“When your mother died, she took a part of me with her,” Kirigan said, the quietness in his voice anything but gentle. “Not because I loved her. I did not. What your brother found with his mate is not possible. Love for us is not possible, because it requires us to deny the very thing we are.

“No. The day I claimed her, she carved a slice of my innermost being and replaced it with her soul. My penance for taking her freedom. The price we all pay when we claim a mate. When she died, she left a hollow in me that will never be filled.

“I can’t stop Kain from giving a piece of himself away—it’s too late. The damage is done. He’s forever tied to this… fiery soul. And in her, he’s found the one thing that was never supposed to be possible for our kind. Love.” His face twisted with the word. “He thinks it a blessing, but the truth is that it doesn’t matter what he feels for his Breeder. She will always be a liability to him, a weakness he can do nothing to shed. Which means I have to do anything and everything to ensure she doesn’t die. Because if she does… I will lose him.

“But as much as I can’t let you throw away our alliances for this Georgia and risk his Selma’s life in the fallout, I also can’t risk yours.

“If you give this Breeder a piece of yourself, as I gave mine to your mother, then you risk losing it when she decides she would rather end her life than live it with you. And trust me—nothing is worth that. Nothing. There is a reason most demons who lose their mates don’t survive it, Kesh. You’ve seen what I’ve become. I will not allow the same fate to befall you. Nor Kain. So yes, my son. You will get ahold of yourself. You will let one of our allied lords mate her. And if the need persists, then I will find you a female demon to slake your desires in. I will handle this, Kesh. All you have to do is let go of a future that could never have been anything but misery.”

This was the closest his father had ever come to verbalizing that Kesh's survival mattered to him. That he cared.

It was possibly as near to love as he could ever come.

And it tasted like ash.

“I don’t know how to let her go when the fate I’m surrendering her to is no better than what she would face with me.”

And there it was. The shameful truth he couldn’t suppress, no matter how hard he tried, admitted on a whisper so raw there was no place to hide.

Whoever mated his gentle little human would force her submission.

He was a monster; he would ruin her. His hands or those of some other monster, her fate was the same.

Yet his instincts screamed no.

His instincts promised him he would never hurt her.

But his instincts lied. He’d already hurt her.

“Kesh…” For a moment, there was a flicker of something almost like regret in his father’s eyes, so brief he might have imagined it, before the usual dark nothingness slid back in place. “She can’t be⁠—”

A knock on the door interrupted whatever he was about to say.

“Come in,” Kesh snapped, not wanting to hear his father’s denial of what his entire being screamed for.

Sefron opened the door. “Your Highness, Governor Maell wishes to know if you will keep the Pure Breeder long? The lords are eager to continue the courting ceremony.” He grimaced. “And by ‘eager’, I mean they’re about five minutes from ripping the horns off each other with impatience.”

Kesh frowned, his attention snapping fully to the guard. “What do you mean, ‘will I keep her long’? She’s not with m—” Ice-cold dread crashed through his nervous system as realization hit his body before his brain. He was moving before the full weight of terror hit. “Who took her? When did they take her?”

Sefron blinked, shock filtering over his features. “Your Highness, no one took her. Mallorn came to bring her to you about half an hour ago. He said you needed to see her.”

Mallorn.

The name rang through him like a hollow strike.

His Second. His most trusted friend, up until yesterday.

The man who’d accused him of using Georgia to manipulate him. Who’d seen him take the woman his friend had wanted for himself.

He’d felt fear before, especially since the gentle little Breeder came into his life, but nothing… nothing like this.

“Sound the alarm. Lock down my territory. No one gets in, no one gets out.”

“Your Highness, surely Mallorn wouldn’t⁠—?!”

“Do it!” Kesh spun back around to his father. “Call Kain. Tell him she’s gone. Tell him whatever the fuck he needs to know to deal with the fallout.”

“She’s disappeared under your care, Kesh. It’s prudent for you to stay and⁠—”

“I don’t give a shit what’s prudent! He took her. I’m getting her back. And so help me—if you try to stop me, you’ll be the first thing I burn.

Only silence followed him as he strode out of the room to find the woman he could no longer pretend he was capable of letting go.

44

Kesh

The doors barely survived whens Kesh shoved them open. The corridor around him was empty save for the pounding echo of his footsteps. His magic clawed under his skin, demanding release, demanding blood—but he kept it leashed. Had to.

Until she was safe. Until she was back.

The two guards in the surveillance room jolted upright when he slammed inside, all heat and barely controlled rage.

“Footage. Storage corridor. Mallorn. Now.”

“Mallorn? Why⁠—?”

Kesh’s snarl cut off the demon unwise enough to question his instructions.

Fingers fumbled at keyboards. A monitor flickered. After a moment… there.

Mallorn, with her.

Something ached below his ribs, like a wound. He leaned forward on both hands and stared at the feed until they disappeared into an old office—one of the few rooms in the building with no camera.

On-screen, Mallorn stepped out again a few seconds later, alone. His face was blank. But not empty.

“Slow it down. Half-speed.”

The demon at the console slowed the feed. Kesh leaned closer. Mallorn’s mouth was flat, but there—left eye twitch. Eye ridge movement. Again.

Three glances.

To the side. As if checking something. Or someone.

And then⁠—

A brief moment with the guards at the exit. Mallorn approached without urgency. Said something too low for the cameras to catch. Tapped the clipboard Yerren held. Waited for a nod. Walked out.

He didn’t hurry.

Didn’t fidget.

Didn’t look back.

Kesh moved.

The hallway blurred past in peripheral streaks. The door to the old office cracked when he shoved it open.

Silence.

He stood on the threshold, breathing shallowly.

His power stirred, reaching without his command.

There was… something just beyond sensation. Like the edge of a dream. Like reaching in the dark for someone who had just left the bed.

Not scent. Not magic. Not memory.

Presence.

It wrapped around his ribs like the ghost of her body in his arms. She had been here.

He growled low, chest tight, then stormed out.

Outside, Yerren and the other guard jumped when Kesh approached.

“You let Mallorn pass. Despite my orders to let no one out,” Kesh barked. “Tell me why. Now.”

Both guards flinched at the barely controlled smolder of their prince’s volatile temper.

Yerren swallowed. “He claimed he had urgent business for Lord Kirigan. He said it had been cleared. W-was that not⁠—?”

Kesh didn’t let him finish. “Where did he go?”

“He walked straight out to the alley,” the second guard said quickly. “Got into his car. Headed east, toward the ninth turnoff.”

Kesh didn’t wait for further directions.