Claimed By My Three Alphas
Chapter 161

AMERY'S POV

I can't breathe.

There's no air in the room anymore and I'm finding it so difficult to breathe.

"Those boys were never meant to be born," she's continuing like I'm not about to have a panic attack. "Fate demands balance. You're the key to it all."

"Stop," I wheeze, trying to regulate my breathing, my thoughts, something.

Asher keeps talking about how he's envisioned a life with me, and how he wants us to work out in the end. There's no way he'd have thoughts or conversations like that if he knew those kinds of things would only come to pass to the detriment of his brothers. Sure they fight like hungry animals sometimes, but they're blood.

They're family.

They wouldn't let something like this come between them.

"Before you turn nineteen years of age, you'll have to choose one," she says, "And if you don't, all three of them will die."

I gasp, broken, searching for air.

Theres no way.

There is no way!

It's a flurry of different emotions tunnelling through me at once.

Out of all of them, Quincy has hurt me the least, he's almost been the most perfect gentleman. But I can't stomach the thought of choosing him, before the death of Asher and Levi.

Levi.

And then it hits me. "Oh my God!"

He told me about a curse, the night he tried to kill me at camp. I didn't believe any of it at the time. At that moment, I was so hurt, that I'd chalked up everything he'd told me before Asher showed up as a lie, another deceitful tactic he was using to trap me. But now, it's all starting to make too much sense.

Levi's been trying to kill me for as long as I've known him. I rest my weight on the wall, trying to gather my raging thoughts.

I've always accustomed his dark tendencies simply to his violent mind and lack of affection for me. But, could it be possible that all this is true? That he was right all along about what he said?... Do the other boys know?

No, they can't. If they did, they wouldn't be trying to get with me. They'd be trying to get rid of me, just like Levi.

My eyes prick with tears. So that was it? He planned to use my body and get rid of me after?

"You don't need to worry about any of this now," Mom says, creeping closer to my body slumped against the wall, "I've taken care of all of this. You're not in any danger, and all this will be over with soon."

My head whips around so fast that my hair flips across my cheeks, "Taken care of what? The prophecy?" My voice quiets to a whisper, "I don't believe any of this."

My mouth says one thing, but my heart... can't take it.

"You do." her expression is solemn, she's so sure of her answer.

If all this is true, then no matter how I try to look at it, all their lives are in danger.

"Why?" I cry.

I could have saved us all the trouble and gone on my merry way, I wouldn't have chosen either one of them. But then, even if I don't choose...

Her hand reaches out, brushing gently over my cheek," None of this is your fault. There's no reason for you to be sad."

I shake off her touch, "I can't- I can't... I don't understand. Why was I the one chosen for them? Why is there a stupid prophecy measuring the value of my life?" I'm pacing just like her now, "Why do two of them have to die? Why do I have to be the one to make that choice?" "You don't have to do anything you don't want to." She says, "I've taken care of it all."

"You keep saying that!" I shout, throwing my hands in the air. "You keep saying that and I have no idea what it means.

"It means that we can have a family again." She states, " Your father can come back to us. You can be safe, away from all this."

Hope stretches like a helium balloon inside me, "How? How are you sure?"

"Those boys can grant us that?"

My brows pull together, "The boys?"

"I've made a deal with the man who has your father."

"What?" I can't hide my shock, "He was taken?"

"Yes," she nods at me, stepping forward and taking my hand in hers, "But I'll get him back now. You don't have to worry."

"But what do the boys have to do with getting him back."

Her nostrils flare with a large exhale, "Ive made a deal. The man who has your father, he's.. a ruthless man Another Alpha King from a different pack. He's offered to return your father to me. In exchange for..." her eyes break away from mine, dropping to the ground for a second before she meets my gaze again, "Something of value."

"Something like what?" I ask, and then my eyes widen as the realization hits, "You want to broker them off? To a ruthless Alpha king that could kill them? What would he even want with them?"

"You need to calm down," she tells me, "These boys will bring you nothing but strife. You have to let them go. It's for the best. Everything has already been set in motion."

I step away from her, shaking my head slowly. "Dinner." I say, "You drugged them?" Now it makes sense, how they were passed out at the same time, shockingly earlier than normal just after they had a meal.

"What have you done?" I scream, "I can't stand for this!" I'm moving past her, marching back towards the living room, when she grabs my arm. Her grip is tight, unrelenting as she shoves me backwards. My feet fall out from under me till I'm practically being dragged on the hardwood.

"What the hell are you doing?" I'm thrashing against her hold, digging my shoes into the floor. "Let me go!"

"This is for the best, Ondina. 'll let you out when it's done." A door opens behind me, and the next thing I know, I'm being shoved into a dark room. I fall on my side, instantly scrambling up to my feet just in time to see my mother on the other side. "Don't do this!" I plead, "Please don't do this."

"It's already done." Before I can make it to the threshold, she slams the door, locking it and me inside with a definitive click.

I rush up to its closed frame, banging on the wooden surface. "Open the door!" I yell, "Please! Please don't do this! I'm begging you! Mom, there has to be another way!" My screams fall on deaf ears.

It's been two hours, and my fractured state of my mind is holding me captive. There are too many things to think about, too many things to dwell on and not enough time. I need to get out of here. I can't let her make that exchange.

I can't let her barter their lives for my sake. None of this is their fault, hell, none of this is anyones fault.

"Come on, come on." I chant in a low tone, biting on my fingernail as I pace the dark room. There are no windows or other doors, no means of escape. "Come on! Think."

And then I hear them. The sounds of the horses, the men on foot. The wolves.

Panic rises inside me like a temperature gradient. They're here, and they're moving fast.

I rush to the door, banging on the hard surface with every inch of strength I have left. "Let me out! Let me out of here!

"Stop fighting, Ondina." Mom's muffled voice carries through the other side, "I'm doing this to protect you."

"No, Mom, No!" I scream at her, hating the weakness in my voice, hating the helplessness consuming me, "This isn't helping, this is wrong! Mom, they're people, they aren't pawns you can exchange for your benefit. All this is wrong!

"The only wrongs I see are the ones done to me!" She yells back, "I've lost my daughter, my husband, all because of this. It ends today! I'm sorry if you can't accept this but I can, You'll just have to live through it and thank me because you'll still be alive enough to be grateful."

I feel it then.

Rage, blinding, unlike anything I've experienced before.

It doesn't build inside me at all, it just... detonates.

It happens like a movie. My hands are curled into angry fists, as I shriek in fury at the closed door. It bursts apart like a cannonball of air was blown right through the centre.

Wood splinters all over, and I step out the door, taking in my Mother's horrified expression.

"Ondina," she rushes to me, "Ondina, stop! You have to underst-" I flip off her touch, and with the motion, she goes flying. Literally.

Her feet leave the floor as her body crashes into the wall, - back first. She slumps into an incapacitated heap on the ground. My mouth is wide open in shock. It wasn't my intention to do that.

But when I see her face contour in silent pain, I know she isn't dead. And I have other matters in need of my attention.

My feet carry me to the living room, and I sigh in relief.

They're all still here, still unharmed.

But still drugged.

I drop down to my knees, shaking Asher and Quincy's sleeping forms at the same time.

"Wake up, please!" I'm frantic, trying to get them to come to.

We're running out of time and I can't get them to safety by myself. I get up, moving to Levi, I shake him relentlessly, tears streaming down my face as he barely budges. Frustrated, I slam my fist down on his torso, "Wake up!

Goddamn it, wake up!"

He stirs under me, and I gasp out a relieved breath. I'm almost fully on top of him, smacking his face to speed up the process.

"What the hell?" He's groggy, confused as gains consciousness. But there's no time for any of that.

"Get up! Levi, get up!"

"What's going on?" he sits up, his blank brows pulled together as he takes me in, practically straddling his body.

He turns to look at his brothers sleeping beside him, "What the hell's going on?"

"Levi!" I cry, shifting off him, "You have to wake them up, or help me carry them, there's no time."

"No time for what? Can you tell me why the hell you're crying?"

"He said he wanted everyone out. Get the Princes and the girl too." A man's voice calls from just outside the door.

I gaze at Levi, taking in the questions on his face.

"We have to run," I say. "We have to run now."