All Chapters of The Alpha’s Shattered Mate: Her Secret Triplets: Chapter 21 - Chapter 25

The Great Throne Hall was no longer a place of judgment; today, it was a cathedral of power. The obsidian floors had been polished until they reflected the thousands of candles flickering in the draughty air, and the scent of expensive oils and aged wine fought with the raw, metallic tang of shifting wolves. Every Alpha of the twelve vassal packs sat in the tiered benches, their eyes fixed on the dais where Killian stood.I stood in the wings, my fingers trembling as I adjusted the silver lace on Maya’s dress. Leo and Toby stood beside her, dressed in miniature versions of Killian’s royal black and silver. They looked like princes from a storybook, but the way Leo’s hand rested instinctively on the hilt of his ceremonial wooden dagger told a different story. They were warriors in training, and they knew the room outside was filled with predators."Are we going to be famous, Mommy?" Toby whispered, his eyes wide."You are going to be seen, Toby," I said, kneeling to look them in the ey

The silence of the royal laboratory was a heavy, clinical thing. The triplets were finally asleep in the adjoining room, guarded by Sarah and a dozen of Killian’s most loyal warriors. After the chaos of the Great Hall, the stillness felt unnatural, like the breathless pause before a predatory strike.I stood over a lead-lined table, the corrupted crystal salvaged from my father’s pocket resting in the center of a surgical tray. It was no longer pulsing with that violent purple light, but it felt cold: a deep, absolute cold that seemed to suck the warmth from the very air.Killian stood by the door, his arms crossed over his chest. He had refused to leave my side, his silver eyes tracking my every movement as I prepared my instruments."You should not be touching that thing alone, Elara," he said, his voice a low, warning vibration."I am not touching it with my bare hands, Killian," I replied, adjusting the specialized goggles I had scavenged from the palace’s old research wing. "I am

The laboratory felt like a sanctuary of logic in a world that had become increasingly nonsensical. Outside, the pack celebrated a victory over a spy, but inside these sterile walls, I was a scientist again. The hum of the sequencer was a steady, rhythmic companion as I organized the three vials on the workstation.Leo. Maya. Toby.I had taken the samples under the guise of a routine post-fever checkup. My children had grown used to my "doctor mode," and they hadn't questioned the quick prick of the needle or the extra swabs. But as I stared at the blood shimmering in the low light, my hands shook. The High Priest's final words were a poison, and even my Luna light couldn't neutralize the doubt they had planted.I began the process of isolating the Silver Crest resonance markers. In shifter genetics, the soul’s imprint is physically visible in the non-coding regions of the DNA, a series of repeating patterns that vibrate at a specific frequency. To find a mimic, I had to look past the