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Epilogue – 2 years later

“It’s going to be a boy, I know.”

“Dad, that joke hasn’t gotten any less lame since you first made it,” I complain, “andI need to go.”

“Okay. I love you.”

“Love you too, Dad,” I respond, and cut the holo-vid.

Lazar enters the room. He’s carrying a jar of honeyed oil – the stuff that really does the trick when he rubs it against my swollen belly. My breasts have changed the most in pregnancy. I knew that pregnancies between human and Aurelians were different, but I wasn’t expectingthis! My breasts have grown huge and swollen, ready to feed the strong, healthy babe that’s already growing inside of me.

I was terrified about how much giving birth would hurt until I spoke with Mia, another fellow Bonded human female. We’re a small, but close-knit community – us Fated Mates – and even Queen Jasmine is part of our circle.

But it’s Mia who I’ve grown closest to – and who walked me through how the Bond helps make the impossible dynamics of this unlikely pregnancy more manageable.

I have to say – I miss the Bond. Ever since I got pregnant, the Bond has been dormant, and there’s no guarantee it will ever activate again.

“You’re a life saver,” I say to Lazar, as he hands me the oil. He grins, and I can feel his devotion flooding through our Bond.

In one hand he offered the jar of lotion. In the other, he holds the briefing intel of a company we’re planning to acquire. All three of my triad are now working for Carani Industries – my family business.

I had to convince Brennan to take this job, instead of going out on his own to forge a new empire for us to grow together. I was worried the leader of the triad might find it emasculating to work for my father; but I was shocked when they started to actually get along.

Brennan and Otho enter the room. We’re aboard the luxurious, fully-loaded space cruiser from which we conduct business. It’s been our home for the last two years – and from this base, we’ve worked as a team to prospect new Orb-Mine locations and find more Orb-Material deposits.

All three of my triad are now clad in tailored suits that accentuate their perfect bodies – and I had to beg them not to personally take on a role in security of the mines.

But I need these three alive to coach and father the child growing inside of me – not off fighting Scorp on some airless moon.

Right now, I’m laying back on the huge couch, and Brennan grins as he looks at me.

“How are you holding up?”

“I feel like a whale,” I complain.

I know he has to bite back a witty comment, and I’m almost disappointed not to have heard it.

I get to see a softer side of Brennan now – but I still ache for his utter dominance in the bedroom.

Lazar sits down on my left, and Brennan to my right – the two of them gently rubbing and massaging me as I snuggle between them.

“Is this a three-man job?” Otho booms out in his contagious laughter, watching us fill the couch.

I can’t even be mad at him. The way I look, anything involving me could be a three-man job; as long as those three men are my sexy, insatiable Aurelians.

I sink back into the couch, letting my eyes fall closed. For a second, I even forgetting about the briefing intel in my hand – of the acquisition we’ve been working on closing for the last two months.

That can wait until tomorrow – or, for a hundred more years…

Time was the one thing I now had plenty of – and three gorgeous men I was eager to spend the rest of it with.

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