Steady and real.
She exhaled softly, a wistful flutter stirring in her chest.
It must be nice. To have that. To be wanted that deeply. Seen that clearly.
She wondered when—if—she’d ever find someone who made her feel like that. Someone who looked at her like she was theirwhole world. Someone whose emotions didn’t overwhelm her, but steadied her.
Zara shook her head lightly.
She was only twenty-one. She still had time, plenty of it. A whole life ahead. Wings possibly on the horizon, a new job starting today, siblings to wrangle, and an entire realm to adjust to.
Love would come when it came.
For now, she followed the god of love and his soulmate deeper into the building, letting the echo of their bond warm her like sunlight without burning.
As they made their way toward the elevators, Zara’s thoughts drifted, back to the beginning, to how she’d ended up working with Lord Eros in the first place.
It all started far from Alindale, far from polished floors and divine bosses. She and her siblings had been in Valle Trigenico, her father’s hometown tucked deep in the mountains of Bolivia. A place where the clouds brushed the cliffs and magic ran in quiet, old lines through the earth. They’d grown up spending summers there, surrounded by family, by tradition, by the kind of silence you could feel in your bones.
And that was where Perseus and Medusa found them.
Not the myth versions that Upperworld humans whispered about. But real ones, modern ones. A wolf shifter and a gorgon, both surprisingly kind despite their names echoing through ancient stories like thunder.
The triplets had sensed them coming long before they appeared. Their empathic bond flared with certainty: these two were good people. Honest. Searching, not hunting. Worth trusting.
So when Perseus explained their mission, finding the lost descendants and those in the bloodline of Cyncus and Eros, the triplets didn’t hesitate.
Disclosing their own lineage had almost been easy. Their powers had awakened early, and with them came a certainty about who they were and where they came from. And more importantly, what they could do.
One of their rare abilities was the power to combine their senses—to triangulate, as they put it. When they worked together, they could scan an entire region and detect the presence of any being with geryon blood. It was like tuning three instruments until they produced one perfect note that resonated with others like them.
Perseus and Medusa had practically melted in relief when they realized how useful the triplets would be.
It really had been a no-brainer to join the team.
And that was how Zara Chura went from a mountain village to working under Lord Eros himself—the god whose lineage she shared, whose power was returning to her bloodline, and whose history the entire monster world seemed to gossip about on the internet.
Not exactly the career path she’d imagined growing up.
But then again, nothing about her life had ever been ordinary.
They stepped out of the elevator into the familiar expanse of the office—sleek, modern, and buzzing with quiet energy. High ceilings, glass walls, soft rune-lighting instead of harsh fluorescents. The whole place looked like someone had blended a tech startup with an ancient temple and then given it a minimalist makeover.
Zara led the way down the corridor. She’d only been in Alindale for a week, but she already knew this office like the back of her hand, mostly because Perseus insisted on “proper orientation” and Medusa insisted on “safety protocols,” which for a gorgon meanta lotof rules about not touching her things.
They stopped in front of the only closed door on the floor.
Of course.
Perseus and Medusa shared an office, partly because the space had been designed that way, and partly because the two were incapable of being apart for more than an hour. They’d fallen in love almost immediately after meeting the triplets, which had sparked a chain reaction of drama and misunderstandings, but love won in the end.
Perseus chose Alindale as their permanent base, and he’d been the one to set up the team’s headquarters while Medusa handled negotiations, staffing, and making sure no one put tacky art on the walls.
Zara paused at the door and knocked.
A muffled voice called from inside—Perseus’s, clipped and familiar:
“Come in!”
