"You have got to be kidding me?!"

"Afraid not." Hunter smiled grimly. "You're going to have to take care of Rylan's mate for a little while."

"Rylan..." Blaze whispered. "Oh hell no!" He muttered, his green eyes wide as he hefted Lyra onto his back. "Rylan is seriously going to kill me now..."

"Yep." The smiling brunette said. "He totally is, but don't worry. I'll heal any injuries he causes."

"Thanks." He said. "I think."

"No problem." Hunter smirked, clapping him on the back, having spied a certain black-haired Alpha King striding towards the three of them. "Good luck."

"Something tells me I'll need it."

"I take it Hunter has just healed the pair of you..." Rylan grinned.

"Just me." Blaze mumbled, watching as Rylan's eyes narrowed on the way Lyra was holding onto the blonde for dear life.

"Is my mate OK?"

"Yeah..." Blaze shifted awkwardly on his feet, staring at the ground. "She just kinda... imprinted on me because she overused her ability..."

Rylan blinked.

"Well..." Blaze sidestepped, speaking quickly. "I really ought to be getting to dinner. Don't want it getting cold now, do we...?"

Rylan's arm snapped out, stopping him in his tracks as he tried to walk past. "What did you just say?"

"Lyra imprinted on me, and I really ought to be getting to dinner."

"Why didn't you come and get me?" He glared at the blonde, who quickly started sprinting. "BLAZE!" Rylan grabbed the nearest object, which happened to be a rock, throwing it after the running man as he realised whose bed Lyra would end up sleeping in tonight. His aim was true, and the rock would've slammed into Blaze's head if Lyra's hadn't been in the way. "Shoot." Rylan mumbled, sprinting over as Lyra started bawling.

Tears leaked down her face, snot trickling down from her nose as Blaze pulled out a tissue, trying, and failing, to comfort the crying girl.

"I'm sorry, Ly-bear." Rylan whispered, reaching out for her, freezing when she buried her face in Blaze's shoulder.

"Goddess... Please have mercy on me..." Blaze murmured, flinching at the death glare Rylan gave him.

"Now, now." Hunter came between the two of them. "Let's be civil about this." He said, staying in between the pair as they trudged back inside the castle, heading towards the dining room.

"I'll go and grab her some warm milk." Rylan spoke softly, glancing longingly at the sobbing redhead in Blaze's arms. "It calmed her down last time..."

"Do I need to get a highchair out?" Blaze asked.

Rylan kicked his shin.

"I'll take that as a no."

"She wouldn't fit in a highchair, idiot." Pale blue eyes rolled. "But you probably will need to help her get the spoon to her lips and all that jazz."

"I watched you do it last time." Blaze sighed. "I know what to do."

"I did it in my room last time." Arms folded.

"I do have binoculars, you know."

Rylan turned his glare on him again.

"OK..." Blaze scurried into the dining room, flinching under the curious stares of the other Alphas as he carried the Luna Queen to the table.

"Where's Rylan...?" A familiar red-eyed blonde asked. "Shouldn't he be the one carrying Lyra to the table?"

"Don't ask." Blaze grumbled, placing a sniffling Lyra into the seat next to his, scowling when she found her way onto his lap. "Seriously...?" He groaned, his shoulders sinking as Lyra smiled brightly back at him.

"You've got to be kidding me...?!" Thorn laughed, realising what was going on in an instant. "She imprinted on you?!"

"Yeah, now shut the hell up."

"I feel sorry for you..." Thorn said, watching as Rylan appeared in the room with a bottle of warm milk. "Really sorry..." He sniggered.

"Shut it." Blaze growled, glaring at the redhead sitting on his lap as she cautiously took the bottle from Rylan, drinking from it slowly.

Rylan sat down in Lyra's vacated seat, shuffling over until the arms of their chairs were touching, continuing to glare at the blonde while he helped Lyra eat her dinner.

"She really is just like a little toddler..." Blaze said, shifting his numb legs after he'd finished eating. "Now do you think you can get her off me? I'm tired."

"She can't be separated from you." Rylan muttered. "She'll bawl and scream if you so much as leave her sight... She also gets very handsy in the night."

"Handsy?" Blaze breathed, gulping as Rylan pressed his arm into his throat, pinning him to the chair.

"If your hands happen to wander in the night, I will kill you."

"Goddess help me..." He mumbled under his breath, gulping as Rylan carefully lifted a sleepy Lyra from his lap, blinking when a hand closed around the fabric of his shirt.

"See?" Rylan sighed, reluctantly passing his mate over to the blonde once he'd climbed to his feet. "She'll throw a hissy fit if she's not touching you."

"Just brilliant." His shoulders sunk. "I might as well go and tell Blaine what I'd like on my gravestone..."

"Let's just get this over and done with." The Alpha King said, closing his eyes as he followed the blonde Alpha up to his bedroom.

"Wait... You mean you're sleeping in here too?!"

Rylan paused. "You didn't really think I'd let you sleep alone with my mate, did you?"

"Uh... Well..."

"Oh my Goddess..." He shook his head in disbelief, changing into his pyjamas quickly. "I can only pray that she'll wake up in her usual state tomorrow... I don't think I can handle much more of this..."

"She should be fine when she wakes up tomorrow." Alpha Thorn appeared at the door, waving around a small sheet of silvery paper. "I just got a note from the Moon Goddess-" A bolt of pure white lightning slammed through the roof, striking the blonde in the chest. "Damn that woman..." Thorn muttered, his eyes narrowing on the new silvery note in his other hand as thunder rumbled overhead ominously.

Call me mother, or mum. Whichever you prefer, Thorny-kins. You are my son, after all.

"My mother says that thanks to Lyra gaining more control over her Ability, the time for which she'll be imprinted to someone has decreased – so she'll only be imprinted to Blaze until she goes to bed and wakes up tomorrow morning." Thorn explained, smiling slightly after he'd finished glaring up at the heavens. "Just thought I'd let you know... Have fun, tonight, kiddies." With that said, he turned sharply on his heel after a sly wink, hurrying back to his own room for the night without another word.

"I suppose this is the part where we go to bed..." Blaze mumbled, having finished stripping into his boxers.

"You are not wearing that into bed with my mate."

"You should be glad I'm not sleeping naked." Blaze grumbled.

"Now we just need to change Lyra..." Rylan trailed off, having heard the sound of water hitting Blaze's ashen wood floor. "Uh oh..."

"Did she just pee on my floor?!"

"Yeah..." Rylan mumbled, trying to stop himself from laughing as Lyra started crying. "She did."

The blonde swore, running over to grab the cleaning supplies from his walk-in-wardrobe.

Rylan swore too, moments later, pinching his nose with one hand. "Dammit, that stinks!"

"Glad to hear you're not laughing anymore!" Blaze said, throwing down paper towels to mop up the puddle at Lyra's feet, slamming a hand over his nose as he caught a whiff of Rylan's mate. "Holy hell, your mate stinks too..." He mumbled, wincing as Lyra bawled her eyes out.

"I suppose we've got no choice..." Rylan sighed, eyeing up the bathroom alongside his least favourite blonde. "Bath time, Ly." He said, scooping up his mate, rushing into the bathroom. "I'm just glad you won't remember this tomorrow..."

That was how Blaze and Rylan found themselves in the bathroom with a very naked Lyra immersed in the gigantic bath filled with bubbles and rose scented water.

"Do I seriously have to be in here?" Blaze grumbled.

"Unfortunately, yes." Rylan sighed, massaging the shampoo into Lyra's hair, blinking as she reached over the side of the tub, yanking the blonde into the water with her.

Lyra giggled, pinning the blonde to the shallower edge of the enormous bathtub. "Play with me, Blaze."

Blaze froze. "You know... If you weren't Rylan's mate, and you weren't behaving like a mischievous toddler, I'd happily oblige-"

Rylan shoved his head under the water, yanking Lyra from him, pulling her into his chest as he continued to drown the blonde. At least until Lyra bit his arm.

"Don't be mean to Blazey!" Lyra scowled, pulling him into the water, kicking her feet as she splashed him over and over again.

"Good Lyra." The blonde petted her hair, grinning smugly at the annoyed black-haired man as he swiftly washed the shampoo out of her hair, closely followed by the conditioner he'd already finished applying with his talented hands.

It was safe to say Lyra was dried and dressed for bed soon after that. That was how she ended up in the massive heart shaped bed, lying in between the two Alphas. Her arms wrapped themselves around Blaze's chest, a contented smile appearing on her face as she snuggled into his back, ignoring the soft growl that came from Rylan who promptly wrapped both arms around her waist.

Dawn came alarmingly fast after that, the sound of birds chirping waking Lyra from her slumber. A heavy weight on her chest made her shift her head on the squidgy warm pillow she was resting on. That was when Lyra froze, having realised that Rylan was upside-down, curling around her, his head snuggled into her chest, his foot squished into a very familiar face which didn't belong to either of them. That face also belonged to the body of which Lyra's own head was nestled in at that moment in time. Lyra stared between her mate and Blaze as they stirred slowly. "How the bloody hell did this happen?!"

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ILLENIS HERE

Sorry for the delay. I tried to put it up yesterday, but the wifi where I was staying was a bit patchy.

A bit of a longer chapter just for you guys. Hope you enjoyed it, because I believe things might be getting a tad more serious from this point onwards... Even if there isn't too much of this book left for me to put up on Wattpad.

See you at the next update.

Ta.

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