“Your prison,” Lazar hisses, and his words are enough to cause me to wince. The only thing that hurts is the truth, right?
Brennan looks down at me, and his slate-grey eyes soften slightly.
“I speak the truth, Natali. We all do. The end of times are near.”
What does he even mean by that?
“The end times are near,” Brennan repeats, “and that means it’s time to focus on what’s truly important.” He takes another step forward – towering over me. I shiver, feeling so tiny in his shadow.
If only he wasn’t shirtless! I’m eye-level with his shredded abs, and I can feel my pulse throbbing between my thighs.
“What’s important is you, Natali,” Brennan continues. “I tasted your scent the moment we entered your home – and I knew.”
Knew? Knew what?
As if reading my mind, Brennan growls:
“I knew that I’d be willing to risk throwing away the last shreds of my honor to be near you. We all would.” He snorts bitterly. “Of all the things to be worried about, your safety is not one of them. None of us will let you be harmed under our protection.” He pauses. “But we can only promise that if you remain in our protection.”
He ends that speech standing about five feet in front of me, looming over me. I’m trembling as he stands before me, drinking in the sight of his magnificent, shirtless physique.
I can see every muscle in his body, highlighted in defined perfection. The ice-cold whiteness of his flawless skin contrasts with the sharp, red heat in his voice – a heat that’s overcome any attempt to remain cool and dispassionate.
I’m rocked for a moment. This isn’t the Brennan I’ve come to know during the last day, or so.
It makes me suspect that he’s telling the truth – but what does that imply?
Maybe Brennan did smell something special in my scent – but what does that mean? That he wants to mate with me – like Aurelians want to mate with every human woman of childbearing age?
He might believe his words, but I think he’s lying to himself. I can tell what these three Aurelians truly value more than me, or my safety.
Brennan and his battle-brothers truly believe something horrible is going to happen to the universe – and that the Aurelian Empire will be at the epicenter of it.
If Brennan’s entire species is at risk, surely he’d do anything to protect it – including breaking the most sacred law of the Aurelians, and kidnapping a girl to use as leverage in negotiations.
I mean, that’s the only explanation, right?
That’s the only answer that makes sense?
Now I’m the one lying to myself. There’s another explanation.
Maybe Brennan is telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Maybe he really did smell something in my scent – something that made him and his battle-brothers turn their back on everything they were raised to hold sacred.
“I tasted your scent the moment we entered your home,” Brennan told me, “and I knew.”
Knew?
Does he mean he thinks I’m his Fated Mate?
The thought slams in my mind like a Reaver at full speed. I literally stagger, as if I’ve been physically slapped.
Gods!
I’ve read everything I could find about the dark Bond that can link an Aurelian triad to a human female - and what I’ve read both scares and excites me more than any other thought I’ve ever had.
And the worst part? I feel it could be true, too.
I’m already starting to understand what the words in On Aurelians meant about drawing out a woman’s deepest, darkest desires.
Even without the Bond – even if I am nothing but a wet and willing human for these Aurelians to satisfy themselves into – they’re having a powerful and undeniable effect on me.
There’s something within me – a secret desire I didn’t even know existed – that craves the feeling of being so small and helpless; and nothing satisfies that craving like these three huge, powerful, intimidating men.
Could it be true?
According to On Aurelians, if I was their Fated Mate, these feelings of mine – these cravings to be dominated and owned – would only grow stronger and more intense; rushing over me until they overwhelmed all logic and restraint.
But would that be a curse, or a blessing?
I’m frozen, just like I was in my home when Brennan first caught my gaze from across the room. Thoughts are racing through my mind, wild and unbidden.
If I am their Fated Mate?
The dark, erotic appeal of that aside, it’s an incredible thought.
If I was the Fated Mate of these Aurelians – and such a thing is so unlikely, I almost feel guilty indulging in such a fantasy – it would mean that time would open before me.
According to what I’ve read, I’d be granted the incredible lifespan of Aurelians – fully thousands of years. I’ve seen how true this is in Queen Jasmine, who has remained looking in her mid-twenties for the last couple of centuries.
But what would one do with thousands of years of life? I don’t even know what I want from the century or so I’ve got ahead of me right now.
Would I be able to find such a purpose in the time granted to me by the Bond? Or would that link corrupt my mind completely – filling me so fervently with my deep and dark desires that I’d forget all about ever being myself?
I push that thought out of my mind. It’s stupid to dwell on such a thing. To be the Fated Mate of this triad? There’s less than a one-in-a-million chance – one-in-a-billion!
And Fated Mate or not, it doesn’t change my current situation.
I’ve been warned that I’ll be punished – and there’s a seven-feet-tall, angry alien about to deliver on that promise. The anger is the most unsettling part. The look in Brennan’s eyes scares me.
“Brennan – what are you going to do to me?”
His full lips curl upward into a smirk.
“I’m going to teach
