Page 84 of Bonded Queen: to the Alien Warlord Triad

They are made for war. Not for peace. Not for love. They are made to bring death, stability, and justice. They are made to tame the wildness of the universe, and they will never stop. The universe can never be perfectly safe. They’d spend their lives trying, and I would be their one weakness.

I pull myself from the back of the ship, walking quickly to the bridge, and set my sights on the blackness of eternity, stars winking and fighting to exist in the endless nothingness. I let the blackness envelop me.

I’m free.

I smile to myself, my heart pounding in anticipation.

Despite missing them desperately, despite the pain of knowing I can’t reach out and touch their auras, that I’ll never be in their arms again, I’m free.

I’ll never have Ra’al’s lips pressing possessively against mine in a passionate kiss. I’ll never have Orr’s brutal strength unleashed on me. I’ll never feel Kriz’s sharp, analytical mind, or hear his thoughts again…

But I’m free.

32

Kriz

Ipace the palace, throwing open doors. Triads are jogging through the grounds, searching, every soldier mobilized to find her.

We burst into the royal living quarters. The pool is empty, drained of water, the bar demolished, one of the trees fallen. The rubble is mostly cleaned up, but the walls are cracked. I rush to the forest, knowing she won’t be there, but needing to check every nook and cranny.

“Queen Jasmine! She took her! She will be used against us!” Orr booms out the words as he searches.

It’s the only thing that makes sense. Queen Jasmine is many things, but a fool is not one of them. Some of the other followers of Obsidian think of her as a foolish human, but in her centuries of rule, she has grown cunning and cold. She would have the foresight to plan ahead. She could put men and women where we least expect it, silent, waiting operatives working alone. Every Bonded triad has one weakness. Their Mate. That is how she can stop the assault in its tracks.

I hear the massage table clatter in a room as Orr throws it over in his anger. I look through the trees, branches broken on the ground.

“Then why hasn’t she threatened us yet?” I tell back, my mind racing.

Only Ra’al is cool and focused. My mind is panicked. I’m not able to think straight. “We would have been told by now. She would have forced us to betray Obsidian,” states Ra’al, as he opens a door and goes through it, checking each side room meticulously.

“Then what? Who took her?” growls Orr, slamming a door behind him.

“She left.” Ra’al states the word flatly. It’s like an Orb-Blade driving through my heart.

I rush out of the forest. Ra’al is in the middle of the room, no longer searching, standing above the drained lap pool.

“What are you talking about?” My mind races. There’s a thousand points, and I can’t connect them.

Ra’al checks his smartwatch. “I just got a report that her friend Kat is gone as well, and two ships are missing that were not scheduled to leave.”

“It can’t be. She would have had to lie for months!” Orr paces angrily, not wanting to believe it.

“You felt how distant she was. She learned how to manage her emotions better than any Aurelian,” answers Ra’al.

Despite everything, I’ve got a new respect for my Mate. The daily walks. Of course. The first week, I followed after her silently, watching her from afar. When nothing happened, eventually we stopped watching her, though we kept tabs on her aura, checking in on her. It became a normal routine.

Orr paces faster. “We must find her! She can’t have gone far. She can’t Orb-Shift. We need to send out ships in every direction.”

“She could be anywhere by now. We have our duty.” I can’t believe what Ra’al is saying. My brows furrow, not understanding.

“Fuck duty!” booms out Orr. “We left the Aurelian Empire to—”

Ra’al turns to him, his silver eyes burning and grabs him by the throat. He lifts Orr’s five-hundred-pound bulk into the air. Orr fights back, punching. He was always the better wrestler, but Ra’al tosses him, throwing him into the empty pool with a powerful heave he should not have been capable of, even with the Bond enhancing his strength.

“What do you think the Aurelian Empire will do to a Bonded Mate of a triad of generals in an unprotected ship?” His words are hot, but Ra’al’s emotions are ice cold. “What will they do to her? Do you want to watch her legs cut off and reattached in a medical bay if we don’t betray Obsidian and turn our weapons against our own fleet? Would you be able to resist her demands when you watch our Mate beaten to an inch of her life, restored, and beaten again? If Queen Jasmine gets to her, she will stop at nothing to use her against us.”

Orr pulls himself to his feet, rubbing his throat. He’s scared. I’ve never seen him scared before. “We have to find her before she does then, right?” His deep voice is uncertain.

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