Page 154

It works.

The Bond reacts to my desperate plea for it to activate, and the all-consuming hunger grows. I don’t fight it. I sink into the endless pool of primal lust, and go wild, letting my body act by instinct. The slap of flesh on flesh fills the room as I lean forward, riding him like an animal, driving myself up and down as fast as I can, taking every inch of his alien cock deep inside me. With a groan of pleasure, his eyes roll back, and Gallien succumbs, his cock stiffening as he cums, jet after jet of his seed filling me.

Instant relief, this sense of completeness. I ran from this for years. It’s finally over. It’s finally done. My life will be bifurcated into two parts—before and after the Bond.

My legs shake as I pull myself from him, twisting on the sweat-soaked sheets. I sit on the edge of the bed, looking away from the triad and staring at the blank white wall of their spartan bedroom.

It doesn’t matter if I look away. I still feel them, the three auras of alien consciousness, and I will never be able to drive them out. Not even with a surgeon’s knife. For as long as I live, I will never be alone…

Unless tomorrow, when they challenge Obsidian, he stamps them out.

I twist, staring straight at Doman. His face is stern, responding to my aura in his mind, knowing my torment.

“I’m going with you. I know you three too well. You’ve got some plan to send me away to safety while you go up against that monster. It won’t work. If you want any chance against him, you need me near to you. The Bond works better in close proximity.”

“Adriana…” He looks invincible. His blue eyes burn a hole in me, his golden hair framing his noble features, a God of light next to Titus, the dark-haired, primal beast with wild eyes who is his counterpart. The two of them look like warring deities, standing in judgment in front of Gallien, his cold aloofnessomnipresent as he lounges back in the bed like some bored patrician. They are the Gods of leadership, war, and justice.

The three of them are so big, so strong, but they’re not going up against normal men.

They are going against a creature who has tamed the Rift. A creature with black pits for eyes, who lives every moment in agony that can only be relieved by reuniting with his Bonded Mate. If Obsidian was a God, he would be the ruler of the underworld, the lord of time.

A creature that leads the worst men in the universe, men who would pounce on any weakness, men who branded themselves in his image because they see him as a living God. Only Obsidian could rein in the wolves of the Fanatics, turn their rage into the point of a spear aiming straight at Colossus.

“Don’t argue. Please. You shut me out once already. I know you’ve got some plan to send me off while you go up against that monster. But you wouldn’t let your younger brother follow you to Obsidious if you didn’t have a deal for safe passage, no matter… no matter what happens in the arena. Extend it to me. Obsidian won’t break his word. Gods don’t break their words. Or they become like the rest of us.”

I’m linked to them now.

I can’t let them go into the arena against that monster while I’m shuttled away somewhere safe. I can’t experience them winking out of my mind one by one, feeling their pain before they disappear.

“This will be the fight of our lives. If you’re in the crowd, if we lose focus for a singular moment, we’re dead.” Doman argues with me, his eyes squinting in worry. He doesn’t want me nearby—but he doesn’t want me far away, either.

“So what’s the plan? Send me out in the escape pod?”

Doman manages to keep his reaction muted. Titus can’t. He flinches, ever so slightly, and his aura grows stormy.

“It won’t work,” I continue. “You said it yourselves. The only way we’re getting out of here is shifting. If you send me away in an escape pod, I’m in more danger than by your side.”

“Our armies’ forces will pick you up.”

“And what then? What do you think happens when your parents get hold of me, and their eldest son is going on a suicide mission? They’ll use me as a hostage. Againstyou,Doman. To control you, to force you to return with Fay. You know it’s true. You know what they’re capable of. Unless I’m with you, by your side, I’m not safe.”

Doman’s eyes flick to Gallien, then back to me. There’s a chink in his armor. I’ve been in a thousand negotiations, and I know I’ve won.

“I will not bring my Mate to my enemy’s stronghold.”

“You know it’s safe, or you wouldn’t bring Cal with you. TheWar-God’sword is iron, or he wouldn’t be a God.” I shrug. “And if you three die, I’m worthless. I’m just another woman.”

“You’re the leader of Pentaris,” states Gallien, as his platinum eyes probe me.

I laugh, sour. “Just one in a long, replaceable line. Once any one of my people see your eyes changed, it’ll be my last day on the job. You can’t have a Prime Minister Bonded to our rivals.”

I didn’t even consider it when I slept with them. It wasn’t worthy of consideration. My life’s work, but I threw it away in a second, just to give these three men a chance. I sacrificed everything for them, while they pushed me away, shut me out, and treated me like a fool who couldn’t be trusted with the truth.

Titus stalks the room, his huge legs eating up the ground. Nude, his body is a work of art, chiseled, rippling muscles that move in a symphony of strength. His cock swings as he turns, and he paces the length of the room. Their seed is dripping from my body, their sweat on my skin, their scent imprinted on meand their minds forced into mine. He can feel my agony, and he stops in the middle of the room, next to Doman, and faces me.

“You don’t think we can kill him,” Titus growls. Those dark amethyst eyes flash.

“I watched the War-God bathed in nuclear fire and come out alive. I watched him teleport entire armies one after another. How do you know he can’t blink in and out of existence, dodging your blows? How do you know he hasn’t seen the future, and that you’re walking into certain death? He is more than a man.”