Three days later, Emmy stood in the flock gym watching Rhea demolish a heavy bag with precise, brutal kicks. The eagle shifter’s dark hair was pulled into a severe ponytail, sweat gleaming as she pivoted and struck again.
Felix lounged on a weight bench nearby, supposedly stretching, but mostly providing commentary. “Okay, but you’reglowing,” he said, eyeing Emmy with exaggerated suspicion. “Like, genuinely glowing. What are they feeding you? I mean, besides the obvious.”
Emmy laughed, and before she could answer, Rhea said, “She’s getting well-fucked on the regular.”
Her friend didn’t break rhythm, her kicks hitting the bag in quick succession while she talked.
“It’s more than that, though.” Felix sat up, genuinely curious now rather than teasing. “You’re … settled. Content. I’ve never seen you this content.”
Emmy grabbed a jump rope, needing something to do with her hands. “Is that so weird?”
“For you?” Rhea caught the bag, stilling its swing, and turned to face Emmy fully. “Yeah, actually. You’ve always been restless. Chaotic. Now you’re—” She gestured vaguely. “Domestic.”
“I am notdomestic,” Emmy protested, but even as she said it, she realized they might be right.
Felix grinned. “You’re living with two men, plus getting fucked by random vampires during the feeding frenzies each night, working on your thesis like a responsible grad student, and when’s the last time you did something crazy? That’s domestic as fuck for you.”
“I mean, she hasn’t stolen a vehicle or been kicked out of a college since she landed in Alaska,” Rhea said. “But this is like, a step up from her previous mostly-good behavior.”
Emmy opened her mouth to argue, then closed it. They weren’t wrong.
She moved the rope faster, the rhythmic slap of it on the floor filling the silence.
“I’m happy,” she admitted finally, quietly. “This wasn’t in my plans, falling in love so young, but I’m not going to turn my back on it.”
Rhea’s expression softened. She crossed to Emmy, waiting until she stopped jumping to pull her into a quick,fierce hug. “Of course you aren’t. Happiness is good, and we’re happy for you. You deserve to be happy.”
“Even if it means you’re boring now,” Felix added, then fake-yelped when Rhea spun and threw a kick at him that landed millimeters from his shoulder.
They worked out in companionable silence for a while — Emmy and Felix spotting each other with weights while Rhea rotated through various martial arts forms. By the time they hit the sauna afterward, Emmy’s muscles sang with that pleasant post-workout ache.
The heat enveloped them as they settled onto the wooden benches. For several minutes, no one spoke, just breathed in the steam and let sweat pour.
“So,” Rhea said eventually, voice casual in that way that meant she’d been thinking about how to phrase something. “Il Trovatorewas …intense.”
Emmy’s skin flushed hotter, and not from the sauna temperature. “Yeah.”
“You and Zander put on quite a show.” Rhea’s tone was carefully neutral. “The chase through the woods, the takedown, the—”
“Faux rape,” Emmy supplied, deciding to just own it. “Yeah. That’s apparently something I’m into.”
Felix made an interested sound. “The exhibitionism or the rape fantasy?”
“Both?” Emmy leaned back against the hot wood, closing her eyes. “I didn’t know I liked it until the feeding frenzies, and I told Zander it’s a new discovery. So, of course, he tookit and ran with it. And yeah, having all those people watching while Zander—” She broke off, swallowing. “It worked for me.Reallyworked.”
“Good for you,” Rhea said simply. “Consensual non-consent with an audience. That’s some advanced-level kink.”
“Says the woman who requested the harpy scene where she was ‘captured’ by hunters,” Felix pointed out.
Rhea shrugged unapologetically. “What can I say? I like a good predator-prey dynamic. The point is, Emmy’s exploring what she likes. That’s healthy.”
Emmy opened one eye to look at Felix, who’d been uncharacteristically quiet. “You okay? You’re usually more obnoxious about my sex life.”
He smiled, but it was distant, preoccupied. “Just thinking about three nights from now.”
Emmy went through the schedule in her mind, and carefully asked, “The Inquisition?”
“Yeah.” Felix’s hand drifted to his jaw, touching it as if checking that all his teeth were still there. “Master Vexare wants to do the full historical treatment. Teeth pulled, at least one finger removed, branding, the works.”
