The words don’t compute.
“I’m not a good male,” I state.
I hid things from her. I came here with ulterior motives and got close to her while carrying secrets. I took away the very thing she needed most.
After someone had already stolen it from her once.
“You came here on a mission you didn’t believe in. You’re willing to face your family’s disappointment—potentially their rejection—rather than drag them into a war you know will destroy them.” Rist’s voice is firm. “That’s a mark of a good male. Someone with integrity.”
The shuttle crew calls out a ten-minute warning.
“I need to go.” I reach for my bags, refusing to be involved in the conversation any longer. Unable to. He doesn’t understand. Can’t. Rist has no idea how deep the pain goes. I thought for one blessed moment that I had found my mate—the perfect being in all the universe. And I destroyed her.
“She deserves better. Every time she’d see me, it would just remind her. I can’t keep hurting her.”
Without waiting for his response, I turn and march up the boarding ramp.
Sinking into my assigned seat, I close my eyes.
I saved my family. That’s what matters. They’ll be safe.
I accomplished the mission.
So why does it feel like I’ve lost everything that actually mattered?
Chapter
Ten
SELENE
Iburst through the hotel’s front entrance at a full sprint, my lungs already burning. The landing zone sprawls ahead—a massive expanse of reinforced concrete that suddenly feels like it stretches for miles.
In the distance, the shuttle’s boarding ramp is already beginning to retract.
No. No, no, no.
Somewhere on that shuttle is Khatak, and if I let him leave thinking I hate him, thinking he was nothing more than a mistake?—
My feet pound against the ground, hair whipping loose from my ponytail. The shuttle’s engines begin their pre-flight whine. That distinctive pitch that means I’m already too late.
The landing zone is a maze of obstacles—cargo crates, abandoned luggage, a family of Nakar blocking the main walkway. I dodge right, vaulting over a low crate. My hands catch the edge, and for one terrifying second I think I’m going to face-plant. But momentum carries me through, and I stumble forward, barely keeping my feet.
“Excuse me! Sorry! Coming through!”
The boarding ramp is halfway up now, moments from closing completely. Through the narrowing gap, I can see figures moving inside—passengers, crew members.
Is one of them Khatak?
I’m not going to make it.
But I don’t slow down. Can’t slow down.
This is it. Either I make this, or?—
I launch myself forward in a desperate leap, arms outstretched.
My fingers close around the edge of the ramp.
