Chapter 16: Breakfast interrogation

~Elara~

The dining room was exactly as imposing as Mira had described it

And at the head of the table, all three brothers sat waiting.

Kaelan sat in the center, his posture rigid, his face carefully blank. To his left was Rhys, offering a gentle smile as we entered. To his right was Damien, leaning back in his chair with that infuriating smirk, his eyes finding mine immediately and holding.

He was wearing a shirt now, unfortunately. And no, I was not disappointed by this.

Seraphina was seated beside Kaelan, close enough that their shoulders almost touched. She was dressed in a pale blue dress, her hair arranged in elaborate curls, diamonds glittering at her ears and throat. She looked like a queen already.

Her eyes met mine across the room and she smiled. It wasn't a polite smile. It was the kind of smile that promised pain.

"Elara" Rhys stood, his chair scraping back. "Please, come sit. We've been waiting for you."

He gestured to two empty chairs across from Damien, close to his end of the table and far from Kaelan's position of power. I noted the strategic placement and wondered if it was intentional.

"Thank you." I guided Lily toward the seats, keeping my voice neutral. "I apologize for the delay. We weren't aware breakfast had a scheduled time."

"It doesn't," Damien said lazily. "We were just eager to see you again."

His eyes dropped to my mouth, then lower to my neckline, before coming back up. I felt my cheeks heat and hated myself for it.

Lily climbed into her chair, kneeling on the cushion so she could see over the table. Her eyes were wide as she took in the spread of delicacies before us.

"Whoa," she breathed. "This is a lot of food."

"We like to eat well," Rhys said with a warm smile. He reached for a basket and offered it to her. "Do you like croissants?"

Lily nodded enthusiastically. "With chocolate inside?"

"Mira," Rhys said, without looking away from my daughter, "could you please bring some pain au chocolat from the kitchen?"

"Of course, sir." Mira, who had followed us downstairs, disappeared through a side door.

I watched the exchange with narrowed eyes. These people had servants at their beck and call. They could summon chocolate pastries with a single word. They lived in a world so far removed from mine that we might as well be different species.

Which, apparently, we were.

"Did you sleep well?" Rhys asked, turning his attention to me. "Helena said you were exhausted when she left you last night."

"I slept fine." I reached for the coffee pot, pouring myself a cup with hands that only trembled slightly. "Thank you for the room. It's very... comfortable."

"Comfortable." Damien snorted. "That's one word for a guest suite worth more than most houses."

"Damien," Kaelan said quietly.

"What? I'm just making conversation." Damien's smirk widened. "Trying to make our guest feel at home. Isn't that what we're supposed to do?"

"Perhaps you could try doing it without commentary on the monetary value of our hospitality," Rhys suggested mildly.

I sipped my coffee, watching the brothers over the rim of my cup. There was tension between them this morning. It was so obvious that they couldn't hide it so well.

"I slept good too," Lily announced, oblivious to the undercurrents. "Really, really good. I had dreams about running very high speed."

I felt all three brothers focus on my daughter. "Running?" Rhys asked carefully. "What kind of running?"

"Through a forest." Lily reached for a strawberry, popping it into her mouth. "On four legs. Like a puppy. But faster."

Kaelan’s eyes almost pulled out of his sockets. He was staring at Lily with the gentlest look I've ever seen him give.

"How charming," Seraphina said, her voice dripping with false sweetness. "The child has quite an imagination."

"It wasn't imagination." Lily frowned at her. "It was real. I could feel the grass under my paws and everything."

"Paws?" Seraphina's eyebrow arched. "Darling, humans don't have paws."

"I know that." Lily's tone was patient, the kind of patient that meant she thought the adult she was speaking to was being particularly dense. "But in my dream I wasn't human. I was a wolf. A really pretty silver wolf with eyes like my Mommy's."

I set down my coffee cup, my appetite evaporating. This was too much. It was too close to what Helena had said last night about shifts and bloodlines and impossible things. My daughter was sitting at a table full of people who believed in werewolves, cheerfully describing dreams about turning into one.

"Lily," I said carefully, "why don't you focus on your breakfast, sweetheart?"

"But I'm not done telling them about my dream. The best part was—"

"Lily."

My daughter's mouth snapped shut. She knew that tone. The one that meant she had pushed too far, even if she didn't understand why.

"Fine," she mumbled, reaching for another strawberry.

Mira returned with a plate of chocolate croissants, setting them in front of Lily with a small smile. My daughter's mood immediately brightened, her strange dream forgotten in favor of pastry.

"So," Seraphina said, breaking the silence, "Elara, was it? Tell us about yourself. Where are you from? What do you do?"

The questions were simple enough but her tone made them feel like an interrogation.

"I'm from Millbrook," I said shortly. "I work at a diner."

"A diner." Seraphina's lips curved. "How quaint."

"Sera," Damien said, his voice carrying a warning. "Don't."

"Don't what? I'm simply curious about our guest." Seraphina turned her full attention to me, her amber eyes sharp and assessing. "You must understand how unusual this situation is. Humans don't simply wander into our territory. They don't dine at our table or sleep in our guest rooms. I'm sure you can appreciate why we might want to know more about the woman who seems to have captured so much... attention."

Her gaze flickered to the brothers as she said it, landing on each of them in turn.

"I'm nobody," I said. "My daughter was sick. Your healers helped her. The moment she's well enough to travel, we'll be gone. There's nothing more to know."

"Hmm." Seraphina reached for her juice glass, sipping delicately. "And the child's father? Is he nobody as well?"

"That's none of your business."

"Oh, I think it is." Seraphina set down her glass. "You see, there are only so many ways a human woman can produce a half-blood child. Either she was attacked, which, given your obvious lack of trauma response, seems unlikely. Or she was seduced by one of our kind. A wolf who took what he wanted and then disappeared into the night."

"Seraphina." Kaelan grumbled, "That's enough."

"I'm simply stating facts, darling." She reached over and placed her hand on his arm, her touch possessive. "You know how these things work. Half-bloods don't appear from nowhere. Someone fathered that child. Maybe even someone from the territory.”

She knew, or she suspected. She was digging, trying to unearth the truth and expose it in the most painful way possible.

"The father is gone," I said, my voice steady despite the earthquake happening inside me. "He left. I haven't seen him in five years and I don't particularly want to. Is that enough information for you?"

Seraphina's smile widened. "Five years. Interesting timing."

"Sera." This time it was Rhys who spoke, his warm voice gone cold. "I mean it. Stop."

"I'm simply making conversation." She turned those innocent eyes on the middle triplet. "Five years ago was quite eventful, wasn't it? It was exactly the time of Kaelan's little rebellion against tradition. He disappeared for months, if I recall and wouldn't tell anyone where he'd been or what he'd done. Isn't that right, darling?”"