This was my price for safety for my clan: making it known I was his.
Claws dug into my waist. I could feel blood seeping out and soaking my dress, but I refused to move. Moving would mean I failed; that I wasn’t strong enough to be his Nova and to be connected to one of the most powerful males in the galaxy.
A scratchy tongue lapped the blood inside his bite, causing him to growl.
Holding steady was a force of will when my body wanted to respond to him on a primal level. I was torn between wanting him to pin me against the ground and mount me or to jerk away and have him beg for forgiveness for everything had done to me.
A distant part of me wanted him to hold me close as he lapped my neck and begged for forgiveness.
I could feel my knees becoming weak, but I refused to let them buckle.
I tried to open my eyes, but my lids prevented me from doing so.
Slowly, I could feel myself give in to him and the darkness that came from him.
Chapter Four Selena
The soft sound of purrs woke me from my slumber. My body felt stiff as something silky and soft surrounded me. The side of my neck felt raw. I carefully touched my mark to check the damage and winced in pain. Surprisingly, my breasts didn’t feel achy or full. I opened my eyes to a scene that differed greatly from what I remembered.
How did I end up here? What happened?
The room was dark, the only light from a lamp sitting on a black desk across the room. Zirene was sitting in a matching chair with his back turned to me, looking out through the glass wall. The jacket he’d handed Kaede was hanging off the back of his chair. The open view of space was amazing. Only a few small ships traveling to and from the space station took away from its emptiness.
I was lying on a strangely curved corner bed. It was slightly smaller than my nestbed and wedge-shaped as it connected one wall to another in the corner. The mattress was the same height, while the pillows and blankets were royal purple with silver details along the edges that shimmered by the starlight.
Xylo and Odelm were curled up on either side of me, sleeping with their bodies uncovered. My cubs seemed slightly larger as they slept between Xylo and myself—piled on top of each other against his chest. His vines boxed them in, creating a barrier around them.
I sat up and winced at the stiffness in my body as I pushed the heavy blanket down, revealing I was no longer in the dark green dress I had arrived in. Instead, I wore a soft nightgown, the color of my hair.
How much time had passed while I was unconscious?
Slowly, I pulled my legs up and out of the blanket, trying not to wake up my sleeping clan. I carefully crawled across the bed, failing to muffle a soft hiss from the stinging on my shoulder.
“Selena?”
I jerked my head up to the source of the voice.
Zirene jumped to his feet and raced toward me, lifting me gently off the bed. His face filled with concern as he studied me with weighted eyelids. His amethyst eyes met mine.
“Tell me what you need, and it will be yours,” he whispered. His deep raspy voice sent shivers down my spine.
“I need answers,” I responded wryly, my hands gripping his mane, feeling its soft and silky texture between my fingers. “What happened while I was out?”
“Let me take you to the bathroom, so you can freshen up,” Zirene answered. “Then we will go to my office, and I can fill you in. We have a lot to discuss. I am hoping to have the doctor I assigned to you examine you.”
The door automatically opened, revealing a bathroom that put the one on the Destiny to shame. It screamed masculinity with its royal Aldawi coloring. A deep black stone tub with silver accessories and details sat along the glass wall. Shelves and cabinets lined the walls, and the black and purple marble stone floor matched the counter.
“Wow.”
“This is my personal chamber in the Aldawi Royal Apartments. I remodeled everything to make sure it provided for our clan.”
Turning my gaze away from the bathroom to him, I searched his face. He had just called my clan his.
“What did you have to remodel?”
He looked away, toward the glass wall. “I upgraded the bed to fit more bodies. There was no bed shaped like a Circuli nestqueen’s nestbed available, so I had one custom-built. Even if you don’t welcome me into your bed, I wanted to make sure you had a bed that would fit everyone in your clan. I have a normal size one in my guest room.”
His thoughtfulness surprised me.
I frowned.
Guilt soon followed. I wished there wasn’t a wall between us, and that things were different. I was still upset at him, and I had the right to be. We needed to have a long conversation about working out the problems between us sometime soon, because I didn’t want to continue with the way things were left unsaid.
“That was thoughtful of you,” I whispered.
He glanced at me. “It was nothing compared to what you deserve.”
Gently, he lowered me onto the ground and stepped back toward the bathroom door.
“Zirene, I don’t feel comfortable having a doctor whom I don’t know examine me.”
“I would feel better if he could. He aided Xylo and the others in stabilizing you.”
“Can we wait until Xylo wakes up? I’d rather have him and his team present. They have been studying my progress since they found me.” Pulling my gaze from him, I looked down at my feet. “I still have issues with infirmaries and having others who I don’t know run tests
