Page 34

What a beautiful day to be alive.

Phenomenal day.

Perfect day.

They were here, in their home, and his bashert was well fed and happy—Well, maybe not happy, per se, not if the permanent frown he’d been wearing for the past hour as they’d eaten in silence was any indicator, but they’d work on that.

Now they had all the time in the world to do it too. All the time because—

“Shut up.”

Pavel blinked at the sudden aggressive tone and innocently dropped his chin against his palm. “I didn’t say anything, gorgeous.”

“You were thinking it,” Zane grumbled. “I can see it written all over your face.”

“Ah, yes. The face of your future husband.”

He cursed and stood, taking his empty plate with him on the way to the kitchen. “I knew I was going to regret doing that almost immediately.”

Regrets? Oh no, that wouldn’t do. It was far too late for regrets now.

Pavel followed him, cornering him against the sink after he’d dropped his plate into it.

“Back off,” Zane ordered, but Pavel simply moved in closer, caging him in with his arms at either side.

He turned his nose into Zane’s hair and inhaled deeply, moaning before moving to nuzzle his cheek and then his neck when Zane tried to turn away. “I’ll be so good to you, bashert, I promise. So good. You won’t regret.”

“I already do.” He tried to elbow him but there wasn’t enough room for him to do more than tap him. “Move so we can discuss this face to face.”

“No, I’ll stay right here. I’ll keep you locked in close. I can soothe those doubts, just give me a chance to do so.” Shamelessly, Pavel humped forward, letting Zane feel how hard he was for him.

“Oh, hell no,” Zane snarled. “Absolutely not! You are not fucking me right now! Keep it in your pants!”

“But if I fuck you into submission you’ll feel better,” he reassured. “If I breed you and fill you up you’ll—”

Suddenly, Zane moved his head and then whacked it back, his skull connecting with Pavel’s nose.

He swore and shot away, instantly covering his face. There was blood, but he didn’t think it was broken. With a growl, he glanced up to find Zane had turned and was rubbing the back of his head.

“Gods damn it,” the doctor hissed. “Your damn Yurn urges are a fucking nightmare sometimes, you know that?” He huffed and then straightened but didn’t risk moving closer, giving Pavel a cautious once over. “Did that snap you out of it or do I need to get my knives and try again?”

Pavel frowned at him, wordlessly asking for an explanation.

“Your eyes were glowing and you were clearly losing your cool,” he informed him. “I’m guessing hearing me say I would marry you got you overly excited and your instincts to mark your territory and claim your mate got the best of you.”

He tested out his feelings and found that a lot of the overwhelming drive to pin Zane down and spear him on his cock had dwindled, at least enough he could see the other man was correct that right now they should be talking and not fucking like animals.

“You seem very calm about all of this,” he observed, only for Zane to laugh.

“Calm? I feel like I’m about to pass out, actually. It’s hard enough trying to figure out what the hell I was thinking without needing to also navigate your thought processes.” He took a deep breath and said, “Which is why we’re going to lay down some ground rules.”

“Okay.” There really wasn’t anything else he could say to that, so he didn’t bother.

“I agreed to marry you because it really is my best option. It’ll get me away from Lyra and—”

“I love you.”

“Could you not interrupt right now?”

“You’re being kind of mean, Doctor.” Pavel took a step toward him and immediately thought better of it, holding his hands up in surrender when Zane reached behind him and grabbed a frying pan. “Okay, okay. No touching. Justing talking. Got it. Continue.”

“I like you,” Zane blurted, seeming just as surprised as Pavel felt once he had. “I like you a lot, I think. Enough to marry you, in any case, but I can’t promise you anything more than that. I don’t know if I want forever with you, or if I even fully buy that you want it with me.”

“Don’t be stupid,” the harsh words snapped off his tongue before he could stop them. “I’ve gone above and beyond to prove to you that I do.”

“What if…” He hesitated, then seemed to try again. “What if I’m not really what you’re after?”

“What?” That didn’t even make sense.

“What if you only want me because you think I’m that kid from the orphanage? What if, because of what you are, you’re clinging to this idea of me that no longer exists?”

“I thought I was the crazy one.” Pavel shook his head. “Baby, no. I know exactly who it is I want. It’s not some version of you trapped in my head, it’s you, right here, the man standing in front of me shaking like a leaf.”

Zane sneered at him. “Am not.”

“Are too,” he teased. “Are you really that scared that I’ll change my mind? Haven’t I already told you I’d never abandon you? There’s nothing more I can say here, Zane. Words clearly aren’t enough to convince you, so,” he risked another step closer and pulled the velvet box he’d brought with him from the study out so the other guy could see it, “let me show you.”

“Like…a trial period?” he sounded both hopeful and wary, cluing Pavel into the fact he’d been gearing up to suggest this since the start of the conversation. Hell, maybe even since the start of breakfast.

“Terms.” Pavel was so close. So close he could taste it. There was no chance in hell he was going to let a little thing like nerves come between them. If Zane needed further reassurance? So be it. He’d been patient for years, surely he could manage to keep himself in check a bit longer if it meant getting to finally tie his bashert to him.

“We marry before the time limit my brother gave us is up, and we stay married for a year.” Zane huffed when Pavel growled. “Let me finish. After one year, we check-in. If we both still feel the same way as we do now, then…”

Pavel tilted his head, waiting, and when it became clear Zane was struggling to continue, urged, “Then, Doctor?”

“I’ll legally change my name to Hart,” he offered. “And I’ll never bring up the possibility of divorce again.”

Giving up the Solace name was a massively big deal. The only reason they’d adopted him was that they could further that name, after all. It was a good offer, a tempting one, something that Pavel hadn’t even allowed himself to hope for.

And yet…

He didn’t like it. He didn’t like it because that still left his bashert an opening. If Zane decided he no longer wanted this in a year, according to those terms, he could walk away. And Pavel would have to let him.

But if he didn’t agree…If he tried to force Zane into this and rip away his security blanket…

That wasn’t family. That wasn’t what he’d promised to be.

“There is no version of me in any timeline or universe that doesn’t want what’s best for you,” Pavel said.

“Pave—”

“I agree.” He held out the box again. “It’s like I told you before. I’ll always play your game, gorgeous. No matter the stakes. I get one year to convince you I’ll want you for the rest of our lives? You have a deal.” He stepped closer. “Do you accept?”

Zane hesitated, eyes on the rings. Then, just as Pavel was starting to get nervous, he lifted a hand and took one of them. “Yes. Yes, I accept.”

“I believe the words are, ‘Yes, I’ll marry you’.”

“Pretty sure you’re the one who botched the proposal at the start,” Zane drawled, though he did hold out the ring and then present his hand. “Here. I’ll give you this, at least. Although,” he pulled his hand back when Pavel reached for it, “aren’t wedding bands supposed to go on at the wedding?”

“These can be couple rings,” he quickly suggested. “Meaning we can wear them any time. Including now.”

“No,” he chuckled and dropped the ring back into the box before snapping the lid closed. His laughter got louder when Pavel scowled, and he took the box and set it aside on the counter. “Let’s do it right, yeah? I don’t know about you, but ideally, I’d like to only get married the once.”

“That is not a funny joke.”

“I thought it kind of was.”

“It wasn’t.”

“Okay, but—” Zane didn’t get to finish.

The sound of the front door literally exploding had them both ducking for cover, Pavel instinctively pushing Zane down beneath him. Footsteps flooded the foyer and pounded throughout the house, echoing toward them. Within moments, they were surrounded.

He stood and turned, catching sight of uniformed men with the Imperial house crest stitched into their tight jackets, and saw red. He’d expected the bitch to retaliate, of course, but not quite like this.

Her men paved the way, and she stepped into view, and he moved to shield Zane who had risen behind him.

Lyra’s gaze pinged between them and then she flicked her wrist in their direction. “Seize him.”

“Hold on,” Zane demanded and grabbed onto Pavel as he was torn away from him and dragged to the dining room where Lyra and most of the men had congregated. He tried to follow, but three large men stepped in his way, blocking his path. “Move, right now.”

“They don’t listen to you, Zanie,” Lyra said, sighing heavily. “This is for your own good, really. You should be thanking me. We all saw what he did to you. How he abused you.” She turned to the table and bared her teeth in disgust. “How deplorable. And to a fellow Retinue member as well, someone you swore to protect. I’ll have you jailed for this, if not worse.”

“No.” Zane pushed against them again but was still held at bay, and it was clear he was starting to lose control of his carefully crafted calm exterior.

Pavel regretted that he’d thought to bring the rings down and not the star crystal blades which had been conveniently left on the side table in the bedroom. He tried to wriggle free from the men that were holding him, knew he could toss them all aside if he really wanted, but acting out like that might put his bashert in danger and he couldn’t risk it.

“Lyra,” Zane’s eyes snapped with fury, which he turned on her without holding back, “stop this immediately. You know that’s not what happened. You know—”

“I only know what I saw with my own eyes,” she cut him off. “You’re confused, that’s all. Once we’re home and he’s been dealt with, you’ll see that I’m right. This is partly my fault. I should never have agreed to give you until graduation. If I hadn’t, he wouldn’t have gotten the chance to—”

“Okay, look, let’s just talk this out,” Zane implored. “Tell the guards to let him go and back off. We can talk about this like rational adults.”

“I don’t think anyone in here is rational, gorgeous,” Pavel couldn’t help but quip, which earned him that searing glare. Which was exactly what he wanted.

He hated when Zane’s attention was given to someone else, even if it was in an effort to save them from a shitty situation.

“Could you please shut up and let me handle this,” Zane growled.

“As you wish.”

“Enough!” Lyra snapped. “Take him away and bring him straight to the ocular cells.”

Oh.

Well, that was going to suck.

“The—” Zane gasped. “You can’t be serious?! That’s for war criminals, Lyra! He’s a member of the Retinue!”

“He’s the scumbag who kidnapped my Royal Consort, actually,” she snidely disagreed.

“I am not your Royal Consort!”

“Not yet, but after tonight—”

Zane held up his hand so everyone could get a good look at it. “I’m already married.”

Pavel hadn’t noticed him taking the box off the counter, but the gold ring on Zane’s finger meant that at some point he had.

That was his bashert. Always one step ahead. Always getting under everyone’s skin the way he knew best.

Mercilessly, and without batting an eye.

“It’s too late, Lyra,” Zane continued. “We got married yesterday and all of the proper paperwork has been submitted to the Intergalactic Conference.”

He was buying them time. Obviously none of that was true, but it could take up to seventy-two hours for a marriage license to appear in I.C. databases, which meant there was no way for Lyra to confirm if he was telling the truth or not until then. Two days was more than enough time to get Kelevra involved and them out of her greedy clutches.

“That can’t be.” Her brow furrowed as she stared at the ring as if it had personally offended her. “Say that isn’t true, Zane.”

“I’m sorry,” he so wasn’t, “but I can’t. Let my husband go, Lyra. Let’s not destroy our friendship on top of everything else.”

“Friendship?” She laughed mockingly, the sound cruel even to Pavel’s ears.

“I was trying to be kind. You’ve never really cared about me,” Zane continued. “I was just around and easy. That’s all. When you think about it, this isn’t a loss for you. I’ll move out of the Little Palace, and you can—”

“You aren’t going anywhere,” she disagreed, pulling a blaster from one of her men’s holsters. She turned the gun on Pavel. “You’re only still married if you’re both still alive.”

“Don’t!” Zane shot forward, fighting the three guards now and taking them down with an ease that would have been laughable if not for their situation.

Clearly, Pavel hadn’t been the only one holding himself in a last-ditch attempt to keep the peace.

Pavel reacted as well, tossing the guy on his left forward so he took the bullet when it was fired instead of him, then he twisted around the other one, using him as a shield as Lyra let off round after round, her furious cries ringing in his ears.

He turned as he waited her out, slipping into Zane’s visage with ease, grateful for the matching pajama sets more than ever. The second he heard the empty clicking sound indicating she’d emptied the round, he threw the dead man in his hold forward.

Two other guards blocked it, protecting her, but she still stepped back, giving Zane enough time to slip between her and the kitchen counter and join Pavel.

He cupped Pavel’s cheek and tugged on his arm, scanning him from head to toe, not the least bit put off by the fact they now appeared identical. “Are you all right? Are you injured? Did she hit you anywhere?”

“I’m fine, Doctor,” he reassured.

Lyra grabbed another gun and aimed at them both, confused by what she was seeing. “Shapeshifting? Impossible! We’ll add that to your list of offenses. Withholding from the Imperial family! Which of you is the real Zane? Step away from him!”

“Why? So you can sell me off to your cousin again when the mood strikes?” Zane asked, and the moment the gun shifted toward Pavel, he elbowed him discreetly.

“Or is there someone else on the family tree you want to whore me out to?” Pavel said, realizing what Zane’s angle was. Confuse her long enough they could figure out a way to escape without getting shot.

“What are you talking about? I didn’t give you to any cousin,” Lyra said.

“Wells,” Pavel continued, knowing that’s where Zane had been going with this. If he needed closure there, he’d help his doctor get it. “You gave me to Wells.”

“You told him to become my senior advisor and that if he did a good job and I graduated with high honors, you would let him fuck me while you watched,” Zane revealed, and Pavel almost gave them away by sucking in a shocked breath.

They’d done what now?

Lyra shook her head, her brow furrowing deeper. “No, no I never said any of that. Is that what he told you?”

“You confirmed it when I came home and asked.”

“You asked if I’d requested he be your advisor,” she reminded, “that was all. I never knew anything about the rest of it! I would never do that to you!”

Oh, no.

Wait.

Where was this going?

Pavel risked a glance at Zane, unable to hold back his fears. It was impossible to tell what the other man was thinking, however, even for him.

“Zane,” Lyra turned her voice soothing, gaze still pinging between them since she couldn’t tell them apart, “I know I haven’t always been the best to you, but I promise that’s going to change. I know how much you mean to me now, I told you that at the pool. As soon as I realized what I was about to lose, I reevaluated everything. I can prove I never gave Wells permission to touch you. If you want, I’ll even let you cut his hands off yourself with your knives. This is just one big misunderstanding, I swear. I love you, Zanie.”

Lyra could offer him a hell of a lot more than Pavel could. It was a fact he’d been in denial over for a long time, but one he was forced to acknowledge now as he stood there, worried she was going to be able to sway him to her side.

The one thing Zane had always longed for was to have a purpose, to be needed and wanted above anything else. As the Royal Consort to the Imperial Heir, he’d have a higher stature than he would as the Royal Doctor. He’d get to do anything and be anything he pleased. He’d have a family, an Imperial one, and if Lyra’s claims were true and she loved him…He’d have everything.

Pavel felt a fissure in his chest and scrambled to fix it, blurting without meaning to, “That doesn’t matter, I’m still choosing to leave you.”

Zane turned and looked at him, enigmatic expression cracking until something heated behind his dark eyes. Was he angry that Pavel had spoken for him? Was he going to give him up to Lyra and abandon him after all?

“All this time,” Pavel found himself murmuring, words low enough only the two of them could hear, “apparently, I’ve had the same fears as you. It never feels good, being left behind.” He pictured that day when they were kids, chasing after the Solaces’ car. “It never feels good being abandoned without even a second glance.” He inhaled and prepared himself for the worst. “At least look me in the eye this time, yeah, gorgeous?”

“Don’t be absurd,” Zane told him without skipping a beat, and before those words could wound, he turned back to Lyra. “None of what you said matters. I’m still choosing to leave you. What you and I had was never love, I’m not even convinced anymore what it was could be considered affection. We simply…were. And now we aren’t. Majesty, please, respect my right to choose.”

Lyra seemed shocked, floundering for a moment before she regained her voice and stated, “You don’t want a choice. You like being controlled.”

“Not in this,” Zane disagreed. “Not by you.”

For a frozen moment, everything went very still, Lyra and her remaining five guards all standing there like statues. The sound of new voices coming in through the front door they’d left open seemed to snap them out of it, and before the guards could go check it out, the Imperial Prince stepped into view.

“Sister,” Kelevra barely got that one word out, his presence seemingly going unnoticed.

With no hesitation, the Imperial Heir raised the blaster and pointed it at Zane.

Pavel shoved him out of the way a second before the shot rang out.