I wrap my arm protectively around Natali’s shoulders.
“However,” Taggar warns, “you four had better get off this planet. I don’t trust your father, Natali. He’s in a rage, and he’s got resources. He won’t accept these circumstances.”
The Lieutenant points towards the rear doors of the courtroom.
“Your Reaver is in the bay, through that door. Two of my men are loading it with your weapons and armor as we speak. I suggest you get the hell off this space station – and stay away.”
Wise words from a just man.
We intend to listen to them.
17
Natali
My father.
The one last possible barrier between me and my triad.
I need to figure out a way to make things right between them – but, right now, I don’t know how and I don’t much care.
I made the decision to be with my Aurelian triad. I don’t know what exactly that means for my future, but I can feel in my gut that it was the right decision.
When I was in Otho’s arms earlier, feeling his huge biceps wrap around me, it made me feel safer than the towering walls of my father’s estate ever did. Everything was perfect. All my doubts disappeared.
I had never expected my plan to work.
It was enacted on just a shred of hope – the belief that somehow, someway, the Aurelians would remember that moment back in our basement hideaway, when I’d told them that they’d set me free.
Free – despite hiding beneath the ruins of that abandoned factory. I believe that they’d instinctively feel how significant those words were to me; and it would let them read my mind even without being able to feel our Bond.
Otho knew – and, in that moment, he’d finally made me certain that we were all meant to be together.
Now, I run my hand down his powerful forearm, feeling his strength. His ivory eyes have complete faith in me – and they always will.
“Let’s go,” says Brennan.
“Where to?”
I can see the lines of stress on Brennan’s face. While I was watching the proceedings from my viewing room, behind the mirrored glass, I could tell he had no idea what Otho was going to say. He was facing hundreds – maybe even thousands of years of imprisonment…
…and then Otho miraculously saved him.
Now, Brennan stares down at me with those smoldering black, endless eyes – the pupils of which are as dark as Orbs, and which make me feel like I’m staring into the vastness of space itself.
“Anywhere,” he says slowly, tasting the word – and I finally understand what he means.
Together, we can go anywhere. We can do anything we want. Time stretches before us, and we can make the future whatever we wish it to be.
Brennan takes me firmly, yet gently by the arm – leading me down the hallways to the port of this gigantic space station.
The crowds part as the huge Aurelian warriors approach – gasping in shock as they tower above them. They lead me to their Reaver, and as I climb aboard, I remember how scared I was the first time I was taken aboard this ship – how worried I’d been about Gerard.
Now, this Reaver feels like a welcome escape. It feels like home.
I wish I could feel the three of them in my mind right now. I curse that damned Bond-Disrupter, and in my head I’m counting down the seconds until I can rip it off and throw it away forever.
In the meantime, though, we have to endure more separation – during which we have to figure out what the future means without my decisions being influenced by the Bond.
But the future can wait.
Right now, I just want to exult myself in the presence of my Bonded triad. The doors of the Reaver close behind me, and the Aurelians take their positions. Brennan sits at the pilot’s seat, while Lazar and Otho take one of each of the twin gunnery stations.
I sit down with my back against the wall, wanting to watch them in action.
I’m not sure if they’re expecting trouble, but these three warriors are ready for it if it comes.
They clearly took Taggar’s warning seriously – and, while I don’t think my father is crazy enough to try anything, I don’t envy anybody he sends against us.
He might, with that rage of his…
The Reaver lifts up silently and pulls out of the spaceport. The enormous spaceport is an immense, gleaming beast; a hulk set in space that must serve as the focal point for all sentient life within this sector. However, Brennan pilots away from it until the enormous spaceport turns into a speck – and then disappears entirely.
Out here, in the vastness of space, we’re finally alone…
…and yet, surrounded by my triad of warriors, I’ll never be alone again.
Brennan stands from the controls. He looks at me, with a strange expression on his face.
“You’ll forgive me, Natali. I’d thought you had betrayed us.”
I look down, ashamed at how close I’d come.
“I didn’t know what to feel,” I admit. “Everything happened so fast. It felt like too much, too quickly – like my whole future was being decided for me, and I didn’t have any say in it.”
A small smile comes to Brennan’s face.
“It’s not decided, Natali – and from this moment on, we decide these things together. You chose us, and now you can choose our destiny.”
I pull myself up. Otho and Lazar leave their gunning stations, trusting the AI to watch our backs.
As they approach, I don’t need the Bond to know what the expressions of need and adoration on their faces mean. Brennan steps forward first, the huge alien looming over me, and I feel so deliciously small and safe within his shadow.
A wave of nervousness floods over me. Butterflies dance in my stomach.
“I want to be with you three,” I murmur. “I just don’t know what it means. I…”
My voice trails off as Brennan places his thick finger against my lips, gently
