12: HER NEW TITLE
714 Words
PHEEONA.
The reactions did not disappoint.
I felt every single eye in that room land on me the second I sat down, and honestly? Worth it.
These men were certifiably insane, and I refused, absolutely refused, to lie down and take their nonsense the way they wanted just because I was technically about to freeze my ass off for the duration of this meeting.
The cold didn't even matter.
Their reactions were doing more for my body heat than any actual clothing could've.
Because all three of them looked livid.
Like, barely-keeping-it-together livid.
Crowen's jaw was a solid line, the muscle in it ticking like it had personal opinions about the situation. Vizellan had gone very, very still, the kind of stillness that screamed control rather than calm. And Nashyn's eyes had gone dark in a way that should not have made my stomach flip the way it did.
Why none of them were actually saying anything about it, I had no idea.
And I decided not to care.
The guards lining the room kept shifting their weight, eyes darting anywhere except the table, anywhere except me, looking like they would rather be set on fire than continue standing in this room one more second.
"Clear the room," Nashyn barked.
The words were just that.
Coming out low and controlled and f*****g final.
The guards didn't hesitate. They were gone faster than I'd ever seen grown men move, and I had to bite back a grin because—wow. Okay. So that's what this was.
Apparently, these assholes were territorial.
All three of them, completely, stupidly territorial.
Noted.
Once the room emptied out, I looked down at the table, at the papers spread out in front of all three of them, organized in neat little stacks like they'd been at this for a while.
"You're discussing seating arrangements," I stated.
I reached forward and grabbed the sheet closest to me, scanning the names, the little diagram of tables, the careful logic someone had clearly put into deciding who sat where.
My father's name wasn't anywhere near the front.
"I want my family near me," I said, looking up.
Nashyn's voice slid across the table like it had a physical weight to it. "This is your family now."
I met his gaze expecting the usual edge underneath the his easy tone, the thing that made him dangerous even when he sounded like he was joking.
Instead I found something else entirely.
A languid glint in his eye that made him seem utterly relaxed.
He was strange.
So strange. I didn't have time to dissect it properly, but I filed it away in the growing folder of things about these men that didn't make sense yet.
We spent the better part of the afternoon at that table.
Going over guest counts, table assignments, who sat where and who absolutely could not sit anywhere near who else.
The politics of it all bored me half to death.
Crowen ran most of it with that clipped efficiency of his. Vizellan added details I wouldn't have thought of in a hundred years. Nashyn talked security perimeters and exit routes.
They all handled the matter of my near nudity with surprising indifference once the guards were gone.
By the time we finished, the light outside had shifted into late afternoon gold.
I closed the folder in front of me. Then I asked, “Will that be all then?”
Vizellan kept his gaze on the floor, pointedly looking anywhere but at me as he said, “That’s all for now. You will be informed if there’s untying further to discuss.”
“Then on that note,” I said, standing up and surveying my soon to be husbands. “I’ll go take that bath and get myself ready for my day now.”
Nobody stopped me.
I walked out of that dining room with my chin up and my spine straight, and the second the door shut behind me, the thought slid into place with a clarity that almost made me laugh out loud.
They wanted me to accept this.
To succumb to their bullshit.
To just be—quiet, agreeable, theirs.
But in all f*****g truth?
They had absolutely no idea who they just made queen of their kingdom.
- Writer
