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“He’s the biggest and fastest my father’s farms have ever produced. His stud fees will be immense,” Marushka answered with pride. “Especially if he’s part of a Games-winning team.”

“Stud fees, eh?” Benet raised one eyebrow and made his comment in a speculative tone. “So if I win my event?—”

“Don’t go any further with that thought.” Marushka slapped him on the chest. “Solzhy has four feet and eats hay.”

“I don’t want any woman but you,” Benet said seriously. “Your father agreed if I win the gold for him I can go back to the Five Systems.”

Her happy expression faded and she grew sober. “There’s little chance he’ll honor the agreement. I hate to say it but my father has no honor to speak of.”

“I know. He doesn’t fool me but strategically it was a good move to get him on the record I can go home.” Benet took her hand. “I’m going to get there and I want to take you with me.”

“Now you’ve done it,” Dmitri said. “We’re out of here, my lady.” He moved to steer Marushka towards the door.

She lingered, her eyes fixed on Benet’s face as if memorizing his features.

“You mean more to me than I can ever explain but the one thing I can’t do is flee my responsibilities here.

And the Empress would send a retrieval team to drag me in chains to Outlier, where my fate wouldn’t be pleasant.

She’d see the whole thing as an affront to her and she can be quite vindictive. ”

“I’d protect you,” Benet said, pulling her close. “My brothers and I’d keep you safe.”

“I know you mean the assurance with all your heart and honor,” she said, gazing at him with tears glimmering in her eyes.

“And I love you for it, but I have to live in the real world here, the harsh world into which I was born and your best efforts would fail. The Empress is inexorable and would take my elopement with you as a personal insult to her and the state.”

Benet decided not to distress her right now with further argument but he had no intention of abandoning the woman he loved now he’d found her.

If they could get out of Outlier then maybe they’d have to go to the Sectors and find a home with new identities.

It wouldn’t be the life he’d planned or wanted but if he could be with Marushka he’d make it work.

“Our time is up,” Dmitri said, a tinge of a growl in his voice. “We have to go, devochka. Kiss this mad fool goodbye and let’s be on our way.”

As the pair left, Dmitri turned and shook a finger at Benet. “I’ll be back in an hour or so and we’ll go to the practice. Be ready.”

That evening Benet collapsed into his bed, too tired even to eat, although he’d have to take in nutrients at some point.

The metal maze apparatus here at the actual site of the Games was huge.

There were assigned times for practice runs and today hadn’t been his time but Dmitri wangled a slot for him anyway.

The layout mirrored the one Nichevsky had built at his estate but here there were multiple people trying to get through it from different starting points and the whole structure quaked and shook.

Then the obstacle course beyond was longer than the one Benet was used to and apparently several new obstacles had been added.

He had to reconsider his strategy for getting into and out of each challenge with the right momentum for the next one or lose time.

After finishing the practice runs Dmitri took him to a different field and drilled him on the Outlier methods of hand to hand combat, with more intensity than he’d shown before.

And Dmitri hadn’t exactly pulled his punches during training bouts back at the estate.

As Benet lay on the ground after a particularly hard hit, he gazed at the Badari and said, “Either you’re trying to kill me so I don’t make any more suggestions to Marushka about leaving or you’re trying to get me so exhausted I won’t think of her tonight. ”

“Both,” Dmitri said agreeably, giving him a hand to rise to his feet.

“She told you the truth, there’s no way for her to escape and each time you raise the idea, it’s hard on her.

She spent the entire time in the stables in a corner weeping.

I had to tend to the damn horse and her and keep everyone else away.

I probably shouldn’t have let the two of you become so close but I—I wanted my devochka to have a measure of happiness before marrying Vasili.

I should have known she’d fall in love with the same intensity she does everything else.

” His shoulders slumped. “And I hate having caused you this pain.”

“It’s not your fault, brother.” Benet slugged him on the bicep and got a grim smile in reply.

“Marushka and I are meant to be together. I noticed her the first day, at the combat field. I’d have found a way to meet her on my own because I’m a determined guy and we would have fallen in love anyway. But I’m not giving up.”

Dmitri shook his head but made no further comments.

He and Benet decided it probably wasn’t a good idea for Benet to move into Dmitri’s apartment at the palace.

Although the Badari stated the place was large enough for a roommate and had several bedrooms, they both felt Benet’s presence in such close proximity to Marushka and to the volatile Empress herself was a bad idea.

“Better you stay here, with your fellow competitors and concentrate on the games,” Dmitri said as they parted.

“Your only option is to win and to win you have to be one hundred percent focused. Marushka knows that. Don’t forget she too was an athlete at a previous games and she understands the discipline required. ”

“Too risky for us to try to see each other at the palace?” Benet asked. “You can’t have us both to dinner by some coincidence?”

“She’s closely watched, both formally and informally, as are all the empress’s wards and favored individuals.

” Dmitri shook his head. “Outlier is a snake pit, Throne planet is the heart of the evil and the palace is the vortex at the center. And you, my friend, are now smack in the middle of it all. Focus on the one avenue you might have to getting out of here and going home. If you win the empress might be magnanimous enough to grant your wish. Or she might decide to keep you. With Ekatereen there’s no knowing. ”

Dmitri’s verdict on the possible outcomes disturbed Benet.

He could have one thing he desired or the other but not both—go home to his old life or stay here in Outlier and be near Marushka.

But she wouldn’t be his. She’d be married to the monster Vasili and Benet might or might not be able to see her occasionally.

Perhaps they could manage an affair but his whole being rebelled against the idea.

It wasn’t in Benet’s nature to sneak around and bed another man’s wife. He’d kill Vasili first.

Dmitri was right about one thing—Outlier was a snake pit.

Alone in his luxurious apartment, Dmitri paced through the rooms, deep in thought, not seeing any of the elaborate, expensive furnishings various empresses had installed for him during their lifetimes.

Humans had extended life spans now, as he understood it, but nowhere close to what a Badari could claim.

He and his beast were unhappy tonight and there was no realistic cure for their distress.

Of all the children Dmitri had been given to bodyguard, Marushka was the closest thing to a daughter of his own he’d ever had and he loved her fiercely.

Benet might not be a Badari but he’d become a brother of the heart to Dmitri during their association, with the fact he spoke Badari and understood their background as the original bond.

Dmitri had come to admire the human warrior in his own right as they worked and trained together and he could see why these mysterious Badari gladiators with whom Benet was associated had bonded with him.

His heart, which he’d believed long hardened and shriveled, ached for Benet.

Finding the one woman to love and not being able to have her was a cruel fate.

The twist on top was her impending marriage to Vasili, now known by them to be an abuser.

Dmitri debated yet again the wisdom of going to the Empress, which he could, and arguing against the marriage but he knew it was no use.

Ekatereen wasn’t going to withdraw her approval based on any argument Dmitri could make.

She had her political reasons for the match and to the empress the needs of the state overrode everything else.

She’d proved it time and again in her own personal life.

Deciding to go to sleep and hope the goddess might give him a solution in his dreams, Dmitri reluctantly adjourned to his bedroom and disrobed.

Curling up in the vast bed like the feline entwined in his DNA would do, he offered a prayer to the Great Mother for his friend and his devochka and drifted off to sleep.

He was…where? It wasn’t the grove of the goddess on his home world. He’d only dreamt of her three times in all his years on Throne and never had the vision taken place there. Dmitri understood it was because he’d never see the place again but the sense of loss was overwhelming.

He did stand in the midst of a circle of great trees, mature but not old growth like the ones on his planet.

There was no stone in the center to serve as a chair for her but there she stood, luminous in the moonlight, her white garments stirring slightly in a breeze he couldn’t feel.

She was facing away from him so this wasn’t his time to die. Dmitri went to his knees.

“You ask nothing for yourself,” she said and her voice was a beautiful song, lilting and composed of many notes. “But soon you shall have what you most desire.”

“My brothers?” he said in a whisper, bitterly. “I’m sure they’re long gone to dust and the afterlife.”

“Truth. Have you not longed for an Alpha to pledge your fealty to?”

“I have. You know I have.” He found himself rubbing the empty spot in his chest where the pack bond should have been anchored.

“When you meet this Alpha you must tell him the blood is the magic,” she said, turning partway toward him. “For what he desires most. His mate will need his blood.”

“I don’t understand, my lady, but if I am ever blessed enough to find an Alpha, I’ll tell him.”

Now she turned all the way and he caught a glimpse of her face, beautiful beyond imagining, austere, regal.

Dmitri gasped as if he’d been struck by lightning and struggled to maintain his balance.

Truly a man couldn’t look fully upon the Great Mother and remain in this life.

He understood what the healer had meant now when he would utter the pronouncement.

“This message is for you as well,” she said, raising one hand as if casting a blessing. “Don’t hesitate when the need arises.”

“I—I won’t. The blood is the magic,” he repeated, confused but determined not to disappoint her.

“You’ve done well here,” she said in a kindly tone. “Your honor is intact and you’ve followed my commandments even in exile. You’re a worthy son of the original Badari. Your ancestors would be proud. I’m proud.”

With a rush of terror such as he hadn’t experienced before in any situation, Dmitri realized she was walking toward him. Hastily he lowered his head and her fingertips brushed across his hair as she passed. The caress left him paralyzed and the world faded out around him.

He came awake in his bed in a convulsion, talons and fangs deployed, a growl on his lips as he shredded the silken sheets with his motion.

“The blood is the magic,” he said in a voice he scarcely recognized as his own.

Shaking, he crawled from the bed and staggered to the kitchen, where he poured himself a stiff shot of the best feelgood and drank it in one long gulp.

The glass fell from his hand and shattered on the tile floor.

His beast snarled and Dmitri allowed himself to slide to the floor, where he sat shaking his head and trying to remember each tiny detail from the vision.

The Great Mother hadn’t exactly answered his prayer nor had she provided any answers except her mysterious statement about blood.

He gave up trying to parse what she might have meant.

He was no healer, to stand in close proximity to her and translate her dictates for the other Badari.

One thing he did know with unshakable truth—the moment where he’d need to take action upon her veiled warning must be close at hand.

As the sun rose over Throne he vowed to be ready for anything.

He’d allowed himself to backslide somewhat from the strictest observance of Badari pack law over the centuries he’d been here.

The broken feelgood glass shards all around him spoke eloquently to his lapses.

But now the time had come for him to be all Badari once more, not a partially assimilated Outlier and he would be equal to the task.

He would not fail in whatever battle the Great Mother foretold.