and blood. “So either they come running with weapons, or they let us fall on our faces by the fire. I’ll take either.”Kaia’s gaze flicked back at me. For once, she didn’t argue. She just nodded, clipped and precise, then straightened.“Stay behi

The first rays of dawn bled across the plateau, turning the snow a pale, unforgiving gray. The fire was just embers now, hissing weakly against the cold wind. My body screamed at me to stay down, to sink back into the warmth of the bedroll, but I forced my spine straight. Weakness was a luxury I couldn’t afford—not here, not with these soldiers watching us like wolves sizing up prey.Kaia had already strapped her blade across her back, movements sharp and economical. Not a strand of her hair was out of place, not a flicker of pain visible even though I knew she was running on fumes the same as me. She was carved from stone, as untouchable as the ridge itself.Asher, though… he looked worse than I did. His face was a roadmap of exhaustion, ribs bound tight beneath bloodied cloth. He held himself together with spit and sheer spite, and still his arm never left the kid curled against him. He didn’t even blink when the scarred soldier barked orders to break camp.The kid stirred, mumbling

The summons came at dawn.I knew before the flap even stirred. The camp had a rhythm, a pulse I’d learned to read—when the soldiers woke, when the drills began, when meals clattered into bowls. But this morning the cadence shifted. Boots crunched closer, halting outside our tent. The pause stretched long enough to thicken the air.Kaia already had her blade across her knees. Asher braced himself with his good arm, jaw clenched against the pain. Even the kid had gone quiet, huddled in the furs like a rabbit sensing the hawk overhead.The flap pulled back.Not the scarred soldier this time. A younger one, cleaner armor, face too smooth for the edge in his eyes. “The Commander requests you.”Kaia rose instantly. “She’s not going alone.”The soldier’s smirk said he’d expected that. “Fine. But all of you will stand before him. Now.”Asher swore under his breath, trying to lever himself up. I caught his arm before his wound tore. “You’re not ready—”“Like hell I’m staying behind,” he rasped

The summons came at dawn.I knew before the flap even stirred. The camp had a rhythm, a pulse I’d learned to read—when the soldiers woke, when the drills began, when meals clattered into bowls. But this morning the cadence shifted. Boots crunched closer, halting outside our tent. The pause stretched long enough to thicken the air.Kaia already had her blade across her knees. Asher braced himself with his good arm, jaw clenched against the pain. Even the kid had gone quiet, huddled in the furs like a rabbit sensing the hawk overhead.The flap pulled back.Not the scarred soldier this time. A younger one, cleaner armor, face too smooth for the edge in his eyes. “The Commander requests you.”Kaia rose instantly. “She’s not going alone.”The soldier’s smirk said he’d expected that. “Fine. But all of you will stand before him. Now.”Asher swore under his breath, trying to lever himself up. I caught his arm before his wound tore. “You’re not ready—”“Like hell I’m staying behind,” he rasped

Her sobs echoed in my hall like ghosts that refused to leave.I stood above her, every muscle in my body rigid, my nails digging into my palms until I felt the sting. I didn’t move. I couldn’t. Because if I let myself breathe too deeply, if I let myself think too long, the walls I’d spent years building would start to crack.Thalia.The name alone was enough to sour my tongue.The woman kneeling at my feet wasn’t the shadow who had haunted my every step, the blade that had been turned against me too many times. No—this woman was hollow, broken, stripped down to pieces she could barely hold together. But that didn’t erase the blood. It didn’t erase the choices.I wanted to hate her. I wanted that hate to burn bright, to drown out the tremor in my chest. But standing here, with her voice still trembling in the air, I felt something else stir—a weight I hadn’t asked for, one that settled heavy in my lungs.Pity.And gods, that made me furious.“Get up,” I said sharply.Her head jerked, e