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Not forever young – but it might as well be in the eyes of those burdened with human lifespans.

I imagine the confused expression on such a man’s face – that confusion growing as I tell him that I’m the Fated Mate of three Aurelian warriors.

How quickly would he run from me if I told him that? In fear of those Aurelians hunting him down for having the audacity to touchtheirwoman?

Now, I carry more baggage than any other woman in the world. If I ever tried to find love outside of the three men of my triad, it would be doomed.

I mean, if this hypothetical man didn’t run away after I’d told him the truth – well, I can only imagine how pathetic a human man would be in bed. How could a mere human compete after I’d experienced the dominance of a triad of Aurelians – all tuned into my every need, and satisfying me like no human ever could?

“Go get changed. They can’t hurt you now. Nobody can.”

Gerard speaks softly – but I can hear the anger in his voice and see it in his eyes.

My loyal guard feels like he failed me. His overriding purpose in life was to keep me safe, and because of Brennan, Otho, and Lazar, he feels that he’s failed.

“Gerard,” I stammer. “It’s not how you think. They didn’t hurt me – not at all.”

His face hardens.

“I know Aurelians, Lady Carani. It’salwayslike you think with them. Now, get out of that disgusting dress.” His nose wrinkles. “That looks like it belongs in an Aurelian harem. Go and change into something normal.”

I blink, suddenly offended by Gerard’s words.

I’d actually stopped feeling ashamed of the thin, slutty dresses when I’d been around those three Aurelians. I even stopped feeling ashamed of being naked. Feeling their lust – trembling as all three of them stared hotly at my body, as though I was the only woman who existed in all the world – cured every insecurity I’d ever had about my body.

I walk up the stairs in a trance. I’ve walked up these stairs thousands of times, but this time it doesn’t feel like I’m coming home.

I pull open the door to my room, remembering how I’d scurried up the stairs in terror when those three Aurelians had first laid eyes on me. I remember the cold, piercing stare that Brennan fixed me with – and how he froze me in place with just a glance.

My bedroom is in front of me, door wide open.

So many times I’ve hidden myself away in this very room, losing myself in my books and my daydreams – trying desperately to escape the constant, nagging worry that’s always tormented me.

I’ve known anxiety all my life. It’s never let me go.

Now, I can never be truly alone again.

Three auras, facing imprisonment.

Three auras, that will remain forever and always in my mind.

The storms of Brennan’s aura have quieted, kept under control. I reach into his aura and while I sense that he’s still dark, it’s a focused and reassuring blackness.

Otho’s ivory aura feels like diving into a bath of whole, fresh, warm milk – cleansing and nutritious.

Lazar’s aura, meanwhile, is a ball of squirming tendrils, performing a green massage deep into the anxious recesses of my mind.

Wherever they are right now, the three men stand calm and ready, and I realize that it isn’t the calmness of a decision made, but the calmness of warriors readying themselves for battle.

They may be turning themselves in, but they’re focusing on what lies ahead with the same intensity as they might rushing an enemy position, or swarming a Scorp nest.

I look at the stack of books on my shelf.

Until those three came along, that is the only place from which I have experienced life beyond these walls. Those books were the only way I was able to be free of this place, without feeling the artificialness of virtual reality or the cheap glitz of holovids.

With books – thanks to those, and my imagination, it had all felt so real. I could hold a book in my hands and plunge inside it; into a vivid dream in which I was truly far away from this place – doing something exciting and exhilarating instead of being locked behind these walls.

During the last few days I’ve spent with these Aurelians, I’ve lived more than I had in the two prior decades of my life.