Chapter 2
Kaede
Selena’s hand pressed against Z’s paw as she demanded answers, and Kaede tracked every micro-expression that crossed the Sovereign’s face.
The slight flicker of hesitation. The smallest tightening in his jaw, as if the words tasted like ash.
The flicker at the corners of his eyes that betrayed just how bad things truly were.
War on two fronts.
And both sides wanted his Star.
One wanted her dead. The other alive.
Kaede’s fingers curled around the hilt of his psydagger until the grip bit into his palm.
REI hummed against his consciousness—feeds layered over feeds, drone eyes blinking open across the landing pad, the city, the sky-lanes, the evacuation routes.
Primary. Secondary. Tertiary. Every angle mapped. Every shadow assigned a probability.
None of it felt like enough.
He kept his mental shields locked down—iron walls between Selena and the terror clawing at his chest. She’d felt enough of his fear already.
She’d caught a taste of it when he materialized inside that tent and found her wrapped in Zyxel’s embrace.
Bare skin against crimson-tinted obsidian scales.
A fresh bond thrumming between them like a wound that hadn’t decided whether it was healing or festering.
Later.
He would process that later.
Right now, he had a pregnant mate standing in the open, and an empire tipping toward fracture.
“The Quaww struck three border systems simultaneously.” Z’s voice carried the sovereign-cold cadence he used for councils and executions.
His paw didn’t leave Selena’s face. A contradiction, that tenderness.
A weakness he refused to name. “Coordinated. Precise. They’ve been planning this for months.
Possibly years. Lurking in the shadows, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. ”
“Casualties?” Selena didn’t flinch. Her voice stayed even, steady, as if she could keep the galaxy from spilling apart by refusing to shake. His star was filling her role as the Aldawi Beacon by supporting her Sovereign in their empire’s greatest time of need.
“Still being tallied.” Z’s eyes went darker than royal purple, nearly black. “Hundreds confirmed. Thousands projected.”
Kaede watched her take it in. The slight stiffening of her spine. The way the spots along her arms deepened, not with fear—
Resolve.
Dangerous, beautiful resolve.
Stars, he loved her for it.
It terrified him in the same breath.
Zyxel hovered at the edge of their tight formation, coiled too neat, too still. Crimson naga form held in check, chartreuse eyes flicking between Selena and Kaede like he was trying to find the rules of this clan by watching the way they stood.
Each glance scraped at Kaede’s fangs.
A sealed bond didn’t buy trust. It bought responsibility. There was a difference.
It would take time for him to fully accept him as a clanbrother. Time that was always eluding them.
“You said something worse was coming.” Selena pressed. “It’s the Verya, isn’t it?”
Z’s jaw tightened. His gaze cut to Kaede—one sharp look between males who’d survived too many impossible situations to waste time on denial.
Tell her, that look said. She needs to know.
Kaede stepped forward, placing himself at Selena’s flank by instinct, body angled to intercept. The landing pad wind cut across his armor, whipping his cape. He barely felt it.
“Celyze received a vision during the night,” he said. No softness. Not now. “The Verya have been tracking you since your discovery.”
Her eyes narrowed, ocean-deep, asking for an explanation without pleading for it.
“They’re genetic collectors,” he continued. “They harvest unique DNA for breeding programs. They’ve conquered their galaxy, and now they’ve marked ours. You aren’t a target, Selena. You’re their war prize.”
A beat. Long enough for the words to settle like poison—ruining any fragment of joy she might’ve had.
“Ryzen’s brother was captured by them.” Kaede’s voice stayed controlled because if he let it slip, he’d show too much of what he planned to do to the first Verya he got within range. “And they’re coming for you next.”
Selena’s hand went to her belly.
The motion was small. Instinctive.
It ripped something primal through Kaede’s chest anyway.
His daughter. His mate. His everything.
He’d burn a galaxy to cinders before he let the Verya touch either of them.
“We need to board,” he said, sharper than he meant. “Now. Every moment we spend here is a moment they close distance.”
“The cubs?” Selena’s gaze swept the landing pad, searching—already calculating who was exposed, who was at risk.
“Already aboard with the others. Protected.” He forced his tone down, forced it into something soft for her. “I didn’t come for you until they were secured. You know that.”
Something flickered across her face—gratitude, yes, and the edge of irritation that he’d made a decision without her again.
Good. Let her be angry later. Let her live long enough to be furious. They could fight about it later, when she wasn’t standing exposed on a landing pad with half the galaxy hunting her.
But her attention had already shifted. Past them. Over the gathered crowd.
Aldawi females in battle harnesses. Warriors prepping to deploy. Civilians watching with terror threaded through stubborn pride. Thousands—waiting, watching, clinging to the shape of her as if she could hold the empire together by standing there.
Their Beacon.
“I need to address them.” That tone slid into her voice—the one Kaede had learned to dread. Not because it was wrong. Because it meant consequence. “They’re marching into war. They deserve words from their Beacon.”
His jaw clenched. “Selena—”
“Not here.” Z moved, massive frame shifting to block her path.
He had patience Kaede didn’t have in his bloodstream right now.
“Your words matter, Selena. But we can broadcast from the ShadowClaw. A recorded address will reach every warrior deploying from this port and a dozen others—both the males on the front lines and the females willing to join their forces. Standing in the open makes you a target.”
“They need to see me.” Her spots shifted toward an angry red, defiant as flame. “Not a recording. Me. In person. Standing with them before they—”
She started forward.
Kaede caught her wrist. Not rough. Just final.
“No.”
Her deep ocean eyes snapped to his, blazing. “I’m the Beacon. These are my people.”
“You’re pregnant with my daughter.” The words scraped out of him, too raw, too honest. He didn’t care.
Let her see it. “Your safety outweighs everything. Z’s right—we broadcast from the ship.
Your message reaches more warriors that way.
But you don’t stand exposed while enemies on two fronts hunt you. ”
Silence cracked between them like a psydagger about to slice.
Through their bond, her anger hit his shields—hot, sharp, furious that he’d dared to draw a boundary around her.
Good.
Anger meant she was breathing.
“He’s right,” Z said, voice cutting clean through. “Both points. The broadcast reaches further, and you cannot be risked. Not now.”
Selena’s jaw clenched. For a heartbeat, Kaede felt her preparing to pull free anyway—stubborn, reckless, magnificent creature that she was—
Then her gaze snagged on something behind them.
The defiance drained from her face so fast it was like watching light die.
Kaede turned.
Ryzen stood near the landing strut, exactly where he’d been—but something in him had shifted.
His posture was rigid, shoulders squared as he glared up at the sky like it had personally betrayed him.
The emerald runes along his skin flickered like a failing power core, flaring bright enough to throw jagged shadows before dimming to nothing.
Seven spirit daggers circled him in a loose, unstable pattern, their movement stripped of any tactical logic.
The Verya warrior who had once faced down entire battalions without blinking stood unmoving now, fists clenched at his sides, fury and strain etched into every line of his body—as if the sky itself were the enemy he was barely holding back from tearing apart.
Kaede’s chest tightened.
He’d seen males break before. Had broken a few himself back in his darker days. But watching Ryzen fracture—this male who had fought and bled to protect his people, who carried regrets in his soul and secrets in his eyes—felt different. Wrong. Like watching a star collapse.
“His brother,” Selena whispered. “The Verya have his brother.”
V’dim and Z’fir flanked Ryzen from a careful distance, bodies angled in protective formation while still keeping enough space to dodge the daggers. The Circuli princes moved in perfect sync—lifelong bondbrother partnership written into every shift of weight, every read of trajectory.
“He’s been like this since the vision,” Kaede explained. “Won’t speak. Won’t eat. The daggers”—a blade whistled past Ryzen’s shoulder, close enough to slice his vest—“are getting worse.”
“Can you sedate him?” Z asked.
“Tried.” Kaede frowned, wishing their clan’s healers were here. “His runes burned through the compound in seconds. Whatever’s happening to him—it’s beyond standard medical intervention.”
Selena took a step toward Ryzen.
Kaede’s hand shot out, catching her elbow. “Don’t.”
“He’s in pain—”
“He’s unstable.” Kaede shifted, placing himself between her and the Verya, every protective instinct screaming. “Those daggers aren’t discriminating. If one catches you—catches the baby—”
He couldn’t finish. Wouldn’t give the thought a shape.
Selena’s breath hitched, anger fighting fear. “Then what do we do? Leave him here? Abandon him?”
“We get him on the ship.” Kaede’s gaze tracked the daggers’ orbit, timing the stutters, the sudden violent drops. “Contained. Celyze can monitor him during transit. But we need to move—now.”