Location: Inner Sanctum, Valeheart SpireTime: Before dawn
Selene didn't remember falling asleep.
She remembered heat, whispers, touches—but no dreams. Only sensations. And his voice, low and insistent, echoing through her thoughts like a spell carved into her skull.
When she opened her eyes, the world was dim and warm. She was on silken bedding, wrists now unbound, but still trembling. Her armor had been removed. She wore a single, silken slip—one she knew didn't belong to her.
Vespera was beside her, lying with her back turned, the curve of her hip bare beneath the sheets. Akari sat cross-legged at the foot of the bed, brushing her hair while humming a tune. Iris sat at a vanity nearby, already dressed in black-laced submission wear, marking her daily schedule in a datapad. None of them looked at Selene like she was a prisoner.
They looked at her like she was already one of them.
Selene sat up slowly.
"You didn't resist us last night," Akari said softly. "Not even once."
Selene's jaw clenched. "You did something to me."
"No," said Vespera, still facing away. "He did."
The door opened with a low chime.
Lucien stepped in.
All conversation stopped.
Selene stared as the other three dropped their gazes immediately—like instinct. Akari moved to her knees. Iris knelt beside the vanity. Vespera slid from the bed, barefoot, her collar shimmering with rune-light as she bent forward in a deep bow.
Selene wanted to feel disgusted.
Instead, her thighs pressed together involuntarily.
"Still pretending you haven't changed?" Lucien asked, stepping close. "You could've run last night. You didn't."
She didn't respond.
He sat beside her. Close.
"You're still fighting, but now it's only with yourself."
He leaned in, brushing her hair aside with two fingers. She didn't pull away.
"You came here as a Huntress," he whispered. "But I see what you really are now."
He kissed the side of her neck, slow and dominant.
"Mine."
Selene trembled.
She opened her mouth to speak—but Lucien's hand slid beneath her slip and pressed against her abdomen, right where her womb mark would be.
There was no mark.
Not yet.
But it tingled.
Burned.
Like a brand waiting to be claimed.
[Womb Resonance: 18%][Submission Threshold Approaching]
"Tonight," Lucien murmured, "I'll mark you. And once I do, even your soul will belong to me."
Selene gasped—not in defiance. But in anticipation.
Meanwhile...
Far beyond the Valeheart Spire, deep within the ruins of ancient Kyoto, something stirred. A coffin, black and silver, trembled beneath layers of warding seals.
Eyes opened.
Crimson. Ageless. Hungry.
Another woman had awakened.
And she'd heard Lucien's name whispered in her sleep.