Cutlery was Lyra's worst nightmare, or so she found out that very evening. There were too many knives and forks littered around her plate, and they confused her greatly. Sure, she had seen plenty of sets like the one before her but that had been from further away – where she hadn't had to eat using them.

They were in the dining room. It was the room she'd been in only briefly before, and now that she had the chance to take another look around she realised how fancy it truly was. The crown moulding was plain that time, the wallpaper full of cream and brown damask patterns, and the flooring a rich mahogany.

"You work from the outside in," Rylan explained, sitting next to her cheerily. "It's simple, so you should get the hang of it fairly quickly."

Lyra nodded, biting her lip at the implications of that. He said it like she would be eating with them regularly. "Thanks," she mumbled, starting on the first meal of many set out in front of her. It had been a bit of a hectic day between Blu's questions and Rylan's preparations for helping her get settled into her new apartment. She was fairly certain she was now borrowing a number of household items from her mate. He didn't seem to mind – in fact, Lyra would go as far to say, he looked rather happy about that fact.

"You're welcome," he said, smiling for a few moments before he noticed Blaze's eyes fixed upon them. "Focus on your own dinner," he grumbled, glaring at the blonde and his purple-eyed companion.

Not all of the alphas who lived there were present – some being away on pack business or other matters which required their attention. Still, it was one of the largest dinners she had been to, both in content and company, but rather than feeling out of place Lyra felt content there. It was peaceful, despite the chatter around her and the squabbles over the various condiments.

"Want anything to go with that?" Rylan inquired, glancing between her plain meal and the tray of sauces and other toppings. "Tartar usually goes nicely with fish, though it is a bit sour."

"Uhh." Lyra blinked. "That sounds nice?"

"You can try some if you like," he said, offering out his plate, the proffered piece of fish ready for the taking.

"Lend her your fork too," Blaze said, eagerly eyeing them from where he sat opposite them. "Go for that indirect kiss!"

"Ignore him," Rylan grumbled. "He's just hyped because I found my mate," he explained, glaring at the blonde. "Feel free to ignore everything he says. It tends to be some sort of"—he pursed his lips—"lewd joke, or something of a similar nature."

"Lewd, huh?" Blaze purred, leaning forwards, hands steepled under his chin. "Still too much of a prude to say the word sex, are we?"

"You are absolutely disgusting," Rylan muttered, looking as though he had just swallowed a lemon.

"It's a perfectly natural part of life," he said. "The sooner you accept it, the sooner you and Ly-bear can get frisky."

Lyra raised an eyebrow at that. "Ly-bear?" she muttered, testing it out on her tongue as she swiped her mate's offering from his plate.

"Don't mind that – he comes up ridiculous nicknames for all of us," Rylan said, rolling his eyes at the other man. Though Lyra was tempted to call them all children for how they bickered. "I think I'm—"

"Ry-Ry," Blaze spoke, a smug, satisfied grin on his lips. "Or Ry-kins. Depends on how I feel at the time."

"Of course it does," he mumbled, shaking his head as he set his knife and fork down, finished with his meal.

"Blaze," Blu called from further down the table, sparing both her and Rylan from the blonde's antics. "I've got some work for you to do – Mister Public Relations."

"Ooo, what for?" He leant back in his chair, locking eyes with the blue-haired alpha. "Tell me. Tell me! Is it fun? Exciting, like the bundle of joy you are?"

"It's work," Blu said flatly. "You need to organise us a trip down to Stonewall in about a month's time. I need to dig through the archives down there."

"For our precious Ly-bear, is it?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

Blu nodded sharply. "Yes. That would be correct. We'll be bringing the love birds along with us, so be sure to book us all enough seats."

"I'll tag along too," Thorn called from the other end of the table. "If it involves Omega Taurus, then that's part of my jurisdiction."

"It's both of ours," Blu said, glaring at his dinner as though it had offended him. "So you can help me dig through the archives?" He glanced over at the other alpha. "Blythe usually keeps everything in order, but there'll be a fair few cases to trawl through. As far as I can recall there were eighteen disappearances related to that rogue group back then... and the Queen of Rogues didn't make a move either, which got Rylan's parents in a tizzy about her instead."

"Your parents?" Lyra asked, looking over at her mate, curious to know more about him and his family. She'd be joining it sooner or later, should the bond get its way.

"Ah, that's right... you probably wouldn't know." Rylan hummed quietly for a moment. "The title of 'Alpha King' or 'King of the Alphas' – however you like to put it – is an inherited title rather than the bestowed title of 'Alpha'. It runs through the bloodline—"

"And that means you and ickle Ry-kins over here need to get frisky with each other so you can give birth to the next Alpha King... though he'd be more like a prince, since Rylan would still be in power for a while longer," Blaze added, winking at the both of them. "Though there's no guarantee your firstborn will be the one to inherit the so-called 'pure gold thread' on their life tapestry. But that means you and Ry-Ry get to have, ahem, fun under the sheets – to put it politely for prudish ears – many more times until that child is born."

"Just call it sex and be done with it," Blu grumbled, rolling his eyes at them all and the blushes staining some of their faces. "We're all adults here"—he looked over at Blaze pointedly—"well, mostly."

Blaze gasped. "Please tell me you did not just make a joke at my expense."

"I feel oddly proud all of a sudden," his purple-eyed companion mumbled.

Blaze sighed with gusto. "I know... we've finally corrupted him," he said, smiling cheerfully. "Which means we can finally turn all our attention onto Ry-Ry and his prudish ways."

"Oh goodie," Rylan muttered, sounding anything other than happy at the declaration.

Grinning, Lyra dug into the last few bits on her plate, sighing at the sour taste on her tongue as she finished. It made a nice change from the bland food she had been so used to eating before her arrival at the castle. "Thank you for the meal," she said, pushing herself away from the table. "I should really head back—"

Rylan's hand snaked around her wrist before she could even take a few steps. "Dinner isn't over yet... That was only the first course," he said, tugging gently on her arm. "You should really stay and eat some more, especially since you might be shifting more than what you're used to with Arrow's Division."

"You should talk with Hunter when he gets back," Blu said, blue eyes narrowed on her as she stood there, torn between the overwhelming urge to run and the desire to sit back down and eat with her mate. "I doubt she's perfectly healthy – from the looks of her, she might be just slightly underweight..."

"It's not wise to talk to a woman about her weight, you clueless idiot," Blaze chimed in, fingers stroking his chin in contemplation as Lyra slowly slunk back into her seat. "But if she's unhealthy, then it will be harder for Ry-Ry to get her pregnant—"

"Would you stop going on about stuff like that already?" Rylan hissed, still holding onto her wrist, no doubt feeling the same warm tingles which were running up her own arm. "We've only just met! There's no need to worry about heirs or the like just yet."

"Not my fault it's so easy to get a reaction out of you whenever we bring up any activities of the bedroom variety," Blaze said, sitting back in his chair as his purple-eyed friend vanished off into the kitchen.

"And you would know all about those," Rylan muttered.

Blaze sucked in a breath. "I'm going to graciously choose to ignore what you just said and the implied thoughts and meanings behind those words, Ry-kins."

"Stop pushing him," Blu grumbled. "If you keep working each other up, then the only thing which will come of this is a fight in the courtyard. Hunter isn't here to patch either of you up, so stop winding each other up. I can, and will, throw you both in the cells downstairs to cool off if it comes to it. Don't think I will refrain from doing so just because we live together."

Rylan sank down in his seat, visibly deflating as he let out a long sigh. Opposite, Blaze stared determinedly at his plate, tapping his feet noisily against the polished wood flooring as if to distract himself.

"You have cells underneath here?" Lyra piped up, turning her attention from her sulking mate over onto him instead.

"This castle has pretty much everything we'll ever need," he said, shrugging as he relaxed back in his chair. "Our predecessors made a lot of renovations when they took over after what happened to the Blades and their castle at Veldt."

"All of our divisions have a base here," Blaze said, still staring determinedly at his empty plate before his purple-eyed partner reappeared to sweep all of them away. "You'll get to see Arrow's tomorrow when you begin your work with him. I spoke with him, and it seems you'll be helping the Cypher Division."

"She doesn't have the training for that," Rylan said, frowning even as the next course in their dinner was served. "Do you?"

Lyra chuckled quietly, the sound husky thanks to the unfamiliarity of it. She wasn't used to laughing. "No. I was never allowed near anything like that when working for Omega Taurus... I was the person they sent out on assignments. My handlers were the ones who sent back encrypted information and reports."

"It's a shame," Blu said. "We might have been closer to bringing them down had they trusted you with that much..."

"But they didn't," Lyra muttered, staring down at the newest dish – one she couldn't name for the life of her. "And there's nothing that can be done about that now," she spat, wishing she could somehow know exactly what the rogue organisation was up to so she could bring them tumbling down to their knees.

A nudge at her side made her blink, eyes locking on the pale blue ones belonging to her mate. "Why don't we stop talking about these rogues now, eh?" he spoke softly. "I think they're spoiling our appetite."

"Correct," Blu mumbled, and Lyra felt herself relaxing right then and there. Alphas weren't as bad or as scary as she had first thought, and she preferred them over the company of Omega Taurus already. They had given her a job and she hadn't even needed to fiddle about with creating a new identity nor worry about leaving a paper trail for the rogues to track her down with.

She was safe there, and she tried to ignore the small voice in the back of her head which asked, for how long?