Avenging The Triplet Alphas
Chapter 51

Jonathan's

POV

I was in the lounge with my brothers, sharing a celebratory glass of champagne with them. Our months of hard work were finally going to yield positive results after such a long time with no hope and the future looking bleak, this had been one of the toughest periods of my life and I couldn't help but feel like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders as soon I completed the last task in the Book of Impossible Tasks.

When that happened, my first instinct was to press the trigger button to inform our pack soldiers waiting at the border in the event of a war but Alpha Ethan shocked us all by remaining silent. My respect for him had grown but at the same time, I wouldn't have held any grudges against him either if he had decided to go to war for Arielle's sake.

She had looked confused just like the rest of us but neither myself nor my brothers cared about any of that.

We came down here for one mission only and we had succeeded after nearly bottling everything.

When we returned home, Loki immediately took us to our father and he was visibly pleased that we had brought Arielle and his grandson back, and for the first time in a long while he was impressed with us. Our mandate had been restored and our birthright properly enforced this time around. In two days, we would be crowned the Alphas of the Van Tyson pack and as soon as the ritual was over, we were going to have a mating ceremony with Arielle to unite us all with the wolf bond.

Right now, I was one of the happiest people on earth. Everything was falling into place except for a couple of things that ought to be smoothened around the edges.

Arielle still hadn't forgiven them and she was still visibly hurt after her plans came to naught and Ethan was left with no other option but to call off his marriage and mating plans with her and send her back home with us.

I couldn't bring myself to imagine what could've happened if we failed. We would watch Arielle get married to another Alpha, with our son named after him as well, and just like that, they would become untouchable by any of us and we would be forced to return home in shame back to our father who already saw us as major disappointments and stand then when the time to name a successor comes, we would have no other option but to stand by the sidelines and watch our father's Beta claim our birthright right before our eyes.

I shuddered at the thought, immediately shaking my head to get rid of depressing thoughts like that. We had won and that's all that mattered. The only way from here onwards was up, there wasn't any need to dwell in the past. There was nothing in there for me anymore.

The ceremony was going to be in full swing in two days from now and before then, I had some worries I wanted to present before Loki and Elijah. It was quite important and I couldn't stomach it alone anymore, I had to hear their views on this worrying issue. Jonathan's POV

I was in the lounge with my brothers, sharing a celebratory glass of champagne with them. Our months of hard work were finally going to yield positive results after such a long time with no hope and the future looking bleak, this had been one of the toughest periods of my life and I couldn't help but feel like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders as soon I completed the last task in the Book of Impossible Tasks.

I knew they had the same thoughts as well but neither of them was willing to acknowledge or discuss it even.

As a man who thrives on being realistic about everything, it was going to be impossible for me to pretend everything was okay when it wasn't.

I looked at my brothers who were engaged in a discussion, both of them laughing their heads off at a joke Elijah made. I would hate to ruin their mood but I had no other choice and there would be no better time to do it. Arielle had gone into town with our son and Jana, we had the whole lounge to ourselves and most importantly, privacy.

"We've got a lot of things we have to address," I said, quickly downing the champagne in my glass. "I know it's not what any of us wants to hear right now, while we should be drinking and making merry, we also can't afford to leave an opening if we wanted to get this right."

"Here you go with the riddles, brother." Elijah groaned, sinking deeper into the leather couch. "Can you just address whatever it is you plan on saying?"

His tone sounded lighter and my best guess was, he'd been drinking all day and to be honest, I should be doing the same thing as well.

"For how long are we going to tolerate Arielle's insolence towards us?" I began. "We're getting married in two days and it doesn't seem like she's going ease up on us anytime soon."

"She's hurting, Jonathan," Elijah replied, staring at me. "Besides, her case is a rather delicate one. If we dare use a show of force against her, it could prove to be costly and that is what we do not want to happen."

"But her attitude has the potential of coming back to blow up in all our faces and what happens then?" I argued. "It would be too late to do anything about it and we would've to live with the consequences of our nonchalant actions towards her."

"I understand that you have a point, a very important one at this but that isn't all there is to it." Loki began this time, trying to make me see things from his and Elijah's perspective. "While I can't stomach her anymore of her irritating actions, in truth, there's nothing either of us can do about it. Heck, what were we expecting? To take her from a place she's called home for a year and she wouldn't feel pissed about it?"

"I'm only looking out for our best interests, that's all I want." I began. "We've come too far to make the slightest mistake right now. I know confidence is at an all-time high but at the same time I would advise caution."

"We're all on the same page concerning this situation." Loki agreed, and out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Elijah nodded in agreement. "It might all be moving fast right now without any hitch, but we need to be careful and that extends to Arielle as well. I feel she's goading us, waiting for one of us to take the bait and give her a chance to leave again, so for now, nonchalance is the best plan."

I nodded, satisfied with all I'd heard. I was glad we were on the same team. Now, onto the next and the most delicate of it all.

"What about our son?" I asked, looking between them. It happened so suddenly that I couldn't help but notice the mood in the room change immediately.

Loki cleared his throat. "What do you mean? Did something happen to him?"

"It's been two weeks and we've barely had a glimpse of our son, Ethan-"

"Don't."Loki cut me off immediately.

I remained silent, my eyebrows raised at him as I waited for an explanation.

"It's a different kind of hurt seeing your son named after your mate's ex-lover. I can't condone it."

"You and me both," I agreed. "And to make matters worse, she won't let us hold him or see him."

"I waited a few months earlier, surely I can wait for two more days." Loki smiled at me, bringing his glass of champagne to his mouth.

"It's just like we agreed on," Elijah began this time after a period of silence. "She's waited for one of us to take the bait and she's been rather clever about it."

"She's not the same Arielle we claimed over a year ago." I began. "She looks like a threat right now, a small force that we ought not to disregard under any circumstances."

"She would make a fine Luna once we get her to come around after we've been mated," Loki added. "If anything I'd say we struck gold on this one this time around, it was worth the wait."

"Isn't it a little too early to decide if she'd come good or if she'd be a bust?" Elijah asked.

"My intuition rarely fails. If you didn't notice, she was the one pulling the strings and calling the shots while Alpha Ethan sat and followed her every instruction, there's this new air of self-worthiness that she carries around now. If that isn't enough to convince you, I wonder what would."

We then sat in silence after that, each of us plagued with his thoughts. There wasn't much to say after that.

"Let us have a toast," I announced out of the blue. "I'm quite sure that ever since we came back, we haven't had time to talk and have a couple of hours off to ourselves because of our desire to get things done immediately but now that we're all here, I want us to have a toast to our bravery and daring spirit. Many people before us had failed but we succeeded. All three of us, working together, had contributed to Arielle and our son's home, at the same time, we claimed back our throne and gained our father's respect more. So here's to the Van Tyson brothers, long may we reign."

We raised our glasses toward each other, the future looked bright and I couldn't wait.