Page 17 of Third

She drifted.

Her body still hummed with the lingering effects of the bond, of him. Her skin felt overly sensitive, every brush of the sheet a whisper against nerves stretched too thin. She lay there, cocooned in the heat of his body, her back pressed to his chest, his arm a heavy, possessive line across her waist. Every breath he took rumbled softly behind her like distant thunder.

“I have never done this before,” he said quietly against her shoulder, the deep timbre of his voice vibrating through her. “Not like this.”

She swallowed, throat tight. “You mean... the knot?”

There was a beat of silence. “No. The staying. The holding. The wanting after.”

Anya blinked, emotion rising unbidden and sharp. She didn’t know what to say, so she didn’t say anything. Just reached for his hand and laced their fingers together, pulling his arm tighter around her. Her breath caught when he squeezed gently.

“Does it always feel like that?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

“No,” he said. “Only with you.”

She closed her eyes and let that truth settle into her bones.

Time passed.

She didn’t know howlong.

When the speaker crackled overhead, it felt like a blade cutting throughsilk.

“Fascinating,” came the disembodied voice, calm and clinical. “Though rest assured, Igranted you privacy. My monitors tracked biometric responsesonly.”

Tor’Vek went still. Every muscle in his body lockeddown.

Anya stirred against him, still dazed and warm, her heart skipping as reality returned and Selyr’s voice slowly penetrated. Tor’Vek tensed behindher.

Selyr’s voice echoed from the speaker again, almost bored. “The craving protocol appears to have failed. Your responses were not aligned with the programmed outcome.Still, your reaction time was... notable. Far faster than projected. Curious. Very curious.”

The voice slithered through the room like poison.Anya gasped, her arms flying up to cover her chest, heart pounding.

Tor’Vek shifted on the mattress, rising just enough to shield her with his body. His eyes blazed as he stared toward the sound of the voice, heat radiating from him like a warning. He didn’t tremble. He didn’t speak. But his hands curled into fists where they rested on the mattress, the tension in his frame sizzling like a storm barely heldback.

Then, wordless, he grabbed his shirt from where it had fallen near the bed and tossed it to her without looking. Protective. Instinctive. She caught it with trembling hands and pulled it over her head, his scent wrapping around her like armor.

Amusement dripped from Selyr’s voice, static echoing from a speaker embedded in the wall. “Truly fascinating. The bracelets have evolved faster than I anticipated.Your reaction time,” he continued, “has surpassed my predictions. And you, human female—you responded remarkably well. Do you know what that means?”

Neither of them answered.

Anya couldn’t. Her throat closed around the words, fury and fear and disgust colliding in her chest. She didn’t trust her voice not to shake, didn’t trust herself not to scream. Tor’Vek didn’t move, didn’t blink, his silence louder than any threat. Their defiance wasn’t spoken—but it filled the room just thesame.

“It means you’re ready for the next test.”

There was a hiss as the outer door disengaged and heavy footsteps approached.

Tor’Vek shifted in one smooth, silent motion, blocking them, muscles tensed with leashed fury. He didn’t hesitate, didn’t flinch. And that alone made her breath catch. It wasn’t shock or fear that held him still in front of her—it was restraint. Aterrifying, deliberate choice. Apredator holding himself back by sheer force of will. He was containing the storm inside him with a control so absolute it scared her more than if he’d lashed out. Because if he let go, even for a second, she knew he would burn everything in this room to keepher.

He stood between her and the door, rage vibrating off his skin like a low-grade explosion.

He would not survive being parted fromher.

And she... didn’t want to be parted from him either. As if in response, Selyr’s voice hummed through the air again, almost as an afterthought. “We’ll separate you for now, of course. The bond needs to be tested under strain.”

Her stomach twisted. There it was. The threat. The test. The separation she already knew she couldn’tbear.

Not after what had happened betweenthem.

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