Such a small word to hold so much meaning.
He’d lived for too many years, and he’d never had anoursuntil Selena crashed into his existence like a comet burning through atmosphere. Never had a family outside of Royak and Masmi, beyond the clanbrothers bound to him by duty and blood. Never had cubs of his own—something male Aldawi simply did not expect to have. Their females only took partners during heat, brief and fiercely guarded, and cubs were raised communally, mothers sharing the burden with other females rather than forming lasting family units. It was how their people had survived centuries of loss.
But watching the Harvest Festival—watching what Selena and the clan had dared tobe—stirred a quiet, dangerous hope in him. Perhaps, after this war was won, things could change. Perhaps Aldawi children might grow up with families again, withfatherswho stayed instead of stepping aside assires.
Healing that kind of generational damage would take time. More than one lifetime, maybe. And it would be a debt his lineage owed—a reckoning long delayed.
And yet here he stood, arms wrapped around a human female who carried his children, surrounded by males who’d chosen this impossible family as fiercely as he had.
The Fates had strange plans.
“The dreamscape,” Selena said quietly. “When you’re... out there. In the war.” Her voice caught on the last word. “You still promise that we will meet there?”
Zirene’s arms tightened around her. The dreamscape—that shared mental space where Shadows and their Novas couldexist together regardless of physical separation. He’d used it before during his search, pulling Selena into constructed worlds of his making where they could be together without the galaxy between them.
Even though he’d stubbornly avoided sharing it with her since she’d been discovered, only joining her scarcely. His actions had caused a decay in their Shadow-Nova bond and had made her doubt him and their relationship, something he needed to mend.
Another thing he didn’t have the time to do, because the Stars and Fates had other plans.
But this deployment would take him to the front lines. Light-years from Destima. Light-years from her.
“I will find you.” The words came out rougher than he intended. “Every night I can manage it. Even if I have to fight through exhaustion and battle-fog to reach you.”
“Promise?”
“I swear it.”
She turned in his arms then, pressing her palm flat against his chest where his hearts beat in tandem. Her eyes searched his face, looking for something—reassurance, perhaps, or the truth behind his vow.
Whatever she found made her expression crumple.
“My constellation is being divided,” she whispered. “You. V’dim and Z’fir. Everyone scattered across the galaxy while I stay here, heavy with our daughter, unable to do anything but wait and worry and—”
“You will be protected.” His hands came up to cup her face, thumbs brushing the tears that had begun to track down her cheeks. “Kaede remains. Xylo. Odelm. Zyxel. And the others—your ambassadors, your friends, everyone who loves you. You won’t be alone, Nova.”
“That’s not what I’m afraid of.”
He knew. Stars above, he knew.
She was afraid of losing him. Of watching pieces of her carefully woven family fly off into the void and never return. Of sitting in this beautiful villa, surrounded by people who adored her, while the bonds in her web went dark one by one.
The same fear clawed at Zirene’s chest every time he let himself think about it.
“I barely had time,” he said quietly, the confession slipping out before he could stop it. “To understand what we had. What you gave me. This family—this life—it still feels like something I stole from the universe. Something I don’t deserve.”
Selena’s brow furrowed. “Zirene—”
“My brother and Vikvez.” The words kept coming, unstoppable now. “They had a Shadow-Nova bond too. And you were the one who’d pieced it together. How didn’t I know after I became Sovereign? After everything fell apart and I was left trying to rule an empire I never wanted while searching for you.”
He’d never told her this. Never told anyone. The knowledge sat heavy in his chest—that Royak had loved, truly loved, and Zirene had been too blind to see it. That his brother had understood this feeling, this consuming devotion to another soul, and had carried it in silence because duty demanded discretion.
How lonely that must have been.
How familiar it felt now, with war demanding he leave his own Nova behind.
“I didn’t know,” Selena said softly. Her hand pressed harder against his chest, feeling the rhythm of his hearts. “About Royak and Vikvez, until your brother had requested for our cubs’ healer to be discharged from our clan and reassigned to his side. From how he was asking me, from his wording, it all made sense.”
“And yet, I should’ve been the one who’d realized what they had.” His jaw tightened. “I was supposed to be his right paw. Hisclosest confidant. And I never knew the most important truth about him.”
