Mated to the Triplet Alphas

Chapter 123: Chapter 123: Against the Clock

The moment Leo staggered back, I rushed to his side without thinking.

“Leo! Are you okay?” I grabbed his arm to steady him.

Instantly, a wave of perfume hit me, causing my breath to stutter in surprise. My heart skipped a beat unnaturally. This feeling. It was almost like—

“I’m fine,” he gritted out, though his face was contorted slightly in pain.

His ears had turned increasingly red, and his breathing was labored. The needle was still sticking out of his forearm where he’d intercepted it before it could pierce my skin. A thin trickle of amber liquid was dripping down his skin.

Behind us, Levi moved with lightning speed. Before Esther could retreat, he had her in a chokehold, his muscular arm wrapped around her throat. Her eyes bulged as she clawed at him.

“Tell your people to stand down,” Levi growled, tightening his grip just enough to make his point, “or I snap your neck right here.”

The guards hesitated, looking to Esther for direction. Her face was turning an alarming shade of red.

Leo winced as he looked at me. “Hazel, there’s a button under the desk. Press it. Now.”

“What?” I asked, confused by his sudden instruction.

“Just do it!” he barked.

I hesitated, meeting his intense gaze. Despite everything, I trusted him.

I rushed to the desk, dropped to my knees, and felt underneath the surface. My fingers found a small rectangular button set into the wood. Without further hesitation, I pressed it.

Immediately, red lights began flashing throughout the room, and an automated female voice blared over the speakers.

“SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE INITIATED. ALL PERSONNEL EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY. TEN MINUTES TO COMPLETE FACILITY DESTRUCTION.”

Esther’s eyes widened in horror. “What have you done?!” she screeched, renewing her struggles against Levi’s hold.

The guards immediately began to scatter, abandoning their posts and running for the exits. In the face of impending destruction, they couldn’t care less about Esther’s well-being. It was every man for themselves.

Leo grunted, plucking the needle from his arm with a wince. “You need to get her out of here,” he said to the triplets, nodding in my direction.

“What about you?” Lucas demanded, already moving to take my hand.

“There’s something I need to take care of,” Leo replied grimly. “Don’t wait for me.”

“No, wait!” I protested, pulling against Lucas’s grip. “We can’t leave without Leo! Wait!”

My heart raced as the triplets began dragging me toward the exit. Levi had taken hold of Esther, forcing her along with us, while Liam and Lucas flanked me on either side.

“We don’t have time to argue, Hazel,” Lucas said firmly. “This place is about to blow.”

The corridors were chaos—people running in all directions, alarms blaring, the automated countdown continuing its ominous announcement. We pushed our way through the throng, heading for the stairwell that would take us to the ground floor.

Behind us, the first explosion rocked the building. The floor shuddered beneath our feet, and dust rained down from the ceiling. The tremor sent several people stumbling into walls and each other.

“The levels are exploding at random,” Liam shouted over the noise. “We need to move faster!”

We picked up our pace, racing down corridors as the building continued to shake. The second wave of explosions came just as we reached a junction in the hallway. The force was much stronger this time, sending ripples through the floor and causing the ceiling to crack.

Without warning, a massive chunk of concrete broke free above us. Lucas shoved me forward just as it crashed down between us, creating an impassable barrier of rubble and twisted metal.

“Hazel!” I heard Liam’s panicked voice from the other side. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine!” I called back, my voice shaking. “But I can’t get through!”

“Stay there!” Lucas commanded. “We’ll find another way around!”

I heard them discussing urgently on the other side, their voices growing fainter as they moved away to find an alternate route. I stood there for a moment, my heart pounding, before making a split-second decision.

Leo had taken that needle for me. He’d sacrificed himself to protect me, and I couldn’t just leave him behind to die. Besides, I realized I was now on the same floor where I remembered his bedroom being.

There was only one thing Leo would stay in a self-destructing building for.

Helena.

Turning away from the debris wall, I ran in the direction of Leo’s room, ignoring the rational part of my brain that was screaming at me to find an exit.

The hallways were emptying now, most people having already evacuated or at least trying to.

I skidded around a corner and spotted the familiar door to Leo’s room. Pushing it open without knocking, I found him standing by his dresser, staring intensely at a photograph in his hands—the same one I’d picked up when I was locked in his room. Helena’s face smiled back from the image.

“Leo!” I called out.

He spun around, surprise and anger flashing across his face. “What are you doing here? It’s not safe!” noveldrama

“I could say the same to you!” I shot back. “We need to go, now!”

“I told you not to wait for me,” he growled, shoving the framed photograph into a random bag before he slung it over his body.

“Well, I’m not good at following orders,” I retorted. “Are you coming or not?”

The building shuddered again as the next explosion tore through the floors below us. The walls groaned ominously, and the floor beneath our feet began to tilt at a slight angle.

“This whole place is coming down,” Leo muttered, closing the distance between us. The closer he got to me, the faster my heart started to beat. “Let’s go.”

We hurried to the door, but just as Leo reached for the handle, the third explosion hit—much closer this time. The entire building swayed like a tree in a storm. The ceiling above us cracked with a sound like a gunshot, and huge chunks of concrete and steel began raining down.

Without hesitation, Leo threw himself over me, shielding my body with his own as debris crashed around us.