Rejected by My Mate, Claimed by the Triplet Alphas のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 11 - チャプター 20

Viene’s POV Nathan found me on the terrace an hour before dawn. I hadn’t been able to sleep. Not after the voice, not after the woman who wouldn’t stop shaking, not after watching Neil’s face change while reading something he wouldn’t show me. I’d come outside because the walls of my room felt like they were listening too. “You should be resting,” he said. “So should you.” He didn’t argue that. He just crossed the terrace and stood beside me at the railing, close enough that I felt the change in the air before he said anything else. “Tell me exactly what she said to you,” he said. “The voice. Word for word.” “I already told Neil.” “I want to hear it from you. Not filtered through his notes.” I gave it to him straight — the tenderness in it, the way it used my name, the line about being frightened of me once. He listened without interrupting, mouth working slightly with each new detail, like he was cataloguing threats I couldn’t see. “You weren’t always,” he repeated, quietl

Viene’s POV Nolan was on his feet again by morning, pale but standing, refusing to talk about the night before. I let it go because pushing him only made him quieter, and I had enough fights already without starting one he clearly didn’t want. Neil found me in the east hall before I’d finished my coffee. “I need you to see something,” he said. “Before Nathan gets back from the perimeter check.” “Before he gets back. That’s not ominous at all.” “It’s not for dramatic effect. It’s because he’ll try to stop me if he’s standing here.” That got my attention faster than anything else could have. He led me to a small room off the records wing, door already unlocked, a single file open on the desk inside. Most of the page was black bars, line after line of redaction so thick the words underneath had been erased more completely than if they’d never been written at all. “What is this,” I asked. “A record. Old. From before either of us were born.” Neil turned the page toward me. “I pul

Viene’s POV Nathan doubled the security after the message. That meant doubled guards, tighter checkpoints, and one training room converted into something closer to a command post where I was expected to stay while he ran through defense drills with the staff. Which meant I was stuck in a room with him for most of the evening, watching him work, unable to leave without an escort he was too busy to spare. “You could put me somewhere else,” I said, from the chair he’d pointed me to hours ago. “Somewhere else means less coverage. This room has the most eyes on it in the whole compound right now.” “So I’m furniture with a good view.” “You’re the one thing I’m not willing to lose track of tonight.” He didn’t look up from the map he was marking. “Sit still. Complain later.” “You could at least let me help. I’m not useless.” “I never said you were.” “You act like it. Sit here, wait there, don’t move without an escort. I used to run a household. I can read a map.” “This isn’t a hous

Viene’s POV I decided not to see any of them today. Not out of anger, not exactly. Something closer to needing to know what I was without three men standing close enough to change my own body without asking. If Neil was right that touch and desire and even fear could all move the mark, I needed one day where none of it had a hand to hold onto. Nathan found me first, near the kitchen. “You skipped breakfast with the rest of us,” he said. “I wanted to eat alone.” “Everything all right?” “I need a day. Just one. Away from all three of you.” “Is this about last night? The study.” “It’s about needing to know what I feel like without any of you close enough to change it. That’s all.” “You think distance will tell you something useful.” “I think I won’t know until I try it. You’ve had every other theory. Let me have this one.” He was quiet for a moment, careful, like he was deciding whether to push. He didn’t. “I’ll tell the guards to keep their distance too. Within reason.” “T

Viene’s POV I walked into the briefing already anxious about the three days closing in, and before I’d even taken my seat, Nathan looked up like I’d said something out loud. “You’re worried,” he said. “I haven’t said a word.” “I know. That’s the problem.” Neil glanced between us, unbothered, like this wasn’t the first time he’d watched something like this happen. “Your pulse elevated the second you walked through the door. Nathan’s response to that isn’t guesswork anymore. He’s picking it up before you show it.” “Picking up what, exactly?” “Whatever you’re feeling. Not thoughts. Not words. Just the shape of it.” I sat down slower than I meant to. “How long has this been happening?” “A few days,” Nolan said, from the corner. “Small at first. I noticed it before either of them did, I think, because it’s closer to what I already feel from you when I’m calming the mark.” “You never told me.” “I wasn’t sure it was real until it kept happening.” “When did you first notice it?”