Who's My Triplet's Alpha Daddy? Novel

Chapter 57 Dec 24, 2025 POV: Thalia Luna's room smells like lavender and old books. She picked out the scent herself from some boutique in Portland, insisted it helped her "process emotions better." She's seven and already has better coping mechanisms than I did at twenty-seven. "One more chapter?" She's holding up the book with big eyes, deploying maximum cuteness. "One more. Then sleep." I settle next to her, pulling the blanket up. "Deal?" "Deal." I'm three pages in when she interrupts. "Why are you and Dad sad?" My hands freeze on the page. "What?" "You're both sad. Have been for days.

I can feel it." She's studying me with those too-knowing eyes that miss absolutely nothing. "It's like this heavy thing sitting on both of you." I want to lie. Want to tell her everything's fine, adults just have stress, nothing for her to worry about. But Luna's an empath and lying to her is like lying to a polygraph. "We had a hard meeting at your school." I set down the book. "Some of the teachers said some things that made us upset." "About us." Not a question. She already knows. "Luna-" "The other kids don't like me.

They say I'm weird because I know what they're feeling before they tell me." Her voice stays steady but her hands twist in the blanket. "And Phoenix gets in trouble because she's stronger than everyone and can't always control it. And Orion makes the teachers uncomfortable because he's smarter than them." My chest constricts. "Baby-" "I heard them talking. Sarah's mom said we shouldn't be in her class. That we're dangerous." She looks up at me. "Are we dangerous, Mama?" "No." The word comes out fierce. "You're powerful. There's a difference." "They don't think so." And there it is.

Nine years old and already learning that being different makes people afraid, that power makes people want to control or eliminate you. "Tell me everything." I pull her closer. "What else have they said?" So she does. In careful, measured words that make my blood boil, Luna describes months of exclusion. Kids who won't sit near them at lunch. Teachers who separate them during group projects "for fairness." Parents who pull their children away at pickup, whispering concerns about "special needs." "Phoenix pretends it doesn't bother her.

Gets louder, more aggressive, shows off her strength." Luna's voice drops. "But I can feel how much it hurts. She's scared they're right. That she's bad." "She's not bad." "Orion's quieter about it. Just reads more, talks less. But I know he thinks if he's smart enough, proves himself enough, they'll like him." She looks up at me. "They won't though. Will they?" The question destroys me. "I don't know, baby." "Because we're wolves. Different." She says it like she's working through a math problem. "And people are afraid of different." "Some people.

Not all." "Enough people." She settles against me. "Dad wants to fight them. I can feel his anger. But that'll just make it worse. They'll say we're aggressive." "What do you want?" I ask quietly. She thinks for a long moment. "I want to be somewhere people aren't afraid of me. Where being an empath is okay. Where Phoenix doesn't have to pretend to be weak and Orion doesn't have to hide how smart he is." "We'll find it." I kiss her forehead. "I promise." I leave her room twenty minutes later, rage and heartbreak warring in my chest. She's asleep finally, but her words echo in my skull.

Kieran's already in our bedroom, pacing like a caged animal. His shirt's unbuttoned, hair disheveled from running his hands through it. "We're pulling them out." His voice is deadly quiet. "Tomorrow. I don't care if we have to hire private tutors or homeschool or fly them to a pack-run school in another state. They're done." "Agreed." I close the door behind me. "But Kieran, we need to talk about what comes next." "What comes next is I rip apart every person who made our kids feel like they're dangerous." He stops pacing, faces me.

"Starting with that principal who suggested Phoenix needs behavioral medication." "That helps your ego. Doesn't help them." "Then what does?" His voice climbs. "Tell me, Thalia. What helps? Because watching my daughter think she's a monster is killing me." The mate bond flares-I feel his rage and helplessness mixing with my own. "Luna told me everything tonight." I move closer. "Months of exclusion, isolation, cruel comments. And we missed it. We were so focused on making it work that we didn't see they were drowning." His expression cracks.

"I should've seen it." "We both should've." I take his hand. "But we can't change that now. We can only move forward." "How?" He's gripping my hand like it's the only thing keeping him grounded. "How do we move forward when the world keeps trying to hurt them?" "We fight. Together." I pull him closer. "No more you handling pack politics while I handle school. No more dividing responsibilities. We're a team." "I've been shutting you out." The admission costs him. "Trying to protect you from the worst of it. Thinking I could handle everything alone." "I know.

And I've been doing the same." My free hand finds his face. "But that's not partnership. That's two people drowning separately." The mate bond pulses-recognition, understanding, something clicking back into place. "I'm sorry." His forehead drops to mine. "For not trusting you with this. For thinking I had to be strong enough for everyone." "We're stronger together." I breathe him in-cedar and smoke and home. "That's the whole point of the mate bond." When he kisses me, it's different from the rushed, desperate kisses we've been trading for weeks.

This one's slow, deliberate, rebuilding something we've let crack. His hands slide into my hair, tilting my head back. I melt into him, all the tension finally draining. "We're going to fix this," he murmurs against my mouth. "Together." "Together," I agree. He walks me backward to the bed, mouth never leaving mine. When we fall onto the mattress, tangled together, the mate bond sings. This is what we needed. Not just physical connection, but emotional honesty. Letting each other see the fear underneath the armor.

Later, wrapped in his arms, listening to his heartbeat even out, I think about Luna's question. Are we dangerous? Maybe. Probably. But we're also a family. And nobody gets to hurt our family without consequences. Tomorrow, we start fighting back. Together. Archer