Page 18 of Third

Not after knowing how it felt to be wanted likethat.

She reached for his hand instinctively.

The cold metallic floor vibrated beneath her as the guards approached, their black boots striking in ominous rhythm. The guards stepped into the room. Tor’Vek moved, positioning his body to shield hers more fully, his every breath sharp with strain. Anya froze, every nerve sparking like static.

One guard scanned the room while another approached with careful, deliberate steps, hand resting near a restraint device that blinked with a sickly blue light. The sight of it made her breath catch. She could feel the bond stretching, quivering between her and Tor’Vek like a wire drawn too tight. Her heartbeat echoed in herears.

They weren’t just here for data. They were here to divide. To tear. Their boots hit the floor with brutal finality, each step too loud, too deliberate, echoing through the chamber like a countdown. She didn’t recognize the armor—black, segmented, faceless—but she recognized the threat. The way they moved, the readiness in their posture, the small, silent weapons tucked at theirhips.

The neural restraint glowed, pulsing softly like the bracelet, but colder. Crueler. Her pulse spiked. The air suddenly felt thinner, tighter. She pressed closer to Tor’Vek without thinking, her breath caught in her throat. Every instinct screamed:They are here to take him fromyou.

And the bond began to scream.

Not just in the bracelet.

In her chest. In her skin. In something deeper and older than language. Every inch of her rebelled at the thought of being separated fromhim.

She didn’t know if it was the bond or hersoul.

But something inside her begged the universe:

Do not take him fromme.

Chapter5

THE MOMENTthey touched her, the bond snappedtaut.

It wasn’t rejection—it was resistance. Aviolent protest against the forced separation, like an elastic thread stretched to its breaking point. Every nerve in Anya’s body lit up in warning, in fury, in grief. Her entire being shriekednobefore her voice everdid.

She screamed.

Not frompain.

Fromloss.

Something inside her ripped open, raw and staggering, like her heart had been physically torn. She clutched at the bond—mentally, instinctively, desperately—as though sheer will alone could pull it back together.

It couldn’t.

“Do not touch her!” Tor’Vek’s voice exploded across the room, furious and thunderous. He moved in front of her in an instant, arms spread wide, body a shield of muscle andrage.

But she barely sawhim.

The pain in her chest eclipsed everything else. She felt him, felt the bond spike and flare, felt the instinctive protectiveness rising from him like a storm—but all of it was muffled under the weight of that unbearable separation. The guards were moving. Something sparked—violet light flashed across her vision.

Tor’Vek dropped.

She screamed again. “No!”

She surged toward him, reaching—but hands grabbed her. Rough. Tight. She twisted hard, kicking, shoving, fighting like a wild animal. All of it futile.

He wasdown.

He shouldn’t bedown.

The blast had been too strong. She felt it through the bond, how it hit him, how it knocked the breath from his lungs and cracked through his body like lightning. It wasn’t just a weapon. It was a warning. And it was meant for her,too.

She didn’tcare.

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