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a man.

Until now.

The thought of leaving, of never seeing Kai again, caused her chest to

constrict, squeezing the air from her lungs. Everything was happening

too fast. The intensity of her feelings seemed off-balance when compared

to the amount of time they’d been together, but on the other hand, it

seemed as if she’d known him her entire life.

“I’ll have Lorcan send up something. You have to select your new

guard today.”

Ivy tensed. She’d been putting off selecting a sentry for as long as she

could, but Sion had almost completed his training—a crash course in

protocol and a refresher in hand-to-hand combat. Personally, she

thought Tira just wanted an excuse to kick the shifter’s ass from one end

of the training hall to the other. Kai still insisted she needed to choose a

Xenon sentry as the second member of her security detail, and she’d been

unable to convince him otherwise.

Tariq still hadn’t forgiven the king for zapping him out of the middle

of the city. With the two constantly butting heads and stomping about

the citadel snarling at each other, Ivy knew the chances of convincing Kai

that Tariq could be her second guard were slim to none. Still, she trusted

the Helios males.

“I’ll get dressed.” Lifting her head, she glanced toward the rumpled

blankets on Kai’s bed and grinned. “Unless…”

A deep groan rumbled through his chest, vibrating her back. “You

are trying to distract me.”

“Maybe.” Turning, she lifted her arms to wrap them around his neck,

allowing the sheet to slide down her body and pool around her ankles.

“Is it working?”

Ivy hissed in a breath through her teeth when Kai gripped her ass

and lifted her from the floor, pressing her back against the cold glass of

the window.

“How can I resist such an open invitation, dove?”

“Kai,” she panted, tossing her head back when he began nibbling

down the arch of her throat, “the window.”

“It will hold,” he answered gutturally, sliding one hand up her

midsection to cup her right breast. “I would never let anything hurt

you.”

He’d said that before, and she believed him, but she’d been more

concerned with modesty than safety. “Someone will see.”

“Let them watch.” His naked cock pressed against her center, thick

and throbbing. “You are mine.”

Her heart hammered against her breastbone, and her pussy clenched,

her core slick with arousal. The embers of desire smolder in her belly,

warming her from the inside out, and a violent shiver raced down her

spine when he closed his lips around her upturned nipple.

Threading her fingers through his hair, she pulled him closer, arching

into his mouth as she rocked her hips. The flared crown of his cock

slipped between her wet folds, grazing over her swollen clitoris, and Ivy

nearly came undone. Her inner walls constricted and relaxed, pulsing to

the beat of her heart, and every light stroke of his tongue across her

nipple pushed her closer to the edge.

Every nerve ending sizzled, make her delirious with need, until she

couldn’t take his teasing any longer. Reaching between them, she fisted

his warm shaft, drawing a feral snarl from his lips. Without speaking,

she guided him to her entrance and flexed her thighs, pulling him deep

into her aching core.

Ivy cried out as he filled her, his thick length stretching her wide with

a delicious burn that only increased her pleasure. They’d come together

in a dozen different ways during the night, sometimes slow and sweet,

sometimes hard and demanding. This time felt new all over again, just

as intense and exhilarating at the first time.

Anchoring her against the window, he gathered her wrists into one

hand, stretching her arms over her head and holding them firmly against

the cold glass. His eyes burned with a feral light, and his fingers dug into

the flesh of her hip, gripping her tightly as he drove into her with a wild

abandon. Their mouths crashed together in a tangle of lips, tongues, and

teeth, and he didn’t just kiss her. He consumed her.

“You are mine,” he growled. “Only mine.”

She knew he was right. She could feel the certainty of it washing

through her, and she couldn’t deny her own feelings any longer. It didn’t

make sense, it wasn’t rational, but she knew what she felt.

“Yes.”

“Say it,” he demanded.

A thin sheen of perspiration covered his skin, and the incandescent

markings on his body shone brighter as they neared their crescendo. If

she spoke the words he wanted to hear, that was it, no going back, no

changing her mind. Deep down, however, she knew she’d already

decided, even if she hadn’t been willing to admit it to herself. Ivy knew

what she wanted, and while it would change her life forever, it was

simply a new adventure.

“Yes,” she repeated, gasping for breath against the side of his neck.

“I’m yours.”

His loud bellow reverberated off the stone walls as his tempo

increased, driving her to the precipice of release. She hung suspended in

a moment of sheer bliss for just a heartbeat, then shattered into a million

pieces as she hurdled over the edge.

Her cries matched his in volume, drowning out the other sounds of

their coupling. Likely, the entire citadel could hear them, and possibly

half the city, but Ivy couldn’t care. By the time she descended from her

orgasmic high, her throat felt scratchy, and she could barely move her

arms to encircle her mate’s neck.

“Do I still have to choose a guard?” she asked, her voice hoarse.

Gathering her into his arms, Kai chuckled as he rubbed his cheek over

the top of her head. “Yes, dove, you do.” He carried her to his private

bathroom, petting and nuzzling her the entire way. “You could always

choose Tira.”

“As captain of the guard, I think she has enough responsibilities

without having to babysit me.”

Choosing a fluffy black towel the size of a damn blanket, he wrapped

it around her shoulders and settled her onto a padded bench beside the

bathtub. Well, Ivy assumed it was a bathtub when he turned on the water

and added oils to it. Plus, a showerhead the size of a dinner plate hung

from the ceiling directly overhead.

Really, though, the massive stone basin looked more like a swimming

pool with seats and stairs carved into its curved sides.

“Tira would be honored to protect you.”

Ivy liked the captain, and more importantly, she trusted the female.

Still, she couldn’t do it. Tira had an entire city to protect, sentries to

command, and a stubborn king to contend with on a daily basis. Ivy saw

a lot of herself in the woman, and she respected her too much to regulate

her to watch duty.

“I know they’re green and wet behind the ears, but what about one

of the younger guards? One of your newer recruits?”

“I can’t attest to the color of their skin or the condition of their ears,

but they are inexperienced and unproven.”

Ivy struggled to keep her expression impassive, and she mentally

patted herself on the back when she managed to refrain from rolling her

eyes. “Yes, I understand that, but in
my
experience, the young ones

always have something to prove, and they’re eager to please.”

Kai dipped his hand into the water, nodded, then rose to help her into

the tub. “Are you certain? I would feel better at ease if you chose a more

practiced sentry.”

“I’m sure.” Dropping her towel, she grinned when his eyes raked

over her hungrily. “See something you like?”

Blinking several times, he shook his head and offered her his hand.

“You, my lady, will be my undoing.”

Stepping into the warm bath, Ivy lowered herself into the water until

it covered the tops of her shoulders. Grinning mischievously, she lifted

her hand and crooked a finger at her mate.

“Well, we can’t have that, can we?”

She shrieked when Kai growled and jumped into the tub, splashing

water in her face and over the side of the basin. Giggling, she pushed off

from the bottom, trying to put distance between them, but Kai caught

her easily around the waist and dragged her up against his broad,

muscular chest.

“What will I do with you?” He sighed dramatically before nipping at

her bottom lip.

Ivy skimmed her fingertips along the inside of his thigh, shivering

when he pressed his forehead to hers and moaned. “Oh, I’m sure you’ll

think of something.”

* * * *

As it turned out, Ivy hadn’t needed to choose a second sentry after all. It

took two more days for the elders to reach a decision, and while they’d

granted her permission to contact her superiors, their agreement came

with conditions.

Kai should have known. When it came to the elders, everything

involved a price. Yet, he hadn’t been prepared for the entire Court to

arrive at the citadel, unannounced, in the early hours before the sun had

even crested.

“Speak your name,” Elor said with a kind smile to Ivy.

With her back straight, Ivy stood in the center of the meeting hall,

staring up at the elders where they sat the long, curved table on the dais.

“Ivy Dalton, Alliance commander of the exploration vessel, the

Dreamweaver
.”

“This is your intended?” Elder Anarzee Lakewood brushed her silver

hair over her shoulder, eyeing Ivy with suspicion.

“Ana,” Kai’s father interrupted, “clearly you can see Vasili

Blackthorn’s transformation.”

“Yes,” she agreed, her tone grudging, “clearly.”

Elder Taklorian Meadowlark, Tira’s uncle and one of her last living

blood relations, cleared his throat, garnering everyone’s attention. “You

must understand that this entire ordeal has unsettled the Court. We’re

simply looking for answers. Would you all agree?” he asked, looking to

the other elders.

Kai gritted his teeth and said nothing. He knew better than to

disrespect an elder, and he wouldn’t jeopardize the outcome of Ivy’s

request. If they questioned her status as his mate again, however, he

wouldn’t be held responsible for his reaction.

A chorus of concurrence answered Elder Meadowlark, and they all

bobbed their heads in unison, even Kai’s father.

Something wasn’t right. Glancing at Ivy from the corner of his eye,

he could see she noticed it as well. While the Court of Elders operated as

a single entity, he’d never known each individual member to be so

compliant. His father often complained of the inane bickering that

transpired within the Court, and Kai had been present for enough

summits to witness it firsthand.

“It is the Court’s decision,” Elder Meadowlark interrupted, speaking

over his fellow elders, “that the human female may send a single

correspondence to Earth.”

“No direct contact,” Elder Lydialeera Rayne added, her onyx gaze

boring into Ivy as she spoke. “One message only, and it will be examined

before transmission.”

“Fine,” Ivy bit out, the knuckles on her linked fingers turning white.

“However, I will need to receive instructions from the Alliance. I accept

your terms, provided it also includes a return correspondence.”

No one, not even Kai, had ever dared to question the Court’s decision

or attempt to negotiate their final ruling. Instead of quieting her, he stood

in awe of his mate, his chest swelling with admiration. She would make

a fine queen, a leader he would be proud to have at his side. Given time,

he didn’t doubt she would win over the people of Xenthian as well.

The elders gaped, and it took several seconds for them to find their

voices. When they did, it was Tira’s uncle who spoke again.

Elder Meadowlark rose to his feet and adjusted his gold and white

robes. “I am afraid you are in no position to bargain, Lady Dalton. You

will—”

“Actually, I am,” Ivy interrupted, taking a step toward the dais. “As

an Alliance commander, it is my duty to inform you that by holding me

here against my will, your actions could be considered an act of war. My

crew will have arrived on one of the space stations and been debriefed

by now. The Alliance has the last known coordinates of the
Dreamweaver

before the attack. They will find me.”

Kai didn’t know how much of what she said was true or accurate, but

she spoke with such conviction, even he couldn’t be sure.

“Impossible,” Elder Meadowlark snapped, and he grinned when the

other elders hastened to agree.

“Really?” Ivy asked, her tone deceptively sweet. “Then how do you

explain my presence here?”

The ancestors save him from foolishness, because Kai wanted to grab

his soulmate and kiss her until neither of them could breathe. Ivy

commanded the room, and she did so with grace and intelligence, using

the elders’ own logic against them. She hadn’t spoken with disrespect,

nor had she initiated a hostile interaction. Every day, she amazed him,