Who's My Triplet's Alpha Daddy? Novel

Chapter 68 Dec 18, 2025 POV: Lysander Tuesday morning I'm setting up the emergency video call with Seattle when my coffee maker decides to stage a rebellion. Because apparently even my appliances know I'm about to have the worst professional conversation of my life and want to contribute to the chaos. Magnus and Kieran materialize on screen at exactly 9 AM. Magnus in his formal office, radiating Alpha authority through digital medium. Kieran in what looks like his kitchen, more casual but no less serious. "Talk." Magnus doesn't waste time on pleasantries. So I do.

Lay out everything-Robert's ultimatum, the accelerated timeline, the performance clause documentation, the sixty-day deadline wrapped in corporate language that translates to "bend over and take it." Magnus's reaction is immediate and brutal. "Pull out. Buy out their share at the premium specified in the exit clause. Take the financial hit. We'll recover." "That's three million dollars." The number tastes like ashes.

"Plus legal fees, client contracts we'd have to renegotiate, staff we'd potentially lose in the transition-" "And the alternative is losing Colorado completely." Magnus leans forward and suddenly I'm twelve again getting lectured about responsibility. "Lysander, you've been outmaneuvered. Robert Montgomery planned this from the beginning. The partnership was always meant to fail, forcing either acquisition or expensive separation. He wins either way." My throat tightens. "There has to be another option-" "There isn't." Kieran's voice is gentler but just as firm. "Dad's right.

Montgomery structured this to trap you. Best case scenario, you maintain some autonomy while he systematically gains control. Worst case, you fight and lose everything anyway." "What about Caroline?" The question slips out before I can stop it. "Where does she stand in this?" Kieran and Magnus exchange a look. "She says she's trying to mediate," I continue. "Says she's fighting her father on the timeline, trying to find middle ground-" "So she's compromised." Magnus's voice goes hard. "Lysander, her loyalty is to her father. Always has been, always will be.

You think she'll choose you over family? Over the firm he built? Over the legacy she's been groomed to inherit?" The words land with physical force. "You need to end the relationship." Magnus's Alpha authority bleeds through the screen in ways that make my wolf want to submit. "Immediately. Today. Before Robert uses it as additional leverage in negotiations." "I can't just-" "You can and you will." Not a request. An order. "I'm not asking, Lysander. I'm telling you as your Alpha and as CEO of Fenris Legal. End it with Caroline Montgomery. Cut all personal ties.

Maintain professional distance during exit negotiations. Anything else is a liability we cannot afford." "That's not fair to her-" "Fair?" Magnus's laugh is sharp. "Her father is trying to steal your company and you're worried about fair? She chose her side when she brought you that partnership proposal. When she pushed the accelerated timeline. When she told you about his hunting friends and conveniently left out what they hunt." The accusation hangs in digital silence. "End it." Magnus's tone leaves no room for negotiation. "Today. Before this gets worse." The call ends.

I'm left staring at my reflection in the black screen, trying to figure out when I became this person who needs his father to make basic decisions. I sit in my office for twenty minutes, mind running through every possible scenario. Three options, none of them good: Accept Robert's acquisition terms. Lose control of Colorado operations but keep them nominally mine. Keep Caroline but watch her father systematically dismantle everything I've built. Pay the buyout premium.

Maintain independence, take the massive financial hit, potentially keep Caroline but damage the relationship with business failure that proves everyone right about us being a mistake. End both the partnership and the relationship. Protect the company, maintain professional distance during negotiations, lose Caroline completely. Claire's words from weeks ago echo in my skull: You're so afraid of choosing that you're losing everyone. Turns out she was right. I'm losing everyone anyway. My hands shake as I text Caroline: Can you come to my place tonight? We need to talk.

Her response is immediate: I know what that means. But okay. 7pm. Then I send another text. To Claire, because apparently I'm on a self-destruction speedrun: I'm sorry. For everything. You deserved better than what I gave you. You were right about all of it. She doesn't respond. I don't expect her to. The rest of the day is autopilot. Meetings I don't remember, documents I sign without reading, phone calls I apparently have because my assistant keeps buzzing with confirmations for conversations I don't recall having. Seven PM arrives with the inevitability of execution.

Caroline shows up at my apartment looking like she already knows what's coming. No corporate armor tonight-just jeans and one of my Columbia shirts she never returned, hair down around her shoulders, minimal makeup showing shadows under her eyes that match mine. "So this is where we end." She sets down her keys with deliberate care, like she's placing pieces on a chess board. "The big breakup conversation. I've been rehearsing responses all afternoon.

Very Emily in Paris, very mature adult handling complicated situations." "The partnership isn't working-" "I'm not talking about the partnership." She moves to my window, arms wrapped around herself. "You're ending us. Because Magnus told you to. Because choosing me means losing control of your company and Fenris men don't lose control of anything. Especially not for women with complicated fathers." "It's more complicated than that-" "Is it though?" She turns and her eyes are bright with tears she refuses to let fall. "Because from where I'm standing, it's pretty simple math.

I'm Robert Montgomery's daughter. I come with complications your family doesn't want to deal with. So you're doing the smart thing, the strategic thing, and cutting me loose before I can damage the brand further." "Caroline-" "Don't." Her voice breaks. "Don't make this harder by pretending it's something it's not. You're choosing the company over me. Which I respect, actually. I do. Your family business matters.

It's generations of work and legacy and all those important things that trump three months of really good sex and feeling like maybe you actually saw me." She moves toward the door, grabs her keys with shaking hands. "For what it's worth?" She opens the door but doesn't look back. "I really was falling in love with you. Not the Fenris heir, not the business opportunity, not some strategic chess piece.

Just Lysander who tries weird lattes and lets nine-year-olds manipulate him into buying presents and makes me laugh even when everything else is falling apart." Her hand tightens on the doorframe. "I hope you figure out what you actually want someday. Before you're fifty and surrounded by successful businesses and perfect quarterly reports and absolutely nobody who actually gives a shit about the person underneath all that corporate armor." She leaves. I stand alone in my apartment, the silence crushing in ways I didn't know silence could crush.

The space still smells like her perfume-expensive and bright and completely Caroline. My phone buzzes. Magnus: It's done? I stare at the message. Then at the door she just walked through. Then at my reflection in the darkened window-successful businessman, Alpha heir, complete fucking coward who just chose quarterly projections over the first woman who made me feel alive in years. It's done, I text back. Then I sit on my couch in the dark, surrounded by the ghost of her presence, and realize I just made the right choice for all the wrong reasons.

Or maybe the wrong choice for all the right reasons. Either way, I'm alone. And maybe that's exactly what I deserve. Archer