Chapter 17
Cullen
The guards came for us at dawn.
I heard them before they appeared—the heavy tread of boots in the corridor, the metallic scrape of weapons being readied. Lying beside me, I felt Serna's instant alertness, her heartbeat accelerating to match mine.
We were on our feet when the door slid open.
Six guards this time. They weren't taking chances.
"Move," one of them barked, gesturing with his weapon.
I met Serna's eyes across the cell. Her expression was calm, composed—the Prime's mask firmly in place. But I felt the current of fear beneath it. Not for herself. For me.
I love you, I thought, willing the words through our connection.
Her eyes softened for just a moment. I love you too.
Then the guards were on us, hauling us to our feet with bruising grips. They didn't bother with restraints this time—just shoved us forward into the corridor, weapons trained on our backs.
The walk to the torture chamber felt both endless and far too short.
Serna raised her chin, determination crystallizing into something sharp and focused. She was preparing herself. Steeling her mind for whatever came next.
I tried to do the same. Tried to remember my training, the resistance techniques they'd drilled into us during SEAL training. But this was different. This wasn't some hypothetical scenario or controlled exercise.
This was real. And the man waiting for us was a sadist who'd spent a century perfecting his cruelty.
The chamber doors slid open, and they shoved us inside.
Riuondo was already there, pacing like a caged animal. His expression was thunderous, his movements sharp and agitated. Something had happened. Something that had put him on edge.
"Strap him in," he snapped at the guards.
They dragged me toward the chair—that same reinforced metal chair with its magnetic restraints and built-in torture implements.
I resisted, but there were six of them and I was still weak from the previous session.
They slammed me down into the seat, and the restraints snapped closed around my wrists and ankles with brutal finality.
Serna they left standing, but two guards flanked her, weapons ready.
"The council call has been delayed," Riuondo said, his voice tight with barely controlled rage. "Some incident involving Earth. They claim they need more time to address it before we can proceed with the abdication."
Down the bond, I felt Serna's surge of hope. The message got through. They're coming.
But she kept her expression neutral. "These things happen. Political complications—"
"Silence!" Riuondo whirled on her, his face contorted with fury. "Do you think I'm a fool? Do you think I don't know what this means?"
He advanced on her, his eyes blazing with accusation. "You did something during that call with Ako and that human. You signaled them somehow. Warned them."
"What?" Serna's voice was perfectly calm, but I could feel the uptick in our shared heartbeat. "You were there with me the entire time. You watched every word I spoke, every gesture I made."
"You had to do something. Why else would they postpone the call?"
She lifted her chin, meeting his gaze with the full weight of her authority. "If the Council is postponing, it has nothing to do with me. Perhaps the fates have intervened because of the catastrophic mistake it would be to allow a paranoid, power-hungry fool to control the Alliance."
Riuondo's hand shot out and cracked across her face. The sound echoed through the room, and I roared against my restraints, the metal groaning under the force of my rage.
"You will show respect," he hissed.
Serna turned her head back slowly, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. She smiled. "Respect is earned. You've earned nothing but contempt."
I understood what she was doing. Through the bond, I could feel her intention—sharp and deliberate as a blade. She was goading him, drawing his fury toward herself and away from me. Every insult, every defiant word was calculated to keep his attention fixed on her.
Even if it meant taking the punishment herself.
He stalked toward her, and I saw her tense, preparing for another blow. But he stopped just short of striking distance, his chest heaving.
"It doesn't matter," he said, his voice dropping to something cold and deadly. "When I take control of the Alliance, Earth will be the first planet I subjugate. Every human will be collared and sold into slavery. Every. Single. One."
My blood ran cold.
"And those who've taken humans as mates?
" He smiled, and it was the most terrifying expression I'd ever seen.
"They'll be executed. Publicly. Starting with Duke Ako—that traitorous fool who's spent decades advocating for human rights.
" He turned his gaze to Serna. "And then your son Charick.
Let him watch his human mate die before I kill him. "
"You're insane," Serna said, her voice steady despite the horror I felt coursing down the bond.
"I'm a visionary." Riuondo moved toward me, his smile widening. "But first, I think we need to revisit our agreement. I'm beginning to think you need... motivation to follow through."
His hand hovered over the chair's control panel.
"Don't," Serna said, but there was steel in her voice, not pleading. "You already have what you want. I agreed to abdicate."
"Did you?" Riuondo's eyes narrowed. "Or did you simply say what I wanted to hear while you plotted your escape?"
"I gave you my word."
"Your word." He laughed, bitter and sharp. "The word of a woman who's spent a century lying to herself about duty and sacrifice. Forgive me if I find that insufficient."
Down the bond, I felt Serna's resolve harden. She wasn't going to break. Not easily.
"Then what do you want?" she asked, her voice cold. "More groveling? More begging? I've already agreed to give you the Alliance. What more could you possibly—"
Riuondo's hand moved to the controls. "I want to see you broken. Truly broken. Not just saying the words, but accepting your defeat in your bones."
"Then you'll be disappointed." Serna's voice was ice. "Because I am Vaktaire. We don't break."
"Everyone breaks." He pressed the control.
Level four.
The pain exploded through my nervous system like lightning—every nerve ending firing at once, muscles seizing, lungs forgetting how to breathe. The world went white, then red, then black around the edges.
I heard Serna's sharp intake of breath echoing down the bond, felt her absorbing the echo of my agony.
But when the pain stopped and I sagged in the restraints, gasping, I heard her voice—steady, defiant.
"Is that all you have?" she asked. "Torturing an innocent like a youngling pitching a fit?"
Riuondo's face darkened. "You think this is a game?"
"I think you're desperate." Serna took a step forward despite the guards flanking her.
"You've spent a century planning this moment, and now it's slipping through your fingers.
The Council is stalling. Your timeline is collapsing.
And you're realizing that even if you force me to abdicate, they'll never accept you as Prime. "
"They'll have no choice—"
"They'll always have a choice." Her voice was sharp, cutting.
"You can torture me. You can torture him.
You can kill us both. But you can't make the Council respect you.
You can't make them follow you. Because you're not a leader, Riuondo.
You're a murderer and a coward who hides behind a century of corpses. "
His hand slammed down on the controls.
Level five.
This time I did scream. Couldn't help it. The pain was beyond anything I'd ever experienced—beyond anything I'd thought possible. It felt like every cell in my body was being torn apart and reassembled wrong.
When it stopped, I couldn't catch my breath. Couldn't think. Couldn't do anything but hang in the restraints and shake.
Blood dripped from my nose. I could taste copper in my mouth.
I felt Serna's anguish—the helpless horror of watching someone you love being tortured. But beneath it, I felt something else: determination. Fury. Unbreakable will.
Through the haze of pain, a strange clarity settled over me. If I died here, now, it wouldn't be meaningless. It wouldn't be some random casualty in a war I didn't understand. I'd be dying for something that mattered—for someone who mattered.
For a true leader.
Not a pretender like Riuondo, who thought power could be seized through violence and intimidation.
But Serna. A Prime who'd chosen duty over comfort, who'd risked everything to protect her people—even the humans she'd barely known.
Who stood here now, refusing to break even as she watched me suffer.
This was a soldier's death. An honorable death.
If my death bought her time—if it gave her allies a chance to reach us, if it proved to the Council that she wouldn't be broken—then it was worth it.
"Stop this," she said, and her voice was different now—not pleading, but commanding. "This accomplishes nothing. You want the Alliance? Fine. Let's negotiate terms."
Riuondo turned to her, his expression calculating. "Terms?"
"I'll abdicate publicly. I'll endorse your claim to the Council. I'll even help you consolidate power among the noble families." She was speaking quickly now, her tactical mind working. "But in exchange, you leave Earth alone. You guarantee human rights within the Alliance. You—"
"No." Riuondo's voice was flat. "You don't get to negotiate. You don't get to set terms. You're going to abdicate unconditionally, or I'm going to keep hurting him until there's nothing left."
He picked up something from the table beside the chair—a long, thin implement that looked like a surgical tool. "This is a neural disruptor. It targets specific nerve clusters. Very precise. Very painful."
He pressed it against my arm.
It burned. Not with heat, but with something chemical—something that felt like it was eating through skin and muscle down to the bone. I bit down hard, trying not to scream, but the moan escaped anyway.