Odelm nodded. “V’dim and Z’fir will follow within days. The female fleet needs their command.”
“And we stay.”
“We stay.” Odelm’s voice held no resentment, only acceptance. This was their role—the males who guarded the center while the warriors flew toward violence. The ones who would hold her together when pieces of her heart scattered across star systems. “Kaede. You. Me. And...”
He trailed off. Xylo felt the unfinished thought hanging between them.
“You sensed it too,” Xylo said, cursing himself for not following his nestqueen with the drone Kaede had given them. “She’s claimed another.”
“A new thread.” Odelm’s expression remained carefully neutral. “Crimson. Strong. Woven into her web sometime in the last day.”
Zyxel.
The name surfaced with clinical detachment. Xylo had suspected it by the way the serpent ambassador had watched Selena, the pull between them that neither could quite hide. The bond must have sealed sometime before the chaos of evacuation, when shields cracked and instincts overrode caution.
He cataloged the information the same way he’d catalog a new symptom. Noted it. Filed it. Moved forward.
“Do you feel—” Odelm started.
“The Stars guide her choices.” Xylo’s voice came out steady. Certain. Because it was true, and because jealousy had no place in their clan. “Zyxel is clan now. That means he’s one of us as much as she is.”
Odelm studied him for a long moment, then smiled—small and genuine. “You’re a better male than most, bondbrother.”
“I’m a scholar.” Xylo shrugged. “We learn to accept what we cannot change.”
The landing pad sprawled wide beneath the late afternoon sun, heat shimmering off the polished surface. A small crowd had gathered—villa staff, security personnel, the householdmembers who’d stayed behind during Selena’s absence. All of them watched the sky.
Two ships descended through scattered clouds.
TheShadowClawcame first—Zirene’s personal vessel, sleek and deadly, its hull catching light like a blade. Behind it, theAbyssfollowed in close formation, Kaede’s ship maintaining perfect escort distance. The engines shifted pitch as both vessels oriented toward the landing pad, and the crowd fell silent.
Xylo’s heart climbed into his throat.
Through their bond, Selena’s presence blazed suddenly bright—close, so close, the distance between them collapsing as the ships touched down. He felt her awareness brush against his, warm and weary and achingly grateful.
Home.Her thought, threading through him like sunlight.Finally home.
TheShadowClaw’sramp lowered with a hydraulic hiss. Steam curled from the ship’s cooling vents, hazing the air.
Selena appeared at the top.
Xylo’s breath caught.
She looked exhausted. The kind of bone-deep weariness that no amount of sleep would cure, at least not quickly. Shadows bruised the skin beneath her ocean-deep eyes, and her bioluminescent spots glowed at low intensity—pink shifting toward violet, emotions too tangled to settle on a single color.
But she was here. Alive. The gentle curve of her belly visible beneath practical clothes.
His nestqueen.
The cubs tumbled down the ramp behind her—Nocrez and Neazzos first, small bodies vibrating with the restless energy of children too long confined. They spotted Xylo immediately and launched toward him, a blur of limbs and excited chatter.
“Xylo! Xylo! We’re home!”
He caught them both, one in each arm, and pressed his face into their fur. Stars, he’d missed them. The villa had been too quiet without their chaos, without the patter of small feet and the endless questions and the way they demanded stories before bed.
“Welcome home, little ones.” His voice came out rough. “I’ve missed you.”
Meti descended last, her steps measured, silver-streaked fur catching sunlight. Her too-knowing eyes swept the landing pad before finding Xylo, and something in her expression softened.
