My eyes flutter open. I’m in the medical ward of the Academy. Lights blip on the holographic computer monitor beside me. My entire body throbs with pain, and I can barely move. When I try to sit up, my mates jump to their feet and come to my bedside. They look down at me with concern in their faces. Donte presses my shoulder, gently pushing me back down into the bed.

“Don’t try to sit up yet,” he says.

“Did it work?” I ask. “There should be antibodies in my blood.”

“Joon, you almost died,” Mika interjects.

“I'm fine. Look at me,” I say, sitting up.

“If you must sit, let me help you,” Donte says, flicking the bed’s control panel. When the bed comes to the upright position, he takes my hand and covers it with his big gray palm.

Reese stands at the foot of my bed, his eyes brimming with unshed tears. “What would we have done without you?” he implores.

“You would be fine. The thrall is over.”

“You think that’s what matters to us?” Mika asks.

“Well, no... But I had to move forward with my mission. Don't you understand?”

“Your heart stopped,” Mika says.

“Okay. Fine. The vaccine still need some tinkering. But could I please, for the love of the Bones of the Gods, see my blood work?”

“I don't think know we love you, Joon,” Uri says, his back to me, looking out the window. He turns and his coal black eyes blaze in my direction.

“I understand that you love me. I love you too. That's beside the point.”

Taylon enters the room with a stack of papers, his mouth forming a hard line. He sets the bloodwork readouts on my lap and tries to smile.

“It worked,” he says softly. “The antibodies are there.”

“Did you put her up to this insanity?” Uri demands.

“I had no idea. I never would have supported it. We needed more testing. More time. Why would you test it on yourself, Joon?” Taylon says, stepping back and waving his hands at Uri’s anger.

My heart fills with excitement. I’ve cured the plague that has crippled my people for five hundred cycles! I look up at the six men closest to me in my life and realize they're all glaring at me.

I swear under my breath in Arcadian dialect and bite my lip. I really did screw up, didn't I? I know that they're right. I was impulsive. Stupid, even. But I had to do it. Can't they understand that?

I learned a long time ago that you can’t let anything hold you back from the mission. That was one of the biggest things my father taught me and my brothers. It’s the same lesson that kept Sysko fighting the Archon all this time. I refuse to stop living by my own moral code.

But then again. I've hurt everyone I love. That's not great.

“Guys, I cured the plague, you understand that, right?” I start, hoping that I can reason with them.

“We need you more than we need a cure,” Reese tells me.

“Now you're just not being fair. That's completely irrational.”

“You are our fated mate. Don't you have any respect for that?” Donte asks me.

I can see the disappointment in his face and it feels like a stone in my chest. I gulp, trying to push it down. I hate that he's looking at me like that.

I hate that any of them is looking at me like that. I know I disappointed them. I know I made an impulsive decision, but I don't want to feel guilty at the moment of my greatest triumph. I had to believe in myself enough to take the chance. I just don't know how to explain that to them.

Even after all our dates and all our sensual time together, there's still so much to learn about each other. Now that everybody's calmed down and I have found the cure, our real mated life can begin.

Unfortunately, that's going to have to begin with me begging for forgiveness and doing everything in my power to make it up to them. I'm guessing that sexy dates are not going to cut it this time.

“I wasn’t trying to kill myself. I was trying to complete my mission.”

“We know you weren’t trying to kill yourself,” Flume says, his dark eyes peering into my soul.

“Don't you guys believe in me?” I ask, attempting to guilt them into forgiving me. I doubt it will work. If wouldn’t work on me if I was in their shoes, but I give it a shot anyway.

“Of course we believe in you, Joon,” Uri growls.

“Don't try to play that card,” Mika says.

“I realize I made a bad decision. Will you let me make it up to you?” I say sincerely, knowing I’m totally cornered.

“The next time you decide to inject yourself with an untested medical treatment, could you give us the heads up first?” Donte asks.

I let out a long sigh. “I suppose that's fair.”

Being cautious with myself is the least I can do for my mates. I’ve thought for so long that if I wasn’t one hundred percent independent, it meant they were in control of my life. I finally realize that just isn’t true. I hope it isn’t too late.