“He’s coming back?” Leila couldn’t hide her excitement.
“If you start down now, you should be in time to meet him.”
Leila didn’t hesitate and raced for the stairs, her eagerness unseemly, but she didn’t care, nor was she alone. Circe and Ruth skipped down the steps with her.
They never made it to the bottom, though. Why would they when their warriors came bounding up, grinning and boisterous from victory.
Leila threw her arms around Grayson and hugged him tight. A hug that didn’t stop until he’d carried her to his apartment—since it was closer.
The first bout of lovemaking proved frenzied. The stress, the victory, emerged in a quick climax that left little room for soft sensuality or words. They took their time for round two, exploring, teasing, drawing out the pleasure.
Afterwards, as they lay in his bed—bodies cooling from passion—and the sun rose, he hugged her close and whispered, “I love you, Leila.”
In that moment, everything she’d gone through, all the hurt, anguish, fear, no longer mattered, for it all was part of the journey that brought them together. Two hearts beating as one.
EPILOGUE
It had beena month since the flooding of the tunnels under Toronto. A month since a single alien had been sighted. The mission succeeded even better than expected. Aries should have been pleased, but a question lingered. How had the feral aliens they’d fought created not only the nanobot technology but the asteroid ship that brought them? Some in the tower opined that the aliens traveled so long they’d regressed. Libra seemed convinced there must have been a smarter version they’d never encountered that had been wiped out with the dumb ones.
Aries had his doubts. In some respects, it all seemed too easy. He didn’t trust it. Sage had tried to see if he had anything to worry about, as had little Olivia. So far, nothing.
At all. Neither Sage nor Olivia had experienced any visions since that night. It only served to increase his gut feeling that they weren’t yet done.
With his thoughts keeping him awake, rather than disturb the sleeping Sage and Little Bean, he chose to stroll outside. The clear sky twinkled with stars with his constellation seeming extra bright. His wandering feet brought him to the edge of the moat, the surface of it still, the guardian monster within asleep. It only wakened if it sensed a threat, hence Aries’ confusionwhen the beast didn’t rouse as a figure walked out of the shadows to stand on the other side of the chasm of deadly water.
A man with a broad-shouldered build, almost as tall as Aries. He wore a cloak head to toe, but when he shoved back the hood, it showed the features of someone in their twenties, thirties at the most. Smooth-shaven jaw, a face framed by long platinum hair that undulated despite there being no breeze. The human appearance might have fooled most, but the eyes, with their faint blue glow, indicated something else.
The stranger stared right at Aries, despite the fact Tower’s camouflage should have hidden him. The resulting smirk sent a chill down Aries’ spine.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“The master that will rule this planet,” was the low-toned reply.
At the ominous announcement, Aries stiffened. “You’re one of the aliens.”
It made a scoffing noise. “Such a silly word to use for someone as great and powerful as I.”
“Not powerful enough to keep us from wiping out your four-armed freaks.” Aries couldn’t resist the taunt.
“As if I care about expendable pawns.” A callous way to regard the aliens that died.
“Are you the only so-called master who survived your ship being blown up?”
“Ship?” It snorted. “As if we’d choose such an inefficient way to travel. Asteroids are a more dependable method of transport when it comes to long voyages.”
“But how do you guide it?” Aries couldn’t help but be interested because the very concept baffled.
“By thought. It is what the more evolved species do.”
Speaking of evolved… “How did you survive the toxic flood?”
“Because I am not so easily killed.” The being snorted. “While the flesh I inhabit might sustain damage, I am eternal.”
“What do you mean, the flesh you wear? Are you saying that’s not your body?”
The lips curved. “I am a being of power that chooses to contain itself in a shape that might prove useful. I have to say, I am much fonder of this male than the previous hideous shell I temporarily wore.”
It hit Aries suddenly. “The diver that went missing in Lake Ontario looking for the meteor. You stole his body.”
