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“No one’s safe, Doman. Not now.” I look him up and down, the majesty of him, the strength. His towering stature, the golden mane like a lion, the piercing blue eyes and proud features. You’d trust him instantly, and it’s obvious from a glance why men follow him into combat, why they didn’t hesitate to risk their lives for the chance to get his Mate back. “Do you know how much I hated you when I first saw you?”

He smiles, ruefully. “I know. I felt your mind, then, just as you felt mine. I’d never felt someone despise me so… fundamentally.”

“I didn’t see a future with you back then. I can see one now… if you can accept you can’t control everything. There’s always going to be danger, Doman. You’re crown prince of an Empire spanning hundreds of planets, trillions of people.” I smile, but not from joy, from the strangeness of it all, shaking my head in wonder. “I was a little girl on a big green planet, and now I’m here. I’m sitting on the throne of the crown prince, and you’re right in front of me. We can’t pretend that everything is as sterile as these hallways. That everything can be controlled, down to the molecule.”

“An Aurelian who cannot protect his Fated Mate is no Aurelian. That is a fundamental truth of our species.” He raises his hand, showing me the blue-black ring. So small, a circle of darkness around his marble digit, yet it seems to suck in the light of the room. “That’s why you won’t let me take this off.”

I uncross my legs, sitting normally, my feet dangling. “No, that couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s not about me thinking you can’t keep me safe, or that I don’t think you’re capable, or strong or… look, a wedding is one thing. We do it in Pentaris all the time to join planets together, to soothe rivalries, to keep our alliance united. The Bond. That’s different.”

Doman flicks his wrist, sub-vocalizing to his smart-watch. From it, the holo-vid appears, projecting the life-sized video feed between him and I.

The War-God. I flinch, pressing back against the marble of the throne instinctively. Obsidian is over eight feet tall. He has black hair down to his shoulder, jet-black eyes that glitter as if they contain a trillion stars. But it’s his veins that makes him the opposite to Doman. Obsidian is a king of darkness against the prince of light.

Even as an immobile holo-vid, slowly turning in front of me, the brutality in his eyes is unsettling. His veins look as if they are running oil through them, and my intelligence agency told me that his every second is pure agony, that only the presence of his Fated Mate can soothe his pain.

“He’s out there, Adriana.” Doman’s rasping voice cuts into me. “He’s out there, and he’s thinking of you. Of me. Of his black flag flying on Colossus. Every day, he thinks of us, and what he’s going to do to us, and how he’s going to do it. We’re at war, Adriana, and until you’re Bonded to me, I can’t feel you in my mind.” He gets intense, his blue eyes widening, and I can see him through the transparent hologram of the War-God. “When I walked on the bridge, every instinct in my body told me to run back to you. Because the second you’re out of my sight, I don’t know if you’re okay. I don’t know if you’re safe. But I will. When we’re together, truly together, my Mate, I will be able to protect you.Always.”

“That’s not possible. No one can be safe all the time. It’s?—”

“It is possible.” His voice cuts through everything. He twists his wrist, and the holo-vid disappears, and it’s only me and him. He is not wearing his crown, and he doesn’t have to. He was made to be a monarch, made to be an Emperor, and I hate that it’s true, because it goes against everything I believe in. It exudes from him, this right to rule that he was born into.

I shouldn’t believe him, but I do. I think to the darkness I went through, as I fell, deeper and deeper into nothingness, until only a shred of my mind remained, and his triad pulled me back.

I want to walk to him, to rip the ring from his finger, to let him bind me to him.

“If we were Bonded, I would have felt you in the Rift. I would have never let you go,” he says, eyes wide.

I just went through trauma. I can’t make any decision that will affect the rest of my life.

And letting him pull the ring off and take me won’t just change the path of my life. It’ll make me live thousands of years, and by the end of it, I’ll be someone I don’t recognize. Maybe he’s right that his mother went in with only the best intentions, but it didn’t take long for her to change, to start viewing the fate of the universe in millennia and not decades.

“Titus was right,” he continues. “I failed you. It was the last mistake I will make. All I had to do was arrange the wedding in Pentaris, instead of thinking we could travel to Colossus safety. I didn’t realize that Obsidian didn’t just stumble on whatever new powers he has. Somehow he’s able to see the universe through his ships. That’s the only thing that makes sense. It’s so obvious that he would have seeded the universe with cheap drones to expand his vision, but I didn’t predict it. I failed you, Adriana, and I will never fail you again. Not if you let me take this ring off my finger and Bond you to me.”

You’re insane.

Then the next thought, the dangerous one, that he’s not crazy. That he knows exactly what he’s saying, and that all I have to do is let him enter me, and I’ll be protected for eternity.

Then the next thought, that makes my heart pound, that if he decided to pull that ring off and take me, there’s nothing I could do about it. The decision that’s been plaguing me since I first saw them could be taken away from me. All he has to do is use one finger to hold me down. I could struggle, I could writhe and fight him off, but nothing could stop the titan from pressing his rock-hard cock past my resistance and linking us.

Forever.

The thought makes me scared, yes, but a frisson rushes up in me, this heat. I’ve been in control so damned long, making decisions for billions of lives. All I have to do is surrender to this and let it be taken out of my hands.

“I’m going to put you on the throne, Adriana. One day, we will rule the Aurelian Empire together. But first, Obsidian must die,” he states, stepping closer to me, his hand on his ring, twisting it, watching me, drinking up every inch of my body. I’m a sweaty mess, my hair a tangled mop, my makeup smeared from crying, and none of that matters to him.

I am the one woman in the universe who can make his heart quicken, make his cock surge, trigger the Mating Rage and drive him wild with the need to claim me.

I put my hand up, as if that could stop him. “It’s not true. When Obsidian dies, it doesn’t end with him. His men pledged their lives. The brand seared into their flesh doesn’t disappear with the War-God. When you kill Obsidian, his forces will splinter into the universe. We’re talking an age of warlords. Would you give the Fanatics amnesty? Would it even work? No chance. Your men wouldn’t fight side by side with branded Aurelians. They’re going to have to be hunted down. You’ll be at war for centuries.”

I swallow, hard, wishing it could all be simple, wishing I could just rip the ring from his finger and escape all this stress, wishing Pentaris could be safe without me at the helm.

But I don’t trust anyone else to step up. “I can’t be a trophy queen, Doman. I can’t sit on the throne, waiting decades at a time while you are out on campaigns to eradicate every last one of your enemies. I can’t… I can’t bear your sons while you go to war, like I’m some fucking… like I’m just waiting for you to come back in a coffin.”

His burning blue eyes bore through me. “Every last branded Aurelian will be hunted. But not by me. We have legions of cyborgs. The Mark-10 cyborgs are killing machines. The next model will be even deadlier. And they will be programmed to kill any Aurelian with the brand of Obsidian. They will splinter, they will run, they will hide like rats, and they will be taken down. Butnot by me. I will be at your side, Adriana, rebuilding what we have lost.”

“I want to believe you, Doman. I want to.”

He steps closer and glances down at his smart-watch. He seems to relax, ever so slightly. “What news?”