Ascension Saga (Interstellar Brides): Book 5

“Or I’ll rip his balls off and shove them down his throat.” That was a bit much, even for me, but I’d been feeling particularly aggressive lately, especially when anyone threatened me or mine. The kung fu badass who somehow exploded out of me these days was wiggling her way into my mind as well. I blamed it on Destiny. Years of listening to her go on and on and on about fighting, and self-mastery, and all that Eastern philosophy stuff was finally sinking in. Had to be. There was no other explanation.

I looked at Trinity, who’d been quiet a bit too long.

“Well?” I waited for her to try to talk me out of charging into the dungeon in her typical lawyerly style. Logic and all that analysis jargon she wielded like a weapon.

“Okay.”

That was it? Okay?

“I’m going down there. Right now.”

“Okay,” she said again. “But maybe you should get dressed first?”

2

Lord Thordis Jax, The Royal Dungeons

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop thinking about Faith. The look in her eyes when her sister, her fucking sister, Princess Trinity, had named me a traitor.

I’d been in the palace prison for a few hours. They’d taken me from my apartment, naked, hosed me down like I was a piece of equipment, shoved some coarse clothing at me and chained me to a wall the moment I had the pants and tunic on.

At least I was sitting down. But the chains attached to my arms were on runners. I could move them up or down the track, but not more than a few inches from the wall itself. I could stand, or sit, or sleep with my back to the wall, but that was all.

The cuffs attached to my wrists and ankles were unnecessary. There was no escaping this cell. It looked like it was a thousand years old with stone walls and a stone floor, the black graphite bars across the front of the square space were stronger than the centuries old metal they’d replaced. And beyond that? An energy barrier used on the planet Atlan to control the beasts scheduled for execution. Males who’d lost control and could tear through graphite like ripping a piece of paper. Males without a mate to soothe them.

Males like me. I wasn’t going to go into beast mode, but that didn’t mean my cock wasn’t hard, aching for her. With the shackles, I couldn’t even get myself off to ease the need. Not that I wanted to. I wanted in Faith’s pussy.

In Faith.

Her name was a dagger in my chest. She’d lied to me. Lied about who she was and why she’d been in my parents’ home.

I was no Atlan beast. I wouldn’t literally lose my mind and need to be executed after being separated from her. I could survive without her. But I did not want to.

Her Ardor was not over, and the thought of another male pleasuring her, heating her body, giving her his energy as he pumped his thick cock into her—

Fuck.

I yelled in frustration and yanked and pulled against my restraints once more, rattling the chains that hung from the manacles around my wrists and ankles. Those were special gifts from the bastard, Nix, and they’d worked like a charm, the heavy weight reminding me every second of how hopeless this situation was.

Not that I could blame him. He thought I wanted to kill his queen and the princess. They believed I’d kidnapped Faith and held her against her will in my apartment. That I would hurt my mate! Leo. Travin. Nix. They all believed it.

If I were going to hurt her, I wouldn’t have had my mouth on her pussy when they burst in.

Never. She was mine. And she was upstairs above me right now, somewhere in this massive palace, with people she trusted telling her lies about me.

I was no traitor. Not to my own family or the Queen’s. Never had been. Never. But Faith didn’t know that. She didn’t know anything about me because we hadn’t really talked about anything. I’d been determined to get her to talk about herself, and,’ of course, I’d been so busy getting

my cock inside her, making her come, congratulating myself when she screamed my name and begged for more, that I hadn’t done the one thing I should have. Let her know me. Made her fall in love with me.

Me. Not my body.

I couldn’t contain the turmoil in my mind and yelled again. If anyone touched her… I’d kill him. I’d cut his cock off and hang it around his neck. I’d—

“Not happy, I take it?”

That voice. Her voice.

I looked up to see a beautiful stranger standing just outside the dark bars of my cell. Was that really Faith? She looked exactly the same, and yet, so very different. She must have turned off the energy field already to be standing so close. I’d been too caught up in my own misery to notice.