Rhys grinned at man staring back at him from the mirror. He doubted he had ever looked happier since his family had perished and he had inherited his father's company. He wasn't sure how he could be happier. His business was thriving, his family was happy and with him, and he had the most beautiful and selfless wife. A wife who was sitting at the vanity across the room pinning up her hair and putting last minute touches on her make up.

"What are you grinning at like a fool?" She asked when her reflection caught his between the mirrors.

"I'm just happy," he told her honestly.

He had no reason not to be happy. Hybern was gone, had been gone for almost a year. Apparently Hybern breaking into his townhouse, admitting to his plans to torture Feyre, threatening Rhys with a deadly weapon, and shooting Azriel had given her the legal opening she had been waiting for. Not only had she shredded apart his plans to enter Prythian, and had taken down the corrupt politicians helping him, but she had gone as far as to dismantle his company across the sea as well. The country of Hybern was still reeling from being released from the company's hold over them. Nox was amongst a collection of industries sending aid to help them readjust or in some cases, leave the island altogether.

Beyond that, his relationships with the other companies in Prythian had grown to a point where they no longer set up formal meetings with each other. They met for lunch, dropped by at random, or called on personal phone numbers when they wanted to discuss things. Just in the past week Helion had come calling several times with Nesta accompanying him as his personal assistant. They had come to speak with Feyre about several Velaris contracts and she had had to shift half of her meetings to Lucien who proved to be a competent second to Feyre as Velaris doubled and then tripled in size under her control.

Naturally they still had strained relationships with Spring and with Autumn but that was to be expected. Beron didn't like to work with anyone that wasn't as corrupt as he was and Tamlin, while restored to his place at Spring, was not willing to meet with any of them. Azriel had reported that Hybern's destruction had wrecked his own company, causing most of his loyal employees to flee to more stable positions elsewhere. Cassian had happily pillaged Tamlin's security team after Azriel cleared them from being spies.

And as Feyre stood up to check her dress in the mirror, Rhys was reminded of yet another reason he was undeniably thrilled. At the winter solstice, Feyre had revealed to him she was ready to start trying for a child. They had started that night expecting it to be something that would take time. They had only been trying for a few months before Feyre had gotten very ill to the point she had lost weight and had needed to be hospitalized. Thesan had attended her personally, refusing to give her care to any other doctors, mostly to appease Rhys. The diagnosis had been hyperemesis gravidarum, or rather, an extreme case of morning sickness with an ultrasound to confirm the pregnancy.

Now at five months along, the morning sickness had subsided almost completely and Feyre was just starting to show. The bump was barely visible beneath the sparkling gown Feyre had chosen to wear for the night, but it was visible enough for Rhys to start to grin like an idiot at the sight of it. He was going to be a father.

They had had the anatomy ultrasound just that morning but they had opted to be surprised by the gender. Or rather, they had been taking bets and thought a reveal in the hospital room was much better than some party, and there was always a small chance that they could be mistaken in the ultrasound so they wanted to wait until the baby's sex was certain. Feyre had fallen on the side that the babe would be a boy. She was certain. Convinced the boy would have Rhys' crushing blue eyes but her smile. For the sake of arguing, Rhys told Feyre he believed it was a girl. Only girls ever gave their parents so much trouble from the start he had told her. Their family had all taken sides. Only he and Mor stood on the side it was a girl, his brothers had abandoned him to support Feyre almost immediately.

"Are you ready?" Feyre asked, drawing his eyes up from her stomach to her face.

"I'm always ready," he assured her as he offered her his arm.

They swept from their very oversized bedroom out into the hallway. Plush blue rugs muffled their footsteps as they walked towards the sweeping staircase. Lucien was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, his red hair pulled back into a ponytail making him look a bit rakish despite his tuxedo.

"You two took long enough," he informed them as he stole Feyre's arm from Rhys. Rhys only relented because this was their event, not his. Lucien had taken up his position as Feyre's second with far more enthusiasm than he had likely shown any other job. He had his own charm that had business owners trusting him far faster than before and a business sense that had sent profits from Velaris businesses skyrocketing. So despite him being new to the Velaris branch of Nox Industries, he was as much a part of it as Feyre was.

Feyre simply rolled her eyes at Lucien and let him lead her down the hall to the ballroom. It was already full of people dressed in their best, enjoying wine and champagne, and eating hors d'oeuvres circulating the room on platters. The walls were lined with the names of businesses and artists that had all been working under Velaris protection and guidance along with pictures and business cards. It had been Feyre's idea to actually throw the gala for Velaris. It had been Lucien's to turn it into a marketing event. So Rhys had helped them build a list of people to invite outside of the Velaris names and had filled the guest list with potential investors, politicians, and leaders in the communities.

"Rhys!" Cassian called his name, pulling him away from where Lucien and Feyre were taking position on a small platform to give their welcome speech. Rhys had intended to stand near them to offer his silent support but it seemed his family had other ideas as they pulled him over to join them tucked in one of the side rooms off of the ballroom. This one had been set up as a small sitting area for those who needed to escape the party and sit.

"Cousin, come sit with us!" Mor giggled, her arm around her girlfriend.

"Maybe after Feyre is done speaking," Rhys turned to leave but found the door blocked by Azriel.

"Join us for a drink," he said and it wasn't a suggestion. Rolling his eyes, Rhys went to sit on one of the couches while he waited for whatever his family wanted to come out.

"We have a gift for you," Cassian told Rhys. "Something we've been working on since the Winter Solstice so consider it a Solstice gift and a birthday gift."

"For the next few years," Amren added from where she sat. Rhys had made sure to invite Varian Summer alongside Tarquin. It had both amused Amren and had earned her wrath at his cheekiness when he had announced their attendance at a family dinner. Varian was not in the room with them though. He was sure Amren was keeping him at an arm's length for now to keep up appearances.

But Rhys wasn't too focused on Amren's relationship. Instead he was focused on the folder that Azriel was holding out to him. He took the folder, opened it, and frowned at twin pictures of the now destroyed cabin in the Illyrian Mountains. One was clearly an old picture, the coloring of the ink indicating it was taken around the time his parents had built it. The other looked newer, much newer in fact. And the date stamped on the bottom of the picture indicated it was taken since the new year, months after it had been destroyed.

"We tracked down the original blueprints," Mor explained quietly. "I know it isn't going to be exactly the same but—" she stopped as Rhys pulled her into a tight embrace and then turned to embrace each of his brothers. He stopped short of hugging Amren and simply nodded to her. He wasn't about to incite her anger because he touched her without he expressed permission. How Varian survived a relationship with her was beyond Rhys' comprehension.

"Thank you," he told them all with as much sincerity as he could muster.

"We thought we might need a vacation, a family vacation, to break the new cabin in," Cassian told him. "So tomorrow morning, once we are all sober from the gala, we are leaving."

"I'll need to let Feyre know," Rhys turned to look at the door.

"Feyre already knows," Azriel grinned at Rhys. "She's been quite instrumental in getting your attention away from us whenever you've gotten too close asking about the land or what we've been doing out there."

Rhys almost cursed. His brothers had been spending quite a bit of time 'hunting' in Illyrian territory. Cassian had claimed they needed to reclaim their heritage but whenever Rhys had thought to invite himself along, Feyre had had some sort of emergency that had kept him away. One of which was her hospitalization with her morning sickness, so he knew not all of them were orchestrated. It would have been hard for her to fake that level of illness. And he had been trying to figure out what to with the vacant land. He had asked his brothers twice about donating it to make some sort of refuge for Illyrian orphans and women only to have them dodge around it or to be distracted by a naked Feyre whenever they were home and he was musing about it alone. Honestly, now that he thought about it, it was laughable how he hadn't caught on.

"We do need to do some honest hunting," Cassian told Rhys. "Part of the reason we are going. And we should go before Feyre gets too heavily pregnant. So why not this next week?"

"Work, meetings…" Rhys started to list off.

"You deserve some time off and all meetings have been rescheduled," Mor told him. "No other objections. We need a family vacation before you and Feyre ruin it with babies."

Rhys could only chuckle at the statement. Mor was more than excited about the baby. Feyre often joked that Mor was more excited than Rhys or herself. Mor was constantly shopping to buy baby clothes, nursery decorations, toys, and anything else Feyre might need. She already had an extravagant baby shower planned despite it being too early for that. Rhys just explained it away as Mor liked a reason to shop and plan parties.

"Okay, fine, we'll head out tomorrow morning," Rhys told his family. "Now, let's go enjoy the party." He waited until Azriel unblocked the door and left to catch Feyre just as she left the stage. "Dance with me, all night," he commanded of her.

"Even if I step on your toes?" She asked as he led her to the dancefloor.

"Even then."

A/N: Thank you all for reading. I welcome all comments/favorites/follows and PMs.