The click of the station camera followed them all the way home.
They didn't make it home quietly.
You couldn't move through a city with a half-wild king and two other impossible men without leaving ripples.
By the time Nora reached the street outside her building, her head was pounding and her skin felt too tight.
Kaelen walked at her left shoulder—heat contained, but only barely.
Zane drifted at her right—cold and unseen until he chose to be seen.
Rix walked behind them like he owned the sidewalk.
He didn't hide his stare.
He didn't hide his scent.
He let people feel it.
And people did.
They crossed the street to avoid Nora without understanding why.
A couple stopped arguing.
A child started crying.
Rix smiled, satisfied.
Kaelen's voice went low.
"You're enjoying this," he said.
Rix leaned close enough that only Kaelen could hear.
"I enjoy watching males step aside," he murmured. "Especially when she doesn't make them."
Kaelen's heat flared.
Nora's fingers tightened on Kaelen's sleeve.
"Enough," she said—quiet.
Not because she was afraid of *them*.
Because she was afraid of what the city would become if they stopped pretending it belonged to humans.
Kaelen swallowed it down.
Rix didn't.
Zane watched the restraint like it was data—and like it pleased him anyway.
Nora felt the building's windows tremble.
"Rule one," she said, tired.
Kaelen's jaw clenched.
He obeyed.
Rix laughed quietly.
"She tames you," he said, eyes bright.
Kaelen's gaze cut to Nora.
Not anger.
Something like… pride.
Then he looked at Rix like he wanted to split him in half.
They entered the lobby.
The elderly doorman froze behind his desk, eyes wide.
Nora gave him the softest smile she could manage.
"Morning," she said.
The man swallowed hard and nodded like he'd just met a bomb with manners.
Kaelen stared at him.
Rix stared at him.
Zane was nowhere to be seen.
The elevator doors opened with a ding that sounded too loud.
The three of them stepped inside.
Rix leaned in, sniffing Nora's hair again.
Nora's patience snapped.
She reached back, grabbed his wrist, and held him still.
"Ask," she said.
Rix blinked.
Then he smiled slowly.
"May I smell you?" he asked, voice rough with amusement.
Nora stared at him.
The audacity.
The honesty.
The way his eyes didn't pretend it was anything but want.
Her stomach flipped.
She hated it.
She also… liked the simplicity.
No hidden contracts.
No secret cameras.
Just hunger asking permission.
Nora inhaled.
Then she shook her head once.
"No."
Rix went still.
Kaelen's eyes sharpened, surprised.
Zane's presence—cold, faint—shivered through the elevator walls as if he'd been listening.
Rix's nostrils flared.
Then, impossibly, he stepped back.
He didn't argue.
He didn't sulk.
He didn't push.
He just watched her like she'd become more interesting.
"Good," he murmured. "You can say no."
Kaelen's mouth curled, almost amused.
"She can," he said. "And you will listen."
Rix's gaze slid to Kaelen.
"For now," he said.
The elevator dinged again.
Nora's door was still locked.
Still ordinary.
Still too thin to hold three disasters.
She opened it.
The apartment air hit them—warm, cheap, familiar.
Kaelen stepped in first, scanning corners like an enemy could hide in a toaster.
Rix stepped in second, sniffing, taking inventory.
Zane appeared last—by the window—like he'd been there for hours.
Rix's eyes snapped to him, gold narrowing.
"So you're real," Rix said.
Zane's gaze stayed calm.
"As real as you," he replied.
Rix's smile widened.
"Does she warm you?" he asked.
Kaelen's heat surged.
His voice went deadly soft.
"Don't talk about her like she's food."
Rix's shoulders rolled, relaxed.
"She smells like a mate," he said simply. "And she smells like you."
Kaelen took one step forward.
Zane moved—not toward Kaelen, but toward Nora.
A half-step.
Protective.
Possessive in a way that didn't shout.
Kaelen saw it.
Kaelen's restraint cracked.
The air temperature spiked.
Glass rattled in the cupboard.
Nora's head throbbed.
Not again.
Not in her home.
She slammed her palm on the whiteboard.
"Enough."
The word landed like a gavel.
Kaelen froze mid-step—muscles trembling.
Rix went still—predator paused.
Zane's shoulders eased—knife put back into its sheath.
Nora breathed, hard.
Then she turned to all three of them.
"You want to fight?" she asked, voice shaking with fury. "Go outside. Go fight in the street. Go fight on the moon. I don't care."
Her eyes burned.
"But not here."
Kaelen's gaze locked onto her, raw.
"…Yes," he forced out.
Rix's lips parted, surprised.
Zane's eyes softened—just a fraction.
Nora pointed at the couch.
"Sit," she said.
Kaelen sat like a king being sentenced.
Rix lingered, amused.
"Do you order everyone?" he asked.
Nora's smile turned sharp.
"No," she said. "Only the ones who need it."
Zane's mouth twitched.
Rix laughed.
Then, incredibly, he sat—sprawling, careless, like he owned the furniture.
Nora looked at Zane.
He didn't sit.
He watched her—waiting to see if she'd command him too.
Nora swallowed.
"Come closer," she said softly.
Zane's eyes darkened.
He moved—slow, controlled—until he was within arm's reach.
Nora extended her hand.
Zane paused.
"May I?" Nora asked him, flipping it back—because she refused to be the only one bound by rules.
Zane's breath hitched.
"Yes," he said, and put his cold fingers into her warm palm.
The contact steadied her—anchored.
Kaelen watched it with clenched jaw.
Rix watched it with open fascination.
Nora breathed.
Then she did the only thing that could stop three predators from turning her home into a battlefield.
She touched Kaelen's cheek with her left hand.
Warmth.
She touched Rix's hair with her right—just at the crown.
Heat—wild.
And she kept Zane's cold fingers laced through hers like a quiet warning.
Three bonds.
Three currents.
Her pulse stuttered.
Pain flared behind her eyes.
But she held.
Because she had to.
Kaelen's eyes fluttered shut like a man who'd been denied water too long.
Rix's throat rumbled, a sound like a purr trying to become a growl.
Zane's breath came shallow, his body solidifying another fraction.
Nora forced the words out, clear and sharp.
"This is my Ark," she said. "If you want a place in it, you follow my rules."
Silence.
Then Kaelen spoke first, voice hoarse.
"…Yes."
Rix's smile turned slow and bright.
"Yes," he echoed. "Queen."
Zane's gaze stayed on Nora.
"Yes," he said quietly. "Nora."
Her name.
Nora's pulse jumped—not from fear, from the audacity.
"Names are mine to give," she said.
Zane didn't apologize.
He just dipped his head a fraction, like he'd heard the rule and filed it.
And Nora—because she refused to be only reacted to—nodded once.
*Yes. For now.*
Not woman.
Not property.
Not queen.
Just… her.
Nora's chest tightened.
Then the sky outside her window changed.
Not gradually.
Not like weather.
Like someone had poured molten gold across the clouds.
The room brightened.
Shadows sharpened.
Gravity pressed down hard enough that Nora's knees almost buckled.
Rix's eyes went wide.
Kaelen went perfectly still, like a soldier hearing a commander's voice.
Zane's face went pale.
A voice rolled in from above the city—deep, amused, contemptuous.
"Noise," it said.
The word alone felt like a crown crushing ribs.
"Why do the insects always scream," the voice continued, "when they've found something valuable?"
Nora's breath caught.
Kaelen's jaw clenched.
His heat spiked—pure reflex to protect, to claim, to end threats.
Nora slid her fingers into his.
Squeezed once.
Kaelen stayed.
So she rewarded him—lips to knuckles, quick and private.
Kaelen's gaze snapped to her.
Then, grudgingly, he let the anger settle behind his teeth.
Rix's lips peeled back in a snarl.
Zane's eyes narrowed, calculating.
And Nora—center of three kings—looked up at the gold-lit sky and felt, with sick certainty:
Another king had noticed her.
The world went heavy.
Gold flooded the window—sunlight without heat, color without sky.
Kaelen's shoulders bowed like he'd been shoved by an invisible hand.
Rix dropped to a knee with a snarl that turned into a choke.
Zane's breath fogged—cold spilling out of him in a thin, helpless cloud.
Nora couldn't breathe.
The pressure found her spine and pushed.
Then a voice—low, bored, impossibly far—spoke as if the city belonged to him.
"Quiet."
The pressure snapped away.
Air rushed back into Nora's lungs like a punishment.
But the gold didn't leave.
It sank.
A faint mark lingered on the inside of her wrist, warm as a bruise—four lines, like the imprint of a ring.
Kaelen saw it and went deadly still.
Rix's eyes went wide, suddenly frightened.
Zane stared at Nora's wrist the way you stare at a contract that has already been signed.
Nora closed her fingers into a fist.
Another king hadn't just noticed her.
He'd made a claim.