I look up, into Conan’s slate-grey eyes.
I can feel that does care for me…
…but it doesn’t matter what he says. If we’re not Bonded, that love will disappear like flowers wilting in winter; and just as quickly.
Conan suddenly turns his head towards the door. I snap my head around, expecting one of Peter’s men to be standing there – armed with a gun.
But no, thank the Gods…
Instead, it’s Evander and Augustus, framed in the doorway like towering Gods.
Their beautifully-tailored black suits are stained with fresh, red blood – and I instantly know that none of it is theirs.
Their Orb-Weapons are sheathed at their waists, but I can almost sense that those otherworldly, blue-black blades have freshly tasted the flesh of their enemies.
“The manor is secure,” Augustus declares, stepping into the chamber.
He’s fucking magnificent, as he steps into the room.
He and Evander remind me of the pictures and statues I’ve seen of conquerors of yore – the Greek Gods and Roman Emperors who defeated impossible odds to claim a land for themselves.
But neither they, nor I, should allow ourselves to fall into false confidence.
These three may have killed Peter Paradooli – but the rest of Lipa will not bow down so easily.
And while the three Aurelians may not be slavers, I still fear that they have much in common with the men like Peter Paradooli.
Don Paradooli was never sated with what he had. He always wanted more. He was constantly risking new wars between his cartel and those of the other criminal outfits in Lipa; all in his murderous crusade for further expansion and power.
I know these three, alien warriors would never hurt me…
…but I fear what they are capable of doing to the rest of the people of this world
And, if these men are right about me being their fated mate, then that becomes even more of an issue.
Because with the Bond, I’ll be inexorably linked to them for thousands of years…
Hear that? Thousands of years!
…and I’ll be linked to whatever acts they take during that time.
It’s mind-boggling to consider.
Aurelians live to great age, and so do their fated mates. Once Bonded – once that connection has been established, through the act of mating – there are strange and barely-understood changes that their mate undergoes.
A Bonded female will become stronger, faster and more fertile. Her body’s aging process will shut off – allowing her to live the same massively-extended lifespan of the Aurelians…
But is that a blessing? Or a curse?
I shake my head, unable to truly decide one way or another.
My thoughts return to the here and now; which, in some ways, is no less of a conundrum.
Consider my situation: Right now, I’m bathing in my luxurious chambers of a man who used to own me. I’m standing right in front of one of the men who killed him, too – a towering creature built like a naked Greek God. His two battle-brothers – equally impossibly good-looking – stand at the entranceway, covered in the blood of more enemies.
Together, the three of them are an impossible contradiction.
They’re noble. Terrifying. Magnificent. They’re harbingers of death, and the gatekeepers of hope.
But more than that – I must remember that their perfectly-muscled bodies were not created to pleasure my eyes. Their huge muscles, and massive hands, and incredible reflexes are not things of aesthetic value alone.
These three were made for war.
Augustus is a conqueror as he strides towards me. His hard, grey eyes are icicles as he surveys his new domain.
Out of the three of them, he’s the most terrifying. I don’t feel the same warm, protective glow that being wrapped in Evander or Conan’s enormous arms gives me.
No, Augustus is a beast at his core.
A beast…
And beasts live to fight and fuck.
But, I am only human – and as much as that terrifies me, it also arouses me wildly.
The thought of truly letting go with a beast like Augustus tantalizes the very core of my being. It would be so easy to just surrender to him – to just give myself to a man who could take whatever he wanted anyway.
I shudder as Augustus strides towards the pool. Beneath his tailored suit, I know his muscled body is like a piece of living art. I watch the fabric slide across his muscles, and I fantasize about the rough, hungry coupling that could be mine if all I do is give in.
But could I truly allow myself to be Bonded to such a man?
“Wait!” I gasp, and Augustus suddenly stops at the edge of the pool, looking down at me from high above.
“Tell me,” he asks.
The animal rage is now gone from Augustus. It’s replaced instead by a lionesque certainty – the sureness of a king striding within his own palace.
I stand waist-deep in the cool water. The dress I still wear clings tightly to my body, wet and sheer. I might as well be naked – in fact, the dress makes me look more naked than I would without it.
All three of the aliens are staring down at me with undisguised lust. Conan is already in the water, and he wades through the cool waves with the grace of a shark. His cock is a long, hard rod that blurs my mind with my desire to touch it… Taste it… Ride it.
I ache to let these victorious warriors sate their needs inside of me. Every instinct in my body tells me that this is right. That we were meant to be together. That our fates are inexorably linked.
But…
You don’t know these men, Ashley!
If Augustus is right about the Bond, then to allow that connection to be made – to allow them to seed me – would be a decision far more binding than even marriage.
Once it’s done, it cannot be undone.
This is a link that will not
