Page 70 of Bound to the Marak

“Of course,” Karian said, without hesitation. “He is yours. He will be protected.”

Leonie nodded once, but she wasn’t finished. “And I want more than just your palace. I want to walk your streets. I want to meet your people. Talk to the Majarin. Understand the Yerak, even if they terrify me a little. I won’t live in a box—even a golden one.”

That made him pause.

“I won’t be some distant, veiled thing people whisper about,” she said, her voice gaining strength. “I want to be part of your world. Not just your secret.”

Karian’s eyes gleamed in the low light, unreadable. Then, slowly, he stepped toward her. His voice, when it came, was low and quiet.

“You ask a great deal.”

“I know.”

“You want freedom.” His mouth curved faintly. “From a creature known for chains.”

She met his gaze unflinching. “You offered me a choice, once. I’m taking it.”

He studied her for a long moment. She saw the tension in his shoulders. The way his jaw clenched and released. Then—he nodded.

“Very well,” he said. “But I will set boundaries. For your safety.”

Leonie opened her mouth to protest, but he held up a hand.

“You will not leave the palace without guards. You will obey my warnings when it comes to people or places I deem dangerous. You will never step into a wormhole gate without my knowledge. And if I tell you to run, you run.”

A silence passed between them.

Then she nodded. “Alright. I can do that.”

Something shifted in his face. He stepped closer and gently lifted his hand to her cheek, fingers brushing against her skin like a whisper.

“You are… maddening,” he murmured.

“And you’re impossible.”

His mouth twitched. “You don’t fear me anymore.”

“I still do,” she admitted. “Sometimes.”

“Good,” he said softly, and his eyes darkened. “Because you will never be able to leave me. Not truly.”

“I know,” she said. Her voice trembled, but not from fear. “That’s why I’m asking for these things. Because I’m staying.”

A breathless silence passed between them.

Then he touched the clasp at his throat and let the disguise fall away.

The projection shimmered and vanished like dust in the air.

His alien form stood before her—tall, iridescent, vast in a way the human body couldn’t contain. His skin rippled with hues like oil on water, his tendrils uncoiling slowly behind him in a gentle arc. His face—majestic, unfamiliar, beautiful—held only one constant: his gaze. Still his. Still Karian.

Leonie’s breath caught.

She stepped toward him, heart stuttering, gaze tracing the impossible lines of his true self. He was still the creature who had taken her. The being who had consumed her world, shattered her reality.

And now… he was hers.

“I can’t escape you,” she whispered, voice hoarse.

---