“I won’t let them.”
“I know that too.” She traced the line of his jaw with her fingertips. “But Rykan—I don’t need you to protect me from them. I need you to stand beside me while I protect myself. While we protect each other.”
His smile was slow and sure and utterly devastating. “Partners.”
“Partners.”
The orchestra struck up a new piece inside—something elegant and triumphant—and the lights of the ballroom spilled gold across the terrace. She glanced back at the glass doors, at the glittering spectacle waiting beyond.
“We should go back in,” she said reluctantly. “There are still conversations to be had. Relationships to manage.”
“There are.” His hand found hers, their fingers intertwining. “But this time, we will go together. As we are.”
“As we are,” she agreed.
They walked back towards the light, hand in hand. The crowd parted as they entered, a hundred pairs of eyes tracking their progress across the ballroom floor. Some gazes were hostile. Some were curious. Some were genuinely warm.
It didn’t matter. None of it mattered.
She had spent her life navigating these treacherous waters alone—watched, judged, and carefully controlled. Tonight, for the first time, she stood in them as herself. Not the fragile heiress. Not the political pawn. Just a woman who had found her strength in the mountains and her heart in the arms of a wolf.
The music swelled. The dancers whirled. The great game of power and influence continued its eternal dance.
And at the center of it all, Ember Duvain walked beside her mate.
CHAPTER 29
“We’re leaving.”
Rykan looked up from the security reports scattered across his desk—a desk he still found uncomfortably luxurious—to find Ember standing in the doorway. She wore something soft and simple, a far cry from her usual elaborate gowns. Her hair was loose around her shoulders, and there was a spark of mischief in her grey eyes that he hadn’t seen since the mountain.
“Leaving.” He set down the datapad he’d been reviewing. “The Thanor meeting isn’t until?—”
“Not a meeting.” She crossed the room and plucked the datapad from his fingers before he could retrieve it. “This is a kidnapping.”
Behind her, Baylin appeared in the doorway, looking thoroughly amused. The former enforcer had settled into his role at Duvain with surprising ease, though he suspected his old friend was still restless, still searching for something he hadn’t yet found.
“She’s not joking,” Baylin said. “Shuttle’s waiting on the roof.”
His eyes narrowed. “Where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise.” Ember’s smile widened. “Don’t you trust me?”
With my life,he thought.With everything I am.
But he only growled and rose from his chair, letting her take his hand and lead him from the office.
The shuttle was small and sleek, designed for short-range transport rather than interstellar travel. Tomas was already aboard when they arrived, seated near the front with a cup of tea and a satisfied expression that suggested he knew exactly what was happening.
He settled into the seat beside Ember as the craft lifted smoothly from Duvain Tower’s private landing pad. Through the viewports, Port Cantor spread out beneath them—a maze of gleaming towers and crowded streets, of commerce and chaos and humanity pressed together in suffocating density.
He’d grown used to it. Mostly. But some part of him still flinched at the constant noise, the endless crush of bodies, the complete absence of clean air and open sky. His beast often paced restlessly, appeased only by Ember’s presence and the physical demands of his security work.
She knew. Of course she knew. She saw everything.
The shuttle banked west, leaving the city’s central district behind. The towers gave way to residential areas, then to industrial zones, and then, unexpectedly, to a vast expanse of green.
He straightened in his seat, watching as the landscape transformed below them. Rolling hills emerged from the urban sprawl, covered in vegetation so dense and wild that it seemedalmost impossible this close to Port Cantor. Trees stretched towards the sky—real trees, not the engineered specimens that decorated the city’s parks—and between them, he caught glimpses of running water and open meadows.
