The harbinger hated that Mjorn had been right.

That everyone, from the day his brother had died, had been right about the females they brought from the raids. One after the other, they won warriors over, only to turn against them the first chance they got.

He had believed that Selena was different. It hurt unlike anything else ever had to know that somehow, his fated had tricked him.

They didn't say a word to each other until the door had closed after Mjorn.

Selena jumped to her feet first.

"What do you mean, any means necessary?" she asked, her voice shaking. "Did you just give him permission to kill them?"

"Yes," Ragnar replied coldly. "The safety of my planet is at stake. You said it yourself in that pretty speech. The Union can't learn the ways of warp travel. It would be the end of my species. No ship can leave."

Selena was staring at him, her beautiful eyes wide. He could almost believe that she was honest, but she had already told him lies. He couldn't trust her appearance any more than her words. Both were pretty and deceitful.

"Stop it," Selena said firmly. "Stop it now. You can put an end to this. Just take the ship, keep Kathleen away from the others and –"

"No."

Selena was seething now. The female was caught between fury and sadness. At one moment it looked like she was going to beg him, on the other she seemed ready to slap him. For all the good that would have done.

"If you do this, I will never speak a word to you again," Selena threatened. "Do this, for me. Please."

"No."

His fated was shaking from head to toe now as Ragnar stood, facing her.

"Why!?" she asked, exasperated. "What are you accusing me of? You just saw what I told Kathleen. I told her no! I didn't agree with her! So yes, I didn't tell you about the ship, but I knew that this was going to be how you reacted. You want to punish an escape attempt with death, how insane is that?"

"Insane?" Ragnar asked. "You listened to the same meeting that I did, didn't you? Kathleen was adamant about her plans. Raining death upon my planet. Wiping us out of existence. You being there stopped her from speaking the last part, but let me fill in the blanks for you.

"She wants my head on spike. Or on the spear of a Brion general."

The female hesitated.

"Yes," she admitted quietly. "She did say that. But consider what she's been through. Eight years on this world and she still gets her ass kicked by Mjorn for every little invented offense. There are no freedoms we don't have to earn here. No real life since we are clearly prisoners.

"You said it yourself on the day I came here. You know women will try to escape. Why are you overreacting to this one? Kathleen is just smarter than the others. She'll fail, you know she'll fail."

"I know nothing of the sort," Ragnar said seriously. "Kathleen is smart. Very smart. If she plans to go through with this, she has something up her sleeve she might not have told you about."

Selena glared at him.

"There is nothing I can say to make you change your mind?" she asked. "That's it? You've decided."

"Yes."

A humorless, crude smile spread on Selena's lips as she took a step forward.

"First time I've heard that word from you today," she said. "Let me use your favorite word now. No. I'm going to stop them. I'm going to warn the others, tell them to hide until you calm down..."

She tried to step past him, but Ragnar grabbed her arm and pulled her back effortlessly.

"You will do no such thing," he growled, surprised at the anger that was running hot in his veins. "You are not leaving these quarters until the long night ends."

That very morning it had been hard for Ragnar to imagine being mad at Selena. He had been about to give the female everything he had. His trust, his life, his love. Now he wondered if anything that had passed between them was real.

Selena tried to pull free. The frown on her face was deepening, turning into a real, palpable fear.

"Let go of me," she said sharply. "You're hurting me."

The harbinger didn't listen. He pulled her along roughly, dragging the female behind him. Selena resisted as hard as she could, but the strength of a fragile female was nothing to a Nayanor warlord. The kicks she gave him hurt much more on a mental level.

At the back of his mind, Ragnar questioned whether he was doing the right thing. The video had been clear on several things. For one, it proved Mjorn right about almost everything. And it damned Selena for lying and hiding things from him.

It also showed her choosing to stay, but it came with a painful twist.

Ragnar pushed Selena into the bedroom and the female rushed away from him the second she was free, rubbing her hand and whimpering. Was it possible he'd held her more tightly than he'd planned to? The harbinger wasn't prepared to punish her yet. He wanted the whole truth first.

"During the meeting," he said. "Was there a moment when you considered going with the others?"

Selena raised her tear-filled eyes to him.

"The way you've treated me today doesn't make me think for a moment that talking to you makes any difference whatsoever," she said bitterly. "If I say yes, you'll lock me up. If I say no, you won't believe me, because you've already made up your mind. If I ask you to understand that every woman on this planet would consider it, at least for a moment, you wouldn't care. No. You think that's a crime worthy of execution!"

"I'll take that as a yes," Ragnar said.

Selena groaned, sitting on the bed and cradling her hand. It occurred to the harbinger that he might have actually hurt her. That was not good. He didn't deal out pain when he didn't mean it. He was very good at judging just how much damage he did to someone.

It said a lot about his state of mind.

"Let me ask you another question," he said, observing his fated. "If you had believed Kathleen could fly the ship in and out of warp, would you have gone?"

Selena didn't answer.

The image of his brother flashed before Ragnar's eyes, unbidden and uncalled for. For years he'd suspected that his brother had died because he'd trusted his female to the last second. Had it been how it had ended for Doroc? With blood already gushing from his neck, had he still thought that the female would stop?

What did that say about him? He'd believed without a shred of doubt that Selena was happy with him. She was on Luminos, yes, but had he not done everything right? Ragnar had kept Mjorn away from her. He'd even shielded the other females from the captain, ignoring information that proved to be true. He'd chosen to trust them for Selena's sake.

Every damn sign of being another fool, just like his brother.

Ragnar didn't think that Selena was capable of doing what his brother's fated had done. But the way she chose to stay silent said that perhaps she had a much more dramatic revenge plan in store.

Kathleen's description of the Union attack had been vicious to fit a Nayanor mind.

"Answer me!"

Selena winced so hard she nearly slid off the bed. Turning her face to him again, the female stared with such anger in her eyes that it was hard to believe it was the same person who'd looked at him with love.

"I wouldn't have then!" she yelled. "In that moment I believed that this was something I wanted! I would have told Kathleen no! All I wanted was for them to have the chance! For every woman on Luminos who doesn't want to be here! All those abused, tortured, hurt and sad women... Now I'm rethinking. You are not who I thought you were!"

Ragnar took a step forward. Selena jumped to her feet, backing away.

She grabbed the dagger from their bedside, the ceremonial blade that Nayanors kept there to protect their fateds from all harm. It was ironic that she now held it in her hands to protect herself from him.

It was the same kind of blade that had killed Doroc.

Selena seemed to come to that same realization.

"I'm not her, why can't you see that?" she asked furiously. "I never wanted anyone any harm! Why do you focus on all the bad, Ragnar?"

Her voice was suddenly pleading and sad.

"Didn't you hear me?" she asked. "I was opposed to the bloody revenge Kathleen described! I didn't help them, I didn't even hear a word about that damn ship after that night! But you will not get me to apologize for believing that the women on this planet have a right to fight for their freedom."

"I heard you loud and clear," Ragnar replied, coming closer. "You were concerned about the others, the women and their children. Not my people."

"It's a bit hard to be compassionate to Nayanors when this is what I get from you of all people!"

He was just a few feet from her now.

"Put the dagger away, Selena," the harbinger said quietly. "I don't want to hurt you, but I will take it away from your hand."

The female's eyes flashed with boundless pain and anger.

"That's suddenly an option?" she asked, her voice shaking. "What happened to your arms being the safest place for me? What happened to you being my protector?"

The blade was shaking in her grip.

"I said those words to the one person on this damn planet I thought I could trust," Ragnar growled. "You say I'm being unfair to you, to everyone, but you didn't give me a chance to prove the opposite, did you?

“If you had come to me and confessed what you'd heard, do you think this would be happening? I don't want bloodshed on my hands. Females are brought to Luminos by force, but you are not here to be abused.

"There are rules and they broke them. You know what's at stake. If they reach the Union, Luminos will be burned to the ground. You have left me no other choice but to take action."

Selena's mouth was trembling with fury.

"So this is my fault?" she demanded. "Our fault? You think we're forcing your hand! Like you have no damn say in this! You are the harbinger of this fortress!"

"I am," Ragnar said, his voice very low and menacing. "And you are my female. Hand over the dagger, now."

When Selena still didn't obey, the harbinger moved. His hand dashed out and grabbed Selena's, wrenching the blade out of her grip easily. The female cried out in pain, beating at his hand with her soft fists.

"You will stay here until I deal with this mess," Ragnar snarled, letting go of her and sheathing the dagger on his hip. "Afterward, we will talk about you and your punishment."

He had been about to turn away when Selena spoke again. Her words were quiet, but they sounded all the clearer for that.

"I thought I'd seen the worst on Terra with Jake, but I was so wrong. Congratulations for being the bigger monster."

Ragnar's hand lashed out before he could control himself. Being compared to the Terran male, his inferior in every meaning of the word, was unbearable. To have those words coming out of Selena's mouth was even more unthinkable.

The female hit the table behind her. The blow hadn't been very hard, but Ragnar was a Nayanor and Selena was not.

Horrible, gut-wrenching sobs echoed in the otherwise silent room. Selena's back was turned to him, but he could see her body shaking. Her hands were gripping her face.

When she turned, the look in her eyes knocked Ragnar out of his rage and back into reality. His fated didn't say a single word, but the message was loud and clear.

There is no coming back from this. I am the bigger monster.

She ran from the room. Ragnar could hear the doors of his quarters closing and shutting, left unlocked after his last entrance, but he couldn't bring himself to pursue her.

He stood, motionless, looking at the spot where Selena had just been. The room was empty of her, just like it would be forever.