“Can you see anything?” I said. “Any sign of the bond?”
Computer was silent.
“There is a great deal of information to process,” Computer said. “And these scanners were not made to detect the bond.”
“Wait,” I said. “Back up. What’s that?”
As the program rendered my nervous system and organs, the bond and its pulsing light became clearer.
Pixel by pixel, Computer rebuilt the bond in the heart of my chest.
The blood drained from my face.
“Computer… Am I seeing what I think I’m seeing?”
“It appears so, sir. It’s your bond. It was never Severed.”
Emma
My arms were lashed behind my back and the cord about my ankles chaffed and cut into my skin.
It was difficult for me to even wriggle.
And if I managed to get off the bed, how was I supposed to get back on my feet and move about my room?
I didn’t have anything that would be of much use.
None of this made any sense.
How could I be on Iav’s ship when the bond had been Severed?
How had he found me?
Maybe the Surgeon had put me on a shuttle and, despite the bond being very weak, Iav had managed to pick up on the signal enough to track me down.
He could have located the ship and carried me on board his own.
But somehow, that didn’t ring true.
Even if that had happened, why would Iav want me after my bond with him had been cut?
I was no longer his fated mate.
Did their breeding program still have a purpose for me?
And if they could breed with anybody, why did they not abduct random females from any planet they passed?
Why did it have to be me?
Having the bond Severed was supposed to prevent this from happening.
I thought of Vai and the look I had seen on his face through the pod window.
That hurt but resolute expression.
Although he didn’t like what we were doing, he was doing it because it was for the best.
I wished more than anything I could turn back the hands of time and return to that moment when we escaped the minefield.
I would decide on a different course of action.
We would continue to run, to try and hide, and yes, I would have taken him into my bed and ended this curse once and for good.
If I knew then I would be forced to mate anyway, it might as well be with someone I loved.
I blinked at that.
Love?
Was that what I felt for Vai?
Was that what he meant to me?
Yes, I thought.
He did.
Now he was far from me, I could finally see the wood for the trees.
I wished now more than ever I could return to that moment when I discovered the truth about why Vai had come to me in the first place.
Not just to protect me but to satisfy his craving for my body.
Only once his seed spilled inside me could I be free.
And be with him for the rest of my life?
Tears sprung into my eyes as I realized that was what I’d wanted all along.
I just hadn’t known it.
Or else refused to believe it.
I had let my own foolish pride and rigid principles get in the way.
We were fated mates.
We were supposed to be together.
And now I was on a ship careening through space, heading for a world I had only ever seen on Vai’s hollow deck.
The Shadow Realm.
It was the sudden shift in the shadows that alerted me to it.
A sudden chill crept over me, along with the knowledge other emotions dominated in this place.
I could feel them steal over me now.
It wasn’t love.
It was hate, fear, and desperation.
The moment we crossed into the Shadow Realm, passing through the Rift and entered this dark and unknown area of space beyond our galaxy, all hope evaporated from me.
The only thing I could hold onto, the only thing that made any sense, was that pulsing glow in the center of my chest.
A flickering flame in a dark and lonely place.
I cradled it close, going so far as to curl my knees up around myself, trying to hide it, protect it, sensing the Shadows would snuff it out the first moment they had a chance.
My door hissed open and Iav entered.
He paused a moment, surveying the room and peering at me thoughtfully.
He crossed toward me and sat on the corner of my bed.
I lay deathly still, fearing what he might do if he thought I was awake.
“You don’t need to be afraid,” he said.
He spoke in Vai’s soft and kindly voice, only now his words seemed sinister and laced with poison.
“You will do a great service for the empire,” he said. “You will give us many sons and daughters. You will live on inside them for many generations to come. And once your use has expired, you can die knowing you have served your purpose. How well you decide to serve it is up to you.”
My tears came unbidden and I wept into my blanket.
“If you care anything for me, please, let me go,” I said.
I snorted, choking on the hot wad that’d taken up residence in the back of my throat.
“That feeling in your chest,” I said, “that pulsing light, doesn’t it mean more to you than just my location?”
“It means you are living and alive and that I must find you.”
“No. It doesn’t mean that at all. It means so much more. Don’t you feel love, Iav? Can’t you feel mercy? Compassion?”
“I feel those things. I feel love for the Empire and compassion for my brothers and sisters.”
My hopes faded but did not disappear.
“That love you feel for the empire, could you ever feel it for me?” I said.
He turned to me, his horns vicious and devil-like in the semidarkness.
He leaned forward and brushed a finger under my chin.
“Your duty is to the empire and all those you service shall love you… in their way.”
So much for trying to appeal to his merciful nature.
This creature knew nothing about compassion.
He understood only his objective.
There was no warmth in his heart.
He didn’t have a heart, I realized.
He had
