Lucien leaned back to chair, and ran a hand through his messy hair, looking frustrated. "But I guess they're right. You do need time. I get it."
"Then what did you want to talk about?" Lilian asked, frowning in confusion.
"Because I want you to hear this clearly. When you're ready, I mean really ready, not just because of whatever your hormones telling you, I'm here. No pretending. You want me, I'm yours. That's it, simple as that."
It was such a Lucien thing to say. Blunt, honest, and completely without any pretense.
"What if I want all three of you? Is that really okay with you?" Lilian asked quietly.
"Fuck yes, it's okay. More than okay."
Lucien's green eyes blazed with a sudden intense. "The three of us have been brothers for centuries. We share everything. Why would we not share you?"
"That's…" Lilian shook her head, struggling to wrap her mind around the concept. "That's just not a normal thing to say."
"What do mean by not normal? We're not normal. You're not normal either. Nothing about our lives is normal," Lucien said with a shrug. "But who gives a fuck about normal? Normal is boring, what humans do because they're too scared to go after what they really want."
He stood and crossed the room to her in three long steps, then dropped to his knees in front of her, his hands braced on either side of her hips on the bed without touching her.
"I want you to stop doubting yourself," he said intensely. "I want you to stop questioning whether your feelings are real, to accept that you're a divine hybrid who can have whatever and whoever she wants. And then I want you to choose us, me, Dante, and Adrian. Take all three of us and build something incredible, powerful out of it."
His words hit her hard, igniting something deep in her chest. At this close, she could smell the smell of him and feel the heat radiating from his body despite the coolness of his skin.
"What if I can't handle three mates?"she whispered.
"We'll help you get stronger," Lucien said evenly. "You're already stronger than you think, Lilian. You're incredible, and you don't even know it yet."
The way he was looking at her, as if she was the most important thing in his word, made her feel powerful and exposed at the same time.
"Lucien…"
Lucien shook his head, cutting her off. "I'm not asking you to choose right now," he said. "I just wanted you to know how I feel."
He stood up and stepped back, putting some distance between them again. "I'll let you rest now."
He turned to head for the door.
"Thank you for being honest. It helps," Lilian whispered.
Lucien turned back, smiling softly. "Anytime, gorgeous."
——
She must have drifted off, because when she opened her eyes again, the sunlight through the window had shifted. She checked the clock on her nightstand and realized she had been asleep for almost two hours.
Vampire sleep was a bizarre concept as she didn't need sleep the way she once had as a human, but her mind still craved the rest. Dante had mentioned that newborns often needed extra sleep while their body adjusted to the transformation.
A gentle knock on her door made her sit up.
"Come in," she called, smoothing her hair.
Dante entered, still wearing his training clothes from earlier. He had pulled his hair back at some point, and the style made his sharp features even more pronounced.
"How are you feeling?" he asked, closing the door behind him.
"Rested. Still confuse. Same as before," Lilian said, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. "Is it time for more training?"
"In a bit. I wanted to talk to you first."
Dante took the chair Lucien had sat in earlier, though his posture was the polar opposite. He was sitting straight and perfectly composed. "About what I said this morning, regarding my insistence on waiting and making rational decisions."
"Okay…"
"I may have been too harsh," Dante admitted, his gaze meeting hers. "I tend to treat every situation like a problem to be solved, and I'm realizing that's not helpful when it comes to emotions."
Lilian blinked, caught off guard by the admission. Dante didn't strike her as the type to apologize or second-guess himself.
"What are you saying?" she asked.
"I'm saying that while I still believe you need time to adjust, I don't want you to think I'm trying to control you. What you're feeling matters, hormones or not." His expression suddenly intense. "But I also need you to understand something. Once you choose us or accepting the mate bond, there's no going back as it's permanent. Eternal. It isn't a commitment to be made lightly."
"is that what you want?" Lilian asked him directly, meeting his gaze head on. "For me to bound to you forever?"
"Yes," Dante said, not a hint of doubt in his voice. "From the moment I tasted your blood during your fever, I knew you were mine. The bond started forming then, whether we intended it or not. But I want you to choose it consciously. I want you to want it as much as we do."
His honesty was different from Lucien's bluntness but just as powerful. Where Lucien was a wildfire, Dante was a deep and freezing ocean.
"I've know about Lucien feeling about this. But what about Adrian? How does he feel about all of these?" Lilian asked quietly.
"Why don't you ask him yourself?" a voice said from the doorway.
Both Lilian and Dante turned to see Adrian leaning against the doorframe, his blue eyes moving between them with a small smile.
"I did knock, but you two were a bit preoccupied," Adrian said, walking into the room. "And to answer your question, Lilian, I feel the same way they do. I want you to choose us. But more than that, I want you to be happy. If you need time, take it. If you choose someone else entirely, I'll accept it. Your happiness matters more than what I want."
"That's bullshit," Lucien's voice came from the hallway, and a moment later, he appeared behind Adrian's shoulder with a grin on his face. "Your happiness doesn't mean shit if she chooses someone else, Adrian. You'd be miserable."
Lilian looked between the three of them standing in her room. "Is this some kind of coordinated intervention?"
"No," Dante said flatly. "But apparently we all had the same idea about talking to you privately. Unfortunately."
"Or we're all just equally obsessed and can't stay away from her," Lucien added with his usual lack of filter.
The situation should have been overwhelming, suffocating. Three powerful vampire princes crowding into her bedroom, all of them wanting her, all of them staring at her with hunger, affection, and possessiveness.
But instead of feeling trapped, Lilian felt right.
Like this was exactly where she was supposed to be, surrounded by these three men who were so different but somehow perfect together.