Chapter 1

Siona

A swarm of butterflies swirled in my stomach while my growing nerves threatened to choke me. I could barely focus as I admired myself in the mirror. While that little black dress looked wickedly sexy on me, a part of me wondered if it was maybe a wee bit too risqué. The asymmetrical collar led to the single right sleeve, leaving my other arm bare. A cut out strip covered my breasts, and a second lower strip accentuated my narrow waist. The short skirt hugged my hips and my behind like a second skin.

After years of long-distance dating, I was finally going to spend one month entirely with Prince Zerien Aerith, my fiancé. Technically, we weren't officially engaged. As per my father's request when we first met six years ago, although Zerien could court me, he had to wait until I reached legal adulthood before he could try to convince me to become his wife… and Queen.

As a twelve-year-old girl, to have a gorgeous Prince declare you were his soulmate felt like a fairy tale. Considering the terrible life of hardship my mother and I endured up to only weeks prior, it felt even more surreal. As much as it saddened me when my Father insisted I return to Braxia with him and Mother, I hadn't challenged his will. So much changed in my life once he freed my mother from the abusive Indentured Servant contract that would have basically kept her enslaved for the rest of her days to her former owner. Mother had been my entire world. Parting with her at that time would not have been an option for me.

Back then, a part of me found it romantic to have a breathtakingly handsome Crown Prince pining away for me at the other end of the Quadrant. But once I got a little older, especially after fifteen, my insecurities started kicking in.

When we first met, Zerien was fifteen to my twelve. But now that he had become an adult, and a stunning specimen of masculinity, I started wondering how long before he tired of waiting for me to grow up. With his rank, beauty, incredible aura of strength and charisma, my boyfriend could have claimed any female he wanted. In fact, the countless times he made the long journey from Sarenia to Braxia to visit me, every female who crossed his path just stared and drooled.

With him living so far away from me, surrounded by the breathtaking females of his own species—deemed to be among the most attractive in the galaxy aside from the Veredians—how could he have resisted temptation?

Over the past three years, every time he communicated with me or announced a visit, I braced for it to be the day he informed me he was tired of waiting and had moved on to someone else. And yet, not only did that never come to pass, but Zerien appeared to grow even more devoted to me.

And today, our time had finally come.

"You are breathtaking, my daughter," Mother said in a voice thick with emotion.

I glanced at her reflection in the mirror as she stood slightly to my left. A smile stretched my lips as love filled my heart. She was always so soft and gentle—an appearance that deceptively led people to believe her weak. Mother held an incredible strength and determination in the face of adversity. May the Goddess have mercy on anyone whoever crossed those she loved.

For the longest time, people referred to me as Mini-Hope, as I was my mother's spitting image. But over the past couple of years I'd grown a few inches taller than her.

"You don't think it's too revealing?" I asked, uncertainty audible in my voice.

"Sarenian dresses are far more revealing than this," my mother said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "This is enticing without being vulgar."

"I bet Father will disagree," I replied teasingly.

Mother chuckled. "You could be wearing a potato sack over your head and your father would still find it too seductive. He should be grateful I didn't let Grace pick your dress."

I burst out laughing. Grace—my brother Anton's wife—was the embodiment of exhibitionism. She was incredibly beautiful and certainly loved flaunting it. Risqué couldn't even begin to describe some of the outfits she wore. And yet, she had mastered the way of making it look elegant, whereas any other woman would have looked trashy instead. Poor Anton nearly had a stroke when Grace showed us some of her suggestions.

"Father would have disowned her—and me—had I chosen the so-called dress made of three strips of see-through fabric Grace really loved," I said with a snort.

Mother grimaced and emitted a discouraged groan that had me laughing even more.

"I can't even call her hopeless," Mother conceded. "She actually put it on to prove to me that it wasn't as outrageous as the rest of us claimed."

"And let me guess, she amazingly pulled it off," I finished for her in an amused tone.

"Of course she did," Mother said, shaking her head in a way that implied there was no redeeming Grace. But the deep affection she felt for her shone brightly in her eyes and in her expression.

"Grace could wear rotting strips of fur to hide her naughty bits and make it look like luxurious high fashion," I said teasingly, although with a hint of envy.

"That she could," my mother concurred with the same affectionately wistful smile. "Come and have a seat so that I can finish fixing your hair."

I complied, my stilettos making me look infinitely taller than her as I made my way to the cushioned stool in front of the vanity. As per my request, mother bound my long silver-white hair into a messy bun. It could be easily undone by simply pulling out the ornate hairpin that Zerien gave me as a present on my sixteenth birthday. He loved playing with my hair. And if things went the way I hoped they would tonight, I didn't want us stuck trying to undo some fancy, elaborate hairdo.

My stomach fluttered thinking about tonight, a mix of fear and anticipation whipping my nerves into yet another frenzy.

"Remember, Siona… Tonight, you don't have to do anything you don't want to do or aren't ready for," my mother said in a soft tone.

I stiffened, and my head jerked up to look at her through the reflection of the mirror. She and I had always been remarkably close, especially since we only had each other for the longest time. Her ability to sense and understand me without the need for words always amazed me.

"I… I know that," I said, my cheeks heating to be having this conversation with my mother.

"Zerien is a wonderful young man," she continued in that same soothing voice. "The respect he has shown you over the past six years speaks volumes about his character. He will honor your wishes if you express reservations."

I smiled and nodded, feeling both embarrassed and touched by her efforts to reassure me and thoughts of how amazing Zerien had always been to me. By galactic law, sixteen was the age of sexual consent. So long as the age gap didn't exceed four years older, couplings were allowed. Therefore, it shocked me when Zerien refused for us to move to that next step on my sixteenth birthday, and declared he would wait until the day he could claim me as his bride and take me back with him to Sarenia.

At first, it scared me. Being at the height of my phase of insecurity, I began imagining he was refusing me because he already had some other female sating his needs back on his homeworld. After all, the Sarenians were an extremely sensual species where younglings became active as young as eleven or twelve. By all accounts, Zerien had been extremely active before we met. Therefore, I had struggled to accept he loved me enough to remain faithful to me and celibate for six years.

When I challenged him about it, his response turned me upside down. He'd said that waiting for me was excruciating, but bearable. However, once he'd had me, there would be no turning back. He would never be able to leave me behind. So unless I was willing to defy my father's wishes to remain on Braxia until I reached legal adulthood, we would both have to wait.

"Zerien is the best of men," I concurred, my throat tightening with emotion. "I trust him completely. He will not push me past my comfort zone."

My mother smiled and gently kissed my forehead. "Anton saved a suite for the both of you at the Celestial. It has two separate bedrooms, should you decide you'd rather sleep alone. He also saved this room for you here, should you prefer to come back to the penthouse."

I shook my head and looked at my mother over my shoulder. "That won't be necessary. Whether we share a room or not, we have one month to determine if we're going to get married in six weeks. He waited for me long enough. I want to spend as much time as possible with him. Like I said, he won't force me into anything I'm not ready for."

"Very well," my mother said before caressing my cheek.

I rose to my feet and ran my hands over my dress, flattening the nonexistent creases. A frown settled on my brow when I noticed the odd expression that fleeted over my mother's features.

"What is it?" I asked.

Mother hesitated, and appeared to look for her words, which immediately had me worried.

"I know you love him. And there's no question that he loves you. But you've never dated anyone else since you found each other so young," my mother said carefully. "We often go out of our way to try and please our first love and lose ourselves in the process. Don't try to be what you think he wants you to be but be who you are. You are soulmates. Who you are, just the way you are, is what the Goddess meant for him. Don't pretend to be someone else. Eventually, it will backfire."

I nodded slowly. "I hear you, Mother. You're right, I will want to please him. But I'll remember your words and remain true to myself."

"Good girl," Mother said proudly. "And—"

A knock on the door interrupted her.

"Come in," I called out, expecting to see my niece Naya—Anton and Grace's bratty thirteen-year-old daughter.

To my surprise, the door opened on the imposing frame of my nephew Gavin, Anton's firstborn son. Despite being only a handful of months older than me, and even though he was a hybrid—half-Braxian, half-human—my nephew was already a beast of a man. Looking at him, you'd think he was a pureblood Braxian, with his height of 7', broad shoulders, and mountains of muscles. His facial features were the only thing that gave away his mixed blood. Although he had the flatter, broader nose of a Braxian, as well as their strong, prominent brow, they were far more delicate versions. Where pureblood Braxians had rough and brutish features, Gavin inherited a great deal of his mother's beauty.

"Ladies, a certain Prince has arrived," Gavin said in that deep rumbling voice of his, a mischievous glint in his stunning amber eyes.

My heart leapt, and a fresh wave of panic threatened to engulf me. My mother said something, but my frazzled brain failed to make sense of her words. By her enthusiastic tone, I presumed she expressed her delight at the news.

"Come on!" Gavin said, gesturing at us with his head to follow him out of the guest room.

"Gavin, wait!" I exclaimed, snapping out of my shocked daze. "Do you have a minute?"

He blinked, taken aback by that request. "Of course," he replied as he stepped inside the room with blatant curiosity.

"I'll be outside greeting the Prince," Mother said, guessing once again, with an almost supernatural intuition, that I wanted a moment alone with my nephew.

Mother gently caressed my back and smiled at Gavin before walking out of the room.

"What's up?" Gavin asked.

I nervously tucked a strand of loose hair from my messy bun behind my pointy ear and licked my lips while searching for my words. Asking him to stay behind had not been planned but merely an instinctive reaction. Even if I personally didn't, my brain knew what it wanted to ask. Too bad my mouth couldn't seem to figure out how to translate it.

Feeling lost and a little stupid, I went to sit at the edge of my bed. The softest air of sympathy settled on Gavin's handsome face. He came to sit next to me and bumped shoulders with me.

"Nervous?" he asked in a sympathetic tone.

I nodded, my throat feeling too constricted to speak.

"There's no need to be. Zerien adores you," Gavin said softly. "In truth, he's just as nervous as you are. I've never seen him looking so jittery. Then again, it could have to do with Grappa scowling like he wants to strangle him for taking away his little girl."

I snorted, grateful for Gavin's effort at humor successfully drawing a smile out of me.

"And that sure isn't intimidating at all when he's unhappy," I replied with a laugh in my voice before giving him an inquisitive sideways glance. "Is Zerien truly looking nervous?"

Gavin nodded with a serious expression. "He waited a long time for you. This is the moment he's been dreaming of for years. He doesn't want to fuck it up. You are his everything."

In that instant, I realized he was projecting himself into Zerien, or at least relating with him considering the similarity of our situations. It also clarified the question my brain wanted to ask but that my nervous self failed to understand.

"When you meet your own soulmate, Zharina, in a little over two years, what will you expect?" I asked in a soft voice.

Gavin took on a determined expression, which gave his youthful face a maturity that offered me a glimpse of the man he was becoming.

"I want her to be herself," he said in a firm tone. "I want her to be the same she has always been throughout our conversations and vid exchanges. It's still thirty-two months away, but I'm already nervous about it and terrified she will find me lacking in person."

I recoiled. "What?! Why would you ever think that?"

He shrugged to hide the embarrassment he was utterly failing to suppress. "Zhara is so incredibly powerful. She's not only an even greater healer than her Nana Maheva, but she can catch a departing soul to keep someone from death, or flat out rip it out of your body to kill you. And she's insanely beautiful, surrounded by just as beautiful Veredian males. Whereas I'm…"

To my shock, Gavin brushed two fingers over his broad, flat nose. I doubted it had been a conscious gesture. My jaw dropped in disbelief. By galactic standards, Braxians didn't qualify as attractive. But by Braxian standards, Gavin was way too pretty as their males took considerable pride in their frightening and intimidating appearance. But to me—maybe because I'd lived among them for the past six years—Gavin was genuinely a stunning male. Never in a million years would I have suspected he might feel insecure about his attractiveness.

"You are gorgeous , you silly man! Zhara already knows what you look like, and she likes it! And beyond your appearance, you're big, strong, smart, funny, absolutely lovely—when you're not cracking skulls— and you're extremely powerful, too!" I argued, my voice making it clear it should be obvious to him. "Are you forgetting how every pureblood Braxian cowers before you in the arena? You're not only a Berserker, but you even have that strange foresight power nobody understands the origins of! Don't you dare undersell yourself!"

Gavin scrunched his face in embarrassment and shrugged again.

"Right… Anyway, this isn't about me but you," Gavin replied, apparently eager to shift the topic. "Although the two of you have been in love for years at a distance, you've also met in person multiple times. Sure, living together, there will be no more hiding flaws. But that won't matter. You are soulmates. Just be yourself and be honest about your feelings. Communicate and all will be well. You have no idea how much I envy you right now."

My heart melted with affection for my nephew—although I considered him more like a big brother. "You're the best, you know that? Zharina is one lucky girl," I said affectionately.

"Of course, she is, because I am!" he retorted with that mischievous smugness I loved so much as he got up on his feet.

He extended a hand to help me up, then gave me a big hug. I melted against him and even caught myself purring, which had him bursting out laughing. Gavin was a big teddy bear. I couldn't wait for him to finally get his own happily ever after. Truth be told, seeing how steadfast he had been in his devotion and loyalty to Zharina—who lived in the other Quadrant of the known galaxy—helped me through living so far away from Zerien. My nephew was the proof that a man truly in love could remain faithful and wait however long was needed to finally be with his one and only. If Gavin could resist temptation while residing on a pleasure barge, Zerien could do the same on his homeworld.

I pushed him away and playfully slapped his chest. "Don't you go messing up my outfit!"

He chuckled and stepped back, raising his palms in a gesture of surrender. "Apologies!" he said while giving me an assessing look. "And what an outfit it is! I'm sure Grappa is going to love it."

I groaned inwardly and gave him a baleful look. "I'm sure he won't."

"Did Mother pick it for you?" he asked with a teasing expression.

"Oh, Goddess, no!" I exclaimed with a shudder. "This is prim and demure in comparison to what your mother suggested."

Gavin laughed while affectionately shaking his head like his mother was a hopeless case—which she was. "Figures."

"Is it too much?" I asked warily.

The confident way in which he shook his head reassured me.

"No. You look perfect. The right level of teasing while leaving plenty of room for the imagination. Anyway, Sarenian fashion could teach a thing or two to my mother when it comes to skimpy outfits. Wait until you see what your man is wearing," he added in a mysterious way that had my curiosity skyrocketing. "Come on, Auntie . As Mother would say, let's go make your man drool."

He extended his arm to me. I placed my hand on his forearm and, with a swarm of butterflies taking flight in a frenzy in the pit of my stomach, I let Gavin lead me out of the room.