Sold As The Breeder Of Three Alpha Brothers

THE HIGH PRIESTESS

They gave her a room in the east wing, far grander than anything she'd ever slept in, and locked from the outside just like the one in Silverpine had been.

Lyra noticed immediately.

"For your protection," the maid assigned to her said, not quite meeting her eyes as she turned down the sheets. "Not everyone in the capital is pleased about the prophecy."

"That's not an answer."

The maid said nothing else, and left Lyra alone with a fire crackling in the hearth and a window that looked out over gardens she wasn't allowed to walk in yet.

She didn't sleep much. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the hall again, three brothers on their thrones, a room full of strangers deciding whether her own preference even counted. She kept turning Darius's words over in her mind. *She's owed better than a performance.* It would have been easier to dismiss if she hadn't watched the Council's faces when he said it, the genuine shock on them. Whatever else he was, he hadn't been performing that.

A soft knock came at her door near midmorning, followed by the sound of a key turning before she could answer.

The High Priestess Selene stepped inside, silver robes catching the light, staff absent this time, though her presence filled the room just as completely without it.

"Lyra Evermoon." Selene's voice was warm, almost maternal, and something about that warmth put Lyra immediately on guard. "I trust you slept well."

"I didn't."

"No," Selene said, unbothered. "I imagine not." She crossed to the window, looking out over the gardens with an ease that suggested she'd stood in this room many times before. "Do you know why the Moon Goddess chose you?"

"I don't know that she did. I know a priestess showed up in my courtyard and pointed at me."

Selene's mouth curved, not quite a smile. "Careful, child. Skepticism doesn't suit the Breeder Mate."

"Skepticism is the only thing that's kept me alive this long."

"Fair enough." Selene turned from the window, studying her with an intensity that reminded Lyra uncomfortably of Lucien, though colder. "The prophecy is very specific. The Breeder Mate must choose. Freely, and without coercion, or the bloodline she's meant to restore will never take root."

"So my choice actually matters."

"Your choice is the entire prophecy." Selene stepped closer. "Which is why I need you to understand something before you go any further into this palace and its intrigues. Not everyone here wants what's best for you. Some want what's best for themselves, and will use you to get it."

"Are you including yourself in that warning?"

Something flickered behind Selene's eyes, gone before Lyra could name it. "I've served the Temple faithfully for thirty years. I want the prophecy fulfilled the way it was meant to be."

"That's not what I asked."

Selene's smile thinned. "You're sharper than the last one."

Lyra went still. "The last one?"

A beat of silence stretched too long before Selene answered. "A figure of speech. Nothing more."

"It didn't sound like a figure of speech."

"You've had a difficult few days, Lyra. Your instincts are running ahead of you." Selene moved toward the door, robes whispering against the floor. "I only came to offer guidance. The brothers will each try to win you in their own way. Darius with restraint. Kael with devotion. Lucien with secrets he shouldn't share. Be wary of all three, and wary most of all of trusting any one of them completely before you understand what's truly at stake."

"And what is truly at stake?"

Selene paused at the threshold, glancing back with an expression Lyra couldn't quite read. Pity, maybe. Or calculation dressed up as pity.

"More than you know," she said. "Rest while you can. The Council will want you presented to the court properly within the week, and after that, your life will not be your own to plan again for a long while."

She left, and the lock turned behind her.

Lyra sat on the edge of the bed for a long time after, turning the conversation over in her mind. Every word Selene had said carried a warning wrapped around itself, and yet Lyra couldn't shake the feeling that the priestess had been the one thing in the room actually worth being wary of.

*The last one.*

She hadn't imagined the slip. She'd seen it land, seen the flash of something Selene hadn't meant to show her.

A knock came again, softer this time, and different, two quick raps followed by a pause. Lyra crossed to the door out of instinct rather than expectation, and found it unlocked when she tried it.

Lucien stood in the hallway, alone, glancing back over his shoulder like he wasn't supposed to be there.

"I heard the High Priestess paid you a visit," he said quietly.

"How do you know that?"

"Because very little happens in this palace that I don't hear about eventually." He stepped inside without waiting for an invitation, pushing the door mostly closed behind him. "What did she tell you?"

"That I should be wary of all three of you. That my choice is the whole prophecy." Lyra studied his face. "And that I'm sharper than the last one."

Lucien's expression shuttered so fast she almost missed it.

"Lucien. What did she mean by that?"

He was quiet for a long moment, weighing something behind his eyes that looked far heavier than court politics.

"Not here," he said finally, voice low. "Walls in this palace have more ears than you'd believe. But I'll tell you this much, Lyra Evermoon."

He leaned closer, and for the first time since she'd arrived, she saw real fear behind his charm.

"You're not the first woman the Moon Temple has called the Breeder Mate."

"What happened to her?"

Lucien's jaw tightened. "Nobody knows. That's what worries me."