Chapter 16 #2
She stood at the center of the stage. Still.
Composed. Her hands clasped loosely in front of her as if this were nothing more than another carefully scripted moment for the cameras.
The stage lights caught in her hair, casting soft gold across her shoulders.
Her gown was elegant, the shimmering emerald fabric hugging every perfect curve.
To the audience she looked calm. To me, she looked like a warrior preparing for battle.
My entire body locked as Derek Sterling approached her. "Tori." His voice carried easily across the silent theater, smooth and self-satisfied. "You look beautiful." The words scraped across my nerves like broken glass.
"Derek." Her reply was calm, curious, hesitant. Perfect fucking acting.
My hands curled into fists behind the curtain.
Every instinct demanded that I cross the stage, throw her over my shoulder, and carry her away from this circus.
Lock the door behind us. Remind her with my mouth and hands and body exactly who she belonged to.
Instead, I remained in the shadows while she smiled at another male.
"What are you doing here?" she asked lightly. Derek walked toward her with the confidence of a man convinced the world already belonged to him. "What I should have done weeks ago." Then he dropped to one knee in front of her.
A collective gasp rippled through the audience. The gesture was theatrical, calculated for maximum effect. Cameras zoomed closer. Microphones dipped lower. "I'm here to fight for you," he declared.
My teeth ground together hard enough to ache.
"To prove I am the better man. That I can give you everything that alien beast cannot."
His hand slipped into his pocket. When it emerged, a small velvet box rested in his palm. He opened it. The diamond inside was enormous. Cold. Garish. The kind of jewel meant to blind rather than impress.
"Victoria Smith," he continued, his voice dropping into a performance of wounded sincerity, "I never stopped loving you.
" Lies. The scent of him drifted faintly toward the wings—expensive cologne masking the bitter edge of arrogance.
"I know you see the truth now," he went on.
"That he's controlling. Smothering. That he sees you as property. "
My claws threatened to break through skin.
"That he'll never treat you like an equal."
The beast roared inside my mind. Kill him.
"Come back to me. Be my wife. Not for show. Not for pretend. For real." He lifted the ring higher. "Let me give you the life you deserve."
Silence flooded the theater. Tori didn't move. Didn't speak. She simply stood there, looking down at him with a stillness so absolute it made my chest tighten. Seconds passed. Derek's smile faltered.
"Tori?" Nothing. "I love you," he pressed, irritation creeping into his voice. "Tell him you've chosen me." Still nothing. "Tori!" The man’s control cracked completely. "I came all this way. I made this grand gesture. The least you can do is—"
“Derek.” She said his name. Nothing else. The pause was dramatic. Everyone in the audience was practically holding their breath.
He stilled immediately, the smug look back. Certain he had won when she smiled down at him.
If he had known her at all, he would have realized her expression was wrong. Cold. Sharp. Predatory. She took a small step away from him and lifted one hand—not toward Derek, not toward the audience—behind the cameras. The signal.
"FBI! FREEZE!"
The command exploded from every direction at once. Agents surged from the audience rows, from the backstage doors, from the aisles. Dark suits surrounded Derek in seconds, weapons raised, badges flashing beneath the lights. The trap snapped shut.
Derek scrambled to his feet. "What is this?" he shouted, fury replacing charm in an instant. "What are you doing?"
Special Agent Morris stepped forward, her voice cutting cleanly through the chaos. "Derek Sterling, you are under arrest for conspiracy to commit kidnapping, insider trading, securities fraud, conspiracy to commit murder—" she paused slightly, "—and several others I'm probably forgetting."
"You can't—" Derek's head whipped from side to side, searching for escape. "This is a mistake! I'm a billionaire! I have lawyers! I have—"
"You have the right to remain silent." Agent Chen seized his arm, twisting it behind his back with efficient precision. "Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law."
"Tori!" Derek twisted violently, desperation finally breaking through his composure. "Tori, tell them! Tell them this is a mistake! Tell them we love each other!"
That was enough. I stepped out of the shadows.
The audience gasped as I crossed the stage in three long strides.
My arms wrapped around Tori's waist, pulling her firmly back against my chest. The moment our bodies touched, she melted against me—her head tipping back onto my shoulder, her hands sliding over mine, holding them there. The performance was over.
Derek's face collapsed as the realization hit him. "You…" His voice broke. "You planned this." His eyes burned with humiliation. "You played me."
Tori stepped forward slightly but I did not let her go. Her voice carried clearly across the stunned audience.
Chet’s microphone people were excellent at their jobs.
"You broke the law." The calm in her tone was colder than anger. "You thought you owned me, Derek. That I was property." She turned to face him fully. "I don’t belong to you. I love… " She glanced over her shoulder at me. “I love Egon. I’m sorry, Derek.”
My gaze dropped to the man who had threatened her life. Who had tried to take her from me. "You are fortunate, human," I said quietly. The words carried farther than I intended. Damn Chet and his crew. "If I had my way, you would already be dead for threatening my mate."
Derek screamed in rage. The sound was raw and broken as the agents dragged him toward the exit. The audience sat in stunned silence, struggling to process what they had just witnessed.
Then Chet stepped forward, his gold hair gleaming under the lights, his smile wide and triumphant. "Well!" His voice rang out across the theater. "That was dramatic!"
A ripple of nervous laughter passed through the crowd.
"But you know what?" he continued brightly.
"I think our audience deserves the truth.
The whole truth." His eyes sparkled as he led Tori and I to the center of the stage and waved at one of the many gigantic screens that had been placed around the area.
The massive screens all flickered to life. Footage filled them—the wedding, me bursting through the doors, lifting Tori into my arms while the entire room stared.
Gasps echoed through the audience. More moments followed.
Stolen. Private. Our laughter. Our quiet conversations.
The first time she had looked at me like I was the center of her world.
Our first dance. The raw need in my gaze shocked me.
As did the answering desire in hers. Feeling a thing and seeing it displayed to cinematic perfection were two different things.
Next came our trip to see the Northern Lights. Tori standing beneath the aurora while green light danced across her face, my arms around her, her head resting against my shoulder.
The audience began to murmur, then sigh, then cheer. They understood now. They saw what we had always been.
Mine, my beast confirmed, watching the video as if hypnotized by the sheer beauty of our female. She loved us. It was in her eyes. In her touch. And after this, there would be no more pretending. He would finally claim her, wear her mating cuffs, and proudly display them as a worthy, chosen male.
Chet raised his arms dramatically. "Ladies and gentlemen! The greatest love story reality television has ever seen!" The crowd erupted.
The noise of the crowd faded the moment I turned toward her.
Tori stood only inches away, the lights from the massive screens still dancing across her face.
The chaos around us—the cheering audience, Chet shouting something about ratings, the agents escorting Derek out of the theater—blurred into meaningless sound. All I could see was her.
Her breath came unevenly, chest rising and falling beneath the soft fabric of her dress.
Tears tracked down her cheeks, catching the stage lights like scattered diamonds.
My hands lifted without conscious thought.
I framed her face gently, my thumbs brushing away the wet trails beneath her eyes.
Her skin was warm beneath my palms—alive, real, undeniably mine.
My forehead lowered until it rested against hers.
For a moment we simply breathed, her breath touching my lips, warm and trembling. The beast inside me quieted completely.
I pressed a kiss to her mouth—soft, reverent, the kind of kiss meant to promise rather than claim. Then I stepped back. And dropped to my knees.
The theater went silent. Two hundred humans stared at us. Cameras zoomed closer. Every screen in the room showed the moment from a dozen different angles. I barely noticed. My attention stayed locked on the woman standing before me.
As Chet had sworn to me on penalty of a swift death, he appeared at my side with my mating cuffs in hand.
I took them from him. The metal was cool against my fingers as I held the mating cuffs.
Ancient Atlan steel caught the light, the engraved symbols etched into the surface gleaming beneath the stage lamps—my family's mark, the promise of every male before me.
Sacred. Permanent. These particular cuffs had been in my family for centuries.
Had belonged to my great grandfather and his female.
I held them out toward her.
"Tori." My voice carried easily through the silent auditorium.
"You are my mate." The words felt larger than the room, larger than the cameras, larger than the world watching through their screens.
"My beast recognized you as our mate. He chose you.
" My hands remained steady despite the thunder of my heartbeat.
"As I choose you now. As I will choose you every day for the rest of my life.
" The cuffs rested between us, an offering.
"Accept my claim. Be my mate. My partner. My heart. Forever."
For a moment she could not speak. Emotion flickered across her face—joy, disbelief, wonder.
Then she nodded. "Yes." The word came out breathless.
Then stronger. "Yes!" Her hands reached for the larger cuffs first. Warm fingers closed around my wrists as she fastened them with a firm snap of metal. "You're mine, Warlord Egon."
The declaration sent a deep, primal satisfaction through my blood.
The audience exploded into cheers. I barely heard them.
My attention remained on her as I rose slowly to my feet.
Her wrist trembled slightly in mine. The metal of her smaller mating cuffs felt alive the moment the first one touched her skin—warm, responsive, as if the ancient alloy recognized her immediately.
Then I closed the first cuff. The metal locked into place with a soft click. The second cuff followed. The moment it sealed, something shifted inside my chest—something deep and ancient finally settling into place. She was mine. Officially. Permanently. Irrevocably. And I was hers.
The beast settled at last. For the first time in years, the burning agony of mating fever completely gone. She. Was. Mine.
"I love you." The words broke from her in a sob as she threw her arms around my neck.
I wrapped my arms around her and bent down, pressed my lips to her ear. "I love you more.”
I lifted her easily off her feet, her laughter bursting through her tears as I spun her once across the stage, the audience roaring around us like thunder.
"THAT!" Chet's voice cut through the celebration with manic triumph.
"THAT is how you do a season finale!" He threw his arms wide and motioned for the playback to continue. There was more. More of us. The other contestants. The group of fighters and warriors he’d invited to the set, whetting the audience’s appetite for whatever came next.
More warriors. More Warlords. More drama.
I did not care about the noise or chaos around us. I cared about the woman in my arms—the warmth of her body pressed against mine, the sacred cuffs circling her wrist, the bond between us, anchoring me, finally complete.
We had done it. We had caught the monster the human way. Honored the contract so the warriors of the Colony would have their chance to find their mates. And claimed each other before the entire world.
Inside me, the beast rose. For the first time in years, his laughter rolled through my mind—deep, thunderous, triumphant.
MINE.