Epilogue
Kaede
The heavy scent of Selena’s ravishing blanketed the night air. It took all of my control not to step in and throw Prince Zirene off her. How dare he have her scream his name and announce it to the whole island as if he owned her?
No one owned Selena. She was a free female and deserved to be treated as such.
Taking in deep breaths, I paced Selena’s porch and tried to calm myself as I scanned aimlessly through the active drones. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get her taste out of my mouth—her essence tainted every intake of air.
Why did she have to be destined to him?
Out of all the males in the universe the Fates could bind her to, why did it have to be the one male I had sworn myself to?
It didn’t matter.
Selena was surrounded by males bonded to her in a way I could never fathom.
How could I compete against those who could read her emotions and thoughts and send their own to her?
How could I compare myself to Prince Zirene?
He was her Shadow, and from what records I could find, his strength was based on his connection with Selena—his Nova.
If others thought he was powerful now—to the point where he was almost uncontrollable when he didn’t keep himself in check—what would become of him now they had officially come together as one?
My job just became more important.
If a war broke out, it would be up to me to make sure nothing harmed Selena or her clan.
Selena was the key to Prince Zirene’s sanity—whether he accepted that fact or not, I wasn’t sure.
That didn’t change the fact that if something happened to her, and she was severely injured—or the unthinkable happened, and she died—Prince Zirene would frenzy until he was no more.
Therefore, I needed to stop fantasizing about how it would feel to be a member of Selena’s clan, loved and cherished by her. I saw how she looked at her nestmates, always knowing where they were. Her connections with her nestmates allowed her to see a thread invisible to most species.
Why would someone want to be constantly connected to another?
My sisters were already annoying enough, but at least I could ignore them.
I couldn’t ignore Selena even if I tried. Her blood, stored in my system, allowed me to track her as long as she remained on the moon.
I should have flipped her over, pinning her beneath me to have that image forever stored in my records. It had taken everything in me to remain calm as she straddled me when she lowered her face next to mine.
How I wished we could have met on different terms. I would have loved to be with her.
But it wasn’t Fate. The Stars didn’t shine down on us like that.
I would be a faithful guard, loyal to both Prince Zirene and to her.
It had to be enough. I didn’t know how I would be able to continue protecting her if it wasn’t. I couldn’t become so focused on Selena that I lost sight of the dangers that surrounded both her and her clan.
This was a dangerous fantasy I needed to kill. There would never be an “us.”
I would never be good enough for her, anyhow.
I closed my eyes as I felt my body shift, collapsing into itself. Suddenly, I was standing before my screened room as my sisters’ faces popped up on their feeds, ready for our emergency meeting. I threw my cape on the floor and jumped into my work chair, connecting myself to my system’s port.
The sharp pinch stabbed the back of my head as my awareness exploded. Instantly, I ran my tests. Satisfied with the results, I locked my eyes on B as the Fab Five stared at me, waiting for our plan.
“It has come to our attention that the Aldawi Sovereign wants to meet Selena and her cubs…”