Page 20 of Third

“No,” she whispered. “No, no, no.”

She didn’t want to forget what he felt like. The heat of his skin against hers. The weight of his body. The way the bond had wrapped around her like armor and wildfire all at once. And the way it had changed when he’d been inside her—when they had moved together, breathed together,burnedtogether. Something had happened in that moment, something irreversible. It wasn’t just sex. It wasn’t even just bonding. It was transformation.

Did Selyr even realize what he’d triggered? Could he possibly understand the depth of what they’d become—the way their bodies had sealed something ancient and irreversible between them? The bond wasn’t just physical. It wasn’t even just emotional. It wascellular. Primal. Beyond anything a sterile lab or a stream of data could hope to measure.

Because no machine could calibrate the magnitude of this. No data could measure how completely she had fused with Tor’Vek in those moments. What it meant to be seen, to be chosen, to beclaimed—not as a possession, but as a partner. What it meant tomatterthat much to someone so unshakable, so controlled. Someone who had shattered forher.

Her body trembled, nerves fraying from a loss she never knew could shatterher.

And then it happened.

The air warped.

Not physically—but inside her. Aflicker ofsomethingswept across her consciousness. Faint. Familiar. Aphantom warmth curling low in her belly, as if the echo of his presence had slipped through whatever dampening field surrounded her. It wasn’t just a memory. It was alive. Residual. Like the bond had left a thread behind, whisperingnot gone. Whisperingmine. And so veryhim.

“Tor’Vek?” she whispered, head snappingup.

Nothing answered.

But she wasn’t alone in the room anymore.

Not entirely.

It was like breathing in heat without fire, pressure without weight. Something hummed through her cells—not strong, but unmistakable. It wasn’t his voice. Not even his thoughts. Just theessenceof him. Apresence threading itself through her mind like smoke swirling under a sealeddoor.

And she clung toit.

It was the only thing tethering her sanity.

“You feel that, don’t you?” she whispered to the room, to herself, to whatever fragment of him lingered.

It didn’t answer. But it didn’t fade either.

She wrapped her arms around herself and sat perfectly still, afraid that even shifting would cause that fragile sensation to break.

She would hold onto it for as long as it stayed chained to her—because losing it again might just shatter her completely.

TOR’VEK ROSEslowly from the floor, shoulders squared, eyes blank. Not calm. Not composed. Blank. Because the emotion brewing inside him had eclipsed all known parameters. He yanked on his trousers. His control—centuries of discipline—fractured.

The bond burned, asearing pressure across his chest and spine, like magma threading through every vein. His hands twitched. His jaw locked. The heat was unbearable. It wasn’t pain, not exactly. It was purpose made physical. It was fury looking for a target. His muscles ached to destroy.

But there was something else threading beneath the rage. Ashift he hadn’t anticipated. The bond wasn’t just feeding his fury—it was rewriting his instinct. Every action, every breath was being rerouted through something more primal, more urgent, morealive. He didn’t just feel rage. He felt a purpose that didn’t belong to science or discipline or even vengeance. It belonged toher.

And it was breaking him open from the insideout.

The first thing he shattered was the wall panel. One blow. Metal split open, sparks erupting like fireworks. But it wasn’t enough. He needed more. The fury inside him had no outlet butruin.

He slammed his fist through the control column, sparks arcing along his knuckles. The sound of crumpling metal only fed the blaze roaring through him. The next blow took down a ceiling brace, crashing debris around him like falling thunder. He welcomed the chaos. Needed it. He grabbed a support strut and twisted until it snapped loose, then hurled it across the room with enough force to leave a deep gouge in the farwall.

He tore into the bulkhead next, ripping free wiring, conduits, apanel of circuits that exploded under pressure. The console didn’t stand a chance. Nothingdid.

And still it wasn’t enough.

He paced like a caged predator, hands clenched, breath ragged. His bracelet pulsed violently—warning, calling, reacting. The pulse wasn’t steady anymore; it surged in irregular bursts, like it was trying to sync with something already missing. His chest tightened at the rhythm. It felt almost... panicked.

As if the thing weresentient. As if it grieved her loss, too. As if it knew, on some fundamental level, that something vital had been torn away—and the bond wasn’t designed to survive that kind of rupture.

Neither washe.

---