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Anger flares up in me. “Brings hope? You mean it turns human women into breeding slaves.”

Daccia doesn’t wince at my accusation. His aura doesn’t change. He’s completely comfortable with that accusation.

For a moment, he stares me down, and his slate-grey eyes glint with that hint of diamond. They’ve only grown harder with the changes of the Bond, and I’m reminded that it doesn’t matter if Daccia has a kind side to him. At his core, he’s still a ruthless alien warrior – one who has survived a hundred years of hell in battlefields across this universe.

If there’s anything left of goodness in him, it’s nothing compared to the blood he’s spilled.

Daccia murmurs: “No. Never aslave. A woman who never wanted children willstillnever want children. The Bond can’t change that.”

Wanted children.

Did I ever want children?

One day, I’d dreamed of having a large family – but I’d long abandoned those dreams.

Not in this universe.

Not in the universeI’veseen. Not with the chaos and violence that fills it…

But with three Aurelian warriors? Who’d literallydiefor me? Three powerful men who’d doanythingto keep me and my children safe?

Maybe.

Maybe…

…but notnow.

I still have so much to do in my life.

I pick at the crumbs of the ration pack and think about what I want from life. Ever since I’d tried and failed to save my sister, my life has been one, long escape. It’s felt like one, long chase – only ever once step ahead of Law Enforcement.

I’m tired. I’m so,sotired.

A rabbit can only run so long from the fox. I’ve been looking over my shoulder for Aurelian Law Enforcement for so long, I’m not sure if I’m programmed for anything else.

If I escape Daccia, Hadrian, and Kitos, I’ll then be looking over my shoulder for them, too. They’ll be even more relentless than Law Enforcement. They’llneverlet go of the one woman who can bear them sons.

Unless I turn them into the law.

Gods! What a thought!

It would be the ultimate betrayal. It would make stealing from those Aurelian Elites look like littering.

The three of them will be jailed – or killed…

…and yet, I’ll finally be safe.

Daccia sits across from me, waiting for his words to sink in. I feel a knot in my stomach. He’s completely unaware that I’m plotting his captivity… or even his death.

When we first met, he was the one who was bringing me in to rot in a jail cell.

How fitting would it be if I was the one to puthimright where he wanted to throwme? That I’d going to get away with my freedom, my life, and thousands of years to enjoy it all – while he and his battle-brothers regret ever crossing paths with me.

Oblivious to my scheming, Daccia continues: "The Bond can’t make you do anything you don'twantto do – but it can make you lose your inhibitions. It can make you push forward and enjoy things you might not have even realized you liked.”

Like the fact that Kitos’ cruelty turns me on so fucking much?

Gods! I need to do everything in my power to keep these Aurelians thinking I’m on their side. I can’t let them know I’m going to betray them at the first chance I get. I dread to even think what would happen if that were the case.