She was the only thing I cared about. Theonlything. I would destroy anything or anyone who tried to keep her from me, whohurther.
Like I had. I fucking hated myself, but I couldn’t let her go. I would spend the rest of my life on my knees, begging forgiveness, if she would give me the chance. She. Was.Mine.
“Please. I need her.”
Zeus tapped the ends of his fingers against his desk, the movement quick and agitated. “Let me explain this to you one more time. You’re a smart one, I’m sure you’ll understand. You do not have a mate. Youhada mate, for less than a week. Now you do not.”
“She is mine.”
“Shesays she’s not. She rejected the match, as is her right. Move on, warrior. Find another female.”
“There is no other, not for me.” I stopped hiding my desperation, allowed what I was feeling to show on my face. In my eyes.
He studied me for nearly a minute, then sighed. “Then you are fucked, Helion. Prime Nial himself locked down their mission brief. Even I can’t see it. If I liked you, which I don’t, I might be tempted to take pity on you just to watch you drop to your knees and beg that beautiful female to give you another chance. I can’t tell you where she is because I don’t know. No one fucking knows.” He sat back down. “Now, get the fuck off my ship. I have work to do.”
I’d used every trick I had, called in every favor. It was like she’d disappeared into thin air. No record of her transport. No mission logs. There was one mention of a comm call between my ship and the capital. One. The security clearance needed to view the details were above mine.
Which meant Prime Nial was involved, as Zeus claimed, and I was fucked. If the Prime had locked down the information, nothing could break through, no program, hacker, or insider I had at the capital. If Prime Nial was protecting her, I wouldn’t find her until he allowed me to do so.
If he allowed it at all.
Nothing existed in the records that even mentioned her name—except the fact that she’d refused her match to me.
Thatwas in the fucking records. She broke our match and removed herself from the brides’ database. Small comfort that she couldn’t be matched to anyone else. The fact that she’d gone with that Arcas bastard—helped him escape—had me seething. But that wasn’t the source of the stabbing pain behind my ribs. No, that sharp, stabbing agony was my long dead heart—and it wasn’t so fucking dead after all.
I would get nothing here. I didn’t bother to say good-bye, knew Zeus would neither expect nor welcome another word from me. He’d made his position clear. He knew I had fucked up. He knew Willow was beautiful, which meant shehadbeen on his ship, and he had, in fact, seen her himself. He knew she had refused our match.
He knew Prime Nial had personally locked down all information about where she was, what she was doing, and who she was with.
Desperation was not an emotion I enjoyed. At the moment, it crawled through my veins like fire slugs burning me alive from the inside out.
What if she chose another mate before I found her? What if she would not listen to me? Refused to give me a chance to explain? To beg her forgiveness for not caring for her properly, having no second, pretending she was not hurting or suffering nightmares?
I had replayed her conversation with Oberon hundreds of times, heard the catch in her voice when she toldhimwhat she had not shared with me. Her mate. Her protector. Her lover.
I should have fucking asked.
Perhaps, if I had asked, Willow would have toldmethat she had been a prisoner of the Hive. I would be the one holding her right now, comforting her, protecting her. I would be the one she turned to when she was hurting or alone.
Nothim.Fuck. Oberon Arcas was a Prillon warrior in his prime. He was probably speaking to her at this very moment. Touching her.Listeningto her.Wantingher. Plotting a way into her bed.
Gods fucking help him if he hurt her.
The only thing keeping me sane was the knowledge that Oberon was an honorable male—and a skilled warrior. He would neither hurt, nor force his attention on, any female. He was skilled enough to protect Willow. Judging by his devotion to, and willingness to die in a hopeless attempt to protect his dead sister, Amalia, he would fight to the death to keep Willow safe.
I just hoped he was not equally determined to keep her for himself.
I made my way to transport. Several minutes later, I was back aboard my small, lonely fucking ship. The moment I was alone in the command room, I sent a comm request to the only other person whomightbe able to help me. Within moments, a beautiful female’s face appeared on my view screen. Dark hair. Gray eyes, as always, full of hate. For me. A hate I deserved.
“Warden Egara.”
“Helion, what is it this time?” Her gaze narrowed as she studied what I assumed was an image of me on her side of the conversation. “What happened? You look like shit.” That was Catherine, straight to the point. Her observation was not surprising as I had neither eaten nor slept since Willow left me. I’d been too busy looking for her... and berating myself.
“I need your help.”
“One of my brides in trouble again?”
“Yes, a bride is in trouble.” My bride. My mate.Mine.I would beg this female to help me if I had to. Pray she did not hate me enough to deny me.
