Page 78 of Alien Prince's Fated Mate

The other minds gathered close as I prepared the shutdown sequence. I thought of Tharon braiding flowers into my hair at dawn, his lethal hands so gentle as they worked. How he’d press his forehead to mine when words failed him, letting me feel everything he couldn’t say.

“You deserve the world,” he’d told me just yesterday, his voice rough with emotion. “Let me give it to you.”

But I couldn’t lethim try. Not when other girls still suffered in this place. Not when I could end it, here and now.

Are you ready?Branna asked.

Yes, I answered. As we began the shutdown sequence, I remembered the way Tharon said my name - like a prayer, like a promise. The way he called me “my queen” in front of his people, proud to claim a Temple-broken girl as his mate.

I love you, I pushed through our bond as the world began to white out. I felt his desperate response, all his fear and rage and love crashing against the barriers between us. My last thought was of his eyes - how they softened just for me, the fearsome beast gentle only with his mate.

Then everything dissolved into light, and I prayed he would understand why I had to let him go.

THARON

The scent hit me first - ozone and fear mixed with something else. Something wrong. The beast in me knew that smell - the fading of life, the approach of death. My roar shook ancient metal as I burst through the final barrier, claws tearing through anything in my path.

The chamber blazed with unnatural light that hurt my enhanced vision. Strange energies made my fur stand on end, every instinct screaming at the wrongness of this place. And there, suspended in a web of glowing crystal strands, hung my mate.

Too still. Too pale. Her head lolled lifelessly to one side.

No.

“You’re too late, beast.” Father Aronn’s sneer died in his throat as my claws found it. The other priest tried to run. Neither made it to the door.

I reached for Niam, but power crackled across her skin when I touched her. The beast in me howled - I couldn’t even hold her, couldn’t gather her close one last time. Her scent was all wrong, tainted by whatever they’d done to her.

“Tharon.” Branna’s voice echoed from hidden speakers. “The shutdown sequence has begun. We’re losing containment.”

I didn’t care. Let it all burn. Let the world end. My mate was gone.

“Listen.” Another voice joined Branna’s, then another. A chorus of the lost, speaking their final words. “The crystal strands. Break them in sequence. Like a song.”

They wanted me to think about music now? But beneath my rage, I heard it - each strand hummed at a different pitch. Like the crystal wind chimes at the inn that had made Niam’s face light up with wonder. Her smile when the mountain breeze made them sing...

My claws moved with desperate precision, snapping each strand in the proper sequence. A deadly lullaby played in destruction. With each break, another voice said farewell through the speakers.

“Thank you,” they whispered. “For showing us what love could be.”

The final strand broke. Niam collapsed into my arms, her skin cold as mountain snow. I pressed my ear to her chest, straining with my enhanced hearing for any sound.

There. So faint I thought I imagined it. The slowest, weakest flutter of a heartbeat.

Alive. Barely.

“Run,” Branna commanded. “We’ll hold the collapse as long as we can.”

The ceiling groaned. Metal screamed as centuries of twisted machinery began to fail. Something that smelled like lightning crackled along the walls. I cradled Niam close, my beast’s enhanced speed carrying us through corridors that buckled and twisted.

“Left,” a young voice called. “The maintenance shaft is still stable.”

“Right at the next junction,” another guided. “We’re failing section by section. Hurry.”

I ran, following their directions through the dying Temple. Each turn brought another goodbye, another voice finding peace in these final moments. They spoke of freedom, of release, of seeing stars again after so long in darkness.

A support beam crashed down behind us. The beast’s reflexes saved us, but the path back was blocked. Ahead, the floor started to collapse, ancient metal warping and tearing. Strange energies discharged in bursts of color that hurt my eyes.

“Jump,” Branna urged. “Trust your instincts.”

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