THE LUNA THEY’LL NEVER LOVE

5: WELCOME TO YOUR NEW HOME

PHEEONA

My father made a sound of disapproval deep in his chest.

"Her heat is ongoing," Vizellan said, with the patience of someone who had already explained this once and was willing to explain it again but only the once more. "Proximity to her mates will slow the progression. Distance accelerates it. The sooner she’s in Ashenbane, the better her condition before the wedding."

"And after the wedding," Nashyn said, with a conversational lightness that didn’t entirely conceal the intent underneath it, "the heat won't be a concern at all." He glanced at my father with something that was almost, but not quite, innocence. "I assume our forthcoming activities will have your blessing, given your colorful reservations earlier. We want to be thorough."

My father looked at him with an expression that could have stripped paint.

Nashyn smiled pleasantly and looked at his hands.

The meeting concluded shortly after that. Documents were produced that I didn't read carefully enough and signed anyway, because reading them carefully would have required a steadiness of mind I didn't currently have access to. Hands were not shaken.

The cousins rose and left the way they had come, just as unhurried, unescorted, taking up the same quality of space on the way out that they had on the way in.

The doors closed behind them.

I had just sealed my fate so thoroughly.

My father looked at me across the table. "Pheeona—"

"Don't," I said, gently. "Not right now. Please."

He closed his mouth.

He nodded once, like the nod cost him something, and I looked away from it because I had used up everything I had getting through the last hour and there was nothing left to absorb someone else's pain with.

Caelan helped me back upstairs.

Anyssa was waiting in my chambers with the expression of someone who had been pacing for the better part of two hours and was trying not to show it. When she saw my face, she crossed the room and took both my hands in hers, not asking anything of me, which was exactly why she was my best friend.

I told her everything.

“I did what I had to, Nys.”

She nodded, her eyes turning glassy as she didn't let go of my hands.

"You're coming with me," I said.

"Obviously," she said, and her voice only wavered slightly.

And after that, I spent the rest of the day not packing, because my father had arranged for that. I didn’t sleep either, because sleep wasn't something my body was doing reliably anymore.

I stayed up all night, sick, and trying not to think about what I had agreed to.

By noon the next day, a town car from Ashenbane arrived to take me to my new home.

There was no procession, no formal send-off. I didn’t want any real attention drawn to what was going on, at least not until I was gone.

My father embraced me in the entrance hall and held on for a moment longer than he usually did, and I let him, saying nothing and feeling the weight of everything we didn’t say heavy in the space between us.

Caelan gripped my shoulder at the door. "Send word," he said. "Every week."

"Every week," I nodded.

Anyssa climbed in beside me and the car rolled out through the palace gates.

I didn’t look back at Lunaris as I was taken to my new home. If I did, I would have crumbled.

When we finally crossed into Ashenbane’s territory, my attention was pulled in by everything around me.

Everyone knew about Ashenbane… it was the most talked about territory in the entire realm. And for good reason.

But coming face to face with the home those monsters built, was nothing like I imagined it would be.

I had imagined something imposing, something that announced itself just like all the brutal conquests it took them to get here, with walls and fortifications and the visible architecture of dominance.

What I hadn’t imagined was… beauty.

The land changed as we crossed the border in a way that was almost disorienting, the grey of early morning giving way to something richer, brighter and just… breathtaking.

There were forests so dense they looked ancient, and rivers that caught the first light and threw it back in beautiful reflections. The roads were better than anything in Lunaris, they were smooth and wide and clearly maintained with the resources of something much larger than a single kingdom.

Anyssa had her face pressed to the window on her side.

"Goddess," she said quietly.

I didn't answer, because I was doing the same thing over here. There were no words adequate enough to describe the realization suddenly settling over me.

The men who had built this, who ruled this, who had assembled this entire impossible expanse of land and people and governance… had called off another one of their conquest for a some woman on a terrace?

How?

They’d spent nearly a year writing letters I never opened, they’d come to my father’s palace yesterday alone, without an army, and sat down and talked.

Because we requested it.

I didn't know how to process any of that.

It struck me hard, that I might not know these males at all.

Not even a little bit.

They were ruthless and brutal, referred to a merciless conquerers based on the stories.

Ashenbane was meant to be their throne built on blood and m******e.

But as their massive territory rolled by through the windows, all I could think… was that Ashenbane was more beautiful than anything else in the entire realm.

What in goddess name did that say about my mates?