The crisp morning wind felt incredibly good against Roxy’s skin.
She stood on the massive glass balcony of the penthouse, wrapped safely in Zarek’s giant arms, looking out over the busy city of New York. The terrible monster from her past was gone.
She had her revenge, and she felt extrely accomplished.
But sotis, winning cos with a very heavy price.
But there was one thing that Roxy forgot, her mind and body was still trying to heal from the trauma of leaving her children.
She still couldn’t accept the fact that she could not see them again, and sotis she would have mini flashes of them around the penthouse.
She let out a soft, shaky breath. Her vision suddenly swam, the tall glass skyscrapers blurring together into ssy streaks of gray and gold.
Her knees buckled right out from under her.
"Roxy!" Zarek gasped, instantly tightening his arms around her waist to stop her from hitting the hard balcony floor.
He caught her easily, picking her up into his chest. He expected her to laugh and say she just tripped, but she didn’t say a word. Her head rolled weakly against his broad shoulder. Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut.
Zarek imdiately felt the heat radiating right through her thick silk robe. Her skin was suddenly burning, totally on fire, but her small body was shivering violently against him like she was trapped in a freezing snowstorm.
"Ren!" Zarek roared, his deep voice carrying through the open glass doors and shaking the entire penthouse. "Ren, get in here right now!"
Zarek didn’t wait. He carried her quickly inside, his long legs crossing the massive living room in three huge strides. He rushed down the hallway and gently laid her down in the absolute center of the giant, soft master bed.
The other Kings dropped their breakfast plates and ran. They crowded into the bedroom, their faces totally pale with fresh panic.
Ren pushed his way to the front, dropping to his knees right beside the mattress. He reached out and pressed the back of his cool hand against Roxy’s sweaty forehead. He checked her racing pulse, his eyes narrowing with deep, heavy worry.
"She is burning up," Ren said, his voice tense. He looked at Zarek. "What happened? Did she eat sothing bad? Was she hurt?"
"Nothing happened," Zarek growled, pacing at the foot of the bed like a caged, angry dragon. "We were just standing outside. She smiled, and then she just completely collapsed."
Roxy let out a pathetic, painful whimper. She curled into a tight little ball on her side, pulling the thick white blankets all the way up to her chin. Her teeth were chattering loudly.
It wasn’t a normal human sickness. It wasn’t a cold or a flu from the city.
It was pure, absolute emotional exhaustion.
With the fear of her ex-husband totally gone, a giant, empty vacuum had opened up inside Roxy’s heart. And imdiately, that empty space was completely flooded by the heavy, crushing, unbearable grief of leaving her Beastworld babies behind.
While she was fighting for her life, she had forced herself to push the sadness away. But now, it caught up to her human body all at once.
Even the whole wedding and happiness couldn’t get rid of it.
She missed them so much that it actually made her physically sick. The magical moving pictures Ren and Zarek had given her had opened the emotional floodgates. Her heart was screaming for Drax’s proud smile. It was aching for Onyx’s loud laughs and little Fedor’s red fox ears. She wanted to hold Gianna. She wanted to tease Zale to sleep. Most of all, her arms felt completely, painfully empty without tiny baby Gianna in them.
"My babies," Roxy cried out in her sleep. She tossed her head back and forth on the soft pillows, completely trapped in the terrible fever. Big, hot tears squeezed out of her closed eyes and rolled down her bright red cheeks. "I want my babies. Please, give them back."
The words shattered the Kings’ hearts into a million tiny, painful pieces.
Torian let out a choked, wet breath, covering his mouth with his giant hand. The huge White Tiger looked totally helpless. Caspian wiped a tear from his own eye, sitting on the edge of the bed to gently stroke Roxy’s damp, dark curls.
They could easily fight a hundred monsters for her. They could tear a building apart with their bare hands. But they could not fight a broken heart. They couldn’t magically open the door to the Beastworld and bring her children back to her.
"Her body is crashing from the grief," Ren whispered sadly, pulling the heavy blankets tighter around her shivering shoulders. "The stress of the last few months, the trauma, the missing pieces of her soul... it is all hitting her at the exact sa ti. The fever is her body’s way of trying to burn away the pain."
Zarek stopped pacing. He looked around the giant, clean, modern penthouse bedroom.
The walls were painted a cold, bright white. The furniture was sleek and sharp. There was glass and tal everywhere. It was a beautiful place, and it had kept them safe from the dangers of the city, but it was not a real ho. It didn’t sll like the forest. It didn’t feel like a family. It felt exactly like a sterile, fancy hotel room.
Ren stood up from the floor, his face completely serious.
"We cannot keep her here," Ren decided, his voice leaving no room for argunts. "This place is too cold. Her soul cannot rest in a glass box in the sky. She needs peace. We have to go to the mansion."
Torian blinked, looking down at his shivering wife. He looked totally nervous.
"Are you sure she would like it?" Torian asked quietly, rubbing the back of his neck. "We built it so fast. It is massive, Ren. It might be way too much for her right now. What if it overwhelms her even more?"
Syris stepped forward. The Swamp King adjusted his dark green dress shirt, his sharp eyes totally focused.
"It is not as if she likes it, Torian," Syris said smoothly, laying out the absolute truth. "This is not about whether she wants a new view out the window. She needs a place to call ho. A place with thick walls, grass, and trees. A place that completely fits her status as a King."
Syris was right. She wasn’t just a normal human girl anymore. She was a Matriarch. She was their absolute equal, a ruler who deserved a private, sprawling sanctuary where nobody in the entire world could ever bother her again. She needed a real castle to heal her broken heart.
Zarek didn’t need to hear another single word.
The Dragon King walked right up to the side of the massive bed. He reached down and gently gathered Roxy into his giant arms. He didn’t take the blankets off her. Instead, he wrapped the thick, heavy white comforter completely around her body, swaddling her like a precious, fragile treasure to keep the freezing chills away from her skin.
Roxy whimpered, pressing her hot, sweaty face deeply into the crook of Zarek’s warm neck.
"Syris, grab her dicine. Caspian, pack a bag," Zarek ordered his brothers, his voice completely commanding.
Zarek didn’t carry her to the front door, and he didn’t carry her to the private elevator. Instead, he walked straight down the long hallway toward a thick tal door at the very end of the penthouse.
He pushed the door open with his broad shoulder and climbed the short, carpeted staircase.
Zarek kicked open the final door and stepped right out onto the absolute top of the giant glass building.
The flat, wide roof was incredibly windy. The cold morning air whipped around them, pulling at Zarek’s dark shirt. But the wind wasn’t just coming from the city.
Sitting right in the absolute center of the private landing pad was a massive, sleek, completely black helicopter. The giant blades on the top were already spinning fast, creating a loud, rhythmic chop-chop-chop sound that echoed across the sky. Syris had it placed there on standby weeks ago, just in case they ever needed to leave the city in a hurry.
Torian, Kaelen, Ren, Syris, and Caspian rushed out onto the roof right behind him, carrying bags and extra blankets. They ducked their heads against the heavy wind and climbed quickly into the large, luxurious cabin of the waiting helicopter.
Zarek held Roxy tight against his chest. He used his broad back to block the heavy wind from hitting her shivering body. He climbed into the back seat, holding her securely in his lap.
The pilot imdiately pulled the levers, and the giant black helicopter lifted smoothly and powerfully right up into the bright morning sky, leaving the loud, busy human city far below them.
Roxy squeezed her eyes shut, a small sob shaking her chest as the fever burned through her body. She clutched weakly at Zarek’s shirt.
Zarek pressed his face gently against her hot, damp hair. He wrapped his massive arms around her, completely shielding her from the world.
"We are going ho, my love," Zarek rumbles against her hair.
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