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.



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