My Alpha Boss Gave Me Triplets – Episode 34
The ward broke without sound. Evie felt its warmth vanish, replaced by a violent pull beneath her ribs. Leopold dropped the phone in his hand and doubled over across the study. Three pulses scattered inside her as though the triplets had lost the rhythm that connected them to their father.
Paula triggered the alarm while Max disconnected the computer from the network. Doctor Lara reached Evie first, checking for contractions and bleeding. Neither had begun, but the bond’s sudden disruption drove both parents’ heart rates dangerously high.
“Touch her,” Lara ordered Leopold. “Do not force power through the bond. Let it recognize you.”
Leopold knelt beside Evie and offered his hand. Even in pain, he waited until she took it. The contact steadied one heartbeat, then another. The smallest remained faint until he placed Evie’s palm over his chest.
“I am here,” he said, speaking to all four of them. “I am not leaving.”
The third pulse returned. Evie breathed through the pressure while Lara monitored the triplets. The attack had frightened them but caused no measurable injury. Leopold’s restraint had repaired what force could not.
Max examined the corrupted email in an isolated system. The attachment contained ordinary malicious code and a visual symbol, yet no computer program could explain the ward collapsing at the instant Evie saw it. The image itself had acted as a trigger.
The archive described symbols as doors for focused intent. A witch who possessed blood from one bonded partner could send power through an image seen by the other. Repetition made the door easier to open, which explained why Darleen placed the mark in multiple settings before attempting a stronger attack. Darleen’s bleeding hand at dinner had supplied her own blood, but the ritual should also require something taken from Leopold. That material would let her imitate his presence closely enough for the curse to mistake invasion for a signal from inside the bond.
Leopold remembered the kiss on his cheek when Darleen arrived at the office. She had brushed lint from his collar afterward. At the time, the gesture seemed possessive but harmless. She could have taken a strand of hair.
Evie’s anger cut through her fear. Darleen had staged every encounter to collect access, information, or material. The scored drawing forced Leopold to stand beside Evie; the impossible deadline measured how exhaustion moved through the bond; the herbs tested whether pack custom could override human caution. Even the professional challenges had brought Darleen close enough to observe how Leopold responded when Evie suffered. What had looked like jealousy now formed a series of controlled experiments.
“She is learning the bond,” Evie said. “The threats, the exhaustion, the gift—she has been measuring what reaches him.”
Lara agreed. A normal mate bond reflected intense pain and emotion. The Stonehearth curse magnified those signals, and the triplets created three additional paths. Darleen was attacking a network no previous witch had encountered.
That difference also made her ritual unstable. Three unborn wolves reacted separately, sometimes reinforcing the bond and sometimes scattering its energy. Lara believed their responses had prevented the first attack from fully severing Evie and Leopold. The children Darleen treated as prizes were already defending both parents in ways she could not predict.
Leopold ordered every image and message from Blackhart blocked. Evie added a condition: security would quarantine unknown files without cutting her off from clients or colleagues. Darleen could not be allowed to turn communication itself into a prison.
The replacement supplier letter remained recoverable from the company’s portal. Evie submitted it minutes before the deadline. The board confirmed Stonehearth had met the procurement condition and denied Blackhart’s demand to remove her.
Darleen called Leopold directly. Max placed the conversation on speaker in the sealed archive, where no image could reach Evie. Human technicians isolated the device so the call could not carry hidden data into the network. Evie remained behind a protective screen prepared by Lara, choosing to listen because Darleen’s own words might expose knowledge no innocent business rival possessed. Darleen congratulated Leopold on the victory and asked whether his human mate had enjoyed the message.
“You attacked unborn children,” Leopold said.
“I sent a symbol. If your cursed bond cannot tolerate ink, perhaps it is not the blessing you imagine.” Her amused tone disappeared. “Complete the claiming, and the pain stops. Refuse, and every distance between you becomes a door.”
Evie recognized the manipulation. Darleen wanted fear to force the claiming because an involuntary choice might satisfy the curse’s oldest condition: Leopold choosing power and security over his mate’s will.
“We will not complete anything on your terms,” Evie said loudly enough for the phone to carry.
Darleen fell silent, then addressed Leopold as though Evie had not spoken. “She cannot survive your world. When the children are born, you will understand what duty requires.”
The call ended. Max checked the estate perimeter and found no breach, but Paula returned from Evie’s room carrying a familiar object. The lock remained intact; nothing else had moved, including the thread Paula had placed across the inside latch as a simple tamper marker. Cameras showed only an empty corridor. On Evie’s pillow lay the silver shard from Darleen’s broken glass, marked with a fresh drop of blackened blood. Magic had either crossed a locked boundary—or someone had arranged the room before Evie believed it secure.