Chapter 10: The Blackwood Triplet Have A Reputation

She got back to her room and sat on the mattress and stared at the wall.

She should pack, she thought distantly. She should figure out what to bring. Should prepare somehow.

But she couldn’t move.

She just sat there and tried to imagine what the next month of her life would look like.

And came up with nothing except terror.

At some point, hours later, there was a knock on her door.

She opened it to find Dora standing there.....the omega woman who’d warned her on her first day.

"I heard," Dora said without preamble. "The whole complex is talking about it. You got summoned to Garrett’s office this morning and now they’re saying the Blackwoods requested you specifically."

Lilith said nothing.

Dora stepped inside uninvited and closed the door behind her. "Is it true?"

"Yes."

"And you agreed?"

"I didn’t have a choice."

"Everyone has a choice," Dora said sharply. Then her expression softened slightly. "Shit. I’m sorry. That was.....I know you didn’t have a real choice. Not with the pack on the line."

"And my mother," Lilith added quietly. "They’re covering all her medical bills. Everything. As long as I...." She stopped.

"As long as you give them what they want," Dora finished. "Your body for a month."

Lilith looked at her. "You think I’m stupid for agreeing."

"I think you’re desperate." Dora sat on the edge of the mattress. "And I think desperation makes us do things we’d never do otherwise." She paused. "The Blackwood triplets have a reputation, you know. They’re not....kind. They’re not gentle. They’re Alphas in the truest sense of the word. Dominant and controlling and used to getting exactly what they want."

"I know."

"Do you?" Dora looked at her directly. "Do you really understand what you just signed up for?"

"One month of hell in exchange for my mother’s life," Lilith said flatly. "Yes. I understand."

Dora was quiet for a moment. Then: "I had a friend once. She went to work at a powerful Alpha’s estate. Voluntarily....she needed the money. She came back three months later and she was...different. Broken in ways I couldn’t see but could definitely feel." She met Lilith’s eyes. "You need to prepare yourself. Whatever you think is going to happen there, it’s probably going to be worse."

"Thanks for the pep talk," Lilith said, but there was no heat in it.

Dora stood up. "I’m not trying to scare you. I’m trying to prepare you. There’s a difference." She moved to the door, then paused. "When you come back....if you come back....you’ll have a place here. The omegas look after their own. Remember that."

She left.

Lilith sat alone in her room and thought about Mara’s friend who’d come back broken.

Thought about one month under the control of three Alphas who wanted revenge.

Thought about her mother in that hospital bed, finally getting the care she needed.

And told herself it would be worth it.

Whatever happened at the Blackwood estate, however terrible it got, it would be worth it if her mother survived.

It had to be.

She didn’t sleep that night either.

Just lay on the mattress and watched the hours tick by on the small clock she’d managed to keep.

Midnight came and went.

Two AM.

Four AM.

Five AM.

At five-thirty, she gave up pretending she was going to sleep and got up.

She took a shower in the communal bathroom....possibly the last shower she’d have access to for a month, she didn’t know what the Blackwood estate would be like.

She dressed in the same grey shirt and black pants from yesterday. They were the nicest clothes she had left.

She packed a small bag with the few belongings she couldn’t leave behind. The photo of her family. A change of clothes. Nothing else really mattered.

At five fifty-five, she stood outside omega housing and waited.

The morning was cold and grey. The sun hadn’t come up yet. The rest of the complex was still dark and quiet.

She was alone.

***

At exactly six AM, a black car pulled up to the curb.

Expensive. Sleek. Everything about it screamed power and money and a world completely different from the one she’d been living in.

The back door opened.

A man got out....tall, broad-shouldered, with the particular bearing of someone who’d been a warrior his whole life. He looked at her with cold, assessing eyes.

"Lilith Thorne?"

"Yes."

"I’m Marcus, Driver for the Blackwood estate. I’m here to collect you."

Collect.

Like she was a package.

"Get in," he said, not unkindly. "It’s a four-hour drive. The Alphas are expecting you by ten."

She looked at the car. At the open door. At the interior that probably cost more than her entire year’s wages.

This was it.

The last moment she could change her mind.

The last second she could run.

She got in the car.

Marcus closed the door behind her. Got in the driver’s seat. Started the engine.

And they pulled away from omega housing, away from Shadowmere territory, toward whatever was waiting for her at the Blackwood estate.

Lilith pressed her face against the window and watched her pack disappear behind them.

She didn’t cry.

She was too terrified to cry.

She just sat there and tried to prepare herself for whatever came next.

Thirty days.

One month.

She could survive anything for one month.

She had to.