Fated To Not Just One But Three novel Chapter 689

Chapter 689: Preparation

Olivia’s POV

​The morning after the proposal felt like waking up in a different world. The golden sunlight streaming through the bedroom windows felt warmer, and for the first time in four years, the air in the house didn’t taste like grief. I lay in the center of the massive bed, watching the three men I loved as they slept. Lennox was a wall of muscle to my right, Louis was curled peacefully to my left, and Levi was sprawled across the foot of the bed, his hand still resting possessively on my ankle even in sleep.

​I felt the tiny flutter in my stomach—the new life growing inside me. With the Trinity finally whole, I felt strong enough to face anything.

​I walked down to the kitchen, expecting the usual morning chaos. Usually, the boys would be chasing each other with wooden spoons, and the twins would be complaining about their hair. Instead, I found Liam sitting alone at the long oak table.

​He was only eight years old, but as I watched him from the doorway, he looked forty. He wasn’t eating his pancakes. Instead, he was focused on a small whetstone, carefully sharpening the edge of a wooden training dagger. His face was set in a hard, serious line—a perfect imitation of Lennox when he was in a foul mood.

​"Liam?" I said softly, stepping into the room. "Why aren’t you eating, honey?"

​He didn’t look up immediately. He finished one long stroke against the wood before setting the dagger down. "I’m not hungry, Mom. I have a lot to do today. With the wedding coming up, there will be a lot of strangers on our lands. Security needs to be tighter."

​I felt a pang in my heart. "Security? Liam, you’re eight. That’s what the sentries and your fathers are for."

​He finally looked at me, and his eyes were so intense it was startling. "Fathers will be busy for the wedding."

​He stood up, tucked his dagger into his belt, and marched out toward the training grounds without a single smile. I stood there, stunned. My sweet, playful boy was trying to carry the weight of the entire pack on his small shoulders.

​Later that morning, I went out to the training grounds to find the children. I expected to see the boys playing and the girls sitting in the shade. What I saw instead stopped me in my tracks.

​The twins, Lana and Lyra, weren’t wearing their usual princess dresses. They were in sturdy leather tunics and leggings. Their hair was pulled back in tight, messy braids. And they weren’t playing with dolls—they were standing in a circle with Liam.

​"Again," Liam barked. He sounded exactly like a drill sergeant.

​Lana and Lyra took a deep breath and lunged at him. They were small, but they moved with a desperate kind of speed. Liam parried their wooden sticks with ease, but he wasn’t being mean. He was teaching.

​"Footing!" Liam shouted. "If your feet are too close, I’ll knock you over. Like this!"

​He swept Lyra’s leg out from under her. She hit the dirt with a thud. I almost ran forward to catch her, but I stopped myself when I saw Lyra’s face. She wasn’t crying. She looked determined. She scrambled back up, wiped the dirt from her nose, and growled.

​"I won’t let a trap catch me again, Liam!" she yelled, swinging her stick with renewed fury.

​I watched them for a long time. The accident in the woods had changed them. The twins were no longer content to be "broken birds," and Liam was no longer content to just be a big brother. He felt like he had failed them when they got hurt, and now he was trying to turn them into warriors so it would never happen again.

​"They’ve been at it for two hours," a voice said behind me.

​I turned to see Levi leaning against a wooden pillar. He was watching them with a mixture of pride and deep sadness.

​"Liam told me this morning that he has to be ’the shield’ while we are busy with the wedding," Levi said, his voice husky. "He’s trying to grow up too fast, Olivia. He’s mimicking my worst traits because he thinks being hard is the only way to be safe."

​"We have to help him, Levi," I whispered. "He’s an eight-year-old boy, not a soldier."

​"I know," Levi sighed. "But look at the girls. They’re actually listening to him. They trust him more than they trust us right now because he was the one who was here when I wasn’t."

​The five-day countdown to the wedding was a whirlwind of activity. The mansion was filled with the scent of lilies and roasting meat. Tailors were running around with measuring tapes, and pack members were arriving from all over the territory to see the Trinity officially joined.

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