Mated to the Triplet Alphas-Chapter 119: Familiar Stranger

Third POV

‘Save me...’

Levi’s head snapped up suddenly, his body tensing. He could have sworn he heard Hazel’s voice. It sounded super soft and weak, but it was unmistakable. She was calling out for help.

“What was that?” he asked, his eyes darting around the car. “Lucas, did you hear that?”

Lucas frowned, his jaw tightening as he glanced at his brother. “Hear what exactly?” fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

“I thought I heard Hazel,” Levi said, his voice dropping to a whisper. “She was calling for help.”

Lucas immediately pursed his lips, his eyes darkening. “I thought I hallucinated it.”

Callum leaned forward from the backseat. “What’s going on?”

“We heard Hazel’s voice,” Lucas explained, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the steering wheel. “We don’t know how.”

The SUV fell into an uncomfortable silence.

The seating arrangement was awkward at best—Callum had deliberately taken the seat furthest from Kendra, pressed against the door as if trying to melt into it. He hadn’t made eye contact with her since they’d all gotten into the car. Percival sat between them, either unaware of or choosing to ignore the tension.

No one commented on it outwardly, but even a blind man could see that Callum was avoiding Kendra. Thankfully, she didn’t make any comments about it and let him have his space.

“We’re here,” Lucas announced as he pulled the car into a spot on Moonbite Lane. The street was eerily empty for midday, with only a few pedestrians hurrying past shuttered storefronts.

They all climbed out of the vehicle, stretching their legs after the tense drive. Lucas checked his phone for the time, then looked up at the others.

“Liam should be here any minute,” he said. “In the meantime, let’s discuss how we’re going to do this.”

“I don’t see why we need to wait,” Levi argued, pacing back and forth on the sidewalk. His whole body thrummed with restless energy. “We should start looking now.”

Lucas shot him a stern look. “We need a plan, Levi. We can’t just rush in blindly.”

“I agree with Lucas,” Percival said. “This is no time for recklessness.”

Lucas nodded gratefully at the older man. “We should split into two groups to cover more ground. Callum, you take Percival and Kendra. Levi and I will wait for Liam, then head in another direction.”

Callum nodded, clearly relieved to have something to focus on besides avoiding Kendra’s gaze. They would be in the same group, but at least the task would allow him some form of distraction.

“What exactly are we looking for?”

“Anything suspicious,” Lucas replied. “Research facilities disguised as normal businesses, unusual security, places with unusual chemical smells—anything that feels off. Let’s meet back here in three hours.”

“Got it,” Callum said with a nod. He gestured for Percival and Kendra to follow him down the street. “We’ll take the east side.”

As the three of them walked away, Levi turned to his brother. “Where do we even start? This street is longer than I thought.”

Lucas pulled out his phone, studying a map. “We should work our way from the south end. According to what those rogues told us, the facility is hidden in plain sight. It could be behind any of these buildings.”

Before their discussion could go any further, Levi froze. His nostrils flared as he caught a familiar scent on the breeze.

“Hazel,” he whispered.

It was just like that night at The Shattered Fang when he’d caught Annie. The same unmistakable sweet scent.

Levi stilled when he realized the smell was mixed with something else. His eyes widened when he realized what it was.

Blood.

Without waiting for Lucas, Levi bolted down the street, following the scent trail. His heart hammered against his ribs as panic seized him.

“Levi!” Lucas shouted behind him. “Wait!”

But Levi couldn’t wait. Not when Hazel’s scent was growing stronger with each step, not when the metallic tang of blood was becoming more pronounced.

He skidded around a corner, nearly colliding with a dumpster as he turned down a narrow alleyway.

The scent led him deeper into the maze of back streets, away from the main road. Small droplets of blood marked the path, glistening crimson against the pavement.

“Hazel!” Levi called out, his voice echoing off the brick walls.

He rounded another corner and stopped short. The alley dead-ended at a chain-link fence, and huddled against it, partially hidden behind a trash can, was a figure.

Levi approached cautiously, his wolf senses on high alert. The scent of Hazel was strongest here, clinging to the figure like a second skin, but it wasn’t her.

It was a man.

Instantly, Levi saw red. He strode forward and grabbed the man by his collar, yanking him up with enough force to lift him off the ground.

“Where is she?” he demanded through clenched teeth. “Where’s Hazel?”

The man said nothing and only softly hissed in pain. But what caught Levi’s attention was the dark stain spreading across the man’s torso, seeping through the once-white bandages and his clothes.

“Levi!” Lucas’s voice came from the entrance of the alley. He was jogging toward them with Liam at his side, having finally caught up.

“What’s going on?” Liam asked, slightly out of breath. “I just got here and Lucas said you took off.”

“This guy,” Levi said, not loosening his grip on the man’s collar. “He smells like Hazel. He’s the same one I caught a whiff of at The Shattered Fang, but he disappeared when I got distracted by Annie.”

Lucas stepped forward, his expression changing from anger to shock.

The man’s hood had shifted back due to how roughly Levi had been handling him. As soon as he got a clear look at the man’s face, Lucas’s eyes widened. Liam gasped beside him.

Slowly, Lucas reached out and pulled the hood further back, revealing the man’s features completely.

The three brothers stared in stunned silence.

The man had their face. Identical in every way—the same jawline, the same nose, the same brow—except for his eyes, which were a grayish brown instead of green. They were even almost the same height.

“What the hell?” Levi whispered, his grip loosening slightly in his shock.

“Wait...” Liam stepped forward hesitantly. “Leo?” he asked, uncertainty coloring his voice.

The man chuckled weakly, a grimace of pain crossing his familiar-yet-strange face.

“Guess you finally found me,” he rasped. “Hello there, Alphas. I would say it’s a pleasure to meet you all, but I would be lying.”

Th𝓮 most uptodate nov𝑒ls are publish𝒆d on freew(e)bnove(l).𝓬𝓸𝓶