Page 14 of Knotted By the Triad

“And if there’s no way out?”

I frowned. “Then I’ll figure something else out.”

“Are you truly willing to leave your child behind?” she asked, voice low.

I’m not even from this world. It’s not like I could take the kid back to the real world with me. The child wouldn’t even be real outside of this bookish hell. So, in the words of a modern-day social media poet, Fuck them kids.

"I’d be leaving the young prince or princess with their father. What’s there to worry about? They can raise the child here, and I can visit. Or the child can spend time with me too. We can raise him or her together without having to live together. I’d make a great co-parent."

I probably sounded insane to Allie. But my plan made perfect sense to me. I didn't need Kai, Daemin, or Zian to love me. That was where the original Zuri had gone wrong. She'd wanted their love so badly that eventually nothing else mattered.

I wasn’t that desperate for love. I’d been born alone. I would die alone. But while I lived, I only wanted to surround myself with people whose presence I enjoyed and who enjoyed my presence.

As for my husbands in this world, they loved Mei Lin. Fine. They could have her. All I needed to do was fulfill the decree without losing myself in the process. Love was not in my survival plan.

"Do you really want to leave the princes?" she asked.

"I do."

"But...” She paused. “You used to dream about marrying them."

I stiffened.

Wait. What?

My thoughts drifted back to the book. I remembered Zuri wanting the princes after the marriage, but I couldn't remember CiCi ever saying she'd wanted them before it.

“You mean I liked them even before my father called me back from the countryside?”

“Yes. You used to talk about them all the time when we lived in the country.”

Well, shit.

“I’ve had a very long day, Allie,” I said carefully. “Remind me what I told you.”

She seemed to accept that excuse.

“You’ve loved them ever since the year it flooded badly, and so many people in the country got displaced.”

The flood?

Displaced?

I vaguely remembered that from the book. It happened while the old king was still in power. My husbands weren’t even leaders of the Triad yet. Kai’s cousin, the current King, had been the Triad leader.

But he’d been plotting to overthrow the tyrant king. To win over the people and make them see him, his family, and his organization favorably, he’d ordered his cousin, Kai, and Kai’s two friends, Zian and Daemin, to go to the countryside and help the flood victims.

“Tell me more,” I encouraged.

“Well, the river overflowed and destroyed part of the town. The magistrate sent a letter to the capital, asking for government aid. The King didn’t send help. So, the Triad stepped up and helped out. The princes came with men and supplies from their territories to assist us. One day, while passing out porridge, you saw them soar into town in their dragon forms. You left me at the porridge stand and rushed off to see who they were. When you came back, you told me you had fallen in love with three alphas.”

“I did?” I frowned.

She nodded. “You said they landed in front of the magistrate's office, looking majestic. And then they shifted into their skin forms. And you said you were impressed with how well they used their Raiment Shift ability.”

Oh, right. Raiment Shift.

In this world, shifters could bind their clothes to their bodies before transforming, so when they returned to their skin forms, their clothes returned with them. No naked dragons running around the capital. Convenient. I’d loved that detail when CiCi told me about it.