Nexus city.... Governor's mansion... Present day.
The Governor's private chambers were dimly lit, soft golden light spilling from wall sconces. Evening had fallen over Nexus, casting the city in shades of blue and shadow beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Kael stood near the window, reviewing holographic documents that flickered before his eyes—reports from today's investigations, resource allocations, the endless bureaucratic weight of running a planet. His uniform jacket lay draped over a chair, sleeves of his undershirt rolled up, expression focused and distant.
The door opened silently.
Selene slipped inside wearing absolutely nothing but his oversized dress shirt, the fabric falling to mid-thigh. She'd tied it loosely at the waist—barely tied it at all, really—leaving the neckline open just enough to make her intentions crystal clear.
"Still working?" she purred, approaching him slowly.
Kael didn't look up from his documents. "There's a resource shortage in Sector Eight. The market reports are contradicting the supply chain data and—"
Selene reached up and swiped the holographic display away.
It flickered out of existence.
"Selene—"
"Shhh." She pressed one finger to his lips, silencing him. Her emerald eyes gleamed with mischief as she stepped closer, her scent—lavender and omega warmth—filling the space between them. "You've been working since dawn. The city can survive an hour without you."
Kael's hands settled on her waist almost automatically, his instincts responding to his mate's proximity despite his protestations. "An hour is generous. More like twenty minutes before something urgent—"
"Then we'd better not waste time talking." Selene rose on her toes, kissing him with slow, deliberate intensity. When she pulled back, she was smiling that dangerous smile that meant she'd already won this argument.
She had.
Kael wrapped his arms around her, lifting her effortlessly. Selene laughed—a sound like bells—as he carried her toward the bed, already unbuttoning his shirt with one hand.
"See?" she murmured against his neck. "Much better than spreadsheets."
"The spreadsheets don't distract me with their scent," he said, burying his face in her hair as he laid her down on the silk sheets. He was fully engaged now, his pheromones mixing with hers in a dance as old as their bond.
"That's because spreadsheets are boring." Selene's hands roamed across his shoulders, his chest, mapping familiar territory that still made her pulse quicken after years together. "And I refuse to be boring."
Kael pulled back just enough to meet her eyes, his aura flickering softly around them. "You could never be boring."
"Damn right I couldn't." She pulled him down, kissing him hard, and for a moment the world narrowed to just the two of them—the Governor and his Lady, mates in the way that made everything else fade into irrelevance.
Kael's hand was sliding beneath the dress shirt, fingers trailing across her waist, when—
The comm chimed.
Selene groaned, not breaking the kiss.
It chimed again. Persistent.
"Ignore it," Selene commanded, but Kael was already tensing, his senses picking up on the pattern of the alert. That particular frequency meant emergency. City-level emergency.
"Damn it," he muttered, pulling back.
"No. Absolutely not." Selene grabbed his arm, trying to drag him back down. "Whatever it is, it can wait fifteen minutes—"
"Selene—"
"Ten minutes, Kael. I will not accept less than ten minutes—"
His comm flared to life, a holographic projection blooming above the nightstand. The face of Captain Torrhen materialized, looking harried.
"Governor, we have a situation in Sector Twelve. Multiple unauthorized dungeon breaches, rift spawn escaping into populated areas, we need your authorization to—"
"I'm sending you tactical support," Kael said immediately, already reaching for his clothes. "Coordinate with the emergency response teams and—"
"Kael!" Selene's voice could have cut steel.
He paused, glancing back at his mate, who was glaring at him with the fury of a woman denied intimacy by bureaucratic necessity.
"Go," she said coldly. "But know you'll be sleeping alone in the foreseeable future."
"Selene, I—"
"Go."
Kael dressed in record time, kissing her forehead as she turned away from him, pointedly staring at the wall. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
"You'll be back covered in monster blood and exhausted," she said without looking at him. "And i will be waiting here, Angry."
"I know. I'm sorry ".
"Good. At least you're aware of how much you're disappointing me right now."
He left, and she listened to his rapid footsteps fade down the corridor, heard the sound of the mansion's main doors opening, felt the faint vibration as his hover-car lifted off and accelerated toward the city.
Selene lay in the bed for exactly thirty seconds.
Then she sat up, grabbed a robe, and started getting dressed with violent efficiency.
.....
Happy Happy's front counter received a visit from the Governor's wife approximately forty minutes later.
She swept in like a force of nature, her hair slightly messed from the wind, her robe tied aggressively tight, her expression radiating the particular fury of a woman whose evening plans had been catastrophically derailed.
Behind the counter, one of the apprentices—a girl named Senna—looked up from organizing inventory and immediately went pale.
"Lady Selene! Welcome! Can I help—"
"Where are they?" Selene demanded.
"Um... who?"
"Niamh. Jade. Lio. The whole lot of them. Where are they?"
"Oh! They're in the back, Lady Selene. Shall I—"
Selene was already moving, pushing through the workshop door with the kind of determination that made experienced warriors reconsider their life choices.
In the back room, Niamh was measuring out ingredients for a suppressant potion, Lio was organizing supplies, and Jade sat at a table looking thoroughly miserable, still wearing the restraining clothes they'd insisted on earlier—long sleeves, high neckline, everything to minimize his scent diffusion.
They all looked up as Selene entered.
"My evening was ruined," she announced without preamble, "by the rift spawn incursion in Sector Twelve. Do you know what that means?"
Jade blinked. "That there was an emergency?"
"That means I was in the middle of seducing my husband—we were this close—" she held up two fingers barely an inch apart "—to some much-needed intimate time, and Kael had to abandon me for monsters and city business."
Niamh's mouth twitched with barely suppressed amusement.
Jade sighed helplessly. " Lady Selene, I believe we didn't need to know tha—'
"So," Selene continued,collapsing into a chair with dramatic flair like she didn't hear Jade at all, "I'm going to sit here and offload my frustrations on all of you. Lio, you first. Tell me something stupid you've done recently so I can judge you."
Lio's face went bright red. "I—what? I haven't—"
"Last week," Amara said helpfully from where she'd appeared in the doorway, "he tried to lift a crate of herbs with his wind manipulation and dropped it on his own foot."
Selene's laugh was sharp and genuinely amused. "Of course he did. Lio, that's spectacularly stupid. Well done."
Lio's ears burned. "It wasn't that bad—"
"It's pathetic," Selene said cheerfully, "and I'm delighted. Amara, your turn. What's your embarrassing moment?"
Amara stepped forward, already blushing. "I accidentally mixed up the labels on two potions last week and handed a sleep draught to someone who needed an energy boost instead."
"Did they collapse?" Selene asked with interest.
"Immediately. Right in the middle of the shop."
"Perfect. Absolutely delicious incompetence." Selene turned her attention to Jade. "And you. Tell me something that makes you less than perfect so I can feel better about my life."
Jade opened his mouth. But before he could utter anything, Selene cut him off—
"You don't even need to say anything Jade. Your state is already hilarious enough." She said chuckling to herself.
"The child genius who everyone fears and respect at the same time , confined to a bed because his own biology betrayed him!" She added laughing boisterously.
"That's... one way to phrase it," Jade said blushing weakly.
"That's hilarious," Selene corrected. She leaned forward, studying him with intense interest. "How are you coping with confinement, darling? Losing your mind? Desperate to escape?"
"I'm managing fine—"
"He's been pacing in circles like a caged animal," Lio said, betraying him immediately.
"He tried to climb out the window yesterday," Amara added.
"We had to station Gorvoth outside to make sure he didn't," Niamh finished.
Jade glared at all three of them. "I was just checking the lock—"
"You were dangling from the second-floor window," Niamh said calmly. "At midnight."
Selene was actually laughing now—full, genuine laughter that echoed through the workshop. "Oh, Jade. The mighty ice awakener, reduced to window-climbing desperation. This is the most human I've seen you since you were ten."
Despite his frustration, Jade's lips twitched. "Glad I could provide entertainment."
"You have no idea." Selene reclined in her chair, already looking considerably less murderous. "Though I'm still upset about Kael. He owes me a rescheduled evening. With specific guarantees about availability."
"I'll tell him when I see him," Jade said.
"You tell him," Selene pointed at him, "that his wife is going on a shopping spree tomorrow using his personal credit account, and he's not allowed to complain about it."
"I'm not your messenger," Jade said, but he was definitely smiling now.
Selene stood, smoothing her robe. "Well. I feel marginally better. Still irritated about the ruined seduction, but at least I got to watch Jade suffer from embarrassment, which helped."
Jade's face was still bright red.
"Before I go," Selene said, pausing at the door, "how long until his heat actually starts?"
Niamh checked the suppressant levels in her latest batch. "Shoud be soon. The pheromone releases are getting more frequent."
"And you're keeping him hydrated?"
"Every half hour," Niamh confirmed.
Selene nodded with satisfaction. "Good. Because he gonna be needing the liquid."
And Jade?"
He looked up.
"When this is over, when your heat has passed and the world stops trying to destroy us, we're doing something fun. You, me, Kael if he survives his crisis. I refuse to let you hide in this shop forever."
"I'll keep that in mind," Jade said.
She swept out as dramatically as she'd swept in, leaving behind the faint scent of lavender and the lingering impression of a woman who'd just decided the world needed to adjust to her timeline.
The moment the door closed, Lio let out a breath he'd been holding. "That was terrifying."
"That was her 'happy'," Niamh said mildly. "Be grateful."
Jade returned to his chair, already feeling the warmth creeping back through his system. The suppressants helped, but they couldn't stop the inevitable. Just delay it.
"Three to seven days," he said quietly.
"At most," Niamh confirmed.
Outside, in the city streets, Kael was fighting rift spawn while his wife plotted credit card revenge, and somewhere in the underworld, a broken man was counting down the last of his vials.
And in the quiet safety of Happy Happy, a boy waited for the moment when everything would change while cursing a certain goddess repeatedly.
....