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“Natali! Oh, thank the Gods.” A weak smile spreads across his face.

I’ve barely seen my real father over the last few years.He’s always been a businessman first, and a father second – if at all. He’s always been obsessed with making his fortune. That stony exterior cracks now, though – in relief at seeing me alive.

He opens his arms wide, and pulls me into a huge hug; like one my father hasn’t given me since I was a tiny little girl.

“You’re safe! Oh, Gods, Natali! They didn’t hurt you, did they? Tell me they didn’t hurt you.”

We break off the hug, and he looks down at me with concern painted on his face.

I’m not going to mention the deep cut on my leg, or the attack by the bandits, or about learning to fire an Orb-Beam. Just one of the facts alone could give my stressed-out father an instant heart attack.

“They didn’t hurt me,” I promise. “I’m okay.”

A huge Aurelian Warrior steps forward. He’s one of the biggest I’ve seen. His uniform is different than the rest of the Law Enforcement officers. It’s a blue-tinged color, and he stands with more arrogance and presence than even the rest of his species typically does.

I can tell instantly that this man leads the triads of Law Enforcement officers sent to hunt down Brennan, Otho, and Lazar.

Lines on his face and the grey in his black hair show his age. His eyes are the same, dull slate-grey that are a signature of his species – a trait he shares with all Aurelians…

…all Aureliansexceptmy Bonded triad.

“We need to take the victim in for questioning.”

My father steps between me and the Aurelian leader.

“She was kidnapped by one ofyourspecies,” he says accusingly. “The last bloody thing that’s going to happen is being questioned byyou.”

“Youcalled for our help,” the Aurelian captain growls, clearly unused to being spoken to so impudently by a mere human.

“I did,” my father concedes, “but you are still privileged to stand on my estates, Aurelian – and you should not deign to forget your station. You willwait– andifandwhenI decide you may be permitted to question my daughter, I’ll let you know.”

My father’s voice becomes more formal in his urgency. Even though he’s dwarfed by the Aurelian captain, he is not to be taken lightly.

The Captain clearly isn’t pleased to hear this. His eyes turn to me. The cold, grey orbs search me for any sign of the secrets I hold.

I stand there trembling, in a thin slip of a dress – but the cold-blooded alien doesn’t even glance at me with anything except indifference, and lust. Just as the Bond caused an instant chemistry between me and Brennan’s triad, I am nothing to this captain except the victim of a crime, and an attractive female with which to empty himself inside.

It shows me the intensity of the Bond; and how no other men will ever look at me with the adoration that Brennan, Otho, and Lazar do.

Sudden warmth over my shoulders makes me jump. I turn, and find it’s only Gerard placing his oversized coat across my shoulders to cover me from the alien’s gaze. Gerard takes me by the wrist, leading me away from the landing pad and into the manor house.

There, we’re away from the cacophony of the soldiers and Law Enforcement officers outside.

The doors close behind me. There is no trace of the mercenaries or the Aurelians inside my home. My father urged them inside the walls of this estate, but not inside its doors.

My father can banish the Aurelian Law Enforcement agents from our home, but three can enter regardless of his permission. The Bond thrums in my mind, and I feel the three auras of my triad.

Their auras resonate with a bizarre calmness – one that I don’t share myself.

Maybe it’s because they’ve made their decision, and they know there’s nothing left for them to do but wait to see how it plays out.

I envy that simplicity. If I don’t find these three a way out of this, they’ll turn themselves in and spend the next century behind bars – or more!

And they’ll do it willingly – all so we don’t have to live our lives on the run for the rest of eternity.

But what if they’re put in prison for five-hundred years? Or a thousand?

I imagine myself on a date with some other man – a human – explaining to him that I won’t age, and if he and I end up together, he’ll grow into an old man and die while I stay forever young.