Kisses Under the Mistletoe: A Triplet Alpha's Desire

Lily's POV

The gymnasium echoed the music, mixing with laughter and the gentle clink of glasses. Every surface glowed with Christmas lights, and the air smelled sweetly like pine. None of that, though, could get to me.

Nursing a plastic cup of punch that had long lost appeal, I stood in the corner half-hidden behind a potted plant. The beating in my chest mumbled the noises of the celebration. Not meant to be here was me. Not after all that had transpired, I should not have come. But there I was, drowning in my suffering as the rest of the globe delighted itself.

"Lily?" asked.

The voice was quite distinct, low, and familiar, with only the trace of a smile that used to cause my pulse to rush. Lucas here. His presence was felt before I turned around.

I wanted not to stare at him, though. Not right now. Not while he was clasping her hand, the girl who had taken my place. His fellow buddy. He vowed that one would always be his.

"I reasoned I might find you here." Lucas entered my line of sight, his dark eyes glancing over my face with a mix of inquiry and something else I couldn't identify. He presented himself well, quite excellent. His black hair was precisely groomed, his sharp jawline clean-shaven, and he exuded the type of presence that drew others in stop-and-look.

Still, it had no bearing. Since he is no longer mine.

I said fast, pushing a strand of hair behind my ear, "I'm fine." My voice came out too wavering to be persuasive.

He laughed gently, his eyes softening as he moved nearer. Lily, you do not need to do this. For us, there is still plenty of time.

The words seem to me like smack. In weeks, I had not heard that sentence, yet it felt as though nothing had changed. "It is too late, Lucas," I remarked, voice getting firm. You already have moved on.

I could hear him opening his lips to say something. My eyes strayed across his shoulder and caught the female he was with. Her precisely ironed clothing and beautiful golden hair. She was everything I was not. His genuine partner. My gut turned into a terrible knot.

The mistletoe above us drew my eye before I could say anything else. I never remembered it existing before. A merciless joke. I turned to see resentment slinking up my throat.

"Lily," Lucas said, his voice weaker now. "You're not going to stand there and act as though this isn't hurting. I still treat you with great care.

I snapped, a little step back away, not faking, Lucas. "But today I am not the girl you always promised. She is.

My words hang between us, stifling and carrying an unsaid weight. Blinking, he showed a flutter of shame on his cheeks. Then he turned, heading away with his partner without further word.

My chest was tight, and I swallowed hard. I had no idea which stung more—the ache of seeing him leave with someone else or the rejection.

But when I attempted to focus elsewhere something—no, someone—stopped me. As a tall, absolutely beautiful man entered my peripheral view, the earth appeared to freeze. With an intensity that made my breath stop, his piercing green eyes fastened into me.

"Excuse me," a deep voice growled, velvety-like. "I think this belongs to you."

Confused, I blinked as he reached up and plucked one sprig of mistletoe from above me, his fingertips caressing my skin as he went. The contact shocked me like a surge of electricity nearly rendering my lungs useless.

Then he grinned—a risky, captivating smile—without waiting for a reply. "I hope you aren't going to spend your evening by yourself."

He was joined by two others identical in every aspect before I could respond.

The first one, with darker hair and more defined features, gave me an inscrutable appearance. His eyes calculated and were angry. The second, with his youthful smile and lighter hair, appeared to exude warmth, yet there was an edge about him, something I couldn't quite identify.

My heart thumping, I moved back. "What do you wish for??"

Hunter, the first, remarked, "We just wanted to give you something," his voice low and firm. He moved forward, his sharp eyes never veering away from mine. Like a present. Under the mistletoe.

I opened my mouth to object, but the second one—Finn—was already drawing me in before I could talk. As he bent down his lips locked mine in a kiss that was everything but innocent, the smell of pine and dirt around me.

My planet slanted on its axis and whirled violently as a heat, strong and relentless, flowed through me. That was more than simply a kiss. It seemed magnetic. Every cell in my body seemed to answer him, to them, as though they had some sort of claim on me that I could not articulate.

I gasped, and my pulse surged when he turned away.

Gideon, the last of the Triplets, suddenly strode forward with dark blue eyes full of something ferocious, something menacing. "It is our turn."

He was kissing me also before I could object. His lips were frigid, like the night air, but beneath them was a blazing yearning that had me panting for breath.

And suddenly it was done, just as fast as it had begun. They retreated, and I was left standing there, my pulse hammering, my body still tingling from the contact of all three of them. My mind was racing.

"What the hell was that??" I demanded, my voice quivering. My legs seemed as if they could buckle under me. "Who—who are you??"

Hunter's eye flicked with a knowing intensity. "The Triplets. Hunter, Gideon, and Finn, he whispered, his voice low and strong. And we have been waiting for you.

A harsh voice sliced through the mist of uncertainty before I could ask another question.

"Here you are, Lily!" Serena, my closest friend, came running toward me with a worried look. She stammered though when she saw the three of them there. "What's happening?"

Her words hardly registered as something black grabbed my eye—the glimmer of a sword in the throng, slinking through the darkness. And then everything turned around.

The room's vibe changed, like a cold, smothering wave sweeping over me. Turning to face behind me, my gut fell.

And there he stood.

Lucas?

Just that he was not by himself.

Around him was a gathering of black people. His jaw closed with something worse than rage as he moved closer, hard and frigid eyes meeting mine. His voice firm yet eerie, he replied, "I warned you, Lily." "You've made a mistake."

As I understood what was occurring, my heart stuttered in my chest. I was in the heart of a conflict, not merely stuck between three difficult guys. And whatever they were battling for, it was going to wipe everything.

Lily's POV

I was not breathing. The room's shadows appeared to become longer, and deeper, and the air felt heavy, and stifling. Once seeming to be so innocent, the music now sounded like a dreary thrum in the background, accentuated by my heart's frenetic pounding. From the three kisses—Hunter's blazing passion, Gideon's scorching intensity, and Finn's languid, lingering touch—my body still tingled. Nothing like that had ever made me feel. But there was no time to go through what had just transpired.

Still there remained the icy presence behind me, the one that had caused my neck hairs to spring up. His eyes were staring at me.

Turning slowly, I faced Lucas, my ex. His stance was stiff, his jaw closed as though he were holding himself back from acting dangerously. At his sides, his hands were balled into fists, and his gaze locked into mine with such force that I could practically feel it physically.

He