Sarisa nearly dropped her teacup.
The silence that followed Veylira's suggestion was not the polite sort. It was the kind that made even the servants at the far wall go very still, like prey sensing movement in tall grass. Lara, who had just taken a bite of bread, nearly choked on it.
Raveth looked delighted. Malvoria looked like she had just been handed a gift wrapped in chaos. Elysia closed her eyes for one short, suffering second, which Lara took as proof that this was about to become unbearable.
Sarisa turned first to Veylira, her expression caught somewhere between outrage and confusion. "Mate?" she repeated. "Like soulmate?"
Veylira, who had apparently decided to ruin breakfast with all the calm of a woman discussing flower arrangements, lifted one elegant shoulder. "Not exactly. Though the sentiment is not entirely wrong."
Lara set down her cup very carefully. "Mother."
Veylira ignored her.
"For demons," she said, addressing Sarisa with infuriating composure, "mating is closer to a marriage. Older than any ceremony with witnesses. Older than courts, temples, or kingdoms. You do it only with the one you love most."
The room went quieter.
Even Malvoria stopped smirking for half a heartbeat.
Sarisa blinked once. "You do it?"
Raveth coughed into her drink.
Veylira's mouth twitched. "Yes. We are not discussing knitting, Sarisa."
Lara groaned and put a hand over her face.
Elysia took a slow sip of tea like she had made peace with the fact that there was no escaping any of this.
Veylira continued, because apparently she had no intention of letting Lara die of embarrassment in peace.
"A mating ties two people together in a way ordinary marriage does not. It is a claim, a vow, and a protection all at once. If the bonded one is mortal…" Her gaze sharpened slightly. "They live as long as the demon they are mated to."
That landed.
Sarisa's eyes widened. "What?"
Lara looked up at that, startled despite herself. Malvoria leaned back in her chair, clearly enjoying Sarisa's shock far too much.
Veylira folded her hands. "Celestians live as long as humans, more or less. Demons do not. We can live as long as we wish, if we are not killed. Two hundred years. Three hundred. Four hundred. Sometimes more. If a mortal is properly mated to a demon, they are brought into that span."
Sarisa stared.
Lara, suddenly unable to stop herself, said, "You probably should have started with that."
Veylira gave her a cool look. "I am starting where I please."
Sarisa looked between them, then back to Veylira. "So if… if a demon mates a human or a Celestian, they would outlive almost everyone they know."
"Yes."
That answer came from Elysia this time, softer. "Almost all of them."
Sarisa's thoughts visibly went to Aliyah, and Lara knew exactly when it happened because her face changed.
"What about Aliyah?" Sarisa asked.
Malvoria answered before anyone else could. "Aliyah is half demon. She'll live like a normal demon, not like a mortal."
Something in Sarisa's shoulders loosened just a little at that, though the rest of her still looked as if she were trying to fit ten lifetimes' worth of consequences into one morning.
Veylira, seeing she still had everyone's full attention, went on.
"A proper mating means more than time. It means exactly what it sounds like. You are mine, and only mine, to live and cherish. Even some Celestians know of it, though most of your people prefer to call it barbaric because they find the idea too honest."
Lara made a rough sound in the back of her throat. "That's enough."
"No," Malvoria said brightly. "Actually I think we're just getting to the entertaining part."
Lara shot her a look that should have melted stone. Malvoria looked thrilled by it.
Sarisa, meanwhile, was still processing. "And there's… a mark?"
Raveth smiled into her coffee. "There it is."
Veylira inclined her head. "There is."
Lara wanted the floor to open and swallow the entire dining room whole.
"Well," she said, trying and failing to sound casual, "I don't know if we can do it."
Every head turned to her.
Lara regretted speaking immediately, but it was too late now. She dragged a hand through her hair and looked sideways at Malvoria, because if she had to suffer, her sister could absolutely come down with her.
"Did you mate with Elysia?"
Malvoria looked offended by the question. "Of course."
Lara frowned. "But there's no mating mark on Elysia. Where the hell did you put it?"
That was a mistake.
Elysia closed her eyes again.
Malvoria, on the other hand, lit up with all the shamelessness of a woman who had never once in her life been cursed with dignity at the wrong moment.
"Well," she said, utterly unbothered, "just beside her pussy. I might have been too excited and bitten there during the mating ceremony."
Elysia smacked her on the arm so fast the sound cracked across the table.
"Please," she said through her teeth, cheeks flushing despite every effort at control. "No more."
Raveth nearly spat her drink. Veylira looked like she was reconsidering all her life choices. Sarisa had gone so red that Lara briefly wondered whether Celestians could burst into flame under pressure.
And Lara—
Lara laughed.
She could not help it. It came out rough and startled and far too loud for breakfast, but once it started, there was no stopping it.
"Gods," she managed, "you really are impossible."
Malvoria rubbed her arm dramatically. "I was sharing cultural information."
"You were being disgusting," Elysia corrected.
"That too."
Sarisa covered half her face with one hand. "I don't know whether I want to ask questions or die."
"Both are valid," Raveth said.
Lara shook her head, still laughing under her breath, and then the practical part of her mind caught up with the rest of the horror.
"Wait." She looked at Malvoria again. "The mating mark is supposed to be visible. So people know you're mated and won't touch your partner."
Malvoria gave her a bland look. "Yes."
Lara gestured helplessly toward Elysia's completely innocent neckline. "Then what was the point of putting it there?"
Malvoria leaned back, one hand over her heart like this was the stupidest question she had ever heard. "First of all, we are married. Second of all, who would be stupid enough to touch my wife?"
That shut Lara up.
Because, annoyingly, it was a solid point.
Elysia looked at her wife with the exhausted fondness of someone long past surprise. "You are never going to stop saying things like that in front of guests, are you?"
"Absolutely not."
Sarisa lowered her hand from her face at last, still flushed but now visibly trying not to smile. "This family is deranged."
"Correct," Malvoria said. "You should join officially."
Lara nearly kicked her under the table.
Instead she reached for her coffee and discovered it had gone cold while her entire breakfast had become a public education in demon mating customs.
Fitting, really.
Across from her, Veylira looked far too pleased with herself. Raveth looked like she was enjoying this more than any woman had a right to before noon.
Elysia had resigned herself to the fact that her wife had, once again, set decency on fire for sport. Sarisa was still blushing, still thinking, and still looking far too beautiful for Lara's peace.
And the worst part?
Well mating was not a bad idea kwowing Sarisa would be hers and only hers forever.
Author note: Well you will have Malvoria and Elysia mating ceremony in their own extra chapters later and well let's say it was really romantic and emotional :)