Chapter 45 Let's Do This
Rhea POV
Silence stretched so thick it felt brittle.
All three of them were still on the ground, breathing hard, and the trees were smoking softly around us. My flames curled inward, settling under my skin, but the heat stayed. Waiting.
I planted my hands on my hips and laughed. It came out sharp, and a little hysterical. I was fucking done.
“Are we finished measuring dicks,” I asked, “or do you want me to keep escalating until the gods feel it?”
Rhett lifted his head first. His eyes were wide, stunned, reverent, and flat out terrified. Korr followed, slower, with fire still leaking from his clenched fists. Nox rose last, fluid and elegant, like he’d been enjoying the show.
I pointed at all three of them. “Here’s how this goes. I want all of you.”
Dead silence.
“I’m not asking,” I added. “I’m informing you.”
Rhett sucked in a breath. “Love…”
“No,” I snapped, spinning on him. “Let me finish before you say something stupid.”
I paced, and my boots crunched over scorched leaves. Frieken energy was buzzing under my skin like live wire. “Listen. The gods gave me a job. Not a choice. Unite the species through you three, or burn the whole fucking world down and start over.”
My voice cracked despite myself. “I do not want to do that. I like the world. I like people. I like coffee and sarcasm and not being responsible for mass extinction.”
I jabbed a finger toward Korr. “You scratched me. I died.”
Toward Nox. “You drained me. I died.”
Back to Rhett. “You bit me. Guess what. Died again.”
They all flinched.
“And I came back every time,” I said, and my heat bled into my words. “With four heartbeats and zero patience. So you can either be grown men and share, or you can be whiny little babies about it and I will light everything on fucking fire. Including you.”
I threw my hands up. “Your call.”
Rhett moved like he’d been shot.
One second he was standing there, the next he was on his knees in front of me, with his hands hovering like he didn’t dare touch me without permission. His voice broke. “I’m sorry, love. I didn’t understand. I didn’t mean to cage you.”
I swallowed hard.
“I’m sorry,” he said again. “I choose you. All of you. However you need it.”
Korr straightened slowly. His spine was rigid, and he had his jaw clenched tightly. His eyes burned, not with fury this time, but with something restrained and dangerous. “This is madness.”
“Everything about me is madness,” I shot back. “You still came.”
His lips twitched despite himself. “You are infuriating.”
“Join the damn club.”
Nox clapped softly, delighted. “A truce,” he purred. “Shared sovereignty. Shared affection. Shared catastrophe prevention. I rather like the idea.”
Rhett groaned. “Of course you do.”
Korr growled low. “Vampires poison everything they touch.”
Nox smiled sweetly. “And wolves mark everything they hump.”
“Boys,” I barked.
They all shut up.
I exhaled, dragging a hand through my hair. “This is not me picking favorites. This is my heart choosing all of you. If you can’t handle that, walk away now. I won’t chase you.”
The silence that followed felt different. Heavier.
Rhett stood and reached for my hand, stopping just short of grabbing it. “May I?”
I nodded.
His fingers laced with mine. It was grounding, and steady. I enjoyed it.
“We try,” he said. “We don’t tear each other apart.”
Korr stepped closer, and heat was rolling off him in waves. “There will be rules.”
“Obviously,” I said. “I’m not an animal.”
Nox slid in at my other side, close enough that I felt his cold brush my heat. “And if jealousy arises,” he murmured, “we address it creatively.”
I snorted. “I swear to every god watching, if any of you start a war over your feelings, I will set you on fire.”
All three of them froze. Then, slowly, impossibly, they laughed. Not all together. Not easily. But enough. A shaky truce. Held together by fire, teeth, and sheer stubborn will.
And me, right in the middle, refusing to burn the world down. Yet.
The forest didn’t stay quiet for long. First came the wolves. I felt them before I saw them. It was a low vibration in the ground, boots and paws moving as one.
Rhett’s people poured out of the trees in a loose ring with their weapons ready, their eyes sharp, and their hackles half-raised. Garran was at the front. Relief and shock crashed over his face when he spotted me upright and very much alive.
Then the air shifted.
Heat rolled in from above. It was thick and heavy, the kind of heat that made your lungs feel too small. Two massive shadows swept over the clearing and landed hard enough to rattle large branches loose. Gryn and Dryn shifted mid land, and their wings folded into broad shoulders, and their scales melted into skin streaked with gold.
Twin dragons. Identical and not at all subtle. Everyone froze. Everyone stared.
And then I noticed it. Rhett had wolves at his back. A kingdom. Teeth and loyalty and history. Korr had his twins. Fire and blood and empire wrapped in muscle and discipline.
Nox had no one. He stood alone, with his hands loose at his sides, his expression unreadable, and shadows clinging to him like they belonged there. No guard. No court. No entourage.
Something in my chest tightened. He was probably used to standing alone. That realization hit harder than I expected.
My mind chose that exact moment to absolutely lose its shit. Three sexy as sin kings. Three apex predators. One forest clearing. One me trying very frieken hard not to combust from sensory overload.
Rhett’s heat grounded me. Korr’s presence pressed in like a forge. Nox’s gaze slid over me like silk and night and sin. All of it caused responses in my body that were MOST unwelcome at the moment.
This was deeply unfair. I dragged in a slow breath and reminded myself that I had survived dying three times. I could survive being surrounded by absurdly hot supernatural monarchs without losing my damn mind.
Probably.
Rhett cleared his throat. “We need to decide what happens next.”
Korr crossed his arms. “The ceremony proceeds.”
Nox tilted his head. “Bold of you to assume you’re invited.”
I lifted a brow. “Bold of you to assume you’re not.”
All three of them looked at me. Good.
“This isn’t a secret anymore,” I said. “The wolves know. The dragons know. The vampires definitely know. So pretending this is anything other than a public spectacle is pointless.”
Rhett glanced at me. “Love, the Lunar Mother ceremony is sacred.”
“I know,” I said. “And I’m still doing it.”
The wolves murmured. The dragons exchanged looks. Nox smiled like Christmas came early.
“I am about to become Rhett’s Luna,” I continued calmly. “That part is happening. Tonight. Under the moon. No negotiations.”
Rhett’s hand twitched like he wanted to grab me again. Pride rolled off him in waves.
“But,” I added, turning slightly so the others could hear, “that does not mean the rest of this stops existing.”
Korr’s jaw tightened. “You would bind yourself knowing the consequences.”
“I already did,” I said. “The damn binding didn’t start tonight. It started when you scratched me. When he bit me. When he drained me.”
Silence fell again, heavy and watching. I stepped closer to Rhett and slipped my hand through his arm, deliberately, publicly, and absolutely unmistakable. The wolves straightened immediately, and puffed their chests out.
“King Rhett of the Wildlands,” I said clearly. “I choose to stand beside you as Luna.”
Rhett swallowed hard. “Rhea…”
I squeezed his arm. “Don’t make it weird.”
Korr snorted quietly.
Then I turned my head just enough to include the others. “You’re invited. Both of you. You can witness it. You can stand there and feel whatever you need to feel. But I won’t hide you, and I won’t pretend you don’t matter.”
I looked at the twins and smiled, "You don't mind waiting for your King, do you?" They politely inclined their heads and headed into the forest.
Nox’s eyes went dark qand sharp. “You enjoy chaos.”
“I enjoy honesty,” I said. “Chaos just follows me around.”
Korr studied me for a long moment, then nodded once. “We will observe.”
Nox’s smile turned slow and dangerous. “I would miss this for nothing.”
Rhett exhaled like a man bracing for impact. “Then we move. Now.”
The wolves shifted into formation immediately. The dragons fell in behind us, towering and impossible to ignore. Nox walked at my other side, unhurried, and unguarded, like the night itself had decided to attend a religious ceremony.
We started toward the temple. Every head turned as we emerged from the trees. Whispers rippled through the camp like wildfire. Wolves froze mid-motion. Knees bent instinctively. Eyes widened.
A Luna. Dragons. A vampire king. Together. I lifted my chin and kept walking. Let them stare.
The Temple of the Lunar Mother waited ahead, and the silver stone gleamed under the rising moon. Drums began to beat, slow and deep, and the sound echoed through the clearing.
Rhett leaned in close, and his voice was low. “You’re certain about this?”
I smiled without looking at him. “Terrified, and fucking furious....but completely certain.”
Nox chuckled softly. Korr’s heat flared at my back.
And me? I walked into the light like I belonged there.
Because I did.
\~~~~~~~~
King Korr POV
I hated temples.
Too much silence. Too much watching. Too many gods pretending they weren’t already meddling.
The Temple of the Lunar Mother pulsed softly around us. The stone was warmed by centuries of worship, and the open oculus above let the moonlight spill in like a slow, deliberate threat. Wolves filled the lower tiers, all disciplined and reverent, with their gazes fixed on the altar as if it might bite them.
I was placed at the edge of the upper ring. Beside him. Of course.
Nox leaned casually against a carved pillar with his hands folded, and his expression unreadable in that infuriating way of his. No guards. No court. Just shadows clinging to him like they knew better than to leave.
My dragon stirred, restless and bright with interest.
“She smells like fire and the moon,” Vaelrith murmured. “And wolf. And something old. I like her very much.”
“Yes,” I replied flatly. “I have noticed.”
“And the vampire,” Vaelrith continued thoughtfully. “He is… quiet. Like a blade in silk.”
I did not dignify that with a response.
Vaelrith paused, then added, far too innocently, “Is it true he turns into a bat?”
“No.”
“But imagine the wings. Tiny.”
“Do not ask him.”
Nox glanced sideways, and his lips twitched. “Everything all right, Dragon King?”
I scowled. “I am being forced to sit beside you while my dragon asks deeply stupid questions.”
Nox’s smile widened just a touch. “Ah. Growing pains.”
“I am not growing,” I snapped. “I am enduring.”
Vaelrith hummed. “You could ask him anyway.”
“No.”
The low drums began, in a steady rhythm that echoed through the stone. Wolves shifted into position, and the priest stepped forward near the altar, with his hood drawn, and his hands folded.
Across the chamber, Rhett entered with her.
My attention locked on her instantly. She was beautiful, and had her chin lifted, and that fire tucked under her skin like a secret only I could feel. Not mine. Not his. Hers.
Nox straightened beside me, all amusement gone. “You feel it.”
“Yes,” I said quietly.
The priest raised his staff. Candles were brought forward.
Vaelrith stilled completely. “Something important is about to happen.”
I folded my arms, clenched my jaw tight, and my eyes never left her as she took her place.
“Then be quiet,” I told my dragon. “And watch.”
The temple held its breath.
And so did I.