Page 12 of Dragon King’s Duty Bride

“Yes,” she said at last. “If your father will allow me to.”

Stella giggled. Luna smiled. Celeste did neither and he knew he was in trouble with her. Lucas looked away without acknowledging the comment.

The girls adored Sia. They always had. While he had never spent much time with her, she had been a constant through their childhood. She’d braided hair and read stories and knelt at Dian’s bedside when the illness worsened.

But this was different. Now Sia had their mother’s crown and stood where Dian once had.

After breakfast, he watched as the girls followed Sia out into the gardens as they peppered her with questions. Lucas caught fragments of their banter, about lessons, about meals, and about why she wouldn’t run around with them.

They laughed and the sound pierced him. He turned away and went to his office. When they returned, their warmth was gone.

Celeste answered his questions with stiff politeness. Luna avoided his eyes. Stella leaned against a pillar with her arms crossed in an imitation of defiance she hadn’t earned yet.

“You didn’t tell us Aunt Sia would be our stepmother,” Luna blurted out.

Lucas knelt in front of them. “I didn’t know how to explain it yet.”

Celeste’s gaze sharpened. “Mama was your wife.”

“Yes,” he said. The word scraped his throat raw.

“And Aunt Sia was her sister.”

“Yes.”

Celeste whispered, “Is Mama gone because you wanted Aunt Sia instead?”

The question blindsided him.

“No,” he said immediately. He forced himself to breathe. “Absolutely not. Your mother was my mate. My one true mate. Nothing changes that.”

Celeste absorbed this silently. Stella scowled. Luna’s eyes filled with tears she refused to let fall.

“Then why did you marry her?” Celeste demanded.

Because the kingdom demanded stability. Because love had nothing to do with it.

“Because sometimes,” he said slowly, “duty causes us to make choices we never wanted to make.”

Luna’s voice trembled with anger. “I don’t like it.”

“I know,” he said.

They didn’t hug him when they left. They didn’t look back. Their grief stood between them like a wall because he believed he deserved it.

That night, Lucas stood on the balcony outside their chambers. Inside, Sia sat on the sofa reading. Anything to distract herself. He was slightly envious.

He could feel her presence the way one felt a wound that didn’t hurt but was dull and impossible to forget.

Dian had been his world. His bond to her had been absolute. No vow spoken yesterday could undo that truth.

There would be no traditional marriage here. No shared bed and no whispered endearments. He would not betray Dian’s memory.

And yet, the absence of touch felt heavier than he expected. Distance, he told himself, was the only way any of them would survive.

But it would cost him everything if they didn’t produce a son.

Chapter 6