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His eyes found hers. “I’m fine. Your father’s anger burned out eventually.

We talked. I told him there is no more invasion, and offered the alliance we talked about.

He understands that I regret my actions and will protect you with my life.

He hasn’t forgiven me for the deaths that occurred during my last visit, but says if I prove myself worthy to you, he can accept that. ”

Relief flooded Naya’s chest, tension she hadn’t realized she’d been carrying finally releasing.

“We also discussed your future rule, Naya,” Papa said. He had Mama settled in his lap now. “I understand you have a choice to make.”

Naya nodded, watching his face carefully. “I haven’t decided yet.”

Papa exhaled slowly. “I’ll be honest—it will disappoint me if you don’t succeed me here. But from what I understand, you saved countless lives. As long as you’re making me proud, I can live with that.”

“Well, we need to discuss stabilizing the Wastelands,” Naya said, settling back into her chair. “And what someone from the Omega Compound did over there.”

For the first time since her return, surrounded by family and with Akoro’s warm presence beside her, she felt like she could finally breathe again.

Drocan sat rigid with barely contained aggression, his dark eyes—so like Papa’s—fixed on Akoro. “You’re the bastard who hurt my sister.”

Her siblings clustered around the polished table, in their private dining chamber, their reactions ranging from outright hostility to cautious curiosity.

“I am,” Akoro replied calmly, meeting the younger Alpha’s challenging stare. “And I’ll answer for it in whatever way she demands.”

“Drocan,” Naya said sharply, recognizing the signs of her brother’s volatile temper. “Enough.”

But Drocan’s scowl only deepened. “He carved up your face and you’re defending him?”

“I’m defending my choice,” Naya shot back. “And you need to respect it.”

Azarn leaned forward, his curious nature overriding caution. “Is it true you stopped the magical storm?”

Interest flickered in Akoro’s expression. “We worked together to find a solution. Your sister’s courage saved millions of lives.”

“Our sister is remarkable,” Idaya added with fierce pride. “She always finds a way.”

The warmth in their voices seemed to surprise Akoro, and Naya’s affection for her family’s protective instincts flooded her. Even Drocan’s hostility came from love, however misguided.

They talked a bit over dinner, Idaya and Azarn asking questions about Akoro’s land.

“Are you really going to be queen there,” Drocan said bluntly, clearly unhappy about it.

Naya sighed, smiling at him. “If I choose to rule there, yes. And I would hope, you might come and visit, all of you.”

Drocan scoffed.

“If you do,” Naya said, shrugging, “there might be a marshal role there for you.”

Drocan straightened. “What? Marshal? Full command?”

“There are lots more opportunities there,” Naya said. “If you want it, you should consider visiting and seeing what you think.”

Her brother sat back, conflict warring across his features. The opportunity was everything he’d dreamed of, yet it meant leaving home, trusting the man who’d hurt his sister.

“Only if I choose to be queen there, of course,” she said gently.

Drocan’s hostility was muted after that, and he even started asking Akoro questions about his military.

After the servants cleared the final course and her siblings gradually excused themselves, Naya found herself studying the familiar dining hall with new eyes.

The tapestries depicting Lox victories, the carved throne where Papa held court, the very stones that had sheltered her childhood—all of it felt like distant memories.

Akoro dragged her chair so she was right next to him, and simply looked at her, relaxed and content as though it was his favorite pastime.

“I want to go home,” she said, her pulse quickening as the certainty bloomed in her chest. “To Tsashokra. To our people.” The rightness of it flooded her senses.

Shock blazed in Akoro’s dark eyes, joy and excitement crashing over his features with such raw intensity that arousal pooled liquid between her thighs.

He lifted her out of her chair and crushed her to him, his bruising possession that made her stomach flutter and sent beams of satisfaction through her.

“You’re certain?” he asked. “Your family, your empire?—”

“Will always matter to me,” she breathed, her voice thick with need as his proximity overwhelmed her senses.

“But I’m not the girl who left here. I belong beside you now, building something that’s ours.

” The acknowledgment was honest, and excitement bloomed in her at the idea that she would get to go back to the region and learn about his people properly, their customs and their rituals and their religions, not to mention she’d be helping to build a brand-new Omega community.

She’d never seen such joy on Akoro’s face, he held her tight, his scent turning to that rich, possessive musk that their embraces always devolved into.

A few days later, evening shadows stretched across the square in Ashens.

Naya stood before the assembled crowd with Akoro beside her, his presence both foreign and familiar against the backdrop of her childhood home.

Thousands of faces gazed up at them—servants, guards, citizens—all gathering to witness their princess’s return.

The murmur of speculation rippled through the gathered masses, voices carrying fragments of disbelief as they tried to process the sight of their greatest enemy standing calmly beside their beloved heir.

The weight of their expectation touched her skin like desert wind, each upturned face a reminder of the life she was choosing to leave behind.

These people had watched her grow from rebellious child to reluctant princess, had celebrated her victories and mourned her capture.

Now they waited to learn what her return would mean for the empire that had shaped her.

“People of the Lox Empire,” Naya began, her voice clear and loud. “I stand before you tonight not as your future empress, but as a woman who has found her true path.”

The silence that followed was absolute, thousands of souls holding their breath as one.

“For months, you believed I was lost to you,” she continued, her words building with the rhythm of someone who had learned the power of truth. “You believed King Akoro Sy had stolen your princess, torn me from the life I was meant to live.”

She paused, letting her gaze sweep across faces she had known since childhood.

“But while I was not stolen, I was transformed.” Her voice grew stronger with each word. “In the desert wastelands, facing magical storms that could tear apart kingdoms, I discovered who I was truly meant to become.”

Murmurs began to rise from the crowd.

“The threat to our empire has ended,” she said.

“King Akoro and I have forged an alliance that will benefit both our kingdoms for generations to come. Trade routes that will bring prosperity. Knowledge that will advance our understanding of magic itself. Military cooperation that will ensure neither of our peoples ever face the horrors of war again.”

The crowd’s reaction shifted like weather changing, shock transforming as her words settled into their understanding.

“I return to you not as your future empress,” she said, “but as a woman who will become Queen of Tsashokra, wife to my true mate, King Akoro Sy, your greatest ally.”

Gasps erupted from the crowd like physical force.

“This choice tears at my heart,” she said, vulnerability threading through her strength. “This empire raised me, shaped me, gave me everything I needed to become the woman I am today. You are my people, my family, my first love.”

Her voice cracked slightly, the emotion genuine and raw. “But love is not always about staying. Sometimes love is about becoming who you need to be, even when that path leads away from everything familiar.”

Some of the crowd were openly crying. Naya blinked and pushed on. “You taught me to be brave. You taught me to fight for what matters. You taught me that true strength comes not from conquest, but from protecting those who cannot protect themselves.

“I will carry those teachings to the desert kingdom, where people who have suffered as we have suffered now look to their future with hope instead of fear. Where children will grow up knowing peace instead of constant threat of magical destruction. Where two great empires will stand together instead of bleeding each other dry through endless conflict.”

The crowd’s reaction began to shift again. This wasn’t loss—this was transformation, alliance, a bridge between worlds that promised greater than either kingdom could achieve alone.

Papa stepped forward then, his massive presence lending gravity to her words. “My daughter has chosen her path,” he said solemnly. “She goes with my blessing as future queen, bearing the strength of the Lox Empire into a future none of us could have imagined.”

“Long live Princess Naya!” someone shouted from the back, the cry piercing the evening air like a bell. The words were taken up by hundreds of voices until they thundered across the courtyard, rolling through the streets of Ashens like thunder before a storm.

Mama appeared at Naya’s other side, tears shining in her eyes like stars reflected in dark water. “Be happy, my daughter,” she whispered, her words holding all the love and loss of a mother watching her child step into destiny. “Be the queen you were born to be.”

The crowd’s cheers washed over them like waves against stone, but Naya’s focus had narrowed to the man beside her.

The Alpha whose scent had called to her from the beginning, whose darkness had awakened depths in her she hadn’t known existed.

The future stretched before them now—not as conqueror and captive, but as equals bound by choice rather than circumstance.