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Xuan said, “What are you going to do now?”
“Right now, all I want is some food and maybe rest. Maybe not in that order. I’m pretty tired.”
“Well, go to bed.”
She sighed. “I will. Good night, Xuan.”
“Sleep tight. It’s your first night of peace.”
She wondered if it really was. She knew that she still had a rocky relationship with her mates, the descendants of the people who had crushed hers.
She made her way up to her bedroom, got rid of her makeup, pulled off her dress, and snuggled under the covers.
* * *
When she woke up, there was a moonbeam shining directly on her eyes, which made her cranky.
Her stomach growled and screamed that she needed more food.
She pulled on a dressing robe and went downstairs. Maybe there would be fruit or something that she could eat, even if the kitchen staff was asleep.
She went downstairs and got into the kitchen, but she froze as soon as she was inside.
Gahariet was sitting right there, slowly eating gateau de xocolatl.
She approached cautiously, her shoulders tense. She didn’t know how to talk to him, her own mate, and she wanted to eat, but maybe not at the price of an awkward conversation.
“We’re not your enemies.” Gahariet’s voice was husky.
“I never said you were,” she snapped. “I’ve never said that.”
“Yet you keep it from us like it’s a secret. Don’t you understand how hard it is for us? We never anticipated that we’d mate a Yore.”
“What? Are we not good enough for you?” Phuong stuck out her chin, ready for a fight.
“We had no idea that we would mate a Yore princess or that we’d come to love you more than life itself. You know that we’re ecstatic about the babies. We’re consumed by you. Olivier shows it better than I do, but he’s also more deeply hurt by the emotional distance you’ve kept lately.”
“I’m suffering from not knowing who you really are. I owe the Yore a greater debt
than I owe you.”
Gahariet stuck the fork in his cake.
“We’re friends. We’ll stand right by you when you announce the resurrection of your empire and make a claim for a reestablishment of a Yore nation.”
His raised voice must have attracted Olivier, because Olivier, his eyes half open, drifted through the doorway.
He stood tall, though, as he said, “Our father stood by while he watched the Yore royals being destroyed. He didn’t support it, but he didn’t stop them, either. He knew that it would place him in jeopardy and set him against his own kind. But we are not our father. We are your mates, and we love you. We will love you until the end of eternity.”
Phuong’s eyes filled with tears at Olivier’s declaration of love, given from the heart. Her heart was thumping in her ears.
She didn’t know how to handle the overload of emotion, so she turned from the brothers.
But they instantly turned into smoke and circled her, pulling her into a three-person hug.
“We’ll love you forever,” Gahariet whispered into her ear before biting her earlobe and sending the beginning sparks of a bonfire through her body.
Olivier backed up from her and took a kitchen stool. He untied her dressing robe, letting it drop to the floor. The twins got naked, too.
