Marked by the Four Beast Lords After Transmigration

By the time they finally left the family chambers, the storm had thickened enough that the outer corridors carried a steady low pressure through the walls.

Most of the western residential level had settled into quieter rhythm by then. Lamps had been lowered along the corridor alcoves, leaving the stone washed in softer amber light broken by the occasional brighter hearth vent. The traffic had thinned too. A few late patrol members still moved between corridor intersections carrying coal baskets or folded bedding, but most people had already disappeared into the insulated sleeping chambers farther inside the mountain.

Nia walked between Kael and Shen with the heavier winter wrap pulled close around her shoulders.

At this point she was beginning to suspect Sera had personally constructed the thing to suppress independent thought.

Her fingers slipped beneath the collar instinctively while they walked.

“Leave it,” Kael said from ahead of her.

Nia dropped her hand immediately and sighed.

Shen adjusted the coal lamp hanging near the corridor turn before following them farther inside without comment.

Kael opened the south-side alcove door ahead of them. Warmth rolled outward immediately from the heated stone inside.

Nia stepped in first and stopped.

The widened bedding platform occupied nearly the entire far side of the alcove now, layered thick with winter blankets and heavy furs tucked with terrifying precision.

“She actually did it.”

Kael closed the door behind them. “Mother said she would.”

“I thought she meant widen it a little.”

“Mother doesn’t do anything a little.”

Honestly that explained several things about the entire household.

The alcove held heat differently from the larger family chambers, the lower ceiling and narrower stone walls keeping the hearth warmth gathered close around the bedding platform while the vent built into the inner wall carried steady heat through the floor beneath them.

Shen crossed toward the adjoining side chamber Sera had assigned him, setting his folded outer layer near the partially open connecting doorway. Warm vent heat moved steadily between both rooms.

Nia’s attention caught briefly on the open doorway before she looked away again and crossed toward the bedding platform instead.

Behind her, leather shifted softly while Kael loosened the heavier outer layers around his shoulders.

“Mother planned it that way,” he said.

Nia sat near the edge of the bedding platform before answering. “Oh.”

The furs beneath her palms already held warmth from the heated stone underneath.

Behind her, Shen fed another piece of coalstone into the smaller vent basin near the adjoining room.

The quiet that settled afterward felt occupied rather than awkward.

Kael checked the outer vent latch near the wall while Shen adjusted the smaller hearth channel exactly the way he told Mother he would.

Nia settled cross-legged near the widened bedding and immediately regretted looking toward the adjoining doorway again.

Shen would be sleeping one room over with the connecting door still partially open between them, and nobody downstairs had considered any part of that arrangement strange.

She tried very hard not to think about the openness of it.

She looked up finally. “Can I ask something.”

Kael glanced toward her while securing the vent latch. “You usually do.”

“That wasn’t permission.”

“It wasn’t refusal either.”

Nia pointed vaguely back toward the family chambers. “Your family.”

Kael leaned one shoulder against the wall. “What about them.”

“The way everybody lives together.”

Shen settled quietly near the adjoining doorway without interrupting the conversation.

Nia rubbed one thumb against the edge of the blanket across her lap. “Mother and your fathers,” she said. “The way all of them live together. Everybody acts like it’s the most normal thing in the world.”

“It is.”

“Not where I’m from.”

Kael’s expression shifted slightly a moment later before he crossed toward the bedding platform and sat near her, one arm resting loosely across his knee.

“Big Father is Mother’s first mate,” he said. “Second Father joined later. Third Father after that.”

Nia blinked once. “Joined.”

“That’s the easiest way to explain it.”

“You’re saying your family just kept accumulating husbands.”

“Yes.”

The certainty of the answer nearly made her laugh.

Kael continued before she could.

“Big Father and Mother bonded first. I’m their son.” He jerked his chin vaguely toward the family chambers somewhere deeper inside the mountain. “Tarek belongs to Second Father. The twins are Third Father’s.”

Honestly, that explained a lot.

Kael and Rhaegar carried the same broad frame and dark coloring. Tarek had Darius’s sharper features and easier expressions. And the twins looked enough like Selvan around the eyes that she felt mildly stupid for not consciously putting it together sooner.

“And everybody just raises everybody together?”

“Yes.”

Again with the immediate certainty.

“No fighting over whose kid belongs to who?”

Kael frowned slightly. “Why would they.”

“The household belongs to all of them,” Shen said quietly.

Nia looked between the two of them.

“People where I’m from usually only have one partner.”

Kael stared at her for a solid two seconds.

“That sounds inefficient.”

The response came so immediately that Shen lowered his head briefly near the vent basin.

Nia pressed her mouth together before the laugh escaped.

Kael ignored both reactions.

“Females are rare,” he said simply. “Some territories average one female for every fifty males.”

Nia stared at him. “Fifty?”

“Sometimes fewer during poor breeding generations,” Shen said.

“That’s not scarcity. That’s an extinction warning.”

“It stabilizes differently here,” Shen replied. “Males compete for territory, standing, resources, household stability. Large bonded households became normal long before the current territories formed.”

“Single-male bonds happen,” Kael said, “but not often.”

“Mostly among dragons,” Shen said quietly from the adjoining room.

Kael nodded once. “Some species would rather die out than share females.”

Nia blinked. “That feels extreme.”

“The ash drakes did,” Shen said.

The alcove quieted briefly after that.

Nia looked toward the adjoining doorway. “Wait. Did?”

“They collapsed generations ago,” Shen said. “Too few females. Too many territorial conflicts between males. Their bloodlines thinned until the remaining settlements disappeared.”

“They still refused shared bonds,” Kael said.

“That’s insane.”

“It’s dragon behavior,” Kael replied simply.

The storm rolled low through the outer walls again.

Behind them, the hearth vent crackled softly.

Nia looked down at the blanket gathered across her lap while she tried to reorganize everything she thought she understood about relationships in this world.

The complete absence of scandal around Mother’s household suddenly made much more sense.

So did the way nobody reacted strongly whenever males gathered around a single female unless actual aggression started.

It explained more than she realized.

Nia focused very hard on adjusting the edge of the blanket near her knee instead.

Kael reached over and pulled the loosened edge of the winter wrap back around her shoulders before she could adjust it herself.

Nia exhaled through her nose but let him do it.

Across the adjoining doorway, Shen remained near the smaller hearth vent, one arm resting loosely against the stone beside it while the warm air moved steadily between the rooms.

Nobody downstairs had reacted to the arrangement at all.

Kael stretched back against the bedding platform beside her a few moments later, settling against the layered blankets with the ease of someone entirely comfortable inside his own space. His arm hooked loosely around her waist beneath the blankets as naturally as breathing.

Nia looked down at his arm around her waist before leaning back against him anyway.

Kael looked entirely unbothered. “This is my room.”

His hand settled more securely against her stomach beneath the blankets, broad and warm against her through the layered fabric while he pulled her more comfortably against him.

“You complain when I’m too far away too,” he said.

“That is absolutely not true.”

“You dragged my arm back last night.”

Nia froze.

“…I was asleep.”

“You glared at me first.”

From the adjoining room came silence.

Nia glanced once toward the open doorway before sinking farther back against Kael’s chest with visible suspicion.

“You can hear everything from there, can’t you.”

“Yes,” Shen answered from the next room.

Heat climbed into her face immediately.

Behind her, Kael’s shoulders shifted once against the bedding.

The warmth along her back deepened as Kael settled more comfortably against the bedding platform behind her. One hand adjusted the wrap higher around her shoulders while the other remained low against her waist beneath the blankets.

Outside, another long vibration rolled through the mountain.

This time Nia barely reacted.

Kael’s chin brushed briefly against the top of her head. “You stopped flinching.”

“I got used to it.”

“Three days ago you said the mountain was trying to freeze you to death.”

“It was.”

His chest shifted once behind her, quieter than a laugh.

Nia turned enough beneath the blankets to look back at him properly.

The hearthlight softened the sharper edges of his face. Up close like this, with his arm still around her and the heat gathered thick beneath the blankets, he looked less like the terrifying mountain chief everyone else saw and more like the man who kept pulling the winter wrap back over her shoulders every few minutes.

Nia looked at him for another second before settling back against him again.

Shen remained in the adjoining room close enough that she could hear the occasional quiet shift of blanket or coalstone near the smaller hearth vent.

Kael’s hand shifted once against her waist beneath the blankets, the movement slow enough that she felt it before she fully realized he was leaning closer.

Nia’s ears twitched beneath the loosened wrap.

The kiss landed warm and unhurried, familiar now in a way that still occasionally caught her off guard. Heat gathered steadily beneath the blankets while his thumb moved once against her side through the layered fabric.

When he pulled back, she stayed close without thinking about it.

Kael looked at her for another second before the corner of his mouth shifted slightly.

Nia narrowed her eyes immediately. “Don’t start.”

“You leaned closer.”

“You’re making things up again.”

His chest moved once with restrained amusement before he kissed her a second time, shorter this time, absentminded enough that it felt almost domestic.

Silence lingered from the adjoining room.

Nia stopped moving.

Very slowly, she looked toward the open doorway.

“You can still hear everything.”

“Yes,” Shen answered calmly.

Heat climbed into her face hard enough that she grabbed the winter wrap automatically.

Kael pulled it back down before she could disappear into it completely.

“You’ll overheat.”

Nia made a quiet sound against his shoulder that might have been a complaint.

Another shift came from the adjoining room before Shen spoke again.

“The vent latch remains stable.”

Behind her, Kael finally laughed properly against the side of her neck.

Nia closed her eyes. “Both of you are impossible.”

“Mostly him,” Shen said after a moment.

Kael kissed the corner of her mouth once more before settling back against the bedding platform with her still tucked securely against him.

The alcove had dimmed while they talked. Heat continued moving steadily through the stone beneath the bedding while the storm pressed against the outer mountain walls beyond them.

In the adjoining room Shen leaned back against the smaller platform near the hearth vent and closed his eyes briefly.

Warm air drifted between the rooms carrying her scent with it along with the softer traces of heated fur, coalstone, and Kael settled around her.

Shen adjusted the vent latch again despite it not needing adjustment.

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